Am I the only person who is goes through incredible hot, then cold spells in my games? Seems like I'll go for a time when all my games are wins and I think that I have really stepped it up. Then the inevitable cold spell hits and I seem to lose all my games and I feel like an absolute patzer. Is this a common occurence on the chess board just like in active sports?
Happens to me a lot. Just check out my graph. If Russ would extend it for more than 300 games, you would be shocked. Anyway, thats why the people who draaaaag their games out against me tend to win. Eventually I hit a cold spell and blow 3 months worth of effort right out of the water.
Originally posted by jovy1097 Am I the only person who is goes through incredible hot, then cold spells in my games? Seems like I'll go for a time when all my games are wins and I think that I have really stepped it up. Then the inevitable cold spell hits and I seem to lose all my games and I feel like an absolute patzer. Is this a common occurence on the chess board just like in active sports?
Most graphs look like roller coaster tracks. Those that don't sometimes raise suspicions.
Games normally come in pairs against the same opponent (Tournament, clan challenge, and clan league games) if you move in both games at once I think it tends to have a stabilizing effect on your rating. The tendency is to put off games that have become difficult, and to play faster in games which are easier. This means that you tend to start accumulating losses. Attempting to keep pairs of games in sync helps to offset this effect. I try to do this and my rating is relatively stable, in that it normally varies by less than 100 points (ie 1775 +/- 50), whereas a lot of players have a far greater variation in their rating.
Although I agree that your form varies of itself as well, this is going to be more relevant to OTB games where you finish the game on the same day. In correspondence games you'd actually expect the game to be spread over that kind of fluctuation anyway so it should average out. I think the antidote is to realise you're in blunder mode and stop moving for the day.
Originally posted by jovy1097 Am I the only person who is goes through incredible hot, then cold spells in my games? Seems like I'll go for a time when all my games are wins and I think that I have really stepped it up. Then the inevitable cold spell hits and I seem to lose all my games and I feel like an absolute patzer. Is this a common occurence on the chess board just like in active sports?
Past couple days I've lost a series of games mostly due to stupid blunders. Once I lost the first 2 my play steadily grew worse and the blunders started to become more absurd. I went from almost getting to 1400 to dropping below 1300 in a matter of 24 hours.
After a good night's rest I'm hoping this cold streak is done with for now. 🙂
It seems like hot streaks (not just in chess) end whenever I stop to realize how well I'm doing, which usually leads to over analyzing the situation and making stupid mistakes.
I seem to have hit a form slump in only one particular opening .. the Sicilian. The rest of my game seems fine but I just can't win a Sicilian to save myself at the moment .. anyone else find they lose form in one particular opening? .. maybe its punishment for giving up the dragon 😉
For me, whenever I hit a "cold streak" I make sure to move extra slowly, that way I make less moves during my cold streak and more moves during my hot streak. 🙂
I am on fire as we speak! At the start of the new year I started reading "winning chess tactics" and boy has it been paying off. alsoo last year I started to play the english and sicilian exclusivly, and that has inflated my ratings a bit. Most players down here are e4-e5 players and I think that c4 and f4 throw then off. I have played the openings enough that I get to positions that I am more familer with that my opponents.
Originally posted by idioms I seem to have hit a form slump in only one particular opening .. the Sicilian. The rest of my game seems fine but I just can't win a Sicilian to save myself at the moment .. anyone else find they lose form in one particular opening? .. maybe its punishment for giving up the dragon 😉
I think you are right on that one... 😉 but yes, i have experienced problems with my opening repitoire as black against 1.d4 when I deviated from the QID which is what I was used to.
12 Feb '07 14:29
Hot & Cold Streaks
Back to Top