Chess clubs / OTB chess

Hello everybody!

Are there many members of the forum that are (or have) played in a chess club?

If so, did you find it difficult to play OTB rather than online?

My reason for asking is that so far, I have played 3, won 1 and lost 2 quite convincingly. I am finding it difficult to play OTB.

I would like people to share their experiences please.

Definately. Especially compared to turn-based where the pressure's off and I can take my time, use the analysis board etc. Tournament chess OTB for me is the ultimate test of a player's ability to play under pressure and their endurance. It takes time to get used to it and club chess as well, although I still find playing league matches easier than playing in gruelling tourneys.

Playing OTB is a quite different experience from playing on the internet. I don't know whether I would say it is more difficult. It's difficult to win, if you are playing opponents of your own level or above, and that's true for both OTB and internet.

Like you I had played quite a bit on line before I ever played OTB, except for games with my own family, which were very low-level. My first OTB experience was a 3-day tournament with 2 games per day. My first game lasted about 4 hours, and ended when my opponent offered a draw. I was a pawn down, with only rooks and about 5 pawns each left. I accepted the draw, and asked him why he had offered. He said that he wanted to save some energy for the rest of the tournament. I hadn't really thought of that. He was right. I found that I was really tired when I started the second game. By the last day I was in a really odd mental state, wondering whether I was capable of finding the bus stop to get home, let alone play chess.

Since then I have got a bit more used to it, but I still have a problem with stamina.

OTB chess obviously demands more commitment, but I now find I prefer it, when I have the opportunity.

OTB is different -- more intense.    If your primarily used to online chess,  I do think it feels more challenging at first.

The answer is to play more OTB!    It rocks.

I play in a club and at the moment in one long-term OTB tournament (1 game every 2 weeks). I'd like to participate in more local tournaments next year.

OTB is certainly more of an intense experience.

I'm an officer of a chess club in Kansas City ( http://www.westportchessclub.org ), and have been more or less a member of a chess club since 2000. I've been playing correspondence chess for about as long or longer. I also play in OTB tournaments. To answer your quetion:

Yes, playing chess over the board is harder than correspondence chess (for me). Not having the ability to move the pieces around on an analysis board is my main reason. Other reasons I think OTB chess is harder: It takes stamina to sit at a board for long periods of time; you have to stay focused on your game and not get distracted--the clock is ticking--and ignore your urges to pee, stretch your legs, eat, etc. (This is a big problem for me. I struggle to maintain focus on anything.); you don't get to use an opening database; and  other "pressures", for example, does the threat of a cute little 9-yr-old girl beating you affect your game, and can you recover mentally if she beats you in a tournament?

Thank you for all of your comments.

I guess I will find it hard for a start, but I will gradually get used to it. (Rather like online chess).

Playing OTB is a bit harder at the begining (depends on the person) because you are more nervous but you feel the game, the pieces, the opponent, when you capture a piece...Although at the begining I feel harder online chess, in 2D, I didn't see the moves,etc.

I think you'll be used to.

I enjoy a lot online chess and it's very comfortable but OTB chess is the real chess IMO.

Bump!

Any thoughts forum members please?

I've never played in a tournament, but I've started playing in a local chess club occasionally.  I've found that I play much worse OTB then I do online, and I attribute it to the following:

1. I play more often online, so I'm accustomed to visualizing a small board in 2D from a bird's eye view. When I sit down and look at that giant-size tournament mat at a different angle, I've found that I sometimes miss very obvious attacks.

2. Our club plays at a bar, so I drink alcohol while playing, and I'm a total lightweight when it comes to booze so it only takes two beers to slightly affect my concentration. Plus the relaxed environment encourages a lot of casual talking, and there is music in the background.  I'm not complaining though.  I think in the long run this will actually help my concentration, because it forces me to learn to deal with distractions.  Probably a handy skill for when I do eventually play tournaments.

3. Online I get to use the analysis board. Although I'm trying to force myself to stop doing that, because I don't want to become dependent on it since it won't be available in competitive play.

Something I'm surprised no one has mentioned yet except in passing is time control. Playing with a clock, even if you were to have all the time in the world on it, freaks people out. I'm not even talking about time management, which is another skill to learn. Just get used to playing with a clock before you go to any tournaments, preferably with the time control the tournament will use, but any clock is better than no clock to get accustomed to it.

