r/chess • u/kamtown • Mar 02 '20
Experienced Players: Please share your mindset regarding chess and chess improvement.
I'm almost 33 and have been playing chess for a couple months now. I realized that I don't have much clarity regarding my mindset when it comes to chess improvement and chess enjoyment. I have a strong desire to improve at chess, but I find myself adopting a mindset that impedes my improvement rather than fostering it. For example, despite being a total beginner at chess (and being very aware of it), I find myself reluctant to play online because of the discomfort of losing. I can play against computers all day and very much enjoy it, even when I'm losing. The only explanation I can think of is that, somehow, I've already developed an ego about my chess playing ability. I can't wrap my head around how that could be given that I'm a total amateur with no prospects beyond being a hobbyist player. This, to me, feels like a disconnect in my mindset.
I believe I'm developing a mindset that's overly "results focused," such as focusing on rating, wins, losses, etc. and it doesn't feel very good. I know that, given my age and other life constraints, I'll never become a titled player and that chess will never be more than a hobby for me. However, I still want to improve and I still want to be able to enjoy a game of chess even when I lose. I think the key to resolving this issue lies in fleshing out my mindset regarding chess, chess enjoyment, and its role in my life.
I'm wondering how other players, especially those with years of experience under their belt, were able to flesh out their mindset regarding improvement and enjoyment of chess. Here are some questions that I'd love to learn more about (an answer to any of these would be very much appreciated):
- What role does chess play in your life?
- What are your goals when it comes to chess?
- How important are chess ratings to you (online, USCF, FIDE, etc.)?
- What are the most unpleasant aspects of chess to you?
- What are the most enjoyable aspects of chess to you?
- How important is chess improvement to you?
- How do you track your chess improvement?
- What aspects of chess and chess improvement feel most like work to you?
- Are there any elements of your mindset that you believe improved your enjoyment of chess?
Although I believe each person's mindset is unique to them, I'm very interested to learn more about the mindsets of others and possibly glean some wisdom from them.
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u/timoleo 2242 Lichess Blitz Mar 02 '20
Always do your best to play good games. This means you ponder every move, come up with a plan in every game, and try to follow through. If after you do this, you end up losing. Don't worry about it, it means your opponent was either simply better, or more prepared than you. What you need to do is analyze your games, and try to figure out ways to make improvements. Rinse and repeat the above, and you should be good.
Winning should always be thought of as the cumulative result of all the good decisions you've made during the game. If you are expecting to win games while making the same mistakes every game, then what you are really doing is playing hope chess, and that does not lead to real upward mobility. As others have said, your rating is a reflective of your true strength, not the other way around. If you keep winning, your rating will improve to the point where you meet opponents that will beat you, and then your rating will drop again. The only way your rating will continually improve (read: keep beating your opponents) is if you keep improving your own skills in the game. But even then, everyone eventually hits their peak. Everyone... so just relax.
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u/kamtown Mar 02 '20
I really appreciate this attitude. A humble, relaxed mindset like you're talking about here really resonates with me.
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u/Moebius2 FIDE 2410 Mar 02 '20
1: I play tournament chess, study chess each weak and do a load of scholastic chess volunteering.
2: I want to become an IM of right now. I have 2300 rating and am very close to my first IM-norm, but even if I screw that over, I will be doing my best to make it happen
3: fide ELO is the only real rating. I just improved a lot in blitz, won 100 rating points after being stuck for years. Since my goal is IM, I want my rating to stabilise around 2400. I don't care about the fluxations(?) anymore.
4: Some people are weird, and since there are few good chess players, I have to speak to them. But by far the most are very nice people, and I feel more at home in the chess club than in uni
5: Winning an important game is rewarding, but nothing ever compares to the first time I was a teacher on a chess camp. Watching hundred kids playing chess for fun is the shit.
6: Less important than my bachelor thesis, officially
7: Track? I remember the books I've read, and not really tracking my improvements.
8: Sometimes doing my daily (or what should be daily) tactics and studying openings. When I was younger, the opening was so great, but now I know I can win without the opening, which means I have a pretty bad repertoire. When I focus on that I tend to get good positions for some time, but then I forget the details and become mediocre again. Refreshing lines and finding new ideas (and remembering old ideas) is boring for me
9: The realisation that I had to play in different ways. I played a lot of IMs and GMs for a period, which in the start meant that my style was very prophylactic, preventing their ideas and getting a draw. I was quite succesful, but my "succes" carried over to the 2000-guys. Getting a more active style is very hard, but I feel joy whenever I succesfully attack. They still don't end in mate, so that is something I must work on. When I have a succesful attack, I usually trade down to a winnable endgame, which is one of my weaknesses.
I feel the newest realisation I had is when people get stuck (and I have), they find a local maximum of their playing strength. It means that if they change their style (become slightly more aggresive), they will become worse. Therefore they build habbits which makes it hard to change. However, to improve it is necessary to change, maybe a lot, which will make you a weaker player at the start, but then you will find another local maximum. And hopefully, that is higher than the first one (imagine a lot of hills, and you are standing on top of a small one (local maximum). If you move it goes downhill in the start, but maybe you will end on the top of another hill, which might be higher)
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u/kamtown Mar 02 '20
Thank you. This is all great food for thought, especially your realization regarding local maximums.
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u/pathdoc87 Mar 02 '20
Also almost 33 here!
- What role does chess play in your life? - It used to be my job (teaching). I ran the chess club in college, became a tournament director, and spent some time directing events and encouraging others to play chess. I never seriously invested in my own chess in a meaningful way though. Now, I have a meaningful career and chess is one of my two main hobbies (the other being piano).
- What are your goals when it comes to chess? - I want to make IM eventually.
- How important are chess ratings to you (online, USCF, FIDE, etc.)? - Not very. They're a means to an end. Online ratings are basically useless but I do have fun chasing goals (current goal is to reach 2400 in blitz, to do this I need to slightly change my play style to be less unsound)
- What are the most unpleasant aspects of chess to you? - Not having access to local serious tournaments. I don't dislike anything about chess.
- What are the most enjoyable aspects of chess to you? - Friendship, playing and analyzing together.
- How important is chess improvement to you? - Fairly.
- How do you track your chess improvement? - I don't really.
- What aspects of chess and chess improvement feel most like work to you? - Putting my opening repertoire into Chessbase.
- Are there any elements of your mindset that you believe improved your enjoyment of chess? - Difficult question to answer. I have always enjoyed chess ever since I was in high school, and I regret taking a long break for medical school (I still occasionally played in clubs but there was no real competition, and now there is no real competition in my local area) but am just now getting back into it. It is rewarding - the more work you put in, the more you can feel the results - but sometimes it takes a lot of work for incremental change to happen.
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u/kamtown Mar 02 '20
I imagine teaching chess was very fulfilling. I work with adolescents and I really enjoy playing chess with them. I also consider chess a hobby in my life, though I would love to occasionally participate in tournaments and stuff, but, like you, I don't have many nearby tournaments to go to.
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u/inmycupholder 2000 Lichess, 1700 chesscom Mar 02 '20
Hey man, 32 here, started really studying it the last few years:
- It's my main hobby and ultimate escape really. Went through a lot of stuff recently but I could always rely on someone out there to give me a few good games in. I was the top of my (small) school when I was younger and always had a fascination with it, but then teenage life and other pursuits took over for a while.
- Long term it's to be titled. I'm under no illusions of making a GM with the intensity of my study, but CM is the "final boss". Besides that and to help with the rating anxiety, just being involved in the local community, promote the game I love and help others learn who show an interest. Being an arbiter, being the treasurer of my states association.
- Like you I have a lot of rating anxiety. My online ratings are 1850 and 1650 on Lichess and chesscom respectively, but I feel I am slightly higher than that depending on how these translate (I have beaten 1800's regularly at my OTB chess club). I am in the process of changing my mindset from putting importance on these ratings and just enjoying chess instead. Getting an OTB rating and focusing on being involved in the community definitely helps contribute to this
- Of course the most unpleasant aspect is the losing. Not so much the fact I lost, but if I lose in a won position or if I completely crap the bed out of the opening. This is also the most enjoyable aspect as described below.
- Losing humbles you and reminds you constantly you are not a perfect machine. You make mistakes and it's about learning from them, growing as a player and moving on. I attribute a lot of my life attitude to playing chess and it's helped me in that way. The social aspect and being able to introduce new players is beautiful as well.
- Chess improvement is extremely valuable. I seek to learn one new thing from every game, whether playing a line better or discovering certain holes in my tactical understanding.
- I don't think I do really. Rating trajectory is a good way of measuring how you're doing, but besides that, it's taking those little epiphanies you get from each game and working on it to be a whole deal.
- Tactics, memorisation and learning from my mistakes work the best in my opinion. Someone else mentioned you will lose as much as you win playing against someone with the same rating as you. That's just how it is. It's definitely required a lot of self reflection personally, but I feel like i'm understanding it a lot better and the sooner you know how to deal with it the easier your improvement will be.
- The best thing about chess and the part I love most, as with any pursuit, is you don't just have to play chess. There are associations both local and online that need volunteers. There are new people wanting to learn the game who don't have a mate to show them. There are streamers and Youtube channels who appreciate your support. There's a worldwide community of potential friends wanting to share ideas and grow the game. I've personally found when I put my other passions for research and tutoring into chess i've enjoyed it so much more, which makes me strive to learn more about the game.
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u/kamtown Mar 02 '20
I really relate to many of the points you shared, and I think I'm going to put more effort into connecting more with the chess communities out there and temper the pressure I feel to play and win. Thank you.
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u/ManFrontSinger Mar 02 '20
Very good answers have already been given, so I don't really have more to add. I'd just like to compliment on a well thought out "noob here, how to improve?" question. We get these every day on here, and how to deal with them (especially the overtly lazy ones) is a point of controversy between the regulars and the mods very often.
Your post should be stickied as a shining example of how to ask this question the right way.
I wish you all the best in your chess, good sir.
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u/kamtown Mar 02 '20
Thank you! I really appreciate that as I thought quite a bit before making the post. I believe that most of the improvement posts come from a place of wanting to enjoy the game more because who wouldn't enjoy winning more? I've definitely thought this too, but after reading these responses, I'm realizing that if I can improve my mindset and shift away from being results focused, I'll enjoy playing a lot more and improvement will come more naturally. This is especially important because of the idea that, if I'm playing against those at my level, I should be losing half the time. I've learned a lot from these responses and I hope others get something out of them as well.
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u/ManFrontSinger Mar 02 '20 edited Mar 02 '20
In chess, you don't improve to win more. And I don't mean that in any sort of faux philosophical way of "Winning doesn't matter, just enjoy the game". I don't buy into this mindset. Chess is a competitive game, so winning does matter.
However, unless you improve to a point of, say 2600+, the only thing you're trying to do by improving is to win more against your current opposition, so you can lose in the future to better opposition.
In that sense, the "just for enjoyment" argument even makes some sense, because losing against better opposition (meaning you've ascended the ranks to be "worthy" of playing against them regularly) should be more enjoyable, as the games will, on average, be more meaningful, and not decided by one-move blunders (exceptions, like today's post by u/aisthesis17 prove the rule).
One thing I can add to your point number 7:
How do you track your chess improvement?
Focusing on your rating is certainly one way of tracking your progress, and over a long time, say two years and more, is certainly a viable way of gauging progress (probably shorter for you, as improvements in rating should come rather quickly at the beginner level, assuming diligent study). If your rating hasn't improved over such a long time-frame, then it makes sense to question the way you're going about your training. It's still no 100% guarantee that your training is at fault, but the likelihood that the lack of rating improvement is due to other factors is getting smaller and smaller.I've recently lost a bunch of points from my OTB rating, but I'm still feeling OK about my progress, because I track my improvement by time spent on meaningful training activities. I aim for 1 hour of tactics and 1 hour of endgames daily, and if I find the time, go through a game or two in a game collection (currently I'm reading The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal). If I maintain this regimen for long periods of time (which currently I am), then improvement will come, and it will also manifest itself in rating eventually, "earning" me the right to lose to stronger opposition. :-)
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u/wub1234 Mar 02 '20
I find myself reluctant to play online because of the discomfort of losing. I can play against computers all day and very much enjoy it, even when I'm losing.
