Does it ever take you a while to get over a bad game?
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 2,475
I ask this because last night I had a completely winning position (+3 or +4) in a game against a higher rated opponent (200 points higher or so) and in time trouble played like total garbage and ended up drawing. It's the morning after and I still feel like crap for choking so badly. Any tips from your own experience for forgetting about it and moving on?
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 28,083
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 3,890
I don't seem to get over bad games ever. I can only vividly remember a handful of games I've won, but I've at least a couple of dozen losses apparently permanently tucked away in my mind. I don't really think it's so bad either. The best way to improve in chess is to learn from your mistakes; having them haunt you may not be pleasant but it at least ensures you certainly won't be making the same mistake twice.
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 2,475
DiR, I've never really thought about it, but you're right. The painful losses almost burn themselves into your mind, move by move, but the wins become nothing more than a faint memory of who you beat. So frustrating.
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 989
Heh oh yeah they linger, especially the worst ones. I don't think that one's bad enough to stick around for very long though
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 3,861
If it's an unexplainable loss. Like getting outplayed by a worse opponent. Losing to a much stronger person because you fell into time trouble shouldn't get you down too much. The huge silver lining is that you dominated a better player.
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 3,936
It's ok to let a bad loss linger. I still feel awful about my last round loss playing on board 2 with a clear, easy path to the win. I'll rephrase that. It's ok to let a bad loss linger if it motivates you and helps drive you to get better.
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 654
I once lost a game in 13 moves in a team competition. It motivated me to get studying endgames, build a decent repertoire, study games and now I am on my way from 2000 to 2200. Well the last thing is just a goal, but mark my words: in 2 years I will be playing at 2200 strength!
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 989
Quote:
Originally Posted by Uitje
I once lost a game in 13 moves in a team competition. It motivated me to get studying endgames
does not compute
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 654
You don't know why I lost in 13 moves... but yeah originally i wanted to say to start building a decent repertoire, but I didn't like the resulting sentence.
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 989
Hm I realized I'm still stewing over a blitz game from 11 years back. I was playing a rising star and was totally crushing him, had an extra piece in a middlegame position and 2 minutes vs 8 seconds on the clock (for real). What followed was that I kind of watched from aside as my hand made a series of mindbogglingly bad moves, and my king ended up mated on e4 (it was on g1 when the debacle started) while he still had 2 seconds left. hyachachachah
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 2,475
Hahah, I know that exact feeling. It's an out-of-body experience to play 4-5 double question mark moves in a row.
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 19,898
In a drawn game once it was me to move and moving my queen was on my back-rank and king in front of the queen on my 2nd rank. As usually this is the other way around my brain thought the king was in back and queen in front... i went to move one and grabbed the WRONG PIECE. Moving that piece result in a loss, so i had to resign after the touch. Easy draw otherwise. I got over it 15 minutes. So to answer your question.
No. lol
