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Pandolfini's Mailbag: Lost In LosingNM brucepandolfini | Mar 28, 2015 | 585 views | 1 comment

Topic for next month: Speed Chess(Please start submitting questions concerning the above topicfor the next column. Questions different from the abovetheme should be submitted to other Chess.comdepartments.) Question 1: (Submitted by Warrior200)I have experienced the following situation a hundred times,maybe a thousand. When I am paired in a tournament with alower-rated or an unrated player, for the sake of my dignity,how do I not lose? In this pressure, 7/10 times, I have lost. Next round, I have a nervousbreakdown because I again get a lower or unrated player due to my loss. I somehow win. But thisdecreases my interest to continue the tournament, and as a result I don't play with muchconfidence. The tournament was a total loss. So, what do you recommend after losing to a muchweaker opponent, and how to reduce social stress outside and inside the playing hall?

Answer 1: Youve possibly experienced the situation youve described a hundred times, maybe a thousand?Losing to a player below you takes away from your dignity? Such hyperbole suggests you might becarrying this a tad too far. For one, you seem to be stressing winning at the expense ofeverything else. For another, youre apparently placing too much emphasis on rating. Win or lose,higher rating, lower rating, or no rating, its only a chess game, to paraphrase Alfred Hitchcockssage advice to a preoccupied actor obsessively concerned with bringing out his characters trueessence.I also find it funny that though you dont want to lose to lower rated players, you dont likebeating them either. That sounds like a lose/lose situation if ever I heard one. Look, we all wantto win. Discounting certain masochists, nobody enjoys losing. But on occasion everyone doeslose, even the best of us. And when the best do lose, logically they must lose to inferior players.After Karpov had become the best player in the world, he still lost some games to weakerplayers. After Kasparov vanquished Karpov, he still lost some games to weaker players. And now

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that Carlsen is the champ, he still loses some games to weaker players. Are we getting thepicture here?Clearly, the best players dont always win. They lose to weaker players, just like you sometimesdo. Hey, were all human beings, even the best of us, possessing all the foibles and frailtiesthereby implied.I cant speak for these chess greats, Karpov, Kasparov, and Carlsen, but evidently, after losing atough game to a less strong entity, they dont dwell on it to the extent of having a nervousbreakdown. They get over it. Instead of bemoaning their outcast state, they try to win theirnext game. Perhaps they recognize that winning and losing, polar opposites that they are, yinand yang, are both part of lifes overall experience.

So stop feeling so much pressure. Youre simply part of a grander scheme, where winning andlosing each have a place. Once you come to accept this youll be philosophically much betterpositioned to handle everything, including losing to weaker players. Actually, I think you dontmean weaker players so much. Instead I think you're referring to lower-rated players or evenunrated ones.As you should know, a players rating is not necessarily a true index of his or her playing ability.Not all ratings of the same number have the same meaning. Speed ratings dont mean the samething as standard ratings. Whats more, a player can be stronger than his or her rating, or weakerthan his or her rating. True, established ratings can be fairly reliable, especially if calculated overmany games, under comparable conditions. On the other hand, ratings achieved from a merehandful of games can be terribly unreliable. A ratings accuracy to predict results is a function ofhow many games the rating is based upon, the pool from which the rating was determined, andvarious other factors, tangible and intangible.Its hard to give advice on something like this. After all, Im not a licensed therapist, and thisvery definitely seems to be an emotional problem more than an objective one. But throughoutmy life Ive always said outrageous things, so why should I stop now? Accordingly, I recommendthat you change your mindset. (I know its hard, but try.) While of course youre playing to winevery game, dont settle merely for that. Start appreciating other aspects of chess as well. Thepuzzles Caissa poses, the process of working out plans, the art and beauty of chess, all of thatoffers so much more than the does the mere act of winning. Besides, not all winning is great.Does it really have much value to win when your opponent plays badly and you win withindifference and inexact play?In your tournaments, try some of this. After losing a game, no matter your opponent, surelyattempt to understand why you lost and what you could have done about it. But then get thegame out of your head. Make a clear break. Start preparing for the next round. Eat somethingperhaps. Take a walk. Maybe exercise for five or ten minutes. Listen to a short piece of beautifulmusic. Find some peace and try to regain your equilibrium. Once youve escaped from the pastyou can begin to tackle the next game.If you approach each game on its own merits, unfettered by the past, you wont have to worryabout the rating of your opponent in the next round. You can just play chess, trying to do thebest you can. Hopefully, youll win most of the time. But when you dont win, try to gain from

