tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368873314826988043.post6224725522599024225..comments2023-04-14T00:27:29.788-07:00Comments on theGreatPatzer: I think its rough being LOW RATED…Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03801353514449135462noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368873314826988043.post-80701191739217156992014-12-15T14:52:50.600-08:002014-12-15T14:52:50.600-08:00All of the large-scale blitz game communities are ...All of the large-scale blitz game communities are rather trollish, was my point. Your experience with some folks on Facebook is therefore expected (sadly).<br />If you play Chess.com 45 45 games, pretty much guarantee no trolls.<br />I play in the Slow Chess League there, which being organized is another layer of troll protection.ChessAdminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02231584333139931889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368873314826988043.post-66608227891734802322014-12-15T11:50:48.884-08:002014-12-15T11:50:48.884-08:00Blitz will improve your chess only in two cases : ...Blitz will improve your chess only in two cases : either if you're young (U20) and your brain can pick up patterns fast simply by going through them, or if you're already very strong (ie. titled), so you can sort out what happened even in a 5' game.Laurent Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05371507031711622435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368873314826988043.post-48187271594552457902014-12-15T08:53:57.791-08:002014-12-15T08:53:57.791-08:00... not Of course thats there's anything wrong...... not Of course thats there's anything wrong with playing bitz its just that IMHO- there are much better ways to improve. LOL.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03801353514449135462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368873314826988043.post-32370996625116977392014-12-15T08:52:26.062-08:002014-12-15T08:52:26.062-08:00i really want to thank you guys for visiting. I ...i really want to thank you guys for visiting. I am really enjoying blogging this. I have been working the lonely fight against my bad habits since the summer.<br /><br />I really enjoyed the comment about how this all plays in the club and brought it up at my club meeting last night (we have a very small club).<br /><br />of the two other guys, one feels in a similar place to me- would like to be a lot stronger (ELO wise), but is just like if all we want to do Is WIN and brag about it; what fun would the game be? <br /><br />another is like - whats ELO? chess trappings has no claim onto this guy. he totally plays for fun and strongly feels he wouldn't play a tournament cause the competition part of it would get in the game of just playing the peices and looking for/ creating interesting chess puzzles.<br /><br />... I have a good Club. we are all great patzers over there. BTW I do play at chess.com, and I think blitz play everyone is a little dominated by the will to win quickly- and without deep thought. openings, cheap traps; all the stuff an impatient chess player might be very interested in. ... so I'm not sure its fair to brand facebooks chess app as particarlurly trollish. <br /><br />I really think , in the end, its something of an irony. If your VERY obsessed about gaining ELO your much less likely to actually gain it! Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03801353514449135462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368873314826988043.post-90483658565607376872014-12-15T07:16:24.757-08:002014-12-15T07:16:24.757-08:00I think it is good to have goals or a general goal...I think it is good to have goals or a general goal but as mentioned above by someone else a sense of detachment from the goal is important! It is true for music (my profession) and sports and chess! Especially important for a hobby as a hobby is supposed to bring us joy and fun and escape while we improve at something just for the sake of improving.<br /><br />It is 7 years exactly since I began pursuing chess as a serious hobby! I am better. It has happened slowly! But more importantly I LOVE the game! I LOVE studying the game!<br /><br />And I have become really good at knowing when to let Chess take over my free time for a while and knowing when to put chess way down on the list.<br /><br />And by doing this it is always there. Never approached a burn out. Because my main goal has ALWAYS been to enjoy the game!<br /><br />(but don't get me wrong...I want to get to 2000 as well. :) I am just not in a hurry!)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368873314826988043.post-78054755944545865712014-12-14T08:16:27.917-08:002014-12-14T08:16:27.917-08:00Welcome to the chess improvement community!
