Age and chess

Do you think chess playing style change when you grew older … I mean the age effects … like you play classic slow openings, less aggressive moves, more defensive, etc … the kind of games most younger dods sees as boring … huh?

Originally posted by BSpider
Do you think chess playing style change when you grew older … I mean the age effects … like you play classic slow openings, less aggressive moves, more defensive, etc … the kind of games most younger dods sees as boring … huh?

My style has actually become more aggressive over the years.
But I'm sure I'm the exeption proving the rule.

Well, throughout my chess career, I think I've stayed about the same, but then again, I would not qualify as old, and my formal chess career has only been 4 years long so...

Originally posted by BSpider
Do you think chess playing style change when you grew older … I mean the age effects … like you play classic slow openings, less aggressive moves, more defensive, etc … the kind of games most younger dods sees as boring … huh?

As I've gotten older, I'm not as tactically alert as I used to be, but I'm better positionally and at endgames. This leads naturally to not playing quite as aggressively as when I was younger, but it hasn't been really conscious, nor extreme.

Originally posted by Erekose
As I've gotten older, I'm not as tactically alert as I used to be, but I'm better positionally and at endgames. This leads naturally to not playing quite as aggressively as when I was younger, but it hasn't been really conscious, nor extreme.

I'm still young, and I feel like positional analysis is my strongsuit, whereas my tactics are weaker. I wonder if they'll flip-flop as I get older?

-GIN

I think that as your positional understanding 'matures', you tend to play less aggressively (relative to yourself) in the tactical sense. as it usually means making positional concessions. in a positional sense you're still playing aggressively though, it's just not so easily visible as flashy tactics. but it's just as deadly, and maybe even more so.


and as chess takes a long time to learn, decades, you're usually gonna be relatively old to hit that point.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2982450?&Search=yes&term=
Chess&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3
FQuery%3DChess%26gw%3Djtx%26prq%3D
Deliberate%2BPractice%2Bin%2BChess%2B
Expertise%26hp%3D25%26wc%3Doff&item=8&ttl=17515&returnArticleService=showArticle


That is 1 link, string it all together and copy / paste. Good study for this subject.

This is a great issue. I've not played chess in 35 years. I started to play again several months ago. I know that now I have a better insight into the game. My game has been improved dramatically. Now I look at the game as a set of fragile connections among elements. I see the interdependency of the pieces and the ways to augment them as a defender and how to break them while playing offense. I can better calculate my own risk, and learn the intentions of my opponents. I can work 3 - 4 moves ahead. I'm a retired computer programmer and my life experience plus learning from the masters of the game will make my play better and better.

Originally posted by BSpider
Do you think chess playing style change when you grew older … I mean the age effects … like you play classic slow openings, less aggressive moves, more defensive, etc … the kind of games most younger dods sees as boring … huh?

For me = definitely.

I'm 40 now. In my younger days i didn't use to have to try to memorise any opening theory - it just kind of stuck with one glance at a chess book. Not I can barely retain anything new at all. One consequence - I tend to avoid lengthy book lines.

Another change - I used to like very forcing variations but now prefer a less sharp struggle.