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I took my time, my opponent didn't, and I still lost!

#31

@Murphy_the_Irish_red said in #30:

I have seen players with big experience using the clock. They perfectly understand that they move to fast in their cases. Not surprisingly they are much stronger in blitz than in longer time controls. But they are not able to change it.
I was not able to help them, do you hae anything that could help?

One of that players played thh first time with me and she did not know my rating or anything else about me. We had an eening of blitz matches, i won more games but on this evening i would have guessed her rating about 1900-2000. In reality she had 1500-1600, often good ideas, but more often stupid blunders.

Here are some things I have done over the years to help people with time issues. I wouldn't say any single idea worked always, but it could be a starting point for you to help someone:

  1. Notating time - it slows you down, and gives you a new time-management-based goal to work on.

  2. I have given so many 1 hour lessons that I don't need a watch to know when 1 hour has passed. When I realized this, I used to have people sit there for 1 to 5 minutes, silently, and without looking at a clock / watch, and "Tell me when 5 minutes has passed." Most people cannot do this very well, and it is interesting. It shows them their impulsivity in a safe way.

  3. For very young students, I tell them to "Sit on their hands when thinking." This doesn't always work of course, and I am convinced that for kids, nothing slows them down until they slow themselves down.

  4. You can play a game and tell them that they lose when they yawn, and then see how long it was between starting the game and the yawn.

  5. Notate time in a few of your own games, then go over those games with the student. But, analyze decisions with small and large time gaps. This will show them how useful it is to notate time.

  6. Look at their online games (if they have any). You could look at 100 games in blocks of 10. Each set of 10 games, determine the total number of minutes thought, the total amount of time left unused, and do a ratio of time spent with game results. You'd then have 10 sets of data to compare, and you can combine it altogether for a macroscopic view, too.

  7. Give them random positions where they must evaluate the position within 1 minute. Most of the time, these evaluations will be wrong. You can then do the same for 5 minutes etc... The main idea here is to get them in the habit of thinking outside of a game so that when they are in the game, they will have practiced thinking.

  8. Make someone read through a list of bold-faced chess terms. Like... hundreds of them. Sometimes I think people move too quickly because they don't have enough knowledge to think about. I believe bold-faced chess terms are an excellent place to start for anyone who needs more thoughts.

@Murphy_the_Irish_red said in #30: > I have seen players with big experience using the clock. They perfectly understand that they move to fast in their cases. Not surprisingly they are much stronger in blitz than in longer time controls. But they are not able to change it. > I was not able to help them, do you hae anything that could help? > > One of that players played thh first time with me and she did not know my rating or anything else about me. We had an eening of blitz matches, i won more games but on this evening i would have guessed her rating about 1900-2000. In reality she had 1500-1600, often good ideas, but more often stupid blunders. Here are some things I have done over the years to help people with time issues. I wouldn't say any single idea worked always, but it could be a starting point for you to help someone: 1. Notating time - it slows you down, and gives you a new time-management-based goal to work on. 2. I have given so many 1 hour lessons that I don't need a watch to know when 1 hour has passed. When I realized this, I used to have people sit there for 1 to 5 minutes, silently, and without looking at a clock / watch, and "Tell me when 5 minutes has passed." Most people cannot do this very well, and it is interesting. It shows them their impulsivity in a safe way. 3. For very young students, I tell them to "Sit on their hands when thinking." This doesn't always work of course, and I am convinced that for kids, nothing slows them down until they slow themselves down. 4. You can play a game and tell them that they lose when they yawn, and then see how long it was between starting the game and the yawn. 5. Notate time in a few of your own games, then go over those games with the student. But, analyze decisions with small and large time gaps. This will show them how useful it is to notate time. 6. Look at their online games (if they have any). You could look at 100 games in blocks of 10. Each set of 10 games, determine the total number of minutes thought, the total amount of time left unused, and do a ratio of time spent with game results. You'd then have 10 sets of data to compare, and you can combine it altogether for a macroscopic view, too. 7. Give them random positions where they must evaluate the position within 1 minute. Most of the time, these evaluations will be wrong. You can then do the same for 5 minutes etc... The main idea here is to get them in the habit of thinking outside of a game so that when they are in the game, they will have practiced thinking. 8. Make someone read through a list of bold-faced chess terms. Like... hundreds of them. Sometimes I think people move too quickly because they don't have enough knowledge to think about. I believe bold-faced chess terms are an excellent place to start for anyone who needs more thoughts.
#32

I have the thing like your blog too !

I have the thing like your blog too !
#33

@Delhemise said in #32:

I have the thing like your blog too !

Thank you! I am glad you like it.

@Delhemise said in #32: > I have the thing like your blog too ! Thank you! I am glad you like it.
#34

When I don't have an inspiring goal, my sense of time passed goes to infinity.

When I am in the zone, time flies. I think we are not all wired the same, but indeed, having some externals' statistics of the same time format might eventually train, but it might be that the mind is not in the zone of discovery or problem-solving anymore but that the task that takes an hour is itself a perceptible unit. If that was not there, the time spent on another task might not be the same skill?

But some of us (me) might have abused of the urgency mode in the past, to get them to do things effectively as their ability to do daily tasks (i.e. procedural, or non-inspiring logistical tasks that hold no new information to entertain or challenge or whatever).