I prefer playing OTB, preferably with a clock, even though I rarely get a chance to do it.

great point.  I'm not used to having to hit the button on the clock after every move, and my opponent is under no obligation to inform me that my clock is still ticking away after I've moved.

Thanks for all the input guys, it appears that I am not in the minority. Fantastic point about the analysis board lefecious, I get so used to it here on chess.com and even something as basic as seeing 3D pieces OTB takes some getting used to.

I am glad I am not the only one :-)

I found it strange how emotional people get OTB. The number of players that loudly announce their wins, and try to make excuses when they lose was not what I was expecting; especially since the mean age is about 50.

Regarding my own play I found it difficult to go from playing 2D games with very fast time control to 3D games with min 30 minutes per player (no-one wants to play quicker time controls than this). I blunder more often because I'm less used to a 3D board and my opponents blunder less often because they are using all the time on their clock (which I am not yet).

Finally, one thing I've noticed is that my first game I usually play quite badly. After being outside I need time to get back into the calm state required for chess. 

(oh, and in case anyone suggests that *I* am making excuses -- I would never actually say these things to an opponent, I'm just introspecting about OTB :))    

I agree with Mjin somewhat in regards to how people get emotional OTB.  I get emotional when I play chess OTB, but I dont when I play it online.  Im not saying I bang my pieces and fight back tears when I lose, or conversely declare my mastery of the art of chess after every win.  You get an adrenaline rush in a longer, exciting game though and I usually end up emotionally involved to some extent.

I find bullet chess a lot easier online than irl, I guess because you get a quicker picture of all the pieces on a 2d board.

For longer games I much prefer playing OTB.  When I play on the computer I just get bored and distracted and end up surfing onto other sites. 

You get a better idea of who you're playing OTB too, and what their personality is etc so it makes the games seem more meaningful in a way.  You cant easily laugh and joke with your opponent either online.

I always remind my opponent about their clock.  Dont think Ive let one just run on since I was about 12.  More players should want to win by checkmate and have pretty games, rather than via a cheap time win.   

edit:

 I like your style

There is nothing like watching your opponent squirm.  Online doesn't communicate their fear and horror the way OTB does.

OTB is  much better, but much harder.  Getting used to playing with a clock, keeping your own moves and opponent's, and playing is a lot different than on line and CC; 3-4 games a day.  My rating is 200-300+ different, although I have not been in an OTB tournament since 4/2010.  I prefer them, but not many available in my area.

When I started playing at the Spokane Chess Club, the internet did not exist. But I quit chess during college and played very little for about ten years. I returned to computer chess when I bought my first computer (it had a 20 MB harddrive and one MB of RAM, the processor was an IBM clone 80386) and Chessmaster 2100. After several years of playing my computer and a few friends, even one OTB tournament in graduate school, I returned to the Spokane Chess Club. I won about half of my games that first night against one of the weakest players in the club, and discovered that humans played differently than Chessmaster--by then it was CM 3000.

Three years later, I started playing chess online. After more than 60,000 games online (see 50,000!) and more than one hundred OTB tournaments, online has become preparation for OTB. Knowing that I play a lot online, a friend at the Spokane Chess Club teases me about putting a mouse on top on my chess clock so that OTB will remain in my comfort zone.

Great thread. Bump. 

My last OTB tourny was the Southern Open and I experienced something totally knew...

I played a blind player. Thats right a blind player. His name was Henry and was an older gentleman and a gentleman to the truest sense of the word. 

I used my board and he used a smaller board. The pieces had little pegs at the bottom that would fit into round holes in the center of each square. This kept them from falling over when he felt the pieces. The white pieces also had an 1/8" (3mm) of the head of a pin sticking out from the top so Henry could identify which were White and which were Black pieces.

If it was my turn, I would call out my move by stating the piece being moved, from what square and to what square (e.g. Bishop at c1 to g5). Henry would repeat the statement/move into a recorder. We would echo eachother this way throughout the whole game.

The time controls for the tourny were G/120 SD/60 meaning if the game made to 40 moves within the 120 minutes, 1 hr would be added to the total.

In Henry's case, we just played the game at G/180 on an analog clock.

Henry played quite well and had a nasty discover attack set up but ended up blundering his Queen away and politely resigned.

Ill never forget that game or the opponent.

One more note: It was the very first game played on my brand new tournament chess set.