Your emotions/state of mind while playing

How do you feel while you're playing?

I mean the emotions you experience, and/or your general state of mind.

When things don't go your way on the board, how does that make you feel?

At work. Nearing closing time. Bored out of my gourd.

Brief optimism, followed by doubt, trepidation and despair.

It's a great question thanks. Chess is very beautiful whether we win or loose. In theory then, we should simply enjoy every Chess game we play. But we do not. Why is that? Ultimately I think it is because eventually our fears and sense of threat dominate. We reach a position we don't understand and then stop enjoying the game at that point because we think we have something to loose.

I have a theory which I might as well spout here. Ultimately our state of mind is disturbed about anything, when we do not accept what we see. That is the central point. We don't accept it and we become negative, threatened and defensive. If we learn to accept everything that is happening to us in this life, we will experience life to it's fullest, where life is ultimately a state of mind. It does not mean that we should not change our life, but we should always change it from a position of acceptance.

Accepting our experience is an admission that there is no absolute point of view, there is just an experience of life, so enjoy it. This is how I try to play chess. But then again, I dropped chess years ago and only play Chess960. I like being confronted with positions that test my ability to accept what I am facing over the board when it confronts my sense of taste.

Cheers

If it's an opponent I respect then I'm tense during the game... much more tense than I could have realized at first.  If I get to the point where I see how to make a winning idea/continuation my shoulders drop, I slide slightly back in my char, I exhale, although before that moment I wasn't aware of leaning over the board, or holding my breath or anything like that.

Heh, probably my only "tell" -- I've actually had one guy look up at me at that moment and say, "ok I resign", even though I'm almost certain he hadn't seen the winning idea yet.

If things slowly go downhill I just stay tense/determined.  If things suddenly go wrong and I'm losing outright I get frustrated.

If it's an opponent who I "should" beat and it's a club game then I'm relaxed and I generally try to make the position "interesting" or try a new idea.  If it doesn't go my way I don't mind as long as the in between moves were not overly poor on my part.

You're supposed to be a complete emotionally empty gumball while contemplating moves, variations and their potential outcomes

The way i feel during play varys, depending on the oppenent, the time set (if timed ) how much time left, and of course my position and or the opposition position.

But generaly i tend to feel full of "butterflys" like i'm about to dive of a high cliff into the ocean. When my position is strong and i'm attacking , my heart can be beating like i'm running.

My best wins are when i've followed the emotion of my pieces. Even if i don't see the full sequence and i've "felt" that the opponents weakness is this way or i just "sense" that they're attacking my pieces at their own perril. And bang ! I slip through and check mate , done buy gut feeling, not logical calculation. I don't know much about chess so i don't know if this is good or bad.

But my frame of mind tends to focus as if my life depends on the out come of the game. I never offer a draw and i never resighn. Even when it's obviously hopeless, i still make the opponent do the yards for check mate, as i have gotten a couple of draws buy them making a mistake. Also it's an opportunity to learn more.

So when things are against me i try to get more cunning. And i feel emotionally that i have to last for as long as i possibly can, they just might trip.

I love all the different phases of the game as my emotion goes with it but how good is a win when the boards' been smokin' and ya win buy a combination of calculated tactics and taking shear daring gut feeling risks to pull off moves you can't see but just "know" { feel the force Luke } that's what i'm talkin' about.

I think that sums it up, when i play, i feel the force.  yeah  

  Whenever I play, my stomach gets in knots, my hands a little clammy, and my heart-rate rises. My mind is racing with everything BUT chess until I make the first couple of moves. Then I calm down, focus, eyes locked on the board going over 6-7 moves ahead whenever I can. Eventually, as heinzie put it, I become an emotionally void gumball, cold hearted and ruthless if my opponent should happen to blunder. Now, if I blunder, well, my King, when I lose, is flying off the board about 20 feet to my right and landing somewhere that's going to make me take 30 minutes to find.

I share similar experiences and thoughts.

I'm often content, doubtful, frustrated, and excited.

Fantastic replies! Thank you for responding.

I feel intimate with myself, referring to playing chess on line..I enjoy the wins, and laugh at every blunder. It measures the level of my focus..and my readiness to play.