For the eyes of other sub 1000 rating players.
Do you ever feel you should stop banging your
head against the wall, and face the fact that, despite all your best
efforts you are crap at this chess thing ?
Neagative thoughts by yet another loss today :-(
so far I've won 10 lost 39 drawn zilch
Could Do Better !!!
I went to a local chess club with about 6 guys that attended regularly. I had just started playing chess and was really bad. I went every week for over a year before I won a game but i was determined to not give up. Suddenly things were making more sense and I started winning more and more and now I'm one of the stronger players in the club.
Don't give up. Just study your games and try to learn from your mistakes. You don't have to analyze the whole game either. I just looked at the position where I made a blunder or felt that the game had turned in his favor and tried to see where I messed up and what I could have done better from that position.
Bryan
Originally posted by ChessNutIn my first year of league chess I lost the first seven games straight, then drew one then actually won one.
I went to a local chess club with about 6 guys that attended regularly. I had just started playing chess and was really bad. I went every week for over a year before I won a game but i was determined to not give up. Suddenly things were making more sense and I started winning more and more and now I'm one of the stronger players in the club.
Don't g ...[text shortened]... nd tried to see where I messed up and what I could have done better from that position.
Bryan
In my second season I won ten drew three lost none.
In saying that though we had been relegated! And mostly due to my losses.
First things first.
You need a killer tough guy chess name.
Like Deystroyer or Reaper of the Knight, Crusher, King Killer!
Then you need to buy "logical Chess Move by Move" from Irving Chernev. It has every move explained in great detail, most games are about 20 moves more or less. Use a note card and cover the moves of the side you are playing. Play only the side that wins (peek ahead). Try to guess 2-3 moves ahead before you look at your move.
Then read why he likes that move or doesnt like the move made.
Most importantly make sure you understand his explanations by playing through that game several times before moving on.
Good luck.
To improve you need to buy all of Roman Dzindztzichasvili's Dvd's: Roman's Lab Mastering Chess series, volumes 1-20, Roman's Encyclopedia of chess Openings volumes 1-4 and watch all of them straight through. This will take approximately 48 hours. Keep doing this until you begin to acquire an east European accent. Buy CTARTs and run through all the tactical exercises at least once a day, then of course run through Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, both cd and book version. Buy and read thoroughly any book which has the words "secret" "improve" or "Bobby Fischer" in their titles. Learn by heart a hypermodern opening that doesn't allow you to move a pawn in the first ten moves of the game. Then and only then will you notice a slight improvement in your play. there is no substitute for hard work.
Originally posted by ChessNutThanks for all the posts, since my knee-jerk post this morning on the occasion of another loss. Determined not to give up as I still enjoy the games, both here and OTB.
I went to a local chess club with about 6 guys that attended regularly. I had just started playing chess and was really bad. I went every week for over a year before I won a game but i was determined to not give up. Suddenly things were making more sense and I started winning more and more and now I'm one of the stronger players in the club.
Don't give up. Just study your games and try to learn from your mistakes.
Bryan
I too have had a less than glorious record at my local club, playing OTB games. But people have been remarkably helpful in post match analysis. I suppose when you come to this great pastime at 53, with no knowledge, you just have to realise that it will take time to emulate those who have been playing for years, some 30/40+, or bright young things.
A steep learning curve !
One thing I must remember here is that it is correspondence chess,
thus plenty of time for thoughts on the consequences of the next move.
Martin
Seriously, chess is just decision making. It's that simple. I look at any of my losses (and there are plenty), and I can show you the turning point where i made a bad decision, and no matter what I did from that point on my game went downhill. Remember this is correspondence, where you rarely get a second chance. If it were blitz or even otb, you'd get a chance to recover, but not with the many excellent players on RHP. It may take months but they will grind you down.