I fir...Welcome to the chess improvement community!<br /><br />I first played a bunch of junky blitz-type games on the Yahoo chess app, but those kinds of general public type places (including now Facebook it seems) are notorious troll grounds. I'm lousy at fast time controls and don't learn much, plus dealing with a**holes is not something I need to do in my free time.<br /><br />Hope you find a good venue for playing (chess.com is one of the places that has slow time control games) and enjoy the ride, wherever it takes you.ChessAdminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02231584333139931889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368873314826988043.post-9773424607908784492014-12-14T02:49:08.328-08:002014-12-14T02:49:08.328-08:00Oh, and no way a realtively modest rating means yo...Oh, and no way a realtively modest rating means you're dumb or anything like that. Would you assume someone is dumb because he doesn't speak Russian for example ? <br /><br />Maybe you don't have the deep motivation, maybe you don't have the opportunities to improve fast, maybe you didn't put in the work, maybe you don't have enough talent for the game to improve very fast, but if you're playing chess, there's no way you're dumb : dumb people have other activities.<br /><br />The problem is that the chess rating scale isn't sexy (and it's even worse in the USA because of the way kids' ratings are calculated). 2000 looks like the first sexy point of call, but it's obviously very hard to achieve if you haven't started training your chess fairly early in your life. It's like languages : you just pick them faster at 6 than at 36. Just the way it is.<br /><br />So 1500-1600 isn't sexy, but that's actually stronger than 99% of casual players. You're a 1 in 100 guys, except chess isn't tennis and casual players rarely go to play during the week-end. If they were, you would be in the top.<br /><br />People playing in clubs are mostly competitive and have experience. They are already the 1% of chess. Then the 2000/masters are the top of this top. Not easy objective. <br /><br />I want to hit 'expert'. Sounds good, but what does it take to achieve a Uni Bachelor degree in a foreign language (because that's more or less what it amounts to). Without even good teachers to help you, and let's not speak about available time...<br /><br />Enjoy your chess. Enjoy your victories ! If you want to improve, take a good coach and make some effort, but you need the spark, the desire to play to the best of your abilities, else it just doesn't happen : ego on the table just paralyzes you.<br /><br />You need "flow" to play chess (Mihály Csíkszentmihályi) and to derive pleasure from it, rather than rating inhibitions. Your chess rating isn't the measure if your value or intellect as a person and will never be. Just how good you happen to be at the game. <br /><br />Now did you enjoy this game at the club last week ? Was it feeling good ? That's the only thing that really matters :-)Laurent Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05371507031711622435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368873314826988043.post-90916817821976201482014-12-14T02:35:31.858-08:002014-12-14T02:35:31.858-08:00Chess improvement is a bit like picking up girls. ...Chess improvement is a bit like picking up girls. When you stop obsessing about it but still adopt a couple of no-nonsense attitudes, things start going your way...<br /><br />And, I firmly believe you don't need to marry a VS model to be happy. You should cherish what your significant other offers you, like you love a nice combination on the board, or maybe that's the opposite ?!<br /><br />But half-joking aside, sports psychologists have known for a long time that you should always focus on process rather than outcomes to get results. Desired outcomes are only here in the back of your mind to fuel the daily processes if need be. But the focus should be on the daily process : press that bench, run these 5 miles, breathe deeply, don't drink coca-cola, solve 10 tactics to the best of your ability.<br /><br />Then trust yourself and enjoy the trip :-)Laurent Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05371507031711622435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368873314826988043.post-11763930334234257652014-12-13T12:42:44.743-08:002014-12-13T12:42:44.743-08:00Blunderprone, Excellent! thanks for visiting my b...Blunderprone, Excellent! thanks for visiting my blog.<br /><br />I think I would have been interested in joining the 'knights errant' had I been interested in chess improvement a few years back. I myself have done quite a few tactical puzzles and have done Polgar's book alittle more than 3 times.... but I feel really humble when I here of how serious some of you guys got. AoxomoxoA mentions solving 4000 puzzles, and you sound like you did many thousands yourself. <br /><br />Anyway, I had no idea you accomplished so much. Perhaps you should've blogged a post saying; life has been getting in the way and I'm not climbing like I was- but Look what I did! Getting to 1800 is really GOOD.<br /><br />for myself, I haven't yet seen much improvement in the metrics that I have (at least yet).. But I have constaints of my own. Putting all life aside isn't in the cards. The point is to find joy and motivation in lesser efforts. <br /><br />as I hint about in the blog itself, my ELO MIGHT just be the last to change. Living in a rural location pretty far away from the main chess tournament; it isn't going to be find time to regularly do tournaments. In short, if my study efforts dwarf the tournaments, maybe I really WILL be a great patzer.<br /><br />well like I said happy visiting. dust off the blog, I'll add you to the roll! there's nothing like fresh posts. lots of guys are doing it.... Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03801353514449135462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368873314826988043.post-23042992246123108452014-12-12T21:13:04.571-08:002014-12-12T21:13:04.571-08:00...and another thing...
