What is the hardest thing in chess???

Sort:
Avatar of bryan_c

Finding the proper guidance for seeking to improve my skill in making the vital decisions in end game phases is to me the hardest thing.

Avatar of edgy_rhinx

Loosing a game to a cheater.

It's ok if the game had equal chances and you lost, but there are certain games where you did almost nothing wrong, yet the opponent somehow managed to accumulate those +0.03, +0.11 advantages slowly strangulating you until somewhere in the late middle game you loose a pawn, which is methodically squeezed through in the long and hopeless end game.

Such games are impossibly taxing and ultimately frustrating.

Avatar of BaronDerKilt

Knowing I will never play competitively again at a satisfactory level; accepting the loss of skills and knowledge associated with that. Like losing a lifelong friend ...

Avatar of OMGdidIrealyjustsact

For me its always going to be endgames - especially rook endgames. I can't cope with the opponent being able to freely attack my pawns.

Avatar of Drecon

my top 3:

#3: Not making a move in online chess when I get home drunk (most of my blunders are made at such times)

#2: Finding a plan in the middlegame, when the positions are equal and all tensions are used up.

#1: Getting myself to seriously analyse my games beyond: I made a blunder on move 35 and lost.

Avatar of sebas4life

Queen pawn endgames! Where you and your opponent both have a Queen and pawns. Extremely hard

Avatar of kissinger

I have alot of "issues" 

Avatar of drmr4vrmr

oinquarki, u r d man.

Avatar of nedwardgnap

Keeping composure after blundering

Avatar of Nytik

Many of my OTB opponents hardest thing appears to be deciding whether to play 1. e4 or 1.d4 ... even when on a clock.

Maybe thats exaggerating slightly, but I am surprised at the length of time some people spend over deciding which opening to play e.g. after 1. e4 e5 "Should I play Kings Gambit or go for an Italian Game?" IMO, they should have figured that out BEFORE they started the game.

Avatar of Dahan

winning.

Avatar of uritbon

actualy caring about an online chess position enough to analyse it and write the analysis in the notes section so i will remember it... cost me a lot of games, sometimes i rely too much about intuition... and when the intuition malfunctions i get into trouble...

Avatar of Kotron

Keep'n your king in secure.

Avatar of edgy_rhinx
BorgQueen wrote:

So what makes you claim they are cheating?  Isn't it euqally possible to experience this kind of thing and just be outplayed?

I too have had players just outplay me and squeeze a pawn out of the situation, but I don't immediately jump up and say they were cheating.

In fact I don't think I have ever played against a cheat here at chess.com.


I mostly experienced it on yahoo. You don't need to be a genius to see that a person is cheating during a rematch.

Here is a live example:

You play against a guy, you win. His strength is moderate. No obvious tactical errors, but overall positionally not sound.

He asks for a rematch. And you see a monster, who starts strangulating you after the 11-th move...

I am not so naive to actually believe in +1200 elo in one game. And you cannot do anything about it, and it is painful and frustrating.

P.S. I am talking about +0.05, and +0.11, because I used to run analyses for such games, where you don't see a single evaluation drop.

Now I don't care, I am just too tired to do my best against every NN...

Avatar of Sadegh_Shabankareh

Winning a won game is the hardest thing in chess

Avatar of Antonin1957

I have to agree with the person above who said "getting to the next level." I know I will never be very good, or even as good as I was when I was young. That's ok. Time passes and if we are lucky we get old.

Still, I would like to improve, to reach even a rating of 1000. 

But after a long day at work I sometimes find it hard to really study. I'm just too tired. I love to play through games by great players, but tonight I was playing through a 2017 game between Ding Liren and Levin Aronian and I just could not understand any of the ideas behind their moves. Just too tired.

Avatar of JNM38

Analysis and evaluation.

Avatar of Trexler3241
Playing as Black.

 

Avatar of qwerty129

I think its whether or not to accept a draw when your opponent offers one because u have to look at the position and the material and all kinds of other stuff

Avatar of HoboJoe99

hardest thing for me is to not get angry at myself or the opponent when I get destroyed in chess.  I either want my opponent to pity me and grant me a draw in a losing position for myself or tell me that what I did was a mistake but reassure me that I played a good game.  Just make sure to not be me, have fun and enjoy the learning journey of chess instead of constantly hating your terrible games you have and never wanting to play chess again but then come back and get angry at it all over again...