Over the board takes guts and it's real. I mean you're staring at your opponent and the game is in front of God and everyone. The greater stake in winning, the greater stake in losing, the more you're going to think about it and learn from it, I would guess.
T/F: OTB chess' impact on one's skill level > that of online chess.
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Yes, God bailed from his online dwellings a long long time ago...
OTB just has a better atmosphere. Looking at 2D pieces when im not even playing in the same room as my opponent makes it really difficult for me to take games seriously.
Reflectivist and Fear_Itself: I totally understand what you mean. I have very little experience in Tournament chess but it seems it only takes a few minutes to absorb the atmosphere in a Tournament.
Estragon: Thanks very much for the insight, that's really helpful. I have very little experience with OTB tournament chess and that's probably while I haven't improved much. The fact that I've been using analysis board probably doesn't help.
Not sure what you mean by "G/30 G/45 or G/60 but certainly I'll have to look for some tourneys with slower time controls. I'm terrible with fast time controls anyway.
The last time I went to a tournament must've been at about age 13. I didn't have a good grasp on the coordinate system and the atmostphere caused me to leave deflated and demoralized. I've greatly improved since then and feel prepared for OTB tournament chess.
I've been playing online chess fairly frequently over the last 2 years and I have improved because of it, but not necessarily as much as I would like.