That the Teflon layer, against such stress, has been worn out completely. And then even the training is becoming something of a party pooper itself. The party being the joy of chess.

When I don't have an inspiring goal, my sense of time passed goes to infinity. When I am in the zone, time flies. I think we are not all wired the same, but indeed, having some externals' statistics of the same time format might eventually train, but it might be that the mind is not in the zone of discovery or problem-solving anymore but that the task that takes an hour is itself a perceptible unit. If that was not there, the time spent on another task might not be the same skill? But some of us (me) might have abused of the urgency mode in the past, to get them to do things effectively as their ability to do daily tasks (i.e. procedural, or non-inspiring logistical tasks that hold no new information to entertain or challenge or whatever). That the Teflon layer, against such stress, has been worn out completely. And then even the training is becoming something of a party pooper itself. The party being the joy of chess.
#35

Smiling on the yawn point... clever.
It is interesting to hear the mentor side, and also I do notice an awareness of autonomous (self-teaching) tools theme in that last post of yours (blog author). Teaching the self-observation methods. Maybe that is my spin.

Smiling on the yawn point... clever. It is interesting to hear the mentor side, and also I do notice an awareness of autonomous (self-teaching) tools theme in that last post of yours (blog author). Teaching the self-observation methods. Maybe that is my spin.
#36

The title of this blog is misleading... "I took my time, my opponent didn't, and I still lost!"... then you open the blog and it proceeds to describe how to use EVEN LESS time, like that is supposed to result in a better outcome? I don't understand the premise of this blog. Is @RyanVelez saying that, when playing an opponent that is not using their time, that us too using less time is going to increase our chances of winning?

The title of this blog is misleading... "I took my time, my opponent didn't, and I still lost!"... then you open the blog and it proceeds to describe how to use EVEN LESS time, like that is supposed to result in a better outcome? I don't understand the premise of this blog. Is @RyanVelez saying that, when playing an opponent that is not using their time, that us too using less time is going to increase our chances of winning?
#37

@UltraSlarken said in #36:

The title of this blog is misleading... "I took my time, my opponent didn't, and I still lost!"... then you open the blog and it proceeds to describe how to use EVEN LESS time, like that is supposed to result in a better outcome? I don't understand the premise of this blog. Is @RyanVelez saying that, when playing an opponent that is not using their time, that us too using less time is going to increase our chances of winning?

Nope, far simpler than that. A common problem people experience is they use a lot of time, their opponent uses very little, and they lose anyway. I don't believe the title is misleading, but because of the Death of the Author, you are welcome to interpret it how you want.

@UltraSlarken said in #36: > The title of this blog is misleading... "I took my time, my opponent didn't, and I still lost!"... then you open the blog and it proceeds to describe how to use EVEN LESS time, like that is supposed to result in a better outcome? I don't understand the premise of this blog. Is @RyanVelez saying that, when playing an opponent that is not using their time, that us too using less time is going to increase our chances of winning? Nope, far simpler than that. A common problem people experience is they use a lot of time, their opponent uses very little, and they lose anyway. I don't believe the title is misleading, but because of the Death of the Author, you are welcome to interpret it how you want.
#38

Roland Barthes. literary criticism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_the_Author

But it does make sense to me about the limitations of language to convey the exact thoughts that were at the origin of the committed skid trace of words aligned in a queue, while our thoughts are more than we can align that way.

So should the reading (pass) go. But then, that is why we have discussions and forum, for not one pass is ever enough. And acknowledging that each reading pass is its own reader creation complementation of the skid trace, why not continue the discussion. I think as with chat bots where we are alone putting meaning in such words, iterations come with the proposition of using language to communicate.

Roland Barthes. literary criticism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_the_Author But it does make sense to me about the limitations of language to convey the exact thoughts that were at the origin of the committed skid trace of words aligned in a queue, while our thoughts are more than we can align that way. So should the reading (pass) go. But then, that is why we have discussions and forum, for not one pass is ever enough. And acknowledging that each reading pass is its own reader creation complementation of the skid trace, why not continue the discussion. I think as with chat bots where we are alone putting meaning in such words, iterations come with the proposition of using language to communicate.
#39

@UltraSlarken said in #36:

"I took my time, my opponent didn't, and I still lost!".

I think the title context is that the discussion it comes into is for people who argue that one should learn to take the time to think about the move, and not play bullet in classical.. The student with that motto, realizing that the other was fast in average, and still won, is kind of disappointing.

But reading the blog to the end, I think the author did wander where I would have liked anyone to go.. One has to take the title as a wink not a summary.

@UltraSlarken said in #36: > "I took my time, my opponent didn't, and I still lost!". I think the title context is that the discussion it comes into is for people who argue that one should learn to take the time to think about the move, and not play bullet in classical.. The student with that motto, realizing that the other was fast in average, and still won, is kind of disappointing. But reading the blog to the end, I think the author did wander where I would have liked anyone to go.. One has to take the title as a wink not a summary.
#40

In one of my games I took 6 minutes to play the first 15 moves as I was caught completely off guard in an opening. But while I play my favourite openings such as the Dragon as Black or QGD/Slav/Semi-slav as white , I take only 2 minutes maximum.

In one of my games I took 6 minutes to play the first 15 moves as I was caught completely off guard in an opening. But while I play my favourite openings such as the Dragon as Black or QGD/Slav/Semi-slav as white , I take only 2 minutes maximum.