After Setbacks; there were some very interesting comments.
Clearly, feeling frustrated, tired and wanting more improvement that you are experiencing is very common. (I also see this kind of comment ALL the time in chess forums)…. I don’t think that discouragement , by itself, is that instructive or useful. But I do think its important, even essential, to take a pragmatic approach to chess.
I think its important to realize that Chess is, Actually Not easy! … well, it might be easy ~given a truly easy opponent. But we need to realize the actual intensity of the hobby. The challenge is to be able to grasp the whole truth of the position. And this is the part that is mind-numbingly difficult. We can’t just wait for an opponent to throw us a simple tactical “gift”; It is our job to actually understand the position- to see what plan and principle is Reasonable with the position that is on the board.
This is more difficult than it seems. If we go for something that is easily stopped; our opponent can bind our game to near aimlessness. If we see something forceful that doesn’t work.. our opponent can ignore our plans and profit from the misplacement of our pieces. Our alternately, we can get the attack we were looking for… but fail to convert it (it wasn’t sound) to a winning advantage and watch the opponent rally with material superiority.
These are just a few common plots in the wreckage of many recent games. The bigger point is … why is chess so hard? Keep my material safe; find a weakness, build a plan- that uses the weakness to gain mate or material, Win & celebrate ! Simple!
Chess is NOT easy…
First Compare this to my dramatic photo. Anyone who has ever tried a pullup ; is impressed with this guys extreme athlete prowess. One false step orand cramping bicep- and well; bad things happen. OTOH. Chess looks horribly boring. Someone deeply staring at their chessboard in an intense gaze (and agonizing) over a few reasonable moves; N @ c3 or d2? All the visitors watch them ; curiously, what could possibly be so complicated about this decision. Perhaps, there are calculating every possible move?
NOT! Positional Chess decisions are hard to explain. From the vantage point of my club strength; get some key decisions wrong and there are weak spots and holes- and your opponent might soon get his chance to invade.
I’ve been grappling quite a while with blunders. They’re embarrassing and difficult to eradicate!? And yet despite intense motivation- they still litter my game—I even see them (just after I move) when the opponent Does not! My OTB sparring partner; gave me some advice that you hear All the time… Always ask what your opponent is trying to do?... its good advice, but not necessarily so helpful. I was am very tempted- to shoot back at him the same question (as he , I think a little less strong than I). happily I didn't say anything, as he was only trying to help.
But I had a significant revelation; when I was talking to a beginner. The guy was avidly aware of the need NOT to blunder, but seemed to take an almost ambivalent tact on spotting his opponents mistakes. Surely, I said, if you miss taking your opponent hung queen than your not concentrating hard enough at the game! I don’t always miss hung pieces but I can be unfocused and become sporadic; focusing intensely only after the big play has been made; and all I can do is weep because of what I missed. Its so essential to work important things out in your head.
Wow-that is a revelation! Take another reference at the impressive mountain climbing guy. We’re impressed with his athletic abilities- but surely- Isn’t it his constant focus and awareness on carefully gripping the mountain- what is really keeping him safe? He knows there is little hope to grip tightly AFTER he has started to slip. There is a deep sense of awareness, focus and constant concentration that are essential in both sports…
To put it in chess terms- “No matter what innate strength you have at calculating and understanding important variations in your position- isn’t it your constant focus and awareness in the safety and power of your pieces (and the weakness of his) what keeps you from a premature checkmate (or draw)…” I think this is profound. We may win or lose some games based on whether we understand the pawn structure of our opening- and whether we know how to convert basic endgames to wins (or losing positions to draws)- but I am Sure many MORE games hinge upon simply intense gaze and determination to seize the advantage (and defend against weakness).
Key to this revelation is the Chess is VERY hard…. Easy answers ( Nd2/Nc3 is irrelevant; I’m simply attacking more times than he’s defending. Nxe7 is an easy grab of a pawn….) should seem naturally suspicious. One should Always suspect a tactic; if we see loose material. One should go around the board; looking for more pieces to develop and become active. We should look at HIS whole position. What is the weakest piece? If we’re playing the SLOW game… FORCING yourself to slow down and see MORE must be instructive. One of the keys to chess is of course, knowing WHEN to slow down; but we will get our assessments wrong; and can easily miss the key moment.
The solution then is to slow down, even when we’re not sure we need to, and even if we start to lose on time. we’re NOT professional and so we’re justified to force ourselves to play for INSTRUCTIVE purposes; slow, deliberated, the best chess we can; even if that means losing.