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the experience anyway. You know, learn something. Good luck, my friend, and stop doing anumber on yourself. You deserve much better. Question 2: (submitted by ChessGodExtreme)I am 50. I have loved chess all my life. That doesnt mean I am very good. Maybe I am ~1600-1800OTB. My goal is to get to >2000 OTB. I have broken down my efforts over the last year to twothings. 1. Calculation 2. Analysis of my games I have lost. Right now I use Lucas analysis to runthrough loses at 1 sec per move. Then I look at the bad moves or review the openings. Right nowI make about 1 stinker per game (

kinds of intangibly subtle things that dont necessarily come out during the play of the gameyet impact it significantly. In this period of interchange dont ignore or minimize the humanelement. Chess is not just a nuts and bolts game. Its certainly all of that, but its also muchmore.2. Take notes: Either carry a little book with you or create a file on your phone or by usingsome other modern-day tool. If you dont do this, all sorts of far-reaching notions may getlost. Furthermore, you should review these notes fairly regularly to see if certain patternsemerge. They may provide clues to the telling problems that must be addressed. What typesof items should you put into your dossier? Virtually anything that comes to mind, even theostensibly trivial. Its not always clear when some small point may prove to carry greatweight as time goes by. You can always cross it out later, when rereading and summarizingyour notes. To get more specific, note any questions you have about the opening and theother phases, plans you think laudable, whether partially implemented or rejected, movesand shots overlooked, lines you were considering playing but didn't, especially those you'dlike to reconnoiter further, and anything of any substance to which your mind is drawn. Younever know when something might turn out to be subsequently fruitful.3. Analyze when you get home: This should be done first without the benefit of analyticsoftware. Youll want to see if the passage of time has altered or reconstituted any of yourthinking. Its amazing how much your perspective can change once the subconscious mindhas had some time to mull it all over. Furthermore, now that youre no longer under thepressure of immediacy, you could get a whole new take on things not so easily obtainedwhile actually playing or within the period instantly ensuing the initial analysis. You may beamazed from this "second look" at how many questions are suddenly answered. Just likethat, you may think of commendable yet unexplored ideas ignored or overlooked both in theplay of the game as well as during the instant aftermath. 4. Input the game into analytic software: You may be quite surprised by what the differentengines tell you. The evaluations can reflect variance. Even so, I would turn to at least twoanalytic evaluators, hoping to extend the parameters of overview. In the process,particularly footnote assessments drastically incommensurate with your own. When suchradical differences in estimation arise, mark those points for further consideration. Alsokeep a kind of index. It should indicate the percentage of moves in which your evaluationswere profoundly in clash with the appraisals of the software. View a quarter-pointdifference as being substantial. While you dont want to think entirely like a computer(heck, you cant anyway), over time youll want this index not to flail about wildly. If it doessway, hopefully it will gradually move in a positive direction. In the end, use whateversoftware you have, certainly to answer questions, but also to generate more refinedquestions that practically produce answers. While doing all of this, try not to see any of it asbeing work. View it as a fun activity and that's when it works effectively and best.5. Review the opening: Whether with software, on the Internet, or by reading literature,try to clear up some of the opening questions generated by both your game and itssubsequent treatment. Especially try to increase your comprehension of the length of theline youve been playing. If you know it satisfactorily eight moves deep, for instance, try toexpand your knowledge to at least twelve moves deep, if not further. Using the implementsavailable, see what moves are most popular at the highest levels, even if you dont fullyfathom the reasoning behind those moves. Play over any suggested games the software orservice cites, even if you're compelled to do so at a fairly rapid pace. You can always stopand analyze in greater depth positions that especially intrigue you. Play through enoughgames and eventually the key ideas will become integrated and serviceable, with crucialquestions about the moves being cleared up from game to game. Of particular interestshould be games played between top players, say at the 2600 level or above. Its not thatplayers of lower rating cant paladin excellent moves and concepts. They can and do, butyou don't have the time probably to look at every game there is. Assuming that's true, itmakes sense to focus your efforts on the elite. As a group they tend to be more chessicallyreliable. Moreover, you'll find yourself in harmony with the words of Oscar Wilde when hesaid: I have the simplest tastes; I like only the best.

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6. Work with a partner: If you can, find another player of analogous strength, even if he orshe plays different lines. Make a habit of reconsidering your lost games with your "partner."Use him or her for feedback and to test your judgments. Why do this? Quite naturally, wetend to accept our own ideas without much discrimination. Even when we're trying to becritical we too easily accept our own thinking. So it cant hurt to have our reasoningquestioned and challenged by eyes adversarial yet not unsupportive. Many things we takefor granted just arent so, and so it can help us if we have in our camp somebody to wake usfrom our "slumbers," as David Hume apparently did for Immanuel Kant. In the same spirit, youcan provide suitable service for your partner, even if he or she relies on an entirely differentrepertoire. Besides, seeing openings you seldom get into is a way to augment your generaland specific knowledge of the game. Who knows? You may even encounter opening ideasyou wind up liking better and thereby change your repertory for good.7. Play speed chess: This applies to positions you especially want to scrutinize further. Forexample, suppose, in trying to understand certain openings, particularly those variationsarising in your lost games, you come to a point in your analysis when you reach the very lastmove of a key opening variation. You will still want to know more, to extend the line at leasta few moves further into the middlegame. You can do the following. Take that branchingposition and input it into a playing tool. From that point, play a bunch of quick games