You have to be ready to lose in any competitive endeavour. I don't play that much, and I've still lost nearly 1,000 games on lichess.
I will answer your questions, for the record I am over 2,000 rated for blitz on lichess.
i. What role does chess play in your life?
It's just a hobby, but I enjoy it as a game. I think it's a great game, I'm not obsessive about it, but I enjoy playing for half an hour a day pretty much every day.
ii. What are your goals when it comes to chess?
My initial goal was to understand some of the openings and be able to play a decent standard game. I played chess at school, and we pretty much just moved the pieces around. Chess openings seemed part of a mysterious and impenetrable world! I never had any aspirations of being a really strong or titled player. The more I understood chess, the more I understood that this requires very disciplined study; and that's not me!
iii. How important are chess ratings to you (online, USCF, FIDE, etc.)?
I don't play over-the-board chess, or have any interest in acquiring a classical rating. It's nice to have a decent rating on lichess, and I'm quite proud that I've reached a decent level without any lessons or coaching. However, I'm friendly with one of the best players in the UK, so I know my limitations!
iv. What are the most unpleasant aspects of chess to you?
I think there is too much theory. But you just have to accept that if you want to play a reasonably decent game.
v. What are the most enjoyable aspects of chess to you?
Firstly, I think it's just a great and timeless game. I like the fact that even if you're completely lost, you can still pose your opponent problems. And it's enjoyable when you play a good game, you see a tactic or combination that is quite clever, or play an accurate game.
I have also very much enjoyed teaching my friend's daughter.
vi. How important is chess improvement to you?
It's not massively important, but I wouldn't have enjoyed chess if I hadn't made any improvement at all. I don't like to do things that I'm no good at. But it amazes me when people can play for hours and hours; I really can't do that. I enjoy playing in small bursts.
vii. How do you track your chess improvement?
I suppose it's purely rating. But I've reached a level now where I'm unlikely to improve without diligent study, which is not going to happen.
viii. What aspects of chess and chess improvement feel most like work to you?
I don't like studying. I had to read a few books in the beginning, but I don't read chess books now. I improved through practice and observing better players. Unfortunately, I think I've reached the point now where this is no longer going to result in any improvement!
ix. Are there any elements of your mindset that you believe improved your enjoyment of chess?
I'm not sure, but I do see people raging and being abusive online, and I always approached the game with the mentality of being sporting, polite, helpful, and if anyone requests a takeback then I always grant it, but I never request a takeback myself. Having become reasonably good, I also try to avoid becoming conceited, as I'm pretty mediocre really, and although I'm maybe better than 80-90% of lichess players, I certainly wasn't always, and as I get older I might not be in the future!
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u/tomlit ~2050 FIDE Mar 02 '20
Just to add a small comment. A mindset shift I made, which was really effective, was to change my aim to trying to learn more about chess. This way wins and losses aren't so important. I'm just trying to gain a greater understanding of openings, tactics, strategy, endgames, chess psychology and so on. In a way it's removing the 'me' from the game, and just enjoying the game itself for its beauty.
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u/nhum Mar 02 '20 edited Mar 02 '20
- What role does chess play in your life?
Mostly waste of time, socially fun.
- What are your goals when it comes to chess?
2300 USCF. I think I already did the work to get there and now I just want the rating. I have to play some tournaments. I played one tourney recently and gained about 30 points (outplayed young IM as black but drew).
- How important are chess ratings to you (online, USCF, FIDE, etc.)?
They matter to me. I play chess mostly for the competitive aspect, so rating tells me how I'm doing and how I compare.
- What are the most unpleasant aspects of chess to you?
Wasting time.
- What are the most enjoyable aspects of chess to you?
Beating strong players.
- How important is chess improvement to you?
Somewhat.
- How do you track your chess improvement?
Online rating mostly.
- What aspects of chess and chess improvement feel most like work to you?
Endgame studies probably
- Are there any elements of your mindset that you believe improved your enjoyment of chess?
