I used to play a lot of correspondence chess on another website, and for some reason I have always feared playing live online chess, I'm not sure if feared is the right word, but I take it all too seriously or something. It's not even like I have a decent rating to protect or anything. I've been trying to play more, but I got myself into a mindset of "I must perfect an opening for black and white before I start improving". I now realise this is ridiculous coz at my level my opponents wont be playing book moves past 3 probably, and so I need to just focus on playing solid foundational chess (control the centre, don't move a piece twice, develop develop, king safety etc). 1 of the things I have struggled with is the clock, I tend to play at least 10 minute games, and at first I was finding I would blitz out my moves too quickly, not used to having the clock from playing correspondence games. 1 of my recent games I lost on time, so I need to find a middle ground of using my clock more accurately. I suppose this will come with experience.
I'm not sure what kind of advice I am looking for here coz I assume "just playing more games" will help me overcome it.
I would be interested to know if anyone else suffers with this "fear" or whatever it is, like I said, at my level it seems ridiculous coz what's another couple of losses going to matter anyway?!
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Oh I realise it's entirely irrational and so I don't know why I feel this way about it. I am quite competitive in other things and so maybe I am thinking that I need to get rock solid (with openings etc) before I start playing. But again, I know in chess I will not improve by studying alone, I need to actually play games. I suppose I would like to know if other people suffer with, or have previously suffered with a similar fear.
Yeah, I can relate to this.
You've got the right answer, I think - play more games. Trying to study your way out of the fear, for me, is counterproductive - if you go away and learn a bunch of openings or drill a bunch of tactics or whatever then you just add the fear that you'll still be rubbish and all your work will have been a waste of time.
@papalazarou said in #1:
> I've been trying to play more, but I got myself into a mindset of "I must perfect an opening for black and white before I start improving". I now realise this is ridiculous coz at my level my opponents wont be playing book moves past 3 probably, and so I need to just focus on playing solid foundational chess (control the centre, don't move a piece twice, develop develop, king safety etc).
Perfect an opening (actually more than one) when you decide to take on a GM. Other than that, study multiple openings / midgames / endgames both for white and black -- and do so on a real board with a real book. Afterwards, solve lots of tactics.
As for the "at my lvl opponents won't be etc" part, always aim higher unless you're content staying in the certain range
The only way to overcome the fear is to actually face it by playing. Maybe to reduce the pressure of performance play only casual games in longer formats, and perhaps in zen mode if this helps you concentrate. It will gradually reduce.
I struggle with this too sometimes. I think it's mostly high expectations that create the "fear". You have a vision in your head of winning every game, playing perfectly and raising your rating. In effect, you don't want to start games knowing you may lose. You're don't want to be disappointed.
The solution, I think, is to lower your expectation. What helps me is just to realize before a game that nothing tragic will happen if I lose, it's just a game, and my rating is just some internet points that don't really matter. And even if it decreases, then I'll get it back eventually. Before playing, just take a moment to let these thoughts sink in. If you adopt this mindset of accepting losses, accepting the fact that you'll make some mistakes and maybe drop your rating, you won't be afraid to start games. You'll be mentally prepared for the worst that could happen.
I was once afraid to losing my 2000+ rating, so I said to myself that it's ok if I lose it, nothing terrible happens, 1900 is already enough for me. And these few thoughts alone made my fear disappear. And when it comes back sometimes, I remind myself these thoughts and it's gone again.
You can even go further than that by utilizing the concept of Negative Visualization. Basically, you imagine and expect losing, making terrible blunders, dropping a lot of rating. Sounds really negative, but after doing it, you'll be totally comfortable with losses and winning will feel better. You won't feel stressed about playing.
This method of lowering your expectations works for many things in life. They say that the main reason of unhappiness is high expectations, so it's good to lower them to avoid disappointment and stress. If you'd like to explore it, I'd recommend picking up some book on the philosophy of Stoicism or Buddhism.
Additionally, you can try to look at losing in a positive way, like I do. I always try to take it as an opportunity to learn more by analyzing the games I lost. This way, I associate losing with something positive, rather than just a failure. It helps me to accept losses even more and makes playing more pleasurable.
This is my take on it. I hope it helps you :)
chess is playing the position on the board - getting rid of all the other useless junk your brain tries to interfere with is not easy.
personally when i play faster TCs i panic titanic alot and dont see the easiest patterns once my clock turns red. my hands get so sweaty it messes up the laser of my mouse coz there is a small pond on my mousepad =)
just try to go for long time controls so there is a larger chance you can show your peak performance and try to not take things too seriously/competitively during your first attempts as there will be factors weighing in you might not expect. imho (i dont have competitive OTB experience) when you play someone face to face, your ego can be a big hinderance. try to focus on the position as much as possible, get in the zone and ignore your surroundings.
€: sorry tbh i didnt read your OP properly, i thought you were referring to OTB play and not online. on lichess you can just go for Zen mode (as EmaciatedSpaniard pointed out), it might help alot to keep focused.
€2: now that i kinda got the grasp of the question at hand: chess is very complicated. some of the core concepts of it drive against deeply rooted irrational fallacies we implemented during our time on earth (adult learner here). it can be very humbling. dont take this personal, but understand it as a chance to improve yourself. again: its you against a position of pieces. there is no opponent basically but yourself (in slow time controls at least - flagging can be a different matter).
That's better then living in fear of playing chess. ^^
your wayy to hard on yourself my man just relax you dont need to study at you level, just watch a YouTube video about the opening and do puzzles and you should gain some confidence and rating