From Nigel Short's recent interview with chessbase folks...
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1. Never play when you are tired. Do not even think of it before you have had your shower, breakfast and coffee. Make sure your brain is fully booted before you log on the server.
2. Avoid playing against high-rated opponents who only have a pawn ranking. Some of them might be cheating with computers. And although they will be caught and punished by the server in the end, you stand to lose some unnecessary rating points against them.
3. If you lose a game to an obviously inferior player, do not immediately rechallenge him. Do not be led by a determination to punish him, teach him a lesson he will never forget, kill the patzer, rip off appendages, or anything along those lines. Take a deep breath, chat with someone for a while, resume play when you are absolutely sure you have calmed down.
4. Never play after you have drunk more than two glasses of red wine. Some people can do it, assume you are not one of them. You don't want to lost rating points with a silly grin on your face.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1597
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#3 is particularly appropriate. Why that little twit! I'll sacrifice all my pieces and mate him in 12 moves! is a thought that surely preceeds a horrible loss.
on #2, that is not necessarily true, sometimes people with a high provisional ratings are just good at chess, and because there rating is so low online, they get lower rated apponents, and crush them. Just because they have a high provisional rating does not necessarily mean they are cheating. What about a GMs first 20 games at this site??
I don't understand what a pawn rating is. #3 applied to me, but I wasn't mad at my opponent, who had done nothing wrong, just spotted my blunder and mated me next move, but plenty mad at myself. I immediately re-challenged, and *surprise*, blundered yet again. I ended up winning, but it could have easily gone the other way.
Originally posted by KneverKnighta pawn rating is a system used by chessbase at their playing site, playchess.com. Players are sorted not only by rating points, but also by rank (pawn up to king). These ranks are a combination of rating points, # of games played, and in the case of VIP's...Titles.
I don't understand what a pawn rating is. #3 applied to me, but I wasn't mad at my opponent, who had done nothing wrong, just spotted my blunder and mated me next move, but plenty mad at myself. I immediately re-challenged, and *surp ...[text shortened]... . I ended up winning, but it could have easily gone the other way.
Originally posted by BLReidHmm Maybe I should get out more ... OK, so "pawns" are generally newbies, thanks
a pawn rating is a system used by chessbase at their playing site, playchess.com. Players are sorted not only by rating points, but also by rank (pawn up to king). These ranks are a combination of rating points, # of games played, and in the case of VIP's...Titles.
It is generally a good idea never to play the person. I once drew someone in a tournment who in an earlier tournement had timed me out without me playing a single move (it was a 1 day timeout with no timebank, and I was away overnight).
I was so delighted that I was going to get my "revenge", that I promptly played some of the worst chess of my life, and was thrashed in both games. During the games, I struck up a conversation and discovered that he was actually a very nice guy - but by that time my positions were lost.
So it's better to play the board, not the person. Who we play against should not distract us from finding the best possible moves.