Hello Steveira.

I keep track of your games because, as I told you once before, I like your style a lot.  I opened your profile page today for the first time.  Reading this article it revived one of my painful memories, and I decided to contribute a game for condolence and fun.  I was palying several games at GameKnot.com, including a Petrov and a Scotch.  I reviewed the Petrov where the moves :

1. e4  e5; 2. Nf3  Nf6; 3. d4  e5xd4 had been played, and, in a moment of utter blindness I thought it was the Scotch.  I innocently recaptured with my knight, only to be shocked when I lost my centre pawn in move 4 !  Swindling my opponent I recovered somehow, and won the game forcefully !  I hope you find it entertaining.

What luck !  I was too blind to see the board, and my opponent was too deaf to hear of development !  Since that game I got used to reviewing a position at least three times before I dared make a move.

When it comes to chess blindness, the situation is pretty bad for me. I don't need 'chess glasses', I think I need brand new eyes or rather better eyes than the pair I currently use!

My other more serious problem is probably my lack of knowledge of my strength! I honestly do not know what it is that I do best in chess. Adding to that problem is that most games we win because the other guy screws up his own army.

Anyone with advice on how to assess one's own abilities? Its nice when the other guy gives you a free bishop or creates a triple pawn spontaneously but its much more fun if you can induce the other to do these things!

Good comment Forrie - we must be wary of our "contempt" levels when playing weaker players. Each time they play you they are getting better - after all one only improves by playing stronger opponents! My problem on chess.com is I'm generally playing weaker players so my skills are not improving but stagnating. I get challenged by very weak players and I'm loathe to decline as I want them to improve and not get discouraged but it doesnt always help me!!What do you think? Should strength play against strength?

Steveira

I have also wondered whether the internet chess is improving me.....

Friday i played an otb game against a player I have never lost against before. I blundered a whole Rook to my opponent just after the opening!! Even before I tried to make a chess comeback in my life I have never lost against this opponent. And here I am giving a rook away! However I hung on, my opponent missed a mate in two (after we have played a 40/40 we decided to add 20/20 min), blundered himself and after a long struggle in the endgame I won. Previously I won him in 10 min.

But that is the thing - never underestimate a player and never relax and say: "It is OK, I never lost against this person". Play the pieces and not the man.

One thing I have seen that I generally do wrong is to consider only one or two pieces in a combination but to forget about the bishop on the other side of the board or the other rook etc. So before a move I now try to look quickly at the potential of each piece on the board. I have seen this also works when I do tactical exercises - sometimes I try to combine pieces for the attack but it just doesnt work out because I dont consider all moves or pieces.

I think I must put this comment also on the Team SA site with an example or so to illustrate the point!

 Regards

Forrie

Hi Forrie

Thanks for the comment! Its only my "correspondence" chess that has improved! Having access to an analysis board, being able to think about a move you've made before pressing submit, almost unlimited time to think & rethink, etc etc. Plus generally playing players weaker (check average opponent rating) than me has perhaps inflated my rating. My live chess stinks though! Thats really where I suffer from chess blindness sometimes! I guess also I don't handle very well the pressure of stricter time controls this is where I think too much online chess can be bad for one's OTB chess but that's just me....

Hi Steveira

I have real glasses but do not wear them. However, sometimes I wonder if I  have also lost my chess-glasses! For instance I will win three games against a higher rated player on chess.com but blunder my queen against a beginner (-500 from me)! This also happened in a otb tournament or two.

Some say one needs to do a lot of tactical exercises in order to sharpen your tactical vision (and to avoid blunders as you will see your opponents oppurtunities better). The tactics books/software from convekta is probable the best. I am busy with CT-Art (software) but I think the book Chess School 2 (software: Chess tactics for intermediate players) is even better. According to "improve your chess" articles on the internet you need to repeat the books/problem sets several times (some say 7 times). So I think it is worth the money - one or two tactics books will keep you busy for a few years! (they say you need to do a few problems a day at least).

anyway, the above is advice from better players than me - I am still far down on the learning curve.

But I am giving advice to someone with a higher rating than me!! Tell us what did you do to have improved so much for someone in his 50's......?

I have read also you other nice blog on the tournament youve played and real chess is chess over the board! That is where one really wants to improve.... 

Regards johan

Well yeah I have, but I have retinitis pigmentosa ''tunnel vision'' so yeah sometime i miss it what I am seeing like corner of my vision sometime I don't see it or below my vision. So what I do is take a good look around the board to make sure I am not missing anything, I still do miss it sometimes.