psychological pressure in chess

[kroket]

Chess is far more then a game i have learned this the hard way once again. If it were only for chess-skills i would have triumphed but since there was a lot of pressure i somehow managed to lose and not win a title.

Setting was my regional/provincial championship. Last 5 years i constantly managed top-3 but never won despite being the elo-favorite twice (years i performed the worse strangely enough).

This year i played an excellent tournament. Seeded second behind a 2300 FM i beat the reigning champion and drew against the FM with a slightly better position in the end. After 6 rounds we had both made 5,5/6. In round 7 i soundly beat a 1950 in a well prepared game (Sicilian Alapin with Black) while the FM somehow managed to draw against the nr 4 in rating (2030) with black. This paved the way for my first title and all i had to do was defeat a young player from the same club as mine rated just 1680 (heavily underrated but still) against whom i had a career score of about 9,5/10 or something. Last time we played the opening was a Dragon (i had white) and i mated him before move 20... Since he had learned his lesson this time i followed a mainline rather then a sideline which he now knew.
Meanwhile the FM won within the hour of a weaker player so i really had to win, a draw would mean a tie-break. The game with some light notes (non-cpu checked):

White ELO 2089 – Black ELO 1677
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4 Bd7
10.h4 Ne5 11.Bb3 Qa5 Not exactly the mainline but still interesting 12.0-0-0 Rfc8 13.g4 Last time around i played a quick h5 and mated him. Nc4 14.Bxc4 Rxc4 15.Nb3 Qa6 16.Kb1 Rac8 17.h5 Be6 My opponent’s theoretical knowledge isn’t that great. The theory here is Bxg4!? e5!? Bxf3 exf6 Bxf6 hxg6 hxg6 with an unbalanced position which i analyzed to move 30 once but i obviously forgot all the details. 18.hxg6 fxg6 19.Bh6 Rxc3 20.bxc3 Bxh6 21.Rxh6 White is just better here. Qxh6 is met by Rxc3 with the threat of Rxc2. Kg7 This move has an interesting defensive idea. 22.Rdh1 Perhaps I should have gone for the alternative g5 followed by f4-f5. Qc4 23.Kb2 Bg8 Now the bishop defends h7 rendering all sacrifices along the h-file rather useless. 24.Qd4 e5 25.Qxc4 Rxc4 I probably shouldn’t have gone for Qd4 and the exchange altogether. 26.R6h2 d5! Quickly played, I had seen this too of course. 27.Rd1?? I needed to win. I couldn’t see how to crack black’s position after the ‘normal’ g5 Nh5 exd5 Bxd5 Rd1 Nf4 and how am I ever going to demolish black’s mighty set-up here? Should have gone for it anyway of course. e5 just falls. Not sure what got into me. The pressure? dxe4 28.g5 Nd5 Tactics all worked out to my opponent’s favor here. 29.fxe4 Rxe4 30.Rhd2 Nb6 31.Rd8 Re2 32.Na5 Na4+ 33.Ka3 Nxc3 34.R1d7+ Bf7 35.Rxb7 Rxc2 36.Rdd7 Rf2 I think Rxa2 was even better here. 37.Nc4 Ne4 38.Rxa7 Nxg5 The passed pawns become very very dangerous. I am probably lost already here. 39.Kb4 Rf4 40.Rac7 Ne6 41.Rc6 Kf6 42.Rdd6 g5 43.Kc3 Rd4 Around here stress had really kicked in and I wasn’t thinking properly anymore. a4 is just necessary. I need to get something going myself with that a-pawn. 44.Rxd4 exd4+ 45.Kd2 Ke7 46.Rb6 Again a4 was necessary despite Bc8 Ra6 which isn’t that great. Nf4 47.Ne5 Bxa2 48.Nc6+ Kd6! Right around here the FM could clearly be heard speaking ‘Kd6’ I am not sure what to do with that?! My opponent would have found this move anyway I suppose but still. 49.Nb4+ Nd4 Kc5 Ra6 Bc4 doesn’t work either. Kc5 50.Rb7 Bc4 51.Nc2
Bd3 52.Rc7+ Kd6 53.Rg7 Ne6 Around here I could have resigned ofcourse. 54.Rg8 Bxc2 55.Kxc2 h5 56.Kd3 Ke5 57.Ra8 Nf4+ 58.Kd2 g4 59.Re8+ Kf5 60.Ke1 g3 61.Rd8 g2 62.Kf2 d3 63.Rf8+ Kg4 64.Rg8+ Kh3 65.Rf8 Kh2 i did play on a couple more moves but more because of my own self disgust then because of anything else…

When playing through this game the only reason i can think of for losing is not having a clear head (i was constantly saying 'i am going to blow it again' and been more or less congratulated already by half a dozen people...) Rd1?? was a silly move. If i had thought properly i would have correctly assessed the position after g5 and would have won the game...

Psychological pressure really is something to reckon with when things get tough.

 

[WhiteEagle22]

You said it. It's not just chess though where it can affect your game... but it's definitely more personal in this game (cause you can't blame anyone else when you make a mistake).

 

[kroket]

I agree. I really lost the game. My opponent didn't 'really' beat me (though he did play a good game) i lost against myself. The ironic thing is we had spoken about this exact (highly unlikely) scenario after day 3 (rounds 5 and 6). Selfulfulling prophecy??

Anyway i played move 27 both too fast and too slow. Before he played d5 i had already seen g5 and was intending to play it. I saw the position after Nf4 though and didn't assess it properly (too fast?!) so i played Rd1 (i needed to win) without looking at it as good as i should... Rather painful.

