Originally posted by buckkyUtter nonsense!Throughout my life,I often took breaks from chess for 2-3 months.When I then returned to the board,I played a lot worse.In rating,we're talking 100 to even 200 points!Not only do I forget some opening traps,common tactics to look for in particular lines,endgame tricks,etc...I simply don't play as smooth as before.As in the title,I play 'rusty'.In chess,one can definately speak of being in or out of shape.
Is it true that you never loose what you had in chess not matter how long you have been away from it? I've read that it's a level of understanding, not a matter of staying in shape so to speak.
Sir Lot.
Originally posted by buddy2I'm in a similar postion to Buddy2. I last played in an OTB tournament in 1966 and then didn't play even semi-seriously until January of this year when I joined RHP. In some ways, I'm probably stronger than I was then. Age is not all bad. 🙂 I'm more disciplined, for example. I've tried to keep an even pace in my games and see if I can catch more of the stupid things before I do them. In other ways, I'm still scraping the rust off. My visualization skills, for example, are still much weaker than they were formerly and I'm still working on my opening repertoire.
I didn't play chess for twenty years. When I returned to tournament play after retiring, I found my rating had improved some 300 points. If I stop playing for another twenty years I figure I can come back as a master!
So overall, I think I agree more with Sir Lot and kingisdead than with Buddy2 that you DO get rusty. What you lose can mostly come back reasonably quickly, but not instantly for everything.
Best Regards,
Paul
It's a topical post. When I joined RHP in Feb I had played only a handful of times in 24 years since high school. But I had a good winning steak from the word go.
You cannot discount some rustiness, and some marginal improvement after resuming after a long break, but I find it incredible how some players on RHP arrive here, play very poorly for a month or two with a rating that barely scrapes above 1200, and then suddenly overnight they go from crap to virtual grandmaster. Not too plausible, IMHO.
Originally posted by GatecrasherLooking at Gatecrasher's rating graph and mine, it seems clear enough that we both did have significant phases of rustiness followed by an obvious rise. I don't think we are, either of us, talking about barely scraping 1200 and then overnight rising to "virtual grandmaster". Gatecrasher may be somewhat better than me overall, but I don't think the pattern of our graphs is so terribly divergent, nor is either of our patterns indicative of a cheater. It looks to me like we both had some rust to shake off.
You cannot discount some rustiness, and some marginal improvement after resuming after a long break, but I find it incredible how some players on RHP arrive here, play very poorly for a month or two with a rating that barely scrapes above 1200, and then suddenly overnight they go from crap to virtual grandmaster. Not too plausible, IMHO.
Best Regards,
Paul
I played a ton of games during the very beginning period of this year and was studying quite a lot. Often I was frustrated at not "seeing" certain aspects of the game as clearly as I thought I should.
After becoming gainfully employed I dropped down to virtually no games for several months and have just recently picked up a few. It feels as though the knowledge gained from all of the studying and solving combinations and mates "fermented" during those months and I see more clearly now.
Or maybe it's the crack.