Tonight, I will play John Ray and the last time I played him he intimidated me. I don t know why this is so cause I have beaten him at least 3 times in the 10 or so games we have played. I don t wish to be afraid of playing him tonight. I want to play well against him and not be concerned whether I win or lose. I have won 1,002 chess games since I started playing chess seriously in March of 2010. When one has won that many games one should have confidence and not really care who wins. Good luck tonight, Joe..take care..joe 3 months ago

i can t believe how poorly im playing. this is a super slump you might say. i just gave up my queen in a game in which i was way ahead and now i will lose the game..dumb, careless, dumb, careless, dumber, more careless. 5 months ago

In an hour and one half, I will be playing chess at the chess club I started in July 2010. I win once in a while and the players who come are better than me and I hate that. This new guy John is now our 2nd best player and I don t know if I can beat him. I can t beat the number one player, either. I must learn to be content with winning once in a while and continue to sponsor this chess club which is good for me, for the library and for the community, also. 6 months ago

after playing over 3,000 chess games both live and on line,honest, someday i will try to check my notebook to see how many of both there are, i have decided to change my style. i have won 905 games being passive, defensive and my opponents now know this about me so i am changing tonight. i am going to be aggressive from now on and let the chess pieces fall where they may. i have beaten all of the live players i have played so i don t need to prove to them that i can beat them. i will have fun, lose, learn to be aggressive which must be more fun anyway. !! 7 months ago

i can t believe how poor i am in chess compared to the live players i play against. i am average playing on line chess .i have studied , practiced, read about chess and yet now i feel as if i will not be able to beat the members of the chess club i have created. i play this defensive style and they have caught onto that idea and attack me . i need to develop an attacking style ,also. i don t have many problems in life and this chess problem bothers me more than anything. i know that s abnormal but that s the type of person i am. my wife says i live in a dream world. read my goal ..coping with living with a genius.. and you will see why i have the luxury to worry about my chess games. i need to accept the fact that i have to work hard to improve at chess. take care..joe 7 months ago

after monday s 7th loss in a row to curtis, and last nights 2 bad losses to john, i realize that in order to improve at chess, i must study, work, practice much, much harder than the average chess player if i want to improve. i do want to improve so i will work harder at the game. 7 months ago

nearly 3 years ago, i decided to take chess seriously. i have won 894 matches and lost over 2,000. those numbers are hard to believe but they are true. i don t count the losses thinking it would help my confidence to only record the wins and i still think that s the best way to help myself.
recently, many of the players i have been playing against have begun to beat me too regularly. my skills seemed to have leveled off. i have trouble remembering things which i feel i should remember. i will work on this problem. it is also frustrating to accept the fact that i study chess whereas most of my opponents don t study much. george ,my friend, studies not at all and yet he has improved the most in my opinion. i am a chess player win or lose. i should be asking these opponents to help me by telling me ways to improve my game rather then pouting and getting discouraged when i lose. on mondays, i play curtis at mcdonalds and i used to win about one out of ever three games with him but he is now beating me regularly. i think he studies. tonight i play in the local library with the chess club which i have started. i hope i have fun tonight and learn a lot. 7 months ago

i dislike the fact that so many players that i know put little time into the study and practice of chess and yet beat me frequently and at times so easily. what if they were to know about my slow progress in chess, so what if ? i need to say that often when a what if..thought comes into my head. i will stay with this game that i love despite my record. 8 months ago

it takes courage to play chess . i guess that s why so many people refuse to play it. i have had to have courage to keep playing those good players and getting beat, courage to play a 14 yr. old prodigy who kept beating me, courage to keep playing people whom i helped with their game and who passed me. now, i have to have the courage to face the fact that i am improving in my game. it takes a strange kind of courage to face those whom think they can easily beat you and show them you have improved. i will face this courage problem tonight, and tomorrow and everyday that i play chess now. i am not afraid to improve. it must be easier to have that courage than it was to face all that losing all the time. i have been working harder on my chess game and now expect to win when i play. i know that if others worked as hard at the game as i do, they would be better than me but they don t want to work that hard. i am the tortoise in that old fable of the tortoise and the hare. go joe.. take care..joe 9 months ago

i have heard that the BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA have added chess as a merit badge. i will volunteer to help scouts learn the game. as i do so, i have to be prepared to answer this question. why is it that you are not very good at chess, even though you study, play, and practice the game frequently ? it s hard for me to answer that question but the best i can come up with is the game is hard for me. i can help others learn how to play but i can t teach them how to win. i enjoy spreading this game to others and watching them progress and pass me in skill in a short period of time. i am still studying, practicing and playing and hope to get better. i am still below average as a player . my goal is to win a match every once in awhile which i do. take care..joe 12 months ago

someone said the reason i keep losing these close chess matches is so that i make my friends happy and they will like me. maybe, that s the case. i have to now get used to the fact that terry,george, and curtis will beat me regularly in chess now whereas i helped them all return to chess after years of not playing. i beat terry and george for a long time, months, before they started beating me. terry has beaten me 5 straight times and george two straight times. i hope they are happy in their chess games. i want to make others happy. take care..joe 12 months ago

i have spent my adult life trying to decide if i am smart or dumb. my wife says my lack of paying attention to details is the reason for my lack of success in chess. i study chess much harder than my opponents most of whom don t study at all and yet they keep beating me with increasing regularity. why, why, why, why ? i know i should study more but at times i feel like a retarded..politically incorrect term..person trying to play the game.
one who has such an easy life as i do, needs problems, so i have created these chess worries. one girl said i lose in order to make others happy who play me. i think i enjoy the pain which helps me relieve the guilt from having such an easy life. take care..joe 12 months ago

i feel so poor as a player after last night. terry, this young man has improved faster than 70 yr. old me. i won the first game and he says,,i don t know why i play so bad in that game,, i said,, maybe, i played well,, he beat me quickly in the next two games and i was stunned. i sat there refusing to play a 3rd game. when i get beat quickly like that it takes all of my confindence. i have said before that i will never quit this chess hobby so i must learn to cope with the many players that are better than me on most occasions. i will win a game once in a while and that thought should carry me into the future games. take care..joe 13 months ago

i have been promoting a chess club since march of 2011. i am proud to state that our group is growing. we could have 10 regularly attending members if they continue to come to play. i am a below average player but an above average promoter of this great game. i have also began to understand that whether one wins or losses a match one s brain is improