My First 20 20 and Brain Surgery!

I just finished the longest Live Chess game of my life: 20 20. That means 20 minutes per side with 20 seconds of bonus time for each move!

First the good news: I saw the correct tactic at the right time and won a queen for a rook.

Now, the bad news: I had absolutely all the time in the world, with more time on my clock than my opponent, with a winning game, and blundered my rook!

It was a brain blunder, which will no doubt require brain surgery.

I was totally comfortable with the time I had left to put the finishing touches on this one after winning the exchange, even to the point of recording the time I had left on a notepad while taking a sip of coffee, basking in the glory of it all - winning my first ever slow game - having played 22.Qa5 with 17 minutes and 40 seconds left on the clock and looking to trade down. A perfect strategy.

Then, I saw Black's bishop, and then I didn't see Black's bishop - thus playing the brilliantly stupid 23.Rd8 (???????), which was supposed to force a trade of rooks. My opponet found 23...Bxd8 (!!),  was not at all pleasant.

I was able to win, although I was dissapointed that my opponent blundered with 33.Be3 (??), losing a bishop for nothing, thus making the endgame less of a challenge and learning experience. Interestingly enough,  neither one of us were in time trouble, so it must have been the length of the game, where one can more easily lose focus? I'm not sure yet, as this is new territory.

What did I learn?

1. I like playing slower.

2. When playing slower, the moves stick longer in my head, especially the bad ones.

3. These bad moves pack far more of a painful wallup at slow speeds, and I do believe that I will remember to play 5.dxe5, 6.dxe5 and 7.dxe5. Fritz really wanted to teach me a lesson by telling me this three times!

4. I need to put a sticky on my laptop which reads: check for ALL checks, captures and threats on every move. Play Real Chess!!

Nice game! Too bad you lost your rook. Its a good thing you won so many pieces early on lol. I've just gotten back into the game as an adult and am finding that playing longer games is KEY. DON'T play blitz as an amateur, like you pointed out, when you are playing with longer time controls, your moves stick in your head, and you are actually thinking! If after every game you do analysis (without an engine first, then after thats fine), you end up spending an hour or more on every game, so you actually LEARN from your mistakes. I think playing blitz is only beneficial at a higher level and it can actually spoil your skill.

I did this interesting test the other week, I went on fics, played about 20-30 games of blitz and got owned, and then went on chesstempo.com where I have an account and started doing tactics to see how my pattern recognition was, and my rating dropped from around 1550 to 1430, just from those games! It took about 2 hours worth of tactics to "repair" the damage so to speak. I think you just end up getting complacent and stop thinking when blitz becomes a habit. Id recommend staying with the long time controls, and see if you improve...

Anyway, cheers! Thanks for the post!

Oh my!  After dinner, I placed a sticky note on my laptop with three words - Checks, Captures, Threats. It didn't occur to me that these three words from Heisman would be against the rules. I've never played in a tournament, yet. The sticky note is now off. I'll compose a song in my head titled Checks, Captures and Threats, and sing it to myself as I play. It would probably prove quite irritating to others as I sing this song of mine out loud during a OTB tournament. 

Is talking allowed during play? If it is two friends playing, can they talk about what they did yesterday as they play a 3-4 hour game. That's a really long time to not talk. I don't think I have ever done that, ever in my life. Let's see, this is post number 2198. I sort of like to chat a bit too much.

CigoL's blunder check will help a lot, this idea of visualizing different pieces on a square and what they can do. It also makes for a very good board visualization exercise.

I don't see how that could be against the rules.

Thanks for the post. I noticed that when I move my mouse over your screen name, I see (Live Chess - Long).  I like that. Under stats, I only see three categories - Bullet, Blitz and Standard. Is there a category for Long?  Second, I'd like to change my stat next to my screen name from Turn-Based to Live Chess - Standard, but I can't figure out how to change it.

My Live Chess rating is 300+ points lower than my Turn-Based rating, but I don't care. I care more about people seeing my Live Chess rating, knowing for certain that I am still on the low side of a beginning chess player and need lots of work! My imediate goal in Live Chess is to play at a steady strength of around 1200.

That would be a huge improvement over last year's 800 playing strength, with 99% of those games played at 5 0 and 10 0. Ouch! Way too fast. I didn't learn a darn thing, getting increasingly frustrated and wanting to quit. At times, my blitz rating would go from the 800's to the 700's, just getting worse.

