How do people who play long games do it?

It drives me nuts to even look at my horrible position. You know your position is really bad, but you continue to play anyhow. How can you do that? I'd go crazy or have a heart attack.

Originally posted by Eladar
It drives me nuts to even look at my horrible position. You know your position is really bad, but you continue to play anyhow. How can you do that? I'd go crazy or have a heart attack.

I usually play people roughly(!) my own level, so I know that if I am capable of blundering away a piece, so is my opponent. All I have to do is wait until he makes a mistake as well, and then hope to be awake enough to pounce on it. That attitude won me a game recently.

Richard

Newton`s first law of motion is something like...a chess player in motion continues playing.

Originally posted by Eladar
It drives me nuts to even look at my horrible position. You know your position is really bad, but you continue to play anyhow. How can you do that? I'd go crazy or have a heart attack.

This was a good idea for a thread!

Here is one of the last games I lost. My play is terrible, but there was a sliver of hope (open H file) in the end which I managed to completely blunder away. In fact: I would have resigned after the first huge blunder had I had not played Sever before and known his endgame play was a bit lacking.

So: The reason I kept playing is because I had experience playing my opponent.

Game 7559467

Simple tactics.

His g6 was not very good the Queen is holding a pinned Knight.
All attention should have been switched to putting the squeeze on.



You spotted the strength of Nd5 but jumped in straight away.



This lost the e-pawn to a check and a piece went. (Check all Checks).

Just with a wee bit of thought....



Also this line was worth considering.
Not as good but showing it to show you the tactics these postions hide.

Again the theme is Nd5 without allowing a check.

I have a curent game that is totally won but my opponent doesn't seem to be able to click resign. Check it out, it's so convincing it's actually quite funny that they're still playing! 🙄🙄🙄

Depends if you enjoy trying to find tactics in lost positions or not?

Originally posted by Eladar
It drives me nuts to even look at my horrible position. You know your position is really bad, but you continue to play anyhow. How can you do that? I'd go crazy or have a heart attack.

I like long games because it gives you time to think and therefore less opportunity to create a horrible position. You get to come up with tricky plans, you get time to make what you think is the best possible moves, you get to make damn sure you don't blunder.

Blitz you just wiggle your pieces around until someone stumbles on some combo, or maybe a nice 2-move tactic.


There is a 600 point rating difference between my long and blitz games. This obviously indicates that blitz is somehow deficient 😉

I'll resign if I'm down 3 pawns or a piece with no compensation. I have no issue with people who never resign though. Admirable in a way, personally I just don't have the patience for such play.

On this site though I feel bad for the non-subscribers who fight till the bitter end... Once I'm up 2 pawns or more I'll start playing very safely. I'll repeat positions and generally take as much time as I have to in order to win while avoiding complications. That way I can concentrate more on my games in progress that matter.

I have a game going against a non-subscriber right now where I'm up a piece and 5 pawns and the guy's not resigning. The controls are 3/7 so I'm only moving every 3 days... And I have so little interest in the game most of my moves are just unnecessary checks so that I can go on to my next game with confidence!

Originally posted by Eladar
It drives me nuts to even look at my horrible position. You know your position is really bad, but you continue to play anyhow. How can you do that? I'd go crazy or have a heart attack.

You have to fight, and learn to love a struggle.
Chess is a struggle, and you will not always have the better position.
Just play on and fight.

I resign early in CC and late in OTB.

Originally posted by Eladar
It drives me nuts to even look at my horrible position. You know your position is really bad, but you continue to play anyhow. How can you do that? I'd go crazy or have a heart attack.

I think you're confusing two issues. One is playing in a bad position. The other is playing long games or playing time-consuming games. Unless, that is, you find that you get into bad positions so often that you prefer to play quickly, end that game, and start another one.

I suggest that by spending more time on the game, you will get into bad positions less often. If you get into a truly hopeless position, or one which saps your morale so badly that you would rather lose than play on, there is always resignation.

Chess can be approached as an exercise in puzzle solving. Spending time analyzing a position, playing with it and through it, can yield rewards by giving you better positions more of the time. It can also build mental stamina and improve your game skills. You might also try looking at the game more impersonally. Taking a philosophical approach won't ease the disappointment of poor play, and I don't advocate a lackadaisical attitude toward winning; but you can let failure motivate you and not regard every mistake as proof of your inferiority.

Are you responding negatively to the stress of trying to figure out what's going on and play a good move, or are you actually talking about the stress of playing from bad positions? If the former rather than the latter, you may want to try a different game since chess requires constant effort and decisions. If that wracks your nerves intolerably, instead of being a challenge that you enjoy more often than not, then why not try something else? Painting, or creative writing, or crosswords or sudoku: something noncompetitive.