Reminder
I suck at chess. Just lost like five games in a row. Left a knight en prise in one of them. I suck oh so badly.
I should read this comment over and over and over and over and ......
Perhaps tattoo it on my hands so I can see it before I move.
I should read this comment over and over and over and over and ......
Perhaps tattoo it on my hands so I can see it before I move.
posted by Blue Devil Knight at 9/23/2007 12:58:00 AM
15 Comments:
Feeling with you man! Losing sucks!
A Swedish IM suggested that one should collect all those feel-good moments in chess in your database; great tactics performed in actual games, the best of your wins et cetera. When your confidence hits a low, you can open this file and be amazed by your (former?) glory. ;)
Here is where the art of forgetting comes in. Given the trouble we have to mmemorize, we are supposed to be masters in forgetting.
dont feel bad. i have lost 19 out of 20 late one night at bullet, refusing to believe i could NOT win one game from some dude.
the good new is that, after such times, we are undrated, and have more than a surprise or two in store for some unsuspecting person expecting easy points above us, in the near future... they are just thinking: 'easy points', but let me tell you...
i ran with a guy in high school who was state champion material, or at least state top five or ten. he ran with weights on. when he took them off...
you should actually be proud of five losses in a row. im serious.
david, aka dk
don't be blue
BlueDevil:
Don't punish yourself too much. After all, it was just a knight - I managed to leave my queen en prise in a tournament game 2 weeks ago. I even saw the threat and thought "OK, so I have to move my Q out of danger. But first check if there is an even better move...". Of course, I have the memory capacity of a squirrel, so I totally forgot about my Q.
Quite fittingly, the anti-spam word verification field wants me to type "sautag" right now, which is a German word for "pig's day" meaning a bad day :-)
Samuraipawn: great tip! I will try that. Up to now I tried to get out of teh post-blunder doom by reminding myself that even GMs blunder big time every now and then.
Hey BDK. I'm nowhere near your level of play...so even though I win a few here and there, I lose lots of games. Sometimes I avoid playing...because of the fear of losing. So I put together a little pep-talk sheet that hangs by my computer and reading it helps get me out of my funk and start playing again. Here is a sample:
Jeremy Silman:
"If you fear losing(a very common ailment), it will affect your game on many levels. Here I can give a concrete recommendation: learn to love defeat! That's right, find joy in going down in flames and soon you'll feel an almost erotic rush every time you turn over your King."
Mark Weeks:
"Losing is part of the game. Your will to win has to be stronger than your fear of losing."
Blue Devil Knight:
"When I don't want to play for fear of losing I have to remind myself that losing at a silly board game should not be high on my list of fears in life."
AND
"Ya'gotta lose a LOT of games to get better. I started out rated 950 at ICC a couple of years ago, and would get my butt kicked constantly."
Patzer's Corner:
"My judo coach said to me years ago that I would start to see real improvement once I stopped worring about the outcome of my matches so much."
Dan Heisman:
"Whatever happened to playing chess every chance you could get because it was enjoyable."
Anyway my pep-talk sheet is about six pages long, and it seems to work because I tend to forget these things when my King keeps saying "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up."
Thanks for your blog BDK. It's been a big help to patzers like me.
Stillday
Losing is no fun, of course, but we all have our down periods. Remember that you are playing for fun. When it gets too serious and you start feeling too bad about yourself, take a break for a couple of days and regain your perspective. Sometimes a little rest is all it takes!
I like Samuraipawn's comment a lot. Don't forget the good games you've played and use them as a reminder that you are capable of good chess!
Say you had a food poisoning incident just before your matches. That's the excuse I always use.
We ALL fall back on old habits from time to time and forget our new process (like C,C,T) that we are trying to habitualize. What a loss like this does is make you see even clearer how important the new way we are trying to learn is and where we still need to focus our time.
Losses show us our weaknesses, strength comes from eradication of weaknesses. (At least in terms of fundamentals)
A general thank you for all the truly helpful comments. What a great treat to find all these upon waking this morning. This is just a bloody game, and even the losses should be fun, or at least funny :) Thanks for reminding me of this.
Samurai: That is a funny and interesting idea. Kind of like a self-esteem portfolio. The opposite of the hall of shame idea.
Tempo: LOL. Yes: I forget opening lines, so I'll forget these losses.
Transform: I tried to take your attitude. After the losses I went back until I won. I refused to end the night on a down note. I probably should have just gone to bed, though :O
anon(1): 'Don't be blue.' LOL!
Scirius: I did that in a tournament with a rook, game 5, at board 1, for first place in the U1200 division. I saw the capture, then went and thought about my pawn structure, and pushed a pawn. Flippin' a that sucked. Now I can see it's kinda funny.
Anonymous (Stillday): Such a wonderful comment, it really warms my heart, and exactly the kind of things I need to remember. Thank you for being so generous in posting it. I think I should steal your idea and post a similar thing. Heck, you should start a blog and make this one of those posts that is ongoing, permanent sidebar, etc.. It would be the 'don't worry be happy' chess blog. That Silman quote is just fantastic!
Chess Relearner: I think I do need to take a little break. I think even just going for a run will suffice :)
Liquid Egg: :) Good idea.
Tynicas: yes, I have gotten so wrapped up in relatively complicated combinations and tactics, I have forgotten to remember to make the basics the priority. And then I screw up on those basics. That's exactly what happened. Thanks for reminding me. I'm adding you to my rotating blogroll right now! I really like your blog.
Completely off topic, but I need some advice on the Scandy. After 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. Nf3, I can't decide whether to go with Qxd5 or Nxd5. I would have liked to play the Qd6 (3...Qxd5 4. Nc3 Qd6) variation, but it doesn't seem possible since there is no time for black to put in a6 to prevent the c3 Knight to go to the annoying b5 square. Any thoughts?
BDK: If you think I'm waaaaay too much off topic, feel free to give me a slap on the wrist and send me a mail instead if you have the time. ;)
Thanks
/Chris
I play Nxd5, so as to not get my queen exposed.
BDK, don't feel too bad about losing.
Last week, I played two of the most atrocious rapid games ever at my club competition.
The first game I lost because I basically lost my head losing a drawn rook endgame (which on normal days I would have drawn easily), and the other, well, I went nuts and like 5 moves down the opening theory of the Scotch, I forgot what moves I was supposed to make and promptly lost my Knight in the process.
So, take heart. We all make mistakes so don't beat yourself up over it. After all, Kramnik lost to a mate in one! What more, mere mortals like us?
The only way to go when you're down is up! :)
welcome to my world...
Post a Comment
<< Home