corespondence chess badly impacting OTB chess

in my first 1-2 years of correspondence chess it somehow helped me a lot to understand some openings ideas, and to get a lot of chess knowledge, it helped me to play slower and it overall improved my chess knowledge...
I am not sure that this is the reason, but it seems that now, after the 3rd year, even I am greatly improving in correspondence chess, I am getting new problems in OTB chess...like getting dependent on theory on openings, not trying wild things, getting into time trouble OTB(I just lost a game because of this)...
Have you experienced similar things?

Originally posted by vipiu
in my first 1-2 years of correspondence chess it somehow helped me a lot to understand some openings ideas, and to get a lot of chess knowledge, it helped me to play slower and it overall improved my chess knowledge...
I am not sure that this is the reason, but it seems that now, after the 3rd year, even I am greatly improving in correspondence chess, I am ge ...[text shortened]... to time trouble OTB(I just lost a game because of this)...
Have you experienced similar things?

Yes. I almost always get into time trouble OTB after having played so much correspondence.

Yep, I noticed this. Once I started using opening books and the 'analyze board' feature, I noticed my calculation badly suffered and I was insecure in my openings, because when playing CC you don't have to prepare openings in advance.

Now I use this site as OTB practice, I never use the analyze board feature and don't use opening books or database. I feel that if I don't do this, my OTB play suffers greatly.

Originally posted by Gatusso
Yep, I noticed this. Once I started using opening books and the 'analyze board' feature, I noticed my calculation badly suffered and I was insecure in my openings, because when playing CC you don't have to prepare openings in advance.

Now I use this site as OTB practice, I never use the analyze board feature and don't use opening books or database. I feel that if I don't do this, my OTB play suffers greatly.

All true.

Originally posted by Gatusso
Yep, I noticed this. Once I started using opening books and the 'analyze board' feature, I noticed my calculation badly suffered and I was insecure in my openings, because when playing CC you don't have to prepare openings in advance.

Now I use this site as OTB practice, I never use the analyze board feature and don't use opening books or database. I feel that if I don't do this, my OTB play suffers greatly.

I've gone down the same path as you Gatusso, and I don't even play OTB very often, in fact very rarely! I want to be able to play well OTB as that is what I see as 'proper' chess so I changed my approach here. I used to religiously use chesslive.de, analyse board + chessops for opening hints and tips. Now I will use opening help every now and again, mainly for openings I've not seen before, analyse board very rarely and I never go near databases anymore [except one pair of games where I knew my opponent was going to use a DB and they were 'must win' games 🙂].

It all depends on what you want to get out of playing correspondance chess I suppose.

Originally posted by Gatusso
Yep, I noticed this. Once I started using opening books and the 'analyze board' feature, I noticed my calculation badly suffered and I was insecure in my openings, because when playing CC you don't have to prepare openings in advance.

Now I use this site as OTB practice, I never use the analyze board feature and don't use opening books or database. I feel that if I don't do this, my OTB play suffers greatly.

I don't use the analyze board feature not at all here. I use my normal board at home to analyze positions which keep my brain "alive"!!!

In a away you have to prepare your openings in advance because if you play a certain line in an opening which leaves you with no advantage at all why would you play that opening!!!!

Originally posted by vipiu
in my first 1-2 years of correspondence chess it somehow helped me a lot to understand some openings ideas, and to get a lot of chess knowledge, it helped me to play slower and it overall improved my chess knowledge...
I am not sure that this is the reason, but it seems that now, after the 3rd year, even I am greatly improving in correspondence chess, I am ge ...[text shortened]... to time trouble OTB(I just lost a game because of this)...
Have you experienced similar things?

I had the same problem for years. My OTB grade stagnated between 100-105 Bcf for three years, even though my grade here steadily improved. The only remedy i can suggest is playing more OTB games. Last summer sicillian smaug and i played day long otb games at weekends and it really improved both our games. OTB games are different, you need to be more pragmatic than you do in CC as it's not possible to analyse variations to their conclusion.

I found that my CC style was not suited to playing club OTB games. On here i'll go into positions that involve significant complications at times and after playing many many games with the pieces, i eventually realised that i simply couldn't analyse these positions correctly with a clock ticking, doing all the analysis in my head. Now when i see a promising move OTB, i try to establish 'could this lose me the game if i get it wrong?' It is an important question. There are times when it doesn't matter. If you're already behind in material and/or time, then there is a lot of truth in 'drastic times call for drastic measures', but if material is even...or you have a slight advantage, then pragmatism should be the first consideration. I know a lot of players graded 30-40 points higher than me who are really not that spectacular. I can beat them all on my day, the difference is that they draw games that i lose, simply by not being quite so spectacular. This approach put 15 points on my grade last season. 😉

CC has not had a negative impact on my OTB chess at all. More the opposite.

I started playing here because I wanted to practice new openings, and have time/motivation to go through the books I have, exploring different lines. I do use a db, but only by following the moves suggested to see what I think of the position - not blind.
My opening repertoire has gone up, partly because I try actively to play things I don't know, or to follow lines in books and databases.

I play (mostly blitz) on FICS, which keeps me in the habit of thinking quickly, and play standard length games in a club more or less weekly. I guess that regular OTB practice means I am still used to using a clock.

The thing that had most impact on my play, and on my rating, was being overstressed at work, and having no time/energy for chess study - I'd get to the club tired and make a blunder because I was not motivated to think for the extra time about the move.

Maybe if you start with a good idea of the openings, here it is easy to just use a database to help, rather than memory. If you started out with a lot more knowledge, then I can see that CC could have a negative impact.

Originally posted by Marinkatomb
I had the same problem for years. My OTB grade stagnated between 100-105 Bcf for three years, even though my grade here steadily improved. The only remedy i can suggest is playing more OTB games. Last summer sicillian smaug and i played day long otb games at weekends and it really improved both our games. OTB games are different, you need to be more prag ...[text shortened]... not being quite so spectacular. This approach put 15 points on my grade last season. 😉

Have you tried to play the same openings as you would play in OTB chess?

If you are confronted with the same positions in CC games as in OTB chess then that would improve you OTB chess as well.

I still play the same openings as I would play in an OTB tourneys and because of my knowledge from the CC games I have no problems to find the right plans, tactics or the right choice of which line to play.

When my game load is large here, and I have been away from OTB for several months, over reliance on the analysis board here can induce a certain weakness that affects OTB play. In my experience, this difficulty goes away quickly after one or two games.

Work out the lines before you open the analysis board, and it may help mitigate the problem.

Play OTB every week, even if it is only a casual game in pub.

RHP done right will make you stronger OTB.

yup set em up over the board and grind em out in your head. Databases will kill your rating!!!