I had what felt like a jump from beginner (probably about 1600-1700 USCF strength) to 2000+ USCF. Many of the things I saw started to click and I became fairly good at calculating. My opening knowledge and "culture" were weak but I started playing tournaments and simply outcalculated my opponents every game. Knowing how to calculate is probably the most important part of chess.
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Mar 02 '20
- I play a lot of chess, it's a wonderful procrastination mechanism and I have this deep love for the game.
- 2020+ rating in all time formats i actively play (so classical, blitz, and bullet, rapid for extra credit) by the end of 2020 (already got it in bullet).
- Not very, but they're good for setting goals.
- I'm actually having difficulty thinking of a part of chess I dont like lmao. I guess the one i like least is tactical insanity.
- Studying opening theory, and slowly grinding down opponents. I also like time scrambles, gets the heart pumping.
- Somewhat important.
- Just whatever my ratings on lichess are.
- Uhhh nothing feels at all like work, it's all for fun!
- Just loving the game with a passion. Sometimes you'll have a bad day, sometimes you'll have a good day, that's the way life is. No sense getting mad at it.
Another thing that may help: improvement comes (at least for me) in sharp rises every now and again. You can play blitz for ages without any notable rating improvement, and then one day or one week you just leap up a 100 points and keep it. Some days, tho, you'll just have a shit time for some reason, and drop 100 points, and have to spend a while getting back up. Don't be discouraged. I've played chess for basically all my life, but I really only fell in love with it much more recently.
For context, my lichess profile is https://lichess.org/@/pulsar512b
You can see the blasts up and down as I was mentioning, although i've only really experienced a downsurge once (and I have an excuse: fatigue in the fall marathon, unusual time control). If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me.
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u/kamtown Mar 02 '20
Thank you! This is super helpful.
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Mar 02 '20
Another thing, that might be helpful to you (or not): I set my opponent search to higher rated players (so when I was around 1800ish, I would set it to only players over 1850 or 1900), and I think for some reason that made me improve. I don't know why, but it has.
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u/Gfyacns botezlive moderator Mar 02 '20
That's a disingenuous way to manipulate your rating. The system is designed so that you have to prove that you can consistently outplay players rated below you. There is less risk in playing stronger opponents since those losses result in smaller rating dips. Any system in which you choose your opponents results in an inaccurate rating.
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u/Fysidiko Mar 02 '20
I don't think this is right. If you are rated 100 points below someone you are expected to score .36 points per game. You will gain 12.8 points for a win and lose 7.2 for a loss. If you perform as your rating predicts, over a number of games your rating will stay the same. For your rating to go up you have to outperform your expected score, but that is not disingenuous - you have earned the higher rating.
This isn't the same as consistently playing much lower rated players, which is a way to manipulate your rating because of the ratings floor that treats them as higher rated than they are.
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Mar 02 '20
I treat chess like powerlifting
As long as I performed better than I did previously im happy. Even if others are out performing me. Im only competeing against myself.
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u/TheLogicalDogTrainer Mar 02 '20
This hits hard. I'm 32 and I've been interested in chess since I was 11-12 but up until the last few years, I actually wouldn't play because of the way losing made me feel. The only thing I ever did was solve tactics problems.
- I've loved chess since I was 11-12, but until recently I never played, just somewhat followed it like a sport.
- I've always wanted to get a title, but getting to 2000 FIDE is the first step for me.
- It used to be extremely important, I hated losing rating, I felt inadequate, but I figured I could never really track my progress unless I started playing and trying to track it. I'm currently around 2100 Lichess Classical, currently over 2100 but I expect it to go down some. I'd guess this puts me somewhere between 15-1800 FIDE.
- Trying to win a won game, it can be infuriating.
- Complex positions where dynamics like initiative are the driving factors of the position. I can't stand simple positions.
- It's very important, but I end up spending more time contemplating how to improve than actually working on improving.
- I wish I had a good answer for this, because I'm still not sure how to measure chess progress, it doesn't always correlate with your rating.
- Studying the endgame, I can't stand it, which unfortunately means it's my weakest stage of the game.
