Checkmate
November 25, 2009 8:57 am Games, Personal
Practice makes perfect, right? Then can someone please explain to me why even though I play chess every day, I keep getting worse?
I don’t often get to engage in realtime games with opponents over an actual chessboard; instead, I play over the ‘net via Chess.com. At any given time, I’m involved in three to four games: two against friends, and one or two against strangers at or around my Elo rating (skill level). Each player has up to three days to make a move; on average, I move once per day (either during lunch, or after dinner). I also use the site’s Tactics Trainer to work on puzzles and learn new tricks.
None of this seems to be helping. I lose more games than I win, and my tactics rating fluctuates more often than New England weather. Granted, mistakes in the Tactics Trainer are generally punished more severely than correct moves are rewarded, but that’s not the point. I must be missing something, somewhere; I don’t live and breathe chess, but the fact that I play every day should at least count for something. My grasp of spatial relationships and whatnot isn’t the best, but damn it, I’m trying, though it feels like I’m swimming upstream.
November 25th, 2009 at 9:08 AM
You probably have the same problem I’ve had: you make one mistake, it frustrates you, and it just builds from there. You’re so insistent on fixing your last mistake that you’re not paying attention to everything else.
Also, you may not be getting worse. Others just may be getting better.
November 25th, 2009 at 9:48 AM
Tactics Trainer seems to have been recalibrated. Where you used to lose around 40 points for making the wrong move, now it’s only about 15 points. I know that makes me feel less stupid when I make a blunder!
As far as our games are concerned, they haven’t really gotten any easier (or harder) for me. Of course, that only really means that our relative skill levels are probably still where they were a year ago. I can’t say if I’m any better or worse since you’ve been my only opponent.
I hope that none of your matches against strangers have been those elitist types who get offended when you make a move that they deem not to be “correct”. Judging by the comments left on some of the Tactics Trainer puzzles, it looks like some of those people who have no life outside of chess feel insulted when they get an “easy” problem.
November 25th, 2009 at 9:53 AM
Good luck in your quest.
I gave up on chess long ago. I thoroughly appreciate the game. I think it’s the most beautiful, purest application of strategy out there. But I’m convinced that to become a master you need to have some type of innate talent that I just don’t have.
November 25th, 2009 at 11:19 AM
Maybe if you played for a block of time instead of just one move a day. I often find that it takes me a while to get into the proper mindset and once I’m there, my moves are more consistent.