Hi all.
I've come to the realisation that a lot, if not all of my losses are down to a problem of concentration.
When i first arrived at this site i was taken by a desire to complete as many games as possible, as quickly as possible. This was partly due to blitz-ish tendancies and also down to a desire to loose the 'p' rating.
As time has gone by, i have lost a few games and realized that correspondence requires a much greater amount of time and thought than blitz. As time has gone by my consentration has improved a little. I often look my games over two or three times before i decide on a plan, often putting 10 or 15 minutes thought into a single move.
However, i have realised that this is not enouph. Some days i will sit and go through the same proccess as i just described, but will still make poor moves. I have decided that this is often down to poor mental preperation. It is with this in mind that i'd like to ask you all if you have a process of mental preperation before you start to play?
The only advice I can give, unless you do something drastic like deliberately blunder a peice, is it takes more then one mistake to lose a game. It's this line of thought that has helped me stick in tough in games where I normally resign. Like one game I was biatching at myself because I lost a pawn in the middle-endgame in a game that I was clearly winning until then, then I missed a pawn fork. At this point, it was late at night, and dicided to tackle it the next morning, try to get a draw. Not only did I get the pawn back, I won the endgame with a back rank mating tactics that my opponent had trouble stoping. He eventually lost a rook, and resigned!
My next game, I did a mistake of accepting a sacrefice that I probably shouldn't of. My king was under fire up until move 50, I moved my king like 15 times, he was chased everywhere. In the end, I hanged tough and lost a 3 pawn vs 3 pawn K&P endgame. I nearly managed to salvage this somehow, the loss was heart breaking, but I gave myself a chance. . .
To quote Patrick Wolf on one of my chess vedios titled Defense and Counter-Attack, "Remember, most chess games, even grandmaster games, are lost, not won. Often games are dicided because of a mistake rather then a brilliant move, and often times, it takes several of these mistakes, until the game is hopeless."
He then goes on the descripe an out of the box chess thinking. Wolff states that if you get inferior positions, you must meet your opponents threats, and look for the possibilities that his/her move may be a mistake, rather then a brilliant move. After a move, instead of asking, "why is this move good?", you should be asking, "why is this move bad, how could it be bad"? This helps a bit.
Originally posted by paultopiaI would have to agree with Paultopia. It is likely to be true that a number of mistakes would cause you to lose a game with lower rated players, but for very high rated players, one mistake could cause your opponent to capitalise on that mistake and win the game.
eh... not so sure about that...
Originally posted by lauseyNot true, that's the impression we get because most games published by masters are the brilliant ones, and only our best games, we like to brag about with our friends. There are countless examples of games, even at the GM level, were one side made a mistake, hanged tough, found a few good moves, or a little help from his opponent, and went on to draw or even win. One LITTLE mistake is not an entire game.
I would have to agree with Paultopia. It is likely to be true that a number of mistakes would cause you to lose a game with lower rated players, but for very high rated players, one mistake could cause your opponent to capitalise on that mistake and win the game.
Originally posted by mateuloseYou are right, to a certain extent. Though i can really on a 'weaker' (or rather lower rated player) making at least a couple of mistakes that i will notice. When playing 1600+ players, these mistakes are generally strategic mistakes, or an oversite in the middle game that looses if you are quick enouph to simplify into a won end game.
Not true, that's the impression we get because most games published by masters are the brilliant ones, and only our best games, we like to brag about with our friends. There are countless examples of games, even at the GM level, were one side made a mistake, hanged tough, found a few good moves, or a little help from his opponent, and went on to draw or even win. One LITTLE mistake is not an entire game.
These mistakes are harder to pick up on and i have noticed that i am sharper at seeing them some days rather than others. I am sure that this has a lot to do with diet, sleep, stress, time pressure, etc....
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Originally posted by marinakatombYou're absolutely right. Some days players are in better mental shape than others, for all the reasons you listed. I think everyone occasionally experiences these problems, causing them to not be able to concentrate properly and therefore play badly. One of the good things about playing correspondence games (compared to OTB) is it's much easier to avoid playing at all, if you feel out of form. So if you notice yourself blundering in one or two games in a session, stop playing for a while, freshen up and come back when you feel a bit better.
These mistakes are harder to pick up on and i have noticed that i am sharper at seeing them some days rather than others. I am sure that this has a lot to do with diet, sleep, stress, time pressure, etc....
Dave
The captain of my university chess team said to me quite early on that the person who wins in chess is the person who makes the next to last mistake. More recently I read a quote from Tanni Grey Thompson, "Don't think about what went wrong, focus on what you must do right". Winning is a state of mind...😵
To quote Patrick Wolf "Remember, most chess games, even grandmaster games, are lost, not won. Often games are dicided because of a mistake rather then a brilliant move, and often times, it takes several of these mistakes, until the game is hopeless."
My "method of concentration" is to stumble downstairs in the morning, have a big bowl of corn flakes while staring bleary-eyed at the monitor for a few seconds before making my move. More often than not, it's the wrong move, but there you are. That's my "method" and I'm sticking to it. Lately, my friends have advocated yoga, but since you can't do the positions while holding a bowl of corn flakes, I have forgone the pleasure. thank you.
Originally posted by mateuloseWhat does "little mistake" mean?
There are countless examples of games, even at the GM level, were one side made a mistake, hanged tough, found a few good moves, or a little help from his opponent, and went on to draw or even win. One LITTLE mistake is not an entire game.
A case in point. I lost a game today against a patzer in a coffeeshop. I outplayed him from move one. His opening stank -- he basically pushed pawns and left his king in the center while I developed pieces. From approximately moves 5-15 I was threatening an immediate forced mate, which he just barely defended. In order to escape the pressure on his king, he castled long, right into a pawn storm. I let loose any number of tactics (admittedly, there were a couple of mistakes in there, but he failed to take advantage of them) and then simplified into an endgame with a rook and two extra pawns versus a knight. Admittedly, his king was well placed, and I had doubled pawns, but I also had an outside passer. Ie. a no-brainer endgame, I had the game in the bag.
I dropped the rook to a one-move knight fork.
I lost.
One mistake = converting an easy win into a total loss.
Now, admittedly, my opponent's MANY (punished) mistakes did not cause him to lose. But my one (punished) mistake did.
I suppose you could say I made two mistakes, in that I didn't take the time to look for the mating combination in the middlegame that was probably there, but that hardly counts.
In the past -and present- what has helped me is to take a look at the board and list out all the possible moves that do not immediately contribute to material loss (instant bad moves). From this list of moves, I play out some of them, not very far to get the measure of the advantages I have and to try to find good combinations. I find this is effective as I can avoid mistakes by considering more moves and even if I think that a move is good if I play it out a little I rethink it and try to see if there is anything that my opponent can do to severely weaken my position.
I find this helps me a lot. ^__^;;;