Still I don’t think I’m necessarily TOO fast; I’m just not keeping the intense focus and I need to bring it up another notch. I need to play with more determination. I need to practice with great determination. I’m my exercises… I get too many things wrong. I need to go over it a second, third time. Do I FULLY understand the position, have I accounted for everything. I have a good book for that ; alburt’s 300 positions to know is DEEP and perfect for this.
https://youtu.be/E5XmaAshsB4
ReplyDeletePlease do the awareness test ;)
In chess you need to be aware of many things >>at the same time<<
I suggest to do some boardvision drills and easy tactics to overcome bad blunders
1. Chess is not EASY. That's the best news we could ever heard! If chess was easy we could not develop our logical (and critical) thinking in such a range!
ReplyDelete2. The challenge is to be able to grasp the whole truth of the position. It depends how you define it, but I agree with this statement. However I would like to stress out that you have to be able to recognize the most important elements first because there are positions you do not have to see "the whole picture" - it is enough to see "the most important parts of it". That's beautiful because we can create our way out of chaos without the need to compherend everything!
3. We can’t just wait for an opponent to throw us a simple tactical “gift”. It does not make any sense because it is not CHESS, but selfchess (mutual help and support that leads to regress). However you may check if some of the moves are safe or not safe. These "not safe ones" are the moves we have to avoid at all costs.
4. It is our job to actually understand the position- to see what plan and principle is Reasonable with the position that is on the board. Yes, that's right! That's the biggest reward and benefits to us - we have great opportunity to "x-ray" the position and make the general (final) conclusions!
5. This is more difficult than it seems. Definitely! There are many ways to manage the game and many of these are deceptive! You may think that you are winning, but your opponent is going to show you how wrong you are at your assesment! What makes chess players the most crazy about - it is the mutual contradiction. It is often called "dynamic positions and playing at different material balance". That way you have to foresee and predict the future very far ahead - as some very ting detail may change the evaluation completely. I simply love it!
6. The bigger point is ...why is chess so hard? I think it is because we have to built reasonable evaluation (to us humans - machine does not care about it!), plan and the way we are going to proceed. And sometimes you have to recognize the winning position from the losing ones - base on the character of the position. When there are complex positions - you have to be creative, posses broad knowledge and be able to foresee the future!
7. I’ve been grappling quite a while with blunders. They’re embarrassing and difficult to eradicate!? Yes, it is quite hard. Not because you are not working properly, but due to the lack of experience at foreseeing the future actions and ability to count the variations correct! After that - one of the most important factors - at the end of each variation you are trying to visualise you have to EVALUATE the (final) position CORRECT!
8. Always ask what your opponent is trying to do?... its good advice, but not necessarily so helpful. It is a good reminder, but in practice it is misleading, because it only triggers your mind to look at your opponent's position from his shoes. When we are talking about blunders and tactical mistakes - it is "technical" side of chess - crunching variations with final evaluation after each one. Yes, it may be VERY HARD sometimes as you have to be able to feel the dynamics of the position (or the lack of it!). There are many examples when you are a piece up, but your opponent has so called "crushing attack" or you simple have to give back the piece to hold the attack or serious damage.
ReplyDelete9. But I had a significant revelation; when I was talking to a beginner. The guy was avidly aware of the need NOT to blunder, but seemed to take an almost ambivalent tact on spotting his opponents mistakes. Yeah! Most beginners see their opponents mistakes, but they are BLIND to see their own! It is a feature that most beginners have, but some stronger players make this sin, too! The more mature the player, the easier he sees his own mistakes. Look at masters when they are analysing their games! They tries to reveal "the whole truth" about the game, not just to show how their opponets play is poor!
10. There is a deep sense of awareness, focus and constant concentration that are essential in both sports. The stronger the player, the harder is to force him to get out of his balance level! Most beginners say that when you are playing against strong player - even if he makes a mistake, he RE-EVALUATE the position and start all over again! He makes the task much harder and the "poor beginner" cannot adjust to the new situation. And the stronger player knows that he has to work much harder to restore the equality (fight for the position that he cannot lose).
11. “No matter what innate strength you have at calculating and understanding important variations in your position- isn’t it your constant focus and awareness in the safety and power of your pieces (and the weakness of his) what keeps you from a premature checkmate (or draw)…” ---> this way is extremally deep conclusion, but a very true one! I really like it! That's one of the feature that differs masters from beginners. Masters tries to foresee the future and evaluate the position as best as possible. Novices and beginners focus only at the features we can call: "what they see now".
