Why I should quit Chess.
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Don't give up guy! You resigne or you go on to fight ! Don't be fear of loss, and try to review this game and learn from your mistakes
playing chess, like many other things in life(golf,sports,online games etc.) it seems we are really playing(trying to get better) against ourselves and our own foibles and weaknesses. the joy of chess is not necessarily beating the opponent, but the realization that i am getting better every day. also trying to resolve the weak points in our game and attempting to better ourselves at each outing. as in football-the team that wins is the one that makes the fewest mistakes-so it goes in life and in chess. enjoy the game, enjoy life- life is too short to get caught up in the mediocrity of one-upsmanship. laughter is the best medicine-make the time to laugh at yourself once in a while also. doctor-ice
I think we all understand the frustration of a blunder. But I think those moments of fretting over a blunder actually add to our overall (and lifelong) enjoyment of the game. When I play a relatively blunder-free game (Relatively being the operative word) I am all the more happy because I know how easily i fall into traps and blunder away pieces and advantages.
The famous quote goes (paraphrasing) 'Chess.. like music and art... has the power to make men happy".
Anything that can make us happy can have the opposite effect as well. Goes with the territory.
Another famous quote comes to mind: "Some days you are the bird, next day you are the statue."
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Just a quick addition... I really liked Doctor-Ice's post. Excellent advice.
The best game I ever played in my life was a game I lost against a GM (was it Larry Christiansen who was givin those simuls on ICC?). I had out-played him (or at least 1/50th of him) to have the slightest of leads in a Knight and three pawns each endgame. Then I made the slightest of errors which I saw immediately after I made the move. It allowed his Knight to regain mobility on the Queenside. Eventually he won a pawn and later the game.
It was my favorite game because I had played some of my best chess ever. Analysis said I was playing like a master with no obvious errors for most of the game. I have only been able to make the best moves for the best reasons for most of a game a handful of times so far. More often I make the best move for the wrong reason.
But I still toss an occasional piece. Even GMs (I think it was Alekhine) mess up. Once his opponent missed a simple one ply retort and moved his Queen where it was immediately 'en prise' (which is French for 'Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!'). Alkaline's reply was to counter-blunder and not even see the half move combination.
Now for a sure-fire way to reduce blunders in the future; before you move always ask yourself:
- What material can be taken after this move?
- What can I take right now? Is there anything unprotected?
If there isn't unprotected or under-protected material lying around then there probably isn't a tactical combination for winning material anywhere either. And since this server uses such wonderfully long time controls there is plenty of time to ask these questions. This can really reduce your blunder/move ratio. It is hard to beat someone who doesn't lose material.
What seperates great players from good players is that great players know that a great way for them to improve is to analyze their losses thoroughly, as it'll hopefully prevent them from making the same mistakes they did in that game. Not to mention you can try to improve on the weaker parts of your game.
I'm not that great at openings, so when I analyzed my games I picked an opening which brought me the most success and became extremely comfortable with playing it. Now my play has improved a lot!
I play to win (that is, I certainly don't start playing for a draw or to lose). If I suffer a defeat agianst a stronger opponent, I try to learn from it, likely thinking 'that was nice play'. Move onto the next game and try harder, concentrate. Not too dissimilar against an equal(ish) opponent. If I lose against a less strong opponent, I may (briefly during the course of the game) get a touch annoyed with myself, but I will try and turn it around. If I can't, ultimately I resign with a rye smile, and congratulate them. I am currently playing (at another site) against an opponent who is considerably lower (in numerical rating) than myself, and I am down in the game, enough to lose. I may be able to turn it around, but its getting less likely with each move (they are turning the screws a bit now). Sometimes you just catch people on a really good day, they may be trying that little bit harder.
I don't think tbird is actually thinking of quitting but is useing a bit of retoric as a way of presenting a blunder he made in a game. First of all, it requires some guts and/or humility to put on public display a mistake. I know from experience that I lose a lot of games to just plain not seeing something obvious, and it is valuable to be reminded of that.
I don't get why people are dumping on him.
Thats a good point Dylan, I think a few people have dumped on him a bit. But I think the majority of the posts have simply been pointed toward the negative effects such an attitude can have, and not personal attacks against tbird. It's an interesting topic to talk about, our attitude toward the mistakes we make.
It's as true in chess as in all life... it is difficult to really learn from our mistakes when we get frustrated. However, we most often get frustrated because we feel we made a mistake that we have already learned not to make. There is no reason to get mad over a mistake that we make for the first time. We learn from it and we improve.
But I think one of the biggest things chess teaches us is that we need to slow down and check our work before we commit. Barring time issues (i.e., blitz games, approaching time limits etc.), always check your move for the obvious stuff: captures and tactical traps. And don't just take the first good move you find. In most positions there are multiple playable moves, but only a few really good ones.
I do thank Tbird for opening up this game to us, and starting what has really been an interesting topic. He obviously isn't giving up on chess, and hopefully some of the ideas expressed in this thread have helped him as well as other readers.
izzie wrote: what's the point in playing if you win all the time. it gets boring,
Reminds me of an old twilight zone episode - where some pool hustler ended up dead. He went somewhere where he had everything he wanted - and could spend all eternity playing pool.
But, it turned out that every time he broke, he sunk all the balls in one shot. EVERY time. When he realized that he couldn't lose, he began to wonder exactly where he had ended up...
After I play several really badly over several games, i usually quit for a week. When I return, I find I can focus better.
there is nothing wrong with losing as long as its to me!
If you should quit chess, then I should quit life. My blunders, instead of taking me down the exchange, usually hand over my queen, or rook, or knight over on a silver platter; no strings attached. And I'd be willing to bet that your blunders were once similar to mine. So when it happens to me I keep playing because I can tell myself that I just made myself a little less stupid.
jbuss wrote: If you should quit chess, then I should quit life. My blunders, instead of taking me down the exchange, usually hand over my queen, or rook, or knight over on a silver platter; no strings attached. And I'd be willing to bet that your blunders were once similar to mine. So when it happens to me I keep playing because I can tell myself that I just made myself a little less stupid.
You are right jbuss, I was a lot worse and not that long ago either! I guess I have pretty much become obsessed with chess, I think most good players are. The only good chess player (good by my standards, which means a rating of at least 2400) that I know personally (and I don't know him well at all) is IM David Pruess who once said "I don't like to lose" when someone asked him why he desided to get better at chess.
tbirdtird wrote:
I really get frustrated when I lose esspesially when I play like someone who doesn't know how the pieces move, like the following game. I do not feel the need to make comments during the game-but others may do so if they please.
You can quit if you have something else to do that is also your hobby.
tbirdtird wrote: Anaxagoras, I did not mean anything negative twoard my opponent I was commenting only on my own play. Etienne, my policy is:why play unless you are going to win. Yes the game is fun, even when I lose it's ok most of the time because at least I did not make a fool of myself. But sometimes I just make stupid mistakes that I don't understand how anyone could make-ever. That's what happened in the game and cudos to my opponent for taking advantage of my blunders.
Making stupid mistakes that no one could ever or should ever make merely confirms that you are human after all....and just like the rest of us. Why do you "beat" yourself so much ? Games you lose you should forget ( but not the lesson though ). Similarly games you win you should forget also ( again not the lesson ). Before any of us check out and play on the the Great ChessCom in the Sky, we will play hundreds/ thousands of games - many we will win, many we will lose. Doesnt matter - question is : Did we all have fun ?
Just my way of thinking (which admittedly hasn't taken me far):
Don't think about winning or losing. Focus 100% on making your next move the best one possible.
All competition is with the self and the only true loss is giving up.