Quality over Quantity

Greetings players and fellow patzers.

I'd like to raise a discussion between
the number of concurrent chess games played at once VS. concentration levels

I understand this discussion may be old news to many here,
but I find it interesting to ponder over non-the-less and would just like to see a collective view from various members.

In business, it is understood that if an entity was to focus all of their resources on one operation, they are likely to perform well...
whereas if their resources are spread more thinly, there may be areas where performance becomes weak.
Chess can be considered the same.

I have recently noticed one player here on RHP with 36 games in progress.
Virtually every single game is being played as white.
On brief scanning, there appears to be many games where black is winning.

My thoughts are:
If this person was to play considerably less games at once,
they would improve their chances of winning per game... going on the 'resource spreading' thesis as stated.
(assuming of course that no unfair advantage is currently being obtained via a 3rd party or engine)

My questions are:
How many of you agree with this, and to what extent?
And, for concurrent chess, how many games do you personally feel most comfortable with playing at once? More than 6? One or two?

Please explain your answers (10 marks)

😀

The only reason I play more than one game at a time, is because I get impatient waiting for the opponent to respond. Sometimes, you just want to be engrossed in a good game. Multiple games allows you to get your juices flowing, thinking about positins, etc. If people were more quick to move, I'd be playing less chess games at once.

However, as a result, I do make utterly idiotic mistakes, that I would never, ever make if I was just focussing on one game at a time.

Same. I think that if I were to try to play my best, I would have 1 game going at once, but when I want more moves, my games shoot up toward 20 and my rating crashes. I'd say 7 or 8 is about right for me.

I play 30 at once, I'd like to play a lot fewer, and my rating would undoubtedly increase,but I use this site's for otb practice, and am not interested in my rating as anything other than as a gauge of whether I am improving. The reasons I play so many are a) I don't want to log on and have nothing to do. b) More games, more experience of different responses to my otb openings.

I do try and move against people whilst they are online in the hopes of getting through a chunk of game in one go.

I keep over 300 going and do okay.

The reason for some of the most incredible blunders on here are
simply down to game load. I've never seen blunders like them OTB.

However even with one game going you can get caught in a non-chess mood.
It's impoosible to maintain your board concentration over days.

I've often logged on and seen games waiting and the last thing I want to do is
look at them. There is such a a thing as being 'chessed out'.
Hopefully I can recall what I was planning. If not then I do drift.

Without taking away anything from my opponent here I recall logging on
and I jumping about from plan to plan. (and that was before it went into an ending.) 🙂

I missed a good shot for him. His move 18.Nc4 and the idea of giving up
the exchange and that was after catching him an opening trick.

There is a thread on here about your best game.
Again I must stress I am not taking anything away from my opponent
but this is one of worse. I am all over the place.

I second GP's post. I currently have an opponent who set the time limit for a move to 14 days...with 7 days of time bank. I should've checked his settings before clicking "accept game". There've been at least two occassions where I completely forgot I was even playing him. Developing a strategy is difficult, when you forgot what you were even planning, because so much time has gone by.

If he was my only opponent, I'd be "chessed out" as well, constantly logging on with no game to play, just staring at the same board over and over again until he makes a move.

I think 30 games is quite reasonable. There are a number of factors to consider, most importantly, what time controls are we talking about? 30 games with 21 days per move is 30 a month (pretty much) where as 30 games with 1 day per move is considerably more taxing. The issue is time per move. I play 50 odd games at 7+ days per move. That's 50 moves per week. Even on a busy week, that's easy to fit in..

Originally posted by caissad4
I keep over 300 going and do okay.

...at 21 day per move time controls.

Originally posted by HikaruShindo
Same. I think that if I were to try to play my best, I would have 1 game going at once, but when I want more moves, my games shoot up toward 20 and my rating crashes. I'd say 7 or 8 is about right for me.

I don't think playing one game at a time would necessarily help. It's got a lot to do with experience. Caissa plays 300 games at a time and does well, but i'm sure it wasn't always like that. Her mental capacity to remember what she's doing in all these games increases with practice (like anythinhg). I can sit on the bus and recall all my games that are in progress. This is something i couldn't do 5 years ago, it is something that has developed over the years as a direct result of spending so many hours looking at positions over and over before i move.

I think the trick with correspondence is to use the time you have available wisely. If you have a clear tactic, or you're in the middle of a combination, go ahead and play your move. No problem. But if you are even slightly unsure if the move you are considering is correct, close the game and come back to it later. I can think of countless examples of times when i've analysed a position for ages, but haven't moved, only to come back to it later and find a really strong move that i'd not even considered the first time round (or even the second or third time). The issue isn't game load, it's time management and how much you really consider all the options that are available.

I think once a player has a few years of chess under their belt, their brain actually changes as a result. Chess is like a language. When you have a crazy dream in your sleep, you can wake up with all this stuff that's happened. It has people, conversations, places, all sorts of stuff that your subconscious decides to weave into some elaborate story. Well i think the brain can dream in chess too. If you spend a couple of days mulling over a position, considering this move or that, eventually your brain starts to get a real feel for it, to the point where the correct move eventually just jumps out and is obvious. I have had a couple of occasions where i've been doing something completely unrelated to chess, only to suddenly have a eureka moment with regards to a game i'm playing. It feels like i have fritz doing some analysis on my task bar while i'm picking my nose and suddenly it finishes and pops up with it's evaluation. That sort of thing is beyond explanation..

I have substantial time available in my day now that I am retired, but I don't plan on having more than three going at any time, unless maybe a couple are down to straightforward end games that are easy to analyze.

Originally posted by Marinkatomb
...at 21 day per move time controls.

Correct. 🙂

Originally posted by vivify
I second GP's post. I currently have an opponent who set the time limit for a move to 14 days...with 7 days of time bank. I should've checked his settings before clicking "accept game". There've been at least two occassions where I completely forgot I was even playing him. Developing a strategy is difficult, when you forgot what you were even planning, b game to play, just staring at the same board over and over again until he makes a move.

That is why I started posting on the Spirituality Forum so I would always have someting to do. I don't like a large game load. I also bought correspondence chessboards with pieces made out of cardboard, I guess. I also use sticky notes to record my planned moves and attach to the back of the chessboard for each game so I don't forget and make the wrong move, like I did once because of the long delay.

Originally posted by caissad4
I keep over 300 going and do okay.

I have played caissad4 four times, -3=1, yes kids I know its unbelievable a player of
my immense creativity should suffer this indignation, although I think at least one of
the losses was a time out. The draw was particularly aesthetically pleasing, after
having lost as white, I threw caution to the wind and my pawns at her king-side, but it
was to no avail and I was lucky to escape with trousers intact 😛

caissad4 v robbie carrobie


isn't that quite pretty 🙂

I usually have 30 games going on simultaneously. I make tactical blunders more often than I should, especially when I try to play on my phone (terrible idea).

This recent game is particularly hilarious. I dropped a pawn in such a ridiculous fashion that my only option was to resign out of shame:



Keeping track of plans used to be a problem until I started using RHP's built-in notes system (no need for post-it notes on actual chessboards or anything eccentric like that). Whenever I'm a few moves into a new game, I take the time to write a few bullet points answering these three questions:

- What opening book or game am I using as a reference?
- What are the plans for each side?
- Is there any particular feature of the position that I should always keep in mind?

I never forgot my plans after that. Still blunder quite a bit, though. :p

Take a look at this spectacular sacrifice: