Bad Week!!! blunder after blunder

How do you turn it around?? This week I have given pieces away for free on too many games even to remember .. I'm suddenly losing constantly due to stupidity on my part!.. Is there such thing as a mental slump in chess??

In two games.. just today.. someone lined up a piece onto one of my unprotected pieces.. and I don't move it!! instead I go and do something else, and now lose 2 major pieces (one a rook, the other a knight). I think I must need a break from the game or something.
but.. thats all you'll hear from me.. I don't want to be accused of being someone else that used to be around here.. just had to vent..
next time I'll right a stupidity email to myself.. that might work

well there is a bad chess day when you're having it go watch tv or go hiking 😛

seriously, you must understand it doesn't matter if you move in 10 sec or 5 min this is corespondence chess so you have all the time in the world to make your move after properly assesing the board

I know how you feel. Looking at my rating one can see perfectly clear how a bad period of myself caused that big gap of almost 200 points. It is strange how one can have such a bad period...

I've found that I can greatly reduce those episodes of "chess board blindness" by doing the following...

1) Before I move, I pull up the analysis board.
2) Play over hte last few moves to get a feel for how the game was progressing..ie: to jog my memory.
3) Look carefully at the opponents last move and ask myself, if my opponent could move again, what would they most likely do? This is the part that forces you to look for obvious threats that you may have blundered right into otherwise 🙂

good luck,

Brian

Originally posted by MIODude
How do you turn it around?? This week I have given pieces away for free on too many games even to remember .. I'm suddenly losing constantly due to stupidity on my part!.. Is there such thing as a mental slump in chess??

Thanks.. I appreciate the help!

I have streaks like that. I haven't had one last for a whole week, but certainly I've blown 5 out of 6 games with blunders.

I think even a slight amount of extra stress, tiredness, or distraction puts you at a chess disadvantage. If that coincides with some tough opponents who are on top of their game, things get frustrating pretty fast.

I know when it happens to me I should walk away until I can play better. But frustration somehow makes me wants to play my way out of the slump; which never works. I need to just get awat from chess and do something totally different.

Originally posted by MIODude
How do you turn it around?? This week I have given pieces away for free on too many games even to remember .. I'm suddenly losing constantly due to stupidity on my part!.. Is there such thing as a mental slump in chess??