Blundermaster award goes to me
Damn you Caissa!!! A Haiku
I suck bad at chess.
Caissa is a succubus.
The Dunce cap is mine.
Just got done with the first game in the 45/45 tournament in which I'm playing. I blundered away a knight, and then he put his queen en prise later and I missed it. If I'm not gonna blundercheck consistently I might as well play tic tac toe.
One problem was I spent too much energy in the opening. I got a very strong opening, my pieces all well developed etc. By the time the position got really tactical and complicated I started to get into time trouble, my mind was already tired so my analysis was sloppy and lazy. In retrospect, I just spent too much of my time and energy in the opening. He was rated ~200 points less than me so I took a big rating hit.
I need to play more and think about playing, and how to play, less. Too much blogging, too much time worrying about subtleties of my thinking process. I need to push wood.
posted by Blue Devil Knight at 4/21/2007 06:06:00 PM
11 Comments:
If you haven't done so before, get thee hence to the Heisman archives at Chesscafe.com and read up on "real chess" vs. "hope chess".
I've been meaning to write about this for a while now. I think the weakest link for a lot of players including myself is consistently playing "real chess" every move. Thing is: you can pick up a book on tactics to practice tactics, or a book on endings to work on endings, or whatever, but for this fundamental skill you basically have to exercise discipline, self control and rewire your brain. Books can't help much.
If you got into time trouble, Heisman's articles on that may help as well.
I think you're right, overthinking usually leads to trouble on game day. I'm a firm believer that you should push yourself until your brain explodes to prepare for a game, but on the day of you shouldn't spend any time thinking about chess at all. Go for a jog/walk and keep your mind as clear as you can. Different people have different ways to prepare, but this works for me whether it be a chess match, a sporting event, or a final exam.
Good luck in your next games!
Grasshopper, You have the knowledge, trust yourself and apply the knowledge with more experience. It's time to put the books down and put the pieces front and center.
I've been talking a lot about this lately.
Dust yourself off, you got knocked off your horse. Re-adjust your helmet, hold the sheild up between your shoulder and your hip, steady your sword, keep your head down with your eyes focused and charge back into battle. You know where to strike. Huzzah!
Thanks for the words all. It's a matter of pacing myself in the game, and forcing myself to blundercheck, perhaps using the "DO NOT BLUNDER" mantra before I make the move.
This game can really punish you at times. Just when you think Caissa smiles upon you....wham.
You have the right attitude. Get in there and play some chess. I recommend at least one long game per week, preferably two. No blitz.
I have given up on 45/45 time controls as of now. In reality they are mearly G/60. Bump it up to G/90, there are people out there on ICC that will take you up on the challenge, you just have to wait a bit for it.
Also I recommend checking out the Paul Keres Tourneys. It's one game every two weeks G/90 30...now thats real chess.
Now from this game you can learn a lot. Were you psychologically jammed when you lost your knight in the rest of the game, knowing the rating of your opponent? How did you loose your knight? Was it protected? Did you check if the knight could go to a save place or that it could be protected or that the knight landed on an already attacked square? By this small questions you might discover a weak spot in your thinking. It is up to you to discover that and eliminate it. That's why a chessplanner is personal and might be not rewarding for someone else as we all have common and some different weak spots.
good luck in your future games.
Montse: he had a discovered attack against my knight that i missed.
I missed (and obviously he missed) that he moved his queen right into the line of sight of a bishop that was tucked in the corner that would have had to go backwards to capture her.
Good patterns to notice and remember.
I feel for you . I once hung a queen to a fourth grader in tournament play.She quickly snapped it up. Ouch. How can crap like this happen to people who think and read about chess daily?
play and solve solve and play seems to be the right road for me.
excellent hiaku....hang in there, relax, play the pieces, not the opponent. don't over think yourself, you'll just phyche yourself out. play it as a fun game, and it will come to you...now get back there and get back your rating points...
I have often thought that many of us (myself included)spent too much time thinking about the theory of chess playing and not enough time actually playing.
Don't despair. Now that you know what to do, go do it.
J'adoube and Chessloser: I hope I bounce back. It's very simple really: I forgot to use the most important principal of all as expressed here.
My rating was a bit inflated, though. I was at 1386 and i think I'm more a 1350.
I have to play. Lose a lot. Play a lot.
Post a Comment
<< Home