What I am most interested......and another thing...<br /><br />What I am most interested in these days is the ability to retain chess skills after a period of inactivity and how that varies with stronger players. <br /><br />For instance, pit me against someone rated 200 points stronger than me who alos has not played for a couple years. I would still have my butt handed to me. Why? <br />What skills and positional nuances are retained in hsi long term memory that are long evaporated from my working memory? How to build that into a long term memory? If I ever figure that out...i'll be sure to let you all know. <br />-BPBlunderPronehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08316158004635698398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368873314826988043.post-1782651405354392162014-12-12T21:09:10.887-08:002014-12-12T21:09:10.887-08:00Since I am one of those "ancient creatures in...Since I am one of those "ancient creatures in amber" I thought I'd speak out a little. A tear traverses my face like being stuck in a closed position where I want to develop my bishop but I have to sacrifice another piece in order to do so. Life has a way of getting in the way of my chess ambitions. <br /><br />Temposchlucker had a nice tally of Knights errants results here: http://temposchlucker.blogspot.com/2005/05/ratingprogress-of-knights-errant.html<br />It shows that indeed it is possible to improve through tactical training. But what it also shows is that depending on how low rated you are, you tend to position yourself to gain the most. So PLEASE endeavor to improve your tactics... however you choose as it will do more for your rating than learning a new opening repertoire. Trust me. <br />I went from a 1300 rated player to a peak of 1800 employing tactical training over the course of 4+ intense years. I went nuts, almost exclusive with it. I was on fire... but the rest of my life suffered. I had to take a break. I fooled myself when I peaked at 1800 that 2000 was really in reach. I studied harder. Did the 7 circles of hell SEVEN times even and started to develop my own set of problems from my own games. It was a brutal pace. I practiced, I blogged once a week, went to a club once a week and did tournaments. It almost cost me my marriage and alienated me from my family. I was so focused on improvement that it was a do or die mentality and ever otehr aspect of my life suffered. But ...that's me... everyone is different and must find their own path. I was using chess as a cover for some other fundamental issues that needed to be address. And eventually I figured it out. <br />What I want to say though, is at the craziest time during the peak, no matter what I could do, no ammount of training was showing improvement. I didn't want to blog about meritocracy for results and worse, my rating started to back slide. I was devastated and needed to come up for air. ( or therapy). <br />The quest of being comfortable when you suck at this game is tough. But I've since learned the powers of meditation and relaxing into the pain. Being at ease with the way things are may not be the mantra for a competitive warior, but I sure sleep better not worrying about the next rating supplement or, worse, what are my LOYAL FANS going to think? LOL... I guess they think I am some ancient relic stuck in amber now. <br />I'll be back, mark my words, chess runs deep in these veins. I am learning to make piece with my path first, enjoying the journey more than the finish line. <br /><br />Thanks for giving me something read to spark a little something while I sit here encased in amber. Next time, would you mind bringing a chisel? I seem a little stuck. <br /><br />Your very truly, <br /><br />Blunderprone<br /><br /> BlunderPronehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08316158004635698398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3368873314826988043.post-55684703918077879102014-12-12T20:47:08.127-08:002014-12-12T20:47:08.127-08:00I am peering through the amber... i wrote up a len...I am peering through the amber... i wrote up a lengthy response but being encased here with a tablet, erased it. <br />I'll resubmit tomorrow if i can recall what i wrote.BlunderPronehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08316158004635698398noreply@blogger.com