ARGH!! Why do I play so bad!?

[bumbly]

My chesstempo rating has been rising very steadily, reaching a new high almost everyday. My CTS rating raising the same way...

My USCF rating.. .going down, down... down. Man do I mean it's going down. I'm floored right now 

This is just simply frustrating. I'm getting better at chess and playing worse chess.

[tomohawk]

Have someone/hire someone better than you are to look at your games and give you a diagnosis. Have YOU looked at your games?

[bumbly]

Firstly I'm poor.. secondly I do look over my games, and it's almost always just complete oversights.

[imryel]

What types of games do you play?  I recommend playing 30/G or slower so that you have time to take an extra 30 seconds each turn to make sure you aren't giving your opponent an easy tactic or something.

[drahacikfm]

Firstly I'm poor.. secondly I do look over my games, and it's almost always just complete oversights.

What exactly are your "complete oversights"?  Do you miss simple tactics by your opponent?  Two ways to guarantee improvement in that regard:

1) Do tactics problems here with the board reversed, so you get practice seeing what the other side can do.  Before starting to solve each problem, put yourself in the frame of mind that it is now your opponent's move, and think what he can do to you.  Then solve the problem.

2) When playing a game, after choosing a move but BEFORE making it, you MUST ask yourself the "Four Questions":

What will my reply be if he:

i) Checks me
ii) Threatens mate
iii) Attacks something of mine that is unprotected
iv) Attacks something of mine that is of higher value (attacks my rook with his knight, for example)

If you ask those 4 questions before EVERY move you make in real games, you will eliminate almost all oversights.

[tomohawk]

"Firstly I'm poor.. secondly I do look over my games, and it's almost always just complete oversights."

My experience is that a lot of players attribute their losses to blunders (i.e. complete oversights). The actual number is much smaller. Players show me games that go something like this:

1) They get a passive position.

2) Their opponent starts making threats.

3) They defend against the threats, but in turn they are forced or feel forced to weaken their position in order to avoid catastrophe. Answering threats by making weakening pawn moves is a classic example. Another is trading off your only good piece(s) to release the pressure.

4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 as needed.

5) They eventually get hit by some tactic in an awful position.

Then they blame it on 5. Obviously the real cause can be traced back up the steps.

I don't know if the above describes your games; only you do since you are the one who sees them all. ;-)

However, if it does then realize that in bad, passive positions you are pretty much guaranteed to eventually "blunder". The blunder isn't what kills you, it is only a symptom of the underlying disease of your position which is its passivity. One thing you might do is go back say five or ten moves before the blunder and ask yourself who is dictating play. If in most cases it is your opponent, and you are only reacting, then this diagnosis is probably pretty accurate.



A second, but in my experience much less common, sort of error is what Kotov called "Dizziness due to success". It is in some ways the flipside of the above.

1) You get an aggressive position.

2) You start making threats.

3) Your opponent goes into a shell.

4) You figure you can do almost anything.

5) You stop thinking.

6) You play some good-looking move, but it hangs something or meets with a refutation that you would normally have seen.

The cause of the above, in my opinion, is being overly emotional. Of course we all want to win, but if it manifests too strongly in your play you have to make on-the-fly adjustments.

In my case I rarely get excited when I am winning, so my blunders of this type are rare. However, I do get nervous when the position is unclear, or I am short of time. So what I do is ... stop. I look at my hands. I hold them out, but below my opponent's line of sight at the table. If they are trembling, I refuse to move. Even if I have almost no time to reach time control, I just sit there until they stop shaking. If I can't control something as simple as my hands, how am I going to control something as complex as my thought processes?

Anyway, the only suggestion I can make is that at the board be self-aware. Try to find some physical cue that will let you know if you are getting overly emotional. Then at least recognize that you are walking a dangerous line and be extra careful.


I guess my point is (again in my experience) that mistakes do not tend to arise out of a vacuum. You have to figure out what the underlying cause is before you do anything else. And you have to be ruthlessly objective. Most players can't do that when it comes to their own games.

Good luck.

[bumbly]

Firstly I'm poor.. secondly I do look over my games, and it's almost always just complete oversights.

What exactly are your "complete oversights"?  Do you miss simple tactics by your opponent?  Two ways to guarantee improvement in that regard:

1) Do tactics problems here with the board reversed, so you get practice seeing what the other side can do.  Before starting to solve each problem, put yourself in the frame of mind that it is now your opponent's move, and think what he can do to you.  Then solve the problem.

2) When playing a game, after choosing a move but BEFORE making it, you MUST ask yourself the "Four Questions":

What will my reply be if he:

i) Checks me
ii) Threatens mate
iii) Attacks something of mine that is unprotected
iv) Attacks something of mine that is of higher value (attacks my rook with his knight, for example)

If you ask those 4 questions before EVERY move you make in real games, you will eliminate almost all oversights.

by complete oversights, I mean leaving pieces en prise or spotting a tactic then moving into it! or similar things.

1. I didnt know you could flip the board here...

2. Good idea. I need to make a checklist to follow

[bumbly]

ARGH!

Im so ready to quit chess for good.

My rating on ICC is down to 1372 now  that's down from my average of ~2050.

My USCF is down to 1600 (my floor) and I've not won a game in 2 weeks.

[newlook]

Maybe your blitz/bullet games are ruining your standard play? That seems to be the conventional wisdom.

[tama]

Blumbly:

Your just in a slump, things will pick up eventual. So don't worry about it and just concentrate on making the best moves you can. Check out this related topic.... People have it far worst then you!

http://www.chessvideos.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5391

[maquih]

Yeah, sometimes when I get into slumps its because I'm thinking to vertically and not enough horizontally....
By that I mean I'm calculating certain variations out to 6 or even 8 moves but then I miss that a pawn is hanging with a simple 2 move combination.... So when i get into slumps I try to refocus on thinking horizontally, look at all the moves possible right now in the next 2 or 3 ply and make sure im not losing material by force before I start looking at 6-8 move combinations....

[maquih]

Also, I've never been above 1400 blitz on FICS but I'm like 1800 over the board... Never understood how people could be higher in blitz than in standard...

[c.h.andas]

@maquih:

Maybe it is helpful for you, to stand up, walk arround BEFORE you will do the next '8 move combi'-move. May than you can see the 2movers. 

Good luck

[tommyjb]

I personally find that when I do a lot of tactical training my chess sometimes becomes pretty awful. I find myself thinking too much about tactical shots and not enough about positional ideas.

I wonder if that's part of your problem.