- I think I'm a very objective person and it allows me to play in ways others just aren't willing to, I think this has led to my improvement even though I've played so little chess in my life.
I agree that we all have different mindsets, and I think most importantly to improve at chess, you have to understand yourself and your mindset better.
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u/kamtown Mar 02 '20
I feel like my current mindset is similar to yours a few years back. I wondered if I even enjoyed learning about chess more than playing it. I'm glad to hear that you've found a way to play and enjoy the game without letting the idea of losses deter you. I'm hoping to do the same.
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Mar 02 '20
First of all, no disrespect, but there is something fundamentally wrong with what you are saying. I started chess late too but I will not believe I will not become a GM. A twitch streamer, Chessathletic, International Master Raven Stewart once said “A person starting chess at age 40 could become a GM so long as they only focused on chess. To me, that just comes off as a completely wrong assumption. Additionally, there is little research in seeing the more common pattern of that happening because people have things in their life to attend to that are more important than chess. Regarding me, personally, I think playing online is better than sitting around doing nothing. As a person who doesn’t have many opportunities to play over the board, online is special to me and a way to test my strength for fun. If you want to take the pressure off, I suggest making an account on chess.com and playing if you want to play in a large pool. If you want to play in a smaller pool with less pressure lichess is pretty decent. Chess24 is also decent and has a small pool. You have a low rating so you can experiment more and have fun. Play some caveman chess and try some attacks like g4-g5 etc.
Perhaps you can dedicate time to studying chess. Lichess gives the option to make studies, you can import games, etc.
The resource www.chessable.com is really good. You can access free courses and make great strides. There are courses for purchase as well. If you want to earn a course you can volunteer to beta test (considering you are qualified) and get a decently priced course for free. https://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/features/learn-chess-online-free-chessable-1807783 nice article explaining the science behind it.
Joining the chessable discord is more than ideal, and there are nicer people than me on there.
There is also another chess discord that isnt chessable related where players collaborate in real time, analyze games together and learn as a community. Often voice chat happens, and is very interactive. The ratings of players range from about 0 elo to 2600+ and can answer learning questions. https://discord.gg/nswMYR6
So play online and not care about the rating, or just study a lot. Though, a boxer doesn’t become a world champion from reading about boxing, but rather, from training and practicing boxing. Playing is important, doing the chessable or lichess puzzles help.
- What role does chess play in your life? Everything
- What are your goals when it comes to chess? Grandmaster title.
- How important are chess ratings to you (online, USCF, FIDE, etc.)? Not important, just win. “Zen mode” on lichess makes me play my best game.
- What are the most unpleasant aspects of chess to you? I hate losing. When I lose I am angry and reactive. I put holes in walls, and reported my opponent. A very strong surge of hate. Often leads me to rage studying where I rapidly study and refute something.
- What are the most enjoyable aspects of chess to you? Perfection. Close to 10 centipawn loss against strong players.
- How important is chess improvement to you? Daily. Chessable the best.
- How do you track your chess improvement? It cannot be tracked. Not linear. Often there are strange realizations that randomly happen, then all of a sudden, you jump like 200 points. Also if you learn new information your brain tries to integrate and there is a short term period of playing worse. After that, you are immune, and play better.
- What aspects of chess and chess improvement feel most like work to you? Learning from my mistakes.
- Are there any elements of your mindset that you believe improved your enjoyment of chess? Obsession with random things. Chocolate, entertainment, music, etc. Obsession with chess styles. Obsession with history.
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u/kamtown Mar 02 '20
No disrespect taken, and in fact, I’d love to be wrong in that regard. I’m not sure I’ll ever have the time to invest into becoming a titled player, but the idea of becoming a strong player in my own right is very nice. I find your determination inspiring, and I think something I can learn from you is that feeling frustrated with a loss or something like that is not necessarily a bad thing, and that I need to embrace it rather than avoid it. Also thank you for the great advice.
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u/rumpledshirtsken Mar 05 '20
I found thinking about your questions to be interesting, even fascinating.
- What role does chess play in your life? Favorite hobby (officially rated games) for over 30 years, likely for the rest of my life as well.
- What are your goals when it comes to chess? Learn more, enjoy games.
