seeing ghosts when playing chess
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When playing in an OTB tournament or on chesscom I usually find myself in a pleasant position and my opponent usually makes a queen move that’s meaningless, I know it’s an inaccurate move and I calculate that the move does nothing and I still get worried about it and makes either a 1: really passive move giving my opponent an initiative 2: getting to caught up with the queen that I forget about everything else on the board and blunders. That’s why I call it “ghost chess” cause I’m seeing ghosts. Any help with my little ghost problem. I suspect that it has something to do with my confidence but I’m not sure.
Almost all ghosts are tricks of the light or photographic manipulation. A handful cannot be explained...you must see through the fear and judge if the threat is real...
Mar 31, 2022
0
#3
I guess I'd say try to be as explicit as possible about the move. If the initial impression is you're scared or surprised or dismissive of your opponent's move, that's fine, but then find the exact threat. Even bad or stupid moves can make threats... and if there is no threat, that's fine too, but you have to look hard. Spend some energy finding the worst thing that move can do to you.
After you know the worst thing that can happen, base your calculation around that.
And remember moves do a few things at once:
1) All the squares the moved piece attacks
2) All the squares any uncovered piece attacks
3) All the squares the moved piece no longer influences
4) All the squares a pinned or defensive piece no longer influences
If you base your calculation around these things on every move, then it will be hard to miss simple tactics... of course this takes a lot of work, but eventually it becomes easy enough to do in faster games (until then play time controls that are long enough for you to practice good calculation habits).