Scared while playing, angry when losing, and having nightmares.

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dA_pIFSTER
AdorableMogwai wrote:

Finally, the worst games are the ones where I'm winning, and then make a very stupid blunder and give the game away. I have done this twice, and those are the games that haunt me and I think about them at night as I fall asleep, and have had several nightmares about chess. I had one last night, where there were giant pawns in my neighbors garage. In the spaces between the pawns were cars, but no one could get in or out.

I have become a better player since I've been playing a lot this year, but I'm wondering if it's worth the stress.

i couldnt stop laughing, i still can't

December_TwentyNine
AdorableMogwai wrote:

Also, whenever I lose I get angry. Once when I lost an online game, I threw a plastic cup against the wall and overturned a wooden chair. My mom came in and asked "what was that noise?" and I shouted "Leave me alone!"

Doe this image describe you best?

SonofaBishop67
Lucidish_Lux wrote:

You do not have worth simply because of what you accomplish, or how successfully you attempt something. You have worth because you exist--it is intrinsic. No one can take it away from you, no one can affect your intrinsic worth. Everybody tries things, succeeds, and fails, to varying degrees...the most successful among us tend to be the ones that failed the most, by the way. 

I agree 100%. If I feel I am under attack in a game of chess, it's because I am. Chess is a fight, according to Lasker. And that's why many of us play the game ;)

Guess what? You are going to lose again. So am I, and I belive everyone else on Chess.com has an embarressing loss looming in their future somewhere. Your thread resonates with me to a certain degree, because one of the main aspects of chess I seek to improve upon has nothing whatsoever to do with the board and pieces on (or off) it. It is my sportsmanship...how to win with grace and lose with dignity. I am a firm believer that chess has the power to be a great self improvement tool.  How can I master chess is not my aim; how to prevent chess from mastering me is my greater ambition.

OP, you strike me as intellignet; you have great communication skills, good spelling and grammar (which never fails to impress me in anyone :D), so I have faith in your ability to overcome these emotional stumblingblocks. Winning is great, losing sucks, but it's best not to get to carried away with either feeling. There's always a bigger fish, you know! Best of luck to you.

WalangAlam

Well most people just play endlessly after one considerable loss after another until they are too tired to play or their rating have taken a huge plunge. Don't play too many games and if you lose just review the games you won and you will definitely feel better. You obviously take the win or lose too personal and that's not healthy. You have to loosen up. Just relax. Sometimes if not most of the time feeling stressed could only make you feel stiff and could very well contribute to your defeat specially if you are playing blitz.

SandyJames

AlCzervik
Estragon wrote:

Some people aren't cut out for competition of any sort, they just don't enjoy the pressure. 

I enjoy the pressure of stamp collecting. Chess scares me.

SandyJames

I think on that Djibouti stamp, the chess board is incorrectly placed Laughing

The a1-h8 diagonal is White Sealed

Anyway, back to topic.

AlCzervik

Probably too late, Sandy. You will have nightmares about positions on a board like that.

It always comes back to stamps.

DrSpudnik

Stamp it out, good & hard!

Fingerly

I think the OP needs to play more often.  Then he needs to figure out how to channel those emotions in a positive direction, for the sake of his mother.  One way might be to focus on recording his dreams.  I'd suggest that he tries to go to sleep after every frustrating loss, and that he should write about his dreams immediately upon waking up.  Then he should share the weird pawn dreams with us.

I doubt a bunch of random chessplayers on the web will be able to interpret these dreams in a meaningful or helpful way, but at least they can be entertained while the OP has cathartic purges and hones his writing skills.

Besides, I want to know if the giant pawns in the neighbor's garage have fangs, claws and horns.  I'm working on a script, and this information will help.

DrFrank124c

Maybe he gets upset about playing chess because he plays with himself, chess I mean not the other thing.

SandyJames

... and then maybe he can write a book like 'My Chess Nightmares' Wink

On a more serious note, I agree with Fingerly - he needs to play lots of games.

SandyJames
[COMMENT DELETED]
TitanCG

FIM-Markus_of_Israel

Well, never seen a post like this. I think it's fine to have those emotions. I have the exact same thing. Accept I don't dream about them, but if I have had a bad night, then I do think about the moves that I made and that I could have made as I try to go to sleep. I do get angry sometimes, but when I do I just leave, and come back later. And if I lose then I go over the game that I lost and see what I can learn from it.

AlCzervik
Fingerly wrote:

I doubt a bunch of random chessplayers on the web will be able to interpret these dreams in a meaningful or helpful way

Sure we can.

AlCzervik

...of giant pawns?

Abhishek2

lol

Abhishek2

I bet soon enough someone's gonna post a picture of giant pawns.

Conflagration_Planet
Abhishek2 wrote:

I bet soon enough someone's gonna post a picture of giant pawns.

I hope they're soft!  Yell