There is always next year i suppose but this is becoming quite a thing for me failing each year.
Lost a tie-break for 1st once (well i drew 1-1 but then buchholz kicked in strangely enough) was leading 4/4 once only to finish 5/8 (year before that).
I am not sure what it is i didn't lose a game from august to february (despite being up against several 2300+) and now i have lost 5 in this period 1 one of which against a 1680 whom i always beat easily. Still my form isn't that bad since i performed really well in blitztournaments and the first 6 rounds of this championship. In my clubchampionship i am also leading 18,5/19 which is an excellent score even by my usual standards there (winning the championship 7 times in a row)

 

[Pacifist46]

That's tough. Keeps reminding me that I should play more OTB as there is more to chess than can be gleaned just from online play.

 

[Narz]

Haven't looked over the game yet but I know exactly what you mean. Usually though, if I have enough time though, I can overcome this pressure (which is why I love classic time controls & hate anything below G-60 ). See this game for details.

Of course I definitely have some technical deficiencies as well, I can't blame all my problems on psychological pressure. Two short years ago I was just in the 1400's & often during games with strong players (A players, experts or masters) I feel like I'm just an imposter (I'm now in the 1900's & sometimes have this fear that sooner or later I will make a mistake & be outplayed [despite the fact I've beaten many A-players before, more than I've lost to]).

Definitely chess is a highly psychological game. I'd say it's about 75% training & 25% psychological (maybe 50 or 60% psychological or certain days).

 

[kroket]

Well it depends i suppose. The higher you get the more psychological maybe??
I mean some kid who just started just needs to learn what a pin/double attack etc. is, to recognize it in a game and to use it/defend against it. That's just training. Later on they learn some opening theory (sensible plans, 3 golden rules) and how to make a plan. I train kids myself but when you look at children that just started i can't help it but i often have the impression it's just complete luck who wins (eg they both blunder all the time the person to blunder least wins). As soon as you get stronger you get angstgegners which is really the start of psychology i think. I remember always losing to someone who was lower rated then me until a couple years back. After 1 good victory i am now on a long winning streak against the same person...
When you get even higher prepreration becomes fundamental. Strong GMs trying to trick each other in the opening by introducing computerfound novelties to get an endgame edge... That's also a form of psychology. Still at my level i often find theoretical knowledge to be really lacking so preparing doesn't have much use.

When it comes to assessing what amounts to your chessresults it's hard to tell. For one there is talent (really helps i don't have any for sure otherwise i'd be an IM by now or something) then there is training (which is also the ability to work hard, i lack that i rather blitz on the internet). Still like you said psychological elements are really underestimated. Keeping a clear head in time trouble, being able to turn of your emotions and try to find the best move. I don't really excel at any of these. Just enough to play at a 2200 level i suppose (don't even have the rating yet but i perform like it most of the time)
Still there is always hope i suppose. I beat IMs at OTB blitz and drew Jan Smeets last year in a blitzgame OTB (reigning dutch champ at the time). I think having strong opposition shouldn't be underestimated, playing against weaker opponents doesn't make you stronger.

Finally when it comes to 'fear' this is also highly psychological. I think the ability to turn off this emotion must surely amount to 100 elopoints which is a lot. If i look at all the chances i miss to win won games against good opposition (while playing in the belgian leauge) i might actually be afraid to win...

BTW it's quite impressive to go from 1400 to 1900 in 2 years you might have some talent ;-)
I won about 100 points a year. When i was 16 i had 1600 when i was 21 i had 2100, i still have that now...

 

[Narz]

Well to be fair I didn't plan in tournaments for many years so I probably more likely went from 1600 to 1900.

I think a huge part of my jump (besides doing lots of tactics & some other training) was pushing aside the fear of losing I always used to have (especially in blitz games whenever someone sprung an unusual move on me). I still have it, as I said above but I'm better at ignoring it & trying to think critically in spite of it (not always though, usually due to time trouble). Used to be anyone could just throw a pawn storm at me & I'd get defensive & usually crumble. Now I'm better at recognizing when I can safely ignore it & when I must respond against it instead of immediately getting overly terrified!

 

[Panzar75]

36.Rdd7 Rf2 I think Rxa2 was even better here.

Turns out it was not. After 36...Rxa2+ 37. Kb4 two pieces are under threat and black cannot save both of them with one move. Tactics are on your side in this particular example after 37...Nd5+ 38. Rxd5 Rb2+ there is simply 39. Nb3 blocking the rook and the bishop is pinned preventing it from capturing on d5.

On the whole subject I have nothing much to add to what has been said except Josh Waitzkin has a small course on psychology in Chessmaster 9000 which might be of some interest.

 

[azzaman333]

I have no issue with pressure. In fact, because I feel no pressure, I don't care and I do worse.

 

[WhiteEagle22]

Pressure on me to win causes me to stress out and forget to think about my moves and just make an automated moves instead.

 

[kroket]

Turns out it was not. After 36...Rxa2+ 37. Kb4 two pieces are under threat and black cannot save both of them with one move. Tactics are on your side in this particular example after 37...Nd5+ 38. Rxd5 Rb2+ there is simply 39. Nb3 blocking the rook and the bishop is pinned preventing it from capturing on d5.

Quite right there. Still haven't found the courage to enter the thing in an engine i already know what its gonna say. I have recuperated a bit still feeling bad but life goes on i suppose.
I soundly defeated a decent opponent in this weekends dutch leauge game we were champions already and they had to score 4-4 not to relegate. This ofcourse didn't happen we won 7,5-0,5.
I have decided to post my game in the other topic.

 

[Narz]

This thread inspired a video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bCImj9E69I