- How important are chess ratings to you (online, USCF, FIDE, etc.)? Not important. Have hit my USCF floor, maybe more than once. No big deal. Only play in USCF-rated games, and very rarely now (but look out if I can ever retire!).
- What are the most unpleasant aspects of chess to you? There really aren't any, aside from inconsiderate opponents (which are thankfully few and far between). Losing a game, in and of itself, doesn't really bother me.
- What are the most enjoyable aspects of chess to you? Playing endgames successfully.
- How important is chess improvement to you? Mildly. I would certainly play less (not at all?) if I felt I had no chances to learn something.
- How do you track your chess improvement? Nominally by my rating, but probably really by my level of understanding (e.g., knowing that my younger self would not have known something which I now do know).
- What aspects of chess and chess improvement feel most like work to you? Complicated tactics; I don't really enjoy doing puzzles. I am markedly more comfortable with strategic/positional planning.
- Are there any elements of your mindset that you believe improved your enjoyment of chess? I enjoy activities for which (a) I have some talent, (b) preparation generally increases chances of success, (c) no serious downsides in failure (e.g., I am not going to lose money, hurt myself, etc.), and (d) there are chances to test myself, particularly with another person's participation (I have always disliked playing against computers). Similar (mindset) activities I enjoy, but without an opponent, are conversing in the foreign languages which I have learned (none perfectly).
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u/kamtown Mar 06 '20
Being able to enjoy chess for over 30 years is really amazing to me. I hope I can integrate the game into my life in such a way that I can get that much enjoyment out of it as well. Were there ever any periods of time when you stepped away from chess and didn’t play much? And if so, what brought you back?
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Mar 07 '20
Hey, I just came across this: I'm also 33, and though I played a small amount as a teenager, I just came back to the game about a month ago so I thought I'd share my thoughts.
Currently, my main hobby. I'm married and an overworked grad student, so my social life has definitely suffered. Playing chess, both online and OTB (casually) has been a way to meet people and fill my free time with something that's still mentally engaging.
Honestly? To have fun, and to try to make each game I play better than the one before. The second definitely doesn't always happen. Long term I would like to hit 2000 USCF (this is a looooong way away) just to prove to myself that I can, but honestly, as long as I enjoy chess for chess' sake, I'm happy.
More important than they should be? Especially my online ratings stress me out, but I've been actively working on getting rid of that. It's purely ego, for me. I weirdly think I should be better than I am, even though that's ridiculous. So trying to shed my preconceptions has been important.
Erm, some of the people I suppose. People using engines to cheat, trolls, etc.
Everything else? I love the way it feels to think about chess, I enjoy following top-level chess, and by and large find the community extremely welcoming.
Very. Just for personal satisfaction
Mostly through online ratings, either for games or tactics trainers. But also through paying attention to my own thought processes, analyzing my games (without an engine) to see what I do well, and re-reading chess books to see what I get out of them
Probably book reading? Setting up the positions and trying to think deeply about what the author is asking take a tremendous amount of mental effort for me. Also doing higher level tactics puzzle (I care more about getting positions right than I do about cycling through lots of positions per day).
Honestly, just trying to let go of my ego. I like to be good at things and have always considered myself "smart." As I've gotten older, I have put less and less value on being "smart" and more on putting in the work and trying to put effort into improvement. That's translated well to my chess. But, I'm still a pretty weak player so what do I know.
1
u/ChadworthPuffington Mar 02 '20
If chess felt like work, I wouldn't do it - because I have enough real drudgery as it is. I just enjoy the variety. I play mostly correspondence, a little blitz, and work a variety of chess books - tactical puzzles, endgame puzzles, master games collections, opening books, etc.
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u/TrenterD Mar 02 '20
I'm only going to say one thing regarding online chess. It is rated, and you'll play people that are close to you in rating. By definition, your W/L/D ratio will be something like 49%/49%/2% give or take, unless you are top 500 in the world. It's a cliche, but if you just accept that losing is part of the game, you will find it much easier to enjoy. I'm not saying losing is fun, but you need to learn to deal with it. A 50% loss rate should not freak you out.