From experience, I absolutely agree that Blitz chess makes one's chess worse, if that is the only kind of chess that is played, even for the GM.

Dan Heisman says that, I don't remember exactly, but something like only 10% of one's chess games should be played fast, if the goal is improvement. Heisman also mentions that 15 minute, even 20 minute chess is fast. So, I have only barely met the minimum requirement of playing a slow game, by adding 20 seconds per move to a 20 minute game.

When my back feels better, I will try a 45 45 game over at ICC, (45 second increment per move), the time control which Heisman says is quite popular and also one in which a player will improve faster. 

Heisman uploads videos of these 45 45 ICC member games and goes over them, move by move. I've seen several of them, and the most common mistake players make is in the area of time management. They play much too fast, and don't take near enough time on the critical positions. Heck, they have so much time to work with, and yet some will have more than 45 minutes on their clock after 15 or 20 moves, playing as if it were a blitz game!

I too have an account with chesstempo. We have so many resources to both enjoy chess and improve. I didn't play chess at all when there was NO internet. I didn't start playing until I was around 47 or 48, I think.

I wonder what internet chess was like when it first started, with AOL, dial-up, and You've Got Mail? Was Chess.com around back then?

Ouch! 470 words. I need to type less, and play more!

I will look it up.

1.)-- First and foremost, HAVE FUN!  I like that rule.  

3.) No talking, smoking or analysis in tournament hall.  I may never be able to play tournament chess. Like I said, if I am with others, I like to talk, a lot. To NOT talk for a 2-4-5 hour stretch sounds almost impossible, for me. I would need to practice.

Here is the part about writing stuff  -

22.) Both players are required to write down the moves of the game, both your own and your opponent’s, as each move is made. If either player has less than 5 minutes remaining, neither player is required to keep score. However, failure to keep score may result in losing the right to claim a draw by three-fold repetition or 50-move rule. Players who do not keep score will have ten minutes taken off their clock.

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Yep. Writing is required. I wonder if you can write on the score card a reminder to buy your wife an anniversary gift after the match. My anniversary is coming up soon, and that is one thing that husbands can NOT screw up, or they are in the dog house for a very long time!

Could I write Check, Capture and Threat on the score card? I don't know. Good question.

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23.) Inexperienced players may be excused from writing down the moves. I guess that the little kids don't need to use pencils.

Live Chess - Quick = Bullet or Blitz

Live Chess - Long = Standard

I think that's used because Long makes more sense than standard if you don't know what exactly the categories are for the three levels of live chess time controls.

Thanks. Do you know how to change that in your posts next to your name, i.e., from Turn-Based to Live?

 I believe they just show which ever one has the highest rating. My turn based rating is 1200 something, but after I played 960 they posted that rating. It's 1300 something.

 Thy not talking for 24 hours straight

Ouch! Besides talking less, I definitely need to stay focused! In this 20 20 game, I focused so hard on what to do with my bishop a few moves ahead that I had forgotten that my knight was en prise.

No matter. The upside to these 20 20 games is that I remember them more than my fast games, and with this one, I have been thinking deeper on what to do next time when the Petroff transposes to the Four Knights, or the Scotch Four Knights.

Here is my third 20 20 game. I worked harder at staying focused. Even with that effort, I missed a free piece!

I've included chess.com's engine analysis for those who have never seen it before. I find it to be too much, preferring just a few, short Fritz continuations.

No matter. The upside to these 20 20 games is that I remember them more than my fast games, and with this one, I have been thinking deeper on what to do

Bingo. You've hit on something here

I very much appreciate the encouragement on playing slower. 

It's great that ICC has a 45 45 league. I want to be well rested before thinking for much longer than I have ever thought in a game. I can't even imagine how you and others can concentrate for 2 to 4 hours in OTB tournaments. It must be mentally exhausting!

That tells me a lot, having an idea of how much you know about chess. I need to play much slower, and am looking forward to going from 20 20 to 30 0. I saw a member's Live Chess games at that time control, so I will put a seek out and see if I get any opponents that want to sit down with me, over the internet, for a total of 60 minutes for one game!

u play fishy

What does that mean?

Do you mean that I play strange, sneaky moves - or that I should play the card game, Go Fish?