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against the software. Whether you get killed or not (and you will probably get killed), theconcentrated effort should brew up lots of ideas to place under the analytic microscope.Surely, it will help you extend your opening comprehension at least by a few moves, andthat in itself can be a critical weapon. You can also do the same thing with your partner.That is, as you did with the software, you can set up positions for exploratory work, playinglots of speed games from the launch pad of the opening's last analyzed move against yourcomrade. And as before, you can provide the same function for your associate and his or heropening repertory. Fair is fair.8. Go over your games with a teacher: I dont wish to add to your expense, but its not abad idea to have your games gone over by a more sophisticated analyst. Im not suggestingtaking regular lessons so much. Rather, collect your losses (and games in general) and seethe analyst perhaps once a month or so, as games to be analyzed accumulate. In suchsessions, many questions may be cleared up that otherwise escape resolution. After all,software tools can evaluate nicely, generally better than most humans, but typicallycomputer responses don't come out as intelligible sentences. Anyhow, a teacher could alsospell out more particularized programs for buttressing and for subsequent study. Let's faceit. Finally, it's reasonable to conclude that the assessments of an observant and veterananalyst/teacher are much more likely to be on the money than your own.9. Diagram key positions: Chess is a highly visual game. To that end, it makes sense tocreate useful diagrams that can be seen and understood at an instant. You can do this withsoftware or by taping the cutout diagrams into a little book or onto index cards. Make sureto review these diagrams pretty often. They will serve as helpful reminders andreinforcements. You can vivify these chess pictures even more so by adding around themhelpful, explanatory words and phrases. Even better, draw arrows on the diagrams tohighlight worthy plans and maneuvers. further with a few helpful words and especially bydrawing arrows on them, suggesting plans and maneuvers. If it will help you get into theproper mindset here, pretend youre a football coach telling the players where to go (on thefield). This kind of vector analysis can be extremely worthwhile and indelibly memorable.

10. Create an audio recording: Soon after finishing a lost contest, make a short audioreview of the game. Keep adding to this growing account, one loss to the next. Theaccumulating sound bites can become the nucleus of a kind of mantra. As you listen to itover time, comparing your earlier reactions to later ones, you will be shocked at first by thesheer repetitions. It will seem at first as if you're not making any progress at all. But afterawhile, even more surprisingly, the problems you first had will begin to disappear. What willthey be replaced by? New problems, especially those that indicate you've developed as aplayer, reaching a higher level of understanding and capability.

Of course, you dont have to do any of this. But if you do some of it, don't be afraid to put yourown stamp on it, making sure the entire enterprise is one of joy and pleasure. To be sure, thereare also lots of other things you could also do to assist in the analysis of your own lost games. Butvarious aspects of the above algorithm, while not at all definitive, have been used by averageand above average players to help them better understand their losses. I hope some it may behelpful to you. Question 3: (submitted by SpeedyBird876)

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How do you recommend recovering from a string of losses to regain your confidence? Answer 3: If I knew that I might know some very important stuff. I dont really know what willwork for you or anyone in particular. We all react so differently to a series of setbacks. Responseranges from wanting to do something definite about it to giving up playing chess altogether.Lets throw away the act of total surrender. Nobody ever won by giving up, or so they say. But Ido often get concerned students coming to me with this very problem. So in the remaining 10minutes or so, before I have to submit my column, let me take a whack at it. If you've been losing a lot, surely try to figure out whats been happening. If you can, have yourgames analyzed. See if an experienced judge can determine whats been going wrong. Really tryto get answers to certain questions. Are your losses indicative of particular problems? Have youbeen losing in different ways? Perhaps youve actually played better than you think.Unfortunately, your opponents have played very well. Thats possible you know. Chess can belike that. We can play quite well and hang mate on move 30. In that case, we didnt play badlybut we lost anyway. Or we can play terribly and our opponent hangs mate on move 30. We wonalright, but did we play well? Of course not! So it becomes incumbent upon you to ascertain whatthe heck has been happening in those losses.Now you you may not have any zest for follow-up after losing a bunch of games. That would betrue for many of us. If that is so, it makes sense to take a break. Theres nothing wrong withputting the game of chess aside for a bit. In the interim, try doing other things you like, thatgive you pleasure. Eventually the chess gods will beckon you back. With renewed energy you canresume the game you love, perhaps emphasizing chess for fun over chess for blood. Once youvecome back to the fold you can review the earlier losses, if you wish, possibly with greaterobjectivity. Or you can skip reviewing the past completely. That is, you can just start playingagain, with no pressure and no demands. How do you decide when and what to do? Why don'tyou let your inner chess player tell you what to do? He cares an awful lot about you, and he loveschess, too.Topic for next month: Speed Chess(Please start submitting questions concerning the above topic for the next column.)

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a few minutes agoUseWithCare Nice article. A massive psychological breakdown following a blundered queen in onegame was actually observed in the successive performance of a player at the Women'sWorld Chess Competition in Sochi recently so it's a real-life situation.

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