I've been playing OTB chess at least once a week for the last two years or so (after taking a three-year break from chess as I worked on the road), and I've been playing online since Feb. In the time since I've been playing online, my OTB performance seems to be more blunder-prone. I think I'm having trouble visualizing... I've actually started setting up interesting positions I encounter online on a real chessboard to maintain my eye for the game in three dimensions.
Anyone else encounter this or is it just me? 😕
Originally posted by DeepGreenePlaying here benefits you're otb game:
I've been playing OTB chess at least once a week for the last two years or so (after taking a three-year break from chess as I worked on the road), and I've been playing online since Feb. In the time since I've been playing online, my OTB performance seems to be more blunder-prone. I think I'm having trouble visualizing... I've actually started setting ...[text shortened]... my eye for the game in three dimensions.
Anyone else encounter this or is it just me? 😕
Opportunity to study openings as you're playing them.
Real opponents
Shared ideas in the forum
Easy to analyze games after you've played them
Playing more games
Setting up some of you're positions on a real board is a good. Why not play a game through like this. Put a lot of work into it and keep it set up on a board. If you come back to a position and study it three of four times before you make a move it'll improve you're play. After playing your candidate move on your board walk round the other side and think what your opponent might do - check all responses and try to find fault with your original move...and this should cut down the blunders.
Some time on the chess tactics server will help too - http://chess.emrald.net/ and a good tip for this I got from wormwood is to ignore the time it takes to play even though you lose ratings point for a correct solution done slowly - and aim for high accuracy. There is a success percentage shown in the stats. Ignore the rating points and see how high you can get this success percentage.
Other than that it's worth bearing in mind that blunders often come in pairs so instead of being crushed after you make one just keep on the look out for your opponents lapses.
Any playing should help certain skills, but I do find that spending too much time on a 2D board (typical of online play) does adversely impact board vision. I have remedied that to some extent by using a 3d board on playchess.com, but web-based chess on sites such as this one do not have such an option.
Originally posted by DeepGreeneI have started using the "New Dimension Raised" RHP set to combat this problem - at least it looks more like a 3D set...
I've been playing OTB chess at least once a week for the last two years or so (after taking a three-year break from chess as I worked on the road), and I've been playing online since Feb. In the time since I've been playing online, my OTB performance seems to be more blunder-prone. I think I'm having trouble visualizing... I've actually started setting ...[text shortened]... my eye for the game in three dimensions.
Anyone else encounter this or is it just me? 😕
I believe that if you wish to treat your RHP games as practice for OTB the only way to do so is to use the same "muscles" as you would OTB. That means ditching the analyse board in favour of mental visualisation.
Whilst it is true that correspondence chess gives you a practical reason to immerse yourself in opening theory at the same time as playing it, it can make you lazy minded so that you find yourself at sea when there is no book alongside you at the OTB match. Maybe it is better to check the books after the game as you would OTB. Trying to solve the opening problems "live" might give you a better feel for what is going on in the position before you consult the database and I think you are more likely to remember the lines. Yermolinsky hints at this in his Road to Chess Improvement.
One of things about mistakes is trying to remember what was going on in your head immediately before making the move. In a recent county match I missed winning with a mate in two featuring a rook sacrifice that I would normally expect myself to see. The reason...for some moves my opponent could threaten a back rank mate and the rook was stopping that...for so many moves I had told myself that my rook mustn't move - that when the time came to move it the fixed mindset prevented me seeing it. In a recent RHP game I was winning I allowed a mate in one because I was rushing and actually thinking about something else, and had forgotten my warning to myself the previous move!! These nuances don't come up in tactics puzzles!
The health warning on all this is that the RHP rating may well drop whilst you regain your OTB vision, and it requires a certain strength of mind to avoid using the analyse board etc, but at least there is no clock ticking and you can always delay your reply as Mahout says above.
In the end you have to decide how you wish to play your RHP games and what you want from them, and even that may change over time. Good Luck...
Yes, using 2D boards also hurts my visualization. Moreover, the boards here are so much smaller (on my 13.3 in Macbook screen) and my whole board thinking isn't as good on a normal board. However, I have almost always played on a 2D board so I hope this is just as much a matter of getting used to a 3D board. I hope this is something that will disappear as I progress.
Originally posted by DeepGreeneMy sole purpose in being here is to improve my OTB play so I hope you are wrong.
I've been playing OTB chess at least once a week for the last two years or so (after taking a three-year break from chess as I worked on the road), and I've been playing online since Feb. In the time since I've been playing online, my OTB performance seems to be more blunder-prone. I think I'm having trouble visualizing... I've actually started setting ...[text shortened]... my eye for the game in three dimensions.
Anyone else encounter this or is it just me? 😕
At the moment the evidence points to this as my main objective is to improve my opening play and let the rest follow and that seems to have happened with a few good wins and many more improved positions in the openings in my OTB play.
It is difficult to tell if my tactical visualisation is suffering in the middle game but its a valid point as I did screw up some middle game tactics badly last year OTB.
Originally posted by DeepGreeneNope.
I've been playing OTB chess at least once a week for the last two years or so (after taking a three-year break from chess as I worked on the road), and I've been playing online since Feb. In the time since I've been playing online, my OTB performance seems to be more blunder-prone. I think I'm having trouble visualizing... I've actually started setting ...[text shortened]... my eye for the game in three dimensions.
Anyone else encounter this or is it just me? 😕
I agree that the 2D and analyse board part might hurt OTB play
but
opening training, creating plans, thinking on different positions = spending TIME on playing CHESS will for sure bring more benefit to your OTB level in time, more than the decrement caused by the disadvantages of RHP play...
(for me the biggest problem is that I am trying here not to play without a plan, but in OTB I have less time for creating a plan...and sometimes I use time for deep plans that proved to have flaws-tactical flaws...OTB sometimes it is just better to make a 2 move plan and use the time to fully blunder check it)
This is what I feel...
Originally posted by DeepGreeneI found that playing here helped me otb as my openings improved. However, playing quicker games on yahoo, not blitz, I play 15/11 (that's 15 mins plus 11 secs a move, which is probably the equivelant to a 25-30 min game) which seems to hurt my standard time games. I am now cutting down on these and playing slightly longer games as well as playing some otb friendlies with guys from my chess club instead. I think the yahoo experience tends to lead to me moving too quickly sometimes and there may be a problem of reading a 2d board better than 3d as well, but I'm not sure about that.
I've been playing OTB chess at least once a week for the last two years or so (after taking a three-year break from chess as I worked on the road), and I've been playing online since Feb. In the time since I've been playing online, my OTB performance seems to be more blunder-prone. I think I'm having trouble visualizing... I've actually started setting ...[text shortened]... my eye for the game in three dimensions.
Anyone else encounter this or is it just me? 😕
Originally posted by DeepGreeneIt seems that you have raised two key issues: the crutch of resources we use in online play that are not accessible for OTB, and the difficulty of translating between 2D and 3D.
I've been playing OTB chess at least once a week for the last two years or so (after taking a three-year break from chess as I worked on the road), and I've been playing online since Feb. In the time since I've been playing online, my OTB performance seems to be more blunder-prone. I think I'm having trouble visualizing... I've actually started setting ...[text shortened]... my eye for the game in three dimensions.
Anyone else encounter this or is it just me? 😕
I think that it is necessary to train the skills you want. If you see that you wish for an analysis board during OTB, you need to train with problems that do not let you move the pieces. If you compensate through training for the bad habit you are picking up online, the other aspects of online play will help you in time.
I vaguely recall a time when positions in books and positions at the board looked differently to me. Likewise with computer screens. After more than thirty years of reading chess books, and thousands on online games, as well as many hundreds of OTB rated games, all boards look the same. Give it time.
Originally posted by DeepGreeneI would say that online chess have improved my game.
I've been playing OTB chess at least once a week for the last two years or so (after taking a three-year break from chess as I worked on the road), and I've been playing online since Feb. In the time since I've been playing online, my OTB performance seems to be more blunder-prone. I think I'm having trouble visualizing... I've actually started setting ...[text shortened]... my eye for the game in three dimensions.
Anyone else encounter this or is it just me? 😕
Maybe it depends on how you approach it. I’ve always considered myself a CC player. In my postal games I never played more than 6-12 games at a time and analysis meant shifting pieces around. As a result of doing this for years and years, it gradually got to where I could only see one move ahead. Of course it hurt my OTB results. When I realized I wasn’t going to qualify for the US Championship, I decided to stick to CC where a bad memory and lack of visualization skills don’t matter.😀
This is the way not to play an 1800 rated OTB if your own rating is around 1500:
[Event "Club Championship"]
[Site "Crawley Chess Club"]
[Date "18.10.2007"]
[White "S. Gutta"]
[Black "S. Collyer"]
[Time Control 42 in 90]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C44"]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.Nxe5 O-O 6.Nxc6 dxc6
7.d3 Bxf2+ 8.Kxf2 Ng4+ 9.Kg3 Qd6+ 10.Bf4 Qg6 11.Qd2 Ne3+
12.Kf3 Qg4+ 13.Kxe3 g5 14.Bg3 f5 15.Be2 f4+ 16.Kf2 fxg3+
17.Kg1 gxh2+ 18.Rxh2 Qg3 19.Rf1 Rxf1+ 20.Bxf1 Be6 21.Ne2 Qe5
22.Rh5 h6 23.Rxh6 Kg7 24.Rh2 Rf8 25.Qc3 Qxc3 26.Nxc3
1-0
All the checks but unfortunately my B sac on move 7 & subsequent attack quickly ran out of oomph.
What made it worse was the strongest player at the club came along to look at the post-game analysis & said that I still had a very strong position after
9...f5
10.h3...f4+
You really need the "analyse board" function in your head especially if you're not a tactical genius OTB...
I think the lesson for me is to hold back my natural instinct to sac material & get involved in incredibly complex tactical exchanges.
In summary I think that some of the features of CC play can potentially damage your OTB play. I'm thinking of managed gameloads/time controls, database reliance & being able to take your time with tactics & the analyse board function.
You can get too confident in your ability to work everything out in positions OTB similar to those in your CC games but alas, OTB is a different game!