why cannot i get better?

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove

Does playing many games on this site guarantee a 1600 or higher rating.

I think not.[/b]

Wish it did 🙁

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
You've played over 800 games.
Are you getting there?

Nope - I am not getting there.

But then I haven't ever read a chess book or analysed a game in my life.

I play chess for fun and that's it.

He sounds like he is really putting in the effort and he'll get better with experience. Online chess playing is a different proposition to OTB and it takes getting used to.

Originally posted by RDM
I play chess for fun and that's it.

Good idea - me too.

Originally posted by RDM
He sounds like he is really putting in the effort and he'll get better with experience.

I really must doubt that. one post, and the guy disappeared... that doesn't really show any kind of commitment or drive to get better. - if I had wrote that post 2 years ago, I would've been refreshing my browser constantly, hoping to get an answer. I would've also jumped in with additional questions after every answer I got. I think most people who have the hunger for getting better would. we're obsessive. I used to average on around 4-5 hours of tactics a day.

I might of course be wrong, but these things tend to go hand in hand.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
i have spent a considerable amount of time playing chess, reading about chess, studying tactics, studying positional problems and i just cannot get any better, in fact i have become worse, do you think that certain persons are just not suited to playing chess, that their minds somehow work differently, i say this as i had a friend who had a first cla ...[text shortened]... ly, i am not humorless, but this is serious man, so keep it real please - thanks regards Robert.

I know a kid that is gifted at language, seems to do well at math, and generally cruises through school with minimal effort. However, he spent several hours of my time stretched over many weeks trying to learn to checkmate a lone king with a queen and king, but making no progress.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
i have spent a considerable amount of time playing chess, reading about chess, studying tactics, studying positional problems and i just cannot get any better, in fact i have become worse, do you think that certain persons are just not suited to playing chess, that their minds somehow work differently, i say this as i had a friend who had a first cla ...[text shortened]... ly, i am not humorless, but this is serious man, so keep it real please - thanks regards Robert.

I've generally found that games are lost because your opponent did something that you didn't see, but you know fully well you should have seen it. Occasionally, it's something really brilliant (dang!! that was GENIUS!! I tip my hat). But usually the game just comes down to who makes the first blunder.

Often, it's just a matter of having a "blindspot" moment where for some no good reason you just assumed your opponent would exhange pawns, or would move his king is response to check, etc and you forgot to consider the combinations that would follow if your opponent did something else.

So - make it your resolution that you will NEVER lose a game because your opponent made a move you failed to consider - to NEVER lose a game because you made a move where you're going DOH!!! Why did I do that?? Totally #@@#$%%.

If you find you're still making moves you know you shouldn't be. Resolve to spend more time before making your moves. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

(Disclaimer: Poster admits that he hasn't always followed his own advice and has gotten burned because of it. Impatience is a hard vice to overcome).