I have played for two and a half years now and have run into a different feeling of chess. I just got into the habit of playing casual players on instinct alone. After I started doing this I’ve noticed that no matter how much I study or play I don’t play to my full potential (this potential has helped me beat class A players). It is as if I have lost all desire to win. For some reason when I play people I decide to play instinct and not make judgements based on position or calculation, in fact I don’t calculate when I play anymore.
My Question is simple how do I restore my previous passion that had me constantly improving? Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Nimzovich admitted that he got to be strong player because he disliked Tarrasch. I guess you can try to dislike someone who is noticeably stronger than you.
Side step chess as Abba suggested. Maybe study Chess Problems. Which is different than Chess Tactics.
I’ll offer a counter-question: What motivated your passion previously - what things were behind your feeling passionate about chess? If that’s a hard question, ask yourself what you were hoping to achieve or what you have achieved when at your best. Then ask yourself: What’s the next thing to achieve? Or, more simply, what’s your next goal post?
I hesitate on such little information to offer any true concrete examples - your goals have to be yours. But I’ll offer you two: Break out of your provisional rating, and/or break and hold a rating of 1,000 by the end of the year. (I don’t propose that you should adopt either of them… but your reactions to the idea may lead you to clues about what your goals were and what they should be now…)
Just take some time off. Don’t look at anything chess. You need to bring some creativity and originality and fresh thought back into the game. That did it for me.
I found a strange phenomenon. When i took time off, my rating would jump upon return. While i felt a little rust, that was more than compensated for by a renewed energy, zest, creativity, and sometimes a new opening.
i had the same problem awhile ago lost my motivation! then along came the “hartford open” (800$ minimum to all class winners except (unrated). works for me!
You’ve said that now in a couple places. Since your tournament record shows a modest rating and absolutely no activity in the last twenty years (or more), I wonder - should we call you “snow” or “flake”, for short?
You can’t really substitute for good study habits, but there are a couple of Chess Tactic sites on the internet that can hone your instict for finding tactics. The stuff does work, but don’t over do it. When I did a lot of them in a short time, my play actually got worse, since I spent every move trying to find a tactical win.
Doing a 5 or 10min/week on the tactic websites should help in the long run.
Also, after practicing tactics, you might want to flip your study and focus on stratagy. Statagy is really what helps you play so that you can maximize your tactical possibilities.