12. One should Always suspect a tactic; if we see loose material. One should go around the board; looking for more pieces to develop and become active. That's right! This way we have much less chance to miss tactics! However it could be extremally difficult to look for tactical opportunities ALL THE TIMES! You have to know WHEN and HOW to do it! Otherwise you are simply running out of time and lack energy when it would be really needed! Recognizing when the tactical opportunities are present (real) and when they are not (not exist) - it is a hallmark between being a good player and a "always calculate everything" type one. Most often the latter loses on time or simply make (a few) bad moves from the positional point of view. The result? He works very hard, but incorrect way - and the final is the same all over again.
ReplyDelete13. If we’re playing the SLOW game… FORCING yourself to slow down and see MORE must be instructive. One of the keys to chess is of course, knowing WHEN to slow down; but we will get our assessments wrong; and can easily miss the key moment. Definitely! That's what I pointed about at point 12 (one above) - you have to be able to recognize the moment when it is NECESSARY (or obligatory if you will) to STOP and make a new (fresh or updated) evaluation. It is not easy, but may be learnt.
14. The solution then is to slow down, even when we’re not sure we need to, and even if we start to lose on time. we’re NOT professional and so we’re justified to force ourselves to play for INSTRUCTIVE purposes; slow, deliberated, the best chess we can; even if that means losing. OK, I agree - however it is better to gather more knowlegde as it help tremendously at assessing the position in the right way. And after you play many games - your experience "whisper to your ear" something like: "hey, now it is the time you have to STOP and see the positions from a new perspective". It is at my case even if I cannot hear the internal voice loudly ;) :)
I hope I have provided you some food for though :). You are welcome to express your ideas and comment on mine. Thanks for a thinking-provoking posts and great insights! I am going to use some of your ideas at my own blog :). Thanks a lot!
wow. that is a lot of feedback. thank you!
ReplyDeleterecently, the game has turned hard fought for me (which is good!) with me winning a few games; then losing some- then winning again... its all been fruitful for my focus on analyzing my games.
Regarding 9. That what was SO different about the beginner; he wasn't obsessed with winning from his opponent play. In fact, he missed BIG chances to win games. however, he had an exhaustive and methodical focus on being careful and accurately calculating our forceful variations and he was gaining Rating rapidly! ... OTOH, I saw similarities to NOT blundering, seeing tactical gifts,and being able to accurately attack when it is warranted.
the beginner is doing VERY well; imressive... but my whole feeling from him was that until he starts catching everything; then he has a false mastery of chess. He is constantly reminding himself NOT to blunder; but does not see a hung piece (or simple tactic) that practically ends the game. In truth his passive take at chess will be undoing.
OTOH, I feel like I have its opposite sometimes. I love the INITIATIVE! I've had a few pretty wins for sure. Tactic puzzles are like gasoline to my fire; the idea of creatively blowing up his side of the board is exciting to me.
but my class C opponents are Not like my class E ones were. They are resourceful.
they are seeing the "adrenalin" flaws in my game. Its rare for me to , in a balanced and equal position, hang a peice of line something up for fork or skewer... instead- stealing pawns and going for material wining attacks; and threatening checkmate (both the simplistic- if you don't see this I win! and the more commited kingside attacks) have been the big issues.
its not a threat if his reply changes everything! I do indeed need to have a better visualization of these contemplated attacks and tactics.
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so talking to the beginner was insightful; though maybe not to him. we all have our own profound discoveries...
When I learn not to Attack, when the position doesn't call for it, and when it gives the opponent alot of counterplay.. I think I will rise alot in rating, but I don't want to throw out my tactical vocabulary; and being "sharp" IS fun.
Regarding 12.
ReplyDeleteI know I've said this both ways between this blog and the last. " i need to recognize patterns rather than endlessly analyze "... "I need to analyze more often, and not miss important decisive moves".
the truth is the strong player plays ALOT from pattern recognition! I've worked hard in studying the patterns... I'm being too simple minded and I my alarm clock rings much more loudly on his moves than mine. I get nit-picky seeing only striking features on the board. Even within the puzzles themselves! I miss the broader vision- and miscalculate the answer.
the point of this BLOG; is to say that even if still is a weakness- IT is better to second guess, better to overanalyze, and slow down. All my analysis says
"you are reckless!" so the decision is clear. I should slow down and second guess all my patterns. second guess when I see a pattern. and most of all when the pattern seems clear- look again at the result. Chess isn't simple. counterplay is inevitable. when you take the attack ,even a winning one, you are likely playing bad positional chess abandoning the pawns and decentralizing your careful developed peices. ... so the desire to attack needs to be a sober one.
for training purposes, given my inclinations, I need to hesitate and look harder. that is way chess is not easy is a big insight for me. I've had too many easy puzzles, where there is a neat and creative solution. I need to deal with the rest of chess; which is more messy.