All my life I was an average player and about nearly a year ago I think my rating's somewhere around the 1700 range in the playchess server. I've been playing the same way for many years and couldn't find any way of getting better. I decided to buy a few books and other resources on the net and later have spent hours studying Silman and Znosko-Borovsky books with some odds and ends like Lasker's Endgame Manual and many instructions off the net. From someone who only learned from friends and experience playing years in cafes and the internet, I changed into someone discovered a thousand openings, their ideas, how to conduct a proper middle game, learned more advanced endgames, studied over a couple of hundred different combinations of themes and solved tens of thousands problems (20,000+ different problems in CTS and elsewhere) and... after what I call a schedule, I am now a 1300 patzer on playchess. (When I finally discovered that, my computer screen is not what it looks like anymore)
I'm not stupid enough not being able to see what's wrong but before I go make a new study regime and go another free fall, I'd like to know how the others try play the game in a new approach. When I was a 1700+ patzer, I kept looking out for tactical shots and calculate every forced moves and seemingly meaningless variations. Now as I try to adjust adding new things like creating weaknesses, slow maneuvers, controlling the centre etc, I find that I continue to misevaluate the position on the board. Chess used to be so easy many years ago. Now when I play I keep having to keep many things in mind like asking a thousand questions like can I take this diagonal with advantage? Can the pressure of the bishop compensate for the loss of the exchange? I lose out in the end because I couldn't see that far. It's as if unless the positional advantage gained is clear-cut and simple, a player like me would not gain any advantage if I could not follow up a good positional move with the remaining sequences that prove the merit of the initial move.
I've played some games I was really proud of, wins, draws and losses, but quite heavy on the losing side. Does this new approach to chess, thinking methodically take time to master? Or am I missing something. By the way, even when rated lowly now, I don't play those below 1500.
Help.
Basically I go through all those mental checks which you talked about subconsciously. I'm pretty sure that if I were to consciously go step by step asking myself what the weaknesses are in the position, what tactical opportunities did he create with his last move etc..., It'd be nowhere as effective.
Basically by studying and practicing you'll be able to assimilate this new way of thinking into your subconscious so that you'll be able to assess the position in a much more natural way.
Originally posted by Papyn ChaseIt's hard to believe that all your studying in the last year has made you a much weaker player. Is your current 1300 rating a temporary dip that's likely to rebound? (Ratings can easily fluctuate 100 or 200 points.)
All my life I was an average player and about nearly a year ago I think my rating's somewhere around the 1700 range in the playchess server. I've been playing the same way for many years and couldn't find any way of getting better. I decided to buy a few books and other resources on the net and later have spent hours studying Silman and Znosko-Borovsky b ...[text shortened]... thing. By the way, even when rated lowly now, I don't play those below 1500.
Help.
Was your old 1700 rating and your new 1300 rating at the same Playchess time controls? Most people on Playchess have a slow rating considerably higher than their blitz or bullet ratings.
Have you stopped worrying about tactics during a game? Positional and strategic ideas are good, but tactics should still predominate your thinking. (Almost any tactic that gains material is worth more than almost any positional idea.)
Originally posted by Papyn ChaseHi
All my life I was an average player and about nearly a year ago I think my rating's somewhere around the 1700 range in the playchess server. I've been playing the same way for many years and couldn't find any way of getting better. I decided to buy a few books and other resources on the net and later have spent hours studying Silman and Znosko-Borovsky b ...[text shortened]... thing. By the way, even when rated lowly now, I don't play those below 1500.
Help.
Looking at your 2 games played here I have a quick suggestion. You played H3 first move as white and H6 as black. I suggest going back to the basics first and run E4 E5 at the 12 and 1300 level. Over time I think that over time your reading and hard work will come into play.
Originally posted by hamltnblueLook at the date of those two games. (2005) 🙂
Hi
Looking at your 2 games played here I have a quick suggestion. You played H3 first move as white and H6 as black. I suggest going back to the basics first and run E4 E5 at the 12 and 1300 level. Over time I think that over time your reading and hard work will come into play.
Saying that I play in the playchess server it would be obvious that the games are mostly rapid games. From 3~15 minutes I guess.
I don't keep my games at playchess but I just visited the red hot pawn blitz site. Had some wins (one of them against Luka032 was won on time) and a loss, all of them I think players below 1600 though you can check their ratings in this site. I only know timeteller516's rating which is 1650 something. Here are the pgns. All are 5/0. I hope you guys understand why some games had serious tactical errors here...
[Event "RHP Blitz rated"]
[Site "www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2007.10.6"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Spilis"]
[Black "Papyn Chase"]
[Result "0-1"]
1. b2-b3 e7-e5 2. Bc1-b2 Nb8-c6 3. g2-g3 d7-d5 4. Bf1-g2 Ng8-f6 5. c2-c4 Bc8-e6 6. a2-a3 Bf8-e7 7. b3-b4 O-O 8. b4-b5 Nc6-d4 9. c4xd5 Be6xd5 10. f2-f3 Rf8-e8 11. h2-h4 Be7-c5 12. e2-e3 Nf6-g4 13. Qd1-c1 Nd4-b3 14. Qc1-c2 Bc5xe3 15. Rh1-h2 Be3-f2 16. Ke1-f1 Nb3xa1 17. Bb2xa1 Ng4xh2 18. Kf1xf2 Qd8-f6 19. Nb1-c3 Nh2-g4 20. Kf2-e1 e5-e4 21. Nc3xd5 e4xf3 22. Ke1-d1 Qf6xa1 23. Qc2-c1 Re8-e1 24. Kd1xe1 Qa1xc1 0-1
[Event "RHP Blitz rated"]
[Site "www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2007.10.6"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Papyn Chase"]
[Black "Luka032"]
[Result "1-0"]
1. e2-e4 e7-e5 2. Ng1-f3 Ng8-f6 3. Nf3xe5 Nf6xe4 4. Qd1-e2 d7-d5 5. d2-d3 Qd8-f6 6. d3xe4 Qf6xe5 7. e4xd5 Qe5xe2 8. Bf1xe2 Bf8-d6 9. O-O O-O 10. Nb1-c3 Bc8-f5 11. Be2-d3 Bf5xd3 12. c2xd3 Nb8-d7 13. Bc1-e3 Nd7-f6 14. Ra1-c1 Nf6-g4 15. h2-h3 Ng4-f6 16. Rf1-e1 h7-h6 17. Nc3-b5 Nf6xd5 18. Nb5xd6 c7xd6 19. Be3-d4 Nd5-f4 20. Rc1-c3 b7-b6 21. g2-g3 Nf4xh3 22. Kg1-g2 Nh3-g5 23. f2-f4 Ng5-e6 24. Re1xe6 f7xe6 25. Rc3-c7 Rf8-f7 26. Rc7-c6 Rf7-d7 27. b2-b4 b6-b5 28. Rc6-a6 e6-e5 29. f4xe5 d6xe5 30. Bd4xe5 Rd7xd3 31. Be5-d6 Kg8-h7 32. Bd6-c5 g7-g5 33. Kg2-f2 g5-g4 34. Bc5-e3 h6-h5 35. Ra6-h6 Kh7-g7 36. Rh6xh5 Ra8-f8 37. Kf2-e2 Rd3-a3 38. Rh5-g5 Kg7-f6 39. Rg5xg4 Ra3xa2 40. Ke2-d3 Ra2-a3 41. Kd3-e2 Ra3-a2 42. Ke2-d3 Rf8-d8 43. Kd3-e4 Rd8-e8 44. Ke4-f3
[Event "RHP Blitz rated"]
[Site "www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2007.10.6"]
[Round "?"]
[White "novichek"]
[Black "Papyn Chase"]
[Result "1-0"]
1. e2-e4 e7-e5 2. Ng1-f3 Nb8-c6 3. Nb1-c3 d7-d6 4. Bf1-b5 Bc8-g4 5. Nc3-e2 Bg4xf3 6. g2xf3 a7-a6 7. Bb5-a4 b7-b5 8. Ba4-b3 Nc6-a5 9. c2-c3 Na5xb3 10. Qd1xb3 Ng8-f6 11. Qb3-c2 Qd8-d7 12. d2-d4 Bf8-e7 13. Bc1-g5 O-O 14. O-O-O a6-a5 15. d4xe5 Nf6xe4 16. Bg5xe7 Rf8-b8 17. e5xd6 Ne4xf2 18. d6xc7 Qd7xc7 19. Be7-d6 Qc7-c4 20. b2-b3 Qc4-h4 21. Bd6-g3 Qh4-h6 22. Bg3-f4 g7-g5 23. Bf4xg5 Qh6xg5 24. Kc1-b1 Nf2xd1 25. Rh1-g1 Qg5xg1 26. Ne2xg1 Nd1-e3 27. Qc2-d2 Ne3-f5 28. Qd2-g5 Nf5-g7 29. h2-h4 Rb8-e8 30. Ng1-h3 Re8-e1 31. Kb1-b2 b5-b4 32. c3-c4 Ra8-e8 33. Nh3-f4 Re1-f1 34. Qg5-g2 Re8-e1 35. h4-h5 Re1-b1 36. Kb2-c2 Rf1-c1 37. Kc2-d3 Rc1-d1 38. Kd3-e4 Rd1-e1 39. Ke4-d5 Rb1-d1 40. Kd5-c5 Re1-e5 41. Kc5-c6 Rd1-d8 42. h5-h6 Rd8-c8 43. Kc6-d7 Rc8-c7 44. Kd7xc7 Re5-g5 45. Qg2xg5 1-0
[Event "RHP Blitz rated"]
[Site "www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2007.10.6"]
[Round "?"]
[White "timeteller516"]
[Black "Papyn Chase"]
[Result "0-1"]
1. e2-e4 e7-e5 2. Ng1-f3 f7-f5 3. Nf3xe5 Nb8-c6 4. Ne5xc6 d7xc6 5. e4xf5 Bc8xf5 6. Bf1-c4 Qd8-d7 7. Nb1-c3 O-O-O 8. O-O Bf8-c5 9. d2-d3 Ng8-f6 10. Bc1-e3 Bc5-d6 11. a2-a4 a7-a5 12. Qd1-f3 Bf5-g4 0-1
[Event "RHP Blitz rated"]
[Site "www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2007.10.6"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Luka032"]
[Black "Papyn Chase"]
[Result "0-1"]
1. e2-e4 e7-e5 2. Bf1-c4 Ng8-f6 3. d2-d3 c7-c6 4. Ng1-f3 d7-d5 5. e4xd5 c6xd5 6. Bc4-b3 Nb8-c6 7. Bc1-g5 Bf8-c5 8. a2-a3 O-O 9. Bb3-a4 Bc5-d6 10. Nb1-c3 d5-d4 11. Nc3-e4 Qd8-a5 12. b2-b4 Qa5xa4 13. Ne4xf6 g7xf6 14. Bg5xf6 Nc6xb4 15. a3xb4 Qa4xb4 16. Nf3-d2 Bc8-f5 17. Qd1-f3 Bf5-g6 18. h2-h4 h7-h5 19. g2-g4 Qb4-b2 20. Ra1-d1 e5-e4 21. Qf3-g2 e4xd3 22. g4xh5 Qb2xc2 23. h5xg6 Ra8-e8 24. Nd2-e4 Qc2-e2 0-1
Edit: I'm just posting all the games I just played just now so people would get a better understanding on my new and demoralising "approach" to chess.
Edit: Oh, the correspondence games I played here were just testing out a line I thought interesting I found on the web.
My repertoire with white: Guioco Piano (including the Evans and Moeller sometimes transposing into a Max Lange or if they avoid the GP and play 2knights of course the fegatello), Ruy Lopez (exchange variation only), King's Gambit (I've tested a lot of lines already for those that reply 3...g5 including the Muzio and Salvio and also the king's bishop gambit which I think is the strongest bet for a win), Morra if I go against the Sicilian, Chigorin Variation against the French, and for other semi-closed or open openings I just lash out a KIA. I don't play d4, c4 or f4 but I sometimes play those in cafes for variety even without any decent theory.
My repertoire with Black against e4 are all king pawn openings so against the Ruy I aim for a Marshall (Arkangelsk for surprise), at least a couple of times a day the Latvian (I only know lines from the chessville site inlcuding the 3...Bc5 variation).
Against d4: KID. Nothing else.
I know a lot of general lines in the openings it's just that the ones I lised out are played mostly because they suit my taste.
Originally posted by Papyn ChaseNo, this wouldn't necessarily be obvious. Some people play all or the majority of their games on Playchess at slow time controls. So just saying that you play on Playchess doesn't necessarily mean that your games are fast games.
Saying that I play in the playchess server it would be obvious that the games are mostly rapid games. From 3~15 minutes I guess.
Since you didn't directly answer any of my previous questions, let me ask the most important one again - Were your 1700 rated games on Playchess over a year ago played at slow, blitz, or bullet time controls? This is important to know, because there can be a huge rating difference between slow ratings and the faster ratings. For example, I have about a 500 to 600 point difference between my slow and blitz ratings there.
I played around 20+ slow games and the current rating is just slightly higher (in the high 1700s) than my highest ever blitz ratings. The slow games were played at least 40 minutes for the first time control. They haven't suffered much because I haven't been playing longer games on playchess anymore. The blitz ratings however fell from 1700s to... 1300... and it's been like that since the few past months playing thousands of 3~15 minute games.
Originally posted by Papyn ChaseI have no idea whether anyone here will be able to figure out the reason for the sudden drop in your rating. If I were in your shoes, I'd probably look at the old 1700 Playchess blitz rating to see if it wasn't just a temporary good luck streak that eventually ended and came down to the 1300 area. If you don't think that's the case, then I'm not sure what to suggest. I know for me, there's a huge difference between a 5 minute game and a 15 minute game, even though they are both classified as blitz by Playchess. I simply can't think fast enough to play a decent 5 minute game, but with 15 minutes, I have enough time to think and play a much better game.
I played around 20+ slow games and the current rating is just slightly higher (in the high 1700s) than my highest ever blitz ratings. The slow games were played at least 40 minutes for the first time control. They haven't suffered much because I haven't been playing longer games on playchess anymore. The blitz ratings however fell from 1700s to... 1300... and it's been like that since the few past months playing thousands of 3~15 minute games.
One more suggestion. If you don't analyze your Playchess games after you play them, I'd recommend that you consider doing that. I suspect that most people that play blitz games think they don't have the time to analyze their games, so they end up making the same mistakes game after game.
OK, one last suggestion - If you've never been to Dan Heisman's web site, please consider giving it a visit. Lots of free chess advice, and Dan is a very good chess instructor. Don't forget to check out his Novice Nook articles. Good luck.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/danheisman/Main_Chess/chess.htm
Study tactics, tactics, and more tactics and I'm almost certain that your rating will improve dramatically. According to GM Rashid Ziatdinov, there's really no such thing as "postional chess" at the sub-master level. Mostly our games are decided by short combinations.
Thanks guys for the advice. I'll analyze my games I think. I don't subscribe to playchess so I didn't manage to keep them in my database so I'll study my future games from now on.
By the way, here are the games above which I have edited so that they would appear as legitimate pgn files. Maybe someone could point out things I did wrong here.
Just copy and paste it at this site to see them move.
http://chess.maribelajar.com/chesspublisher/
[Event "RHP Blitz rated"]
[Site "www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2007.10.6"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Spilis"]
[Black "Papyn Chase"]
[Result "0-1"]
1.b3 e5 2.Bb2 Nc6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Nf6 5.c4 Be6 6.a3 Be7 7.b4 O-O 8.b5 Nd4 9.cxd5 Bxd5 10.f3 Re8 11.h4 Bc5 12.e3 Ng4 13.Qc1 Nb3 14.Qc2 Bxe3 15.Rh2 Bf2 16.Kf1 Nxa1 17.Bxa1 Nxh2 18.Kxf2 Qf6 19.Nc3 Ng4 20.Ke1 e4 21.Nxd5 exf3 22.Kd1 Qxa1 23.Qc1 Re1 24.Kxe1 Qxc1 0-1
[Event "RHP Blitz rated"]
[Site "www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2007.10.6"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Papyn Chase"]
[Black "Luka032"]
[Result "1-0"]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4 4.Qe2 d5 5.d3 Qf6 6.dxe4 Qxe5 7.exd5 Qxe2 8.Bxe2 Bd6 9.O-O O-O 10.Nc3 Bf5 11.Bd3 Bxd3 12.cxd3 Nd7 13.Be3 Nf6 14.Rc1 Ng4 15.h3 Nf6 16.Rfe1 h6 17.Nb5 Nxd5 18.Nxd6 cxd6 19.Bd4 Nf4 20.Rc3 b6 21.g3 Nxh3 22.Kg2 Ng5 23.f4 Ne6 24.Rxe6 fxe6 25.Rc7 Rf7 26.Rc6 Rd7 27.b4 b5 28.Ra6 e5 29.fxe5 dxe5 30.Bxe5 Rxd3 31.Bd6 Kh7 32.Bc5 g5 33.Kf2 g4 34.Be3 h5 35.Rh6 Kg7 36.Rxh5 Rf8 37.Ke2 Ra3 38.Rg5 Kf6 39.Rxg4 Rxa2 40.Kd3 Ra3 41.Ke2 Ra2 42.Kd3 Rd8 43.Ke4 Re8 44.Kf3 1-0
[Event "RHP Blitz rated"]
[Site "www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2007.10.6"]
[Round "?"]
[White "novichek"]
[Black "Papyn Chase"]
[Result "1-0"]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 d6 4.Bb5 Bg4 5.Ne2 Bxf3 6.gxf3 a6 7.Ba4 b5 8.Bb3 Na5 9.c3 Nxb3 10.Qxb3 Nf6 11.Qc2 Qd7 12.d4 Be7 13.Bg5 O-O 14.O-O-O a5 15.dxe5 Nxe4 16.Bxe7 Rfb8 17.exd6 Nxf2 18.dxc7 Qxc7 19.Bd6 Qc4 20.b3 Qh4 21.Bg3 Qh6 22.Bf4 g5 23.Bxg5 Qxg5 24.Kb1 Nxd1 25.Rg1 Qxg1 26.Nxg1 Ne3 27.Qd2 Nf5 28.Qg5 Ng7 29.h4 Rbe8 30.Nh3 Re1 31.Kb2 b4 32.c4 Rae8 33.Nf4 Rd1 34.Qg2 Ree1 35.h5 Rb1 36.Kc2 Rec1 37.Kd3 Rd1 38.Ke4 Re1 39.Kd5 Rd1 40.Kc5 Re5 41.Kc6 Rd8 42.h6 Rc8 43.Kd7 Rc7 44.Kxc7 Rg5 45.Qxg5 1-0
[Event "RHP Blitz rated"]
[Site "www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2007.10.6"]
[Round "?"]
[White "timeteller516"]
[Black "Papyn Chase"]
[Result "0-1"]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.Nxe5 Nc6 4.Nxc6 dxc6 5.exf5 Bxf5 6.Bc4 Qd7 7.Nc3 O-O-O 8.O-O Bc5 9.d3 Nf6 10.Be3 Bd6 11.a4 a5 12.Qf3 Bg4 0-1
[Event "RHP Blitz rated"]
[Site "www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2007.10.6"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Luka032"]
[Black "Papyn Chase"]
[Result "0-1"]
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 c6 4.Nf3 d5 5.exd5 cxd5 6.Bb3 Nc6 7.Bg5 Bc5 8.a3 O-O 9.Ba4 Bd6 10.Nc3 d4 11.Ne4 Qa5 12.b4 Qxa4 13.Nxf6 gxf6 14.Bxf6 Nxb4 15.axb4 Qxb4 16.Nd2 Bf5 17.Qf3 Bg6 18.h4 h5 19.g4 Qb2 20.Rd1 e4 21.Qg2 exd3 22.gxh5 Qxc2 23.hxg6 Re8 24.Ne4 Qe2 0-1
I don't know if this will help or not, but I'm a player who goes hot and cold just like you. I'll be up around 1700 then back down to 1300 then back up again soon.
Anyway, I was having real trouble playing tennis one time and my dad told me something that really helped me. He said that some famous golfer player told a story a long time ago where he was playing this other player who was playing real good and it looked like that other player was going to win. So, this one good golfer asked the other golfer just before he was getting ready to hit the ball, "When you grip your driver do you put your thumb over the other thumb or along side of it?" Well, he said that he messed up the swing of that other golfer just by making him think about how he was swinging the club instead of just doing it. That helped my tennis game. Maybe this doesn't have anything to do with your chess, but maybe it does. I'm sorry if I bored you or wasted your time reading this. I'm only trying to help. Good Luck.
Originally posted by Papyn Chasesounds like you might have gone too passive concentrating on the positional aspects. try playing more agressively, and see if that makes any difference.
All my life I was an average player and about nearly a year ago I think my rating's somewhere around the 1700 range in the playchess server. I've been playing the same way for many years and couldn't find any way of getting better. I decided to buy a few books and other resources on the net and later have spent hours studying Silman and Znosko-Borovsky b ...[text shortened]... thing. By the way, even when rated lowly now, I don't play those below 1500.
Help.
and yes, it takes time for those new ideas to sink in. and they should almost never override positional considerations. if there's a tactic, play it. if not, it might be time to improve positionally.
all material winning tactics are not worth the hassle though. chasing after nonimportant pawn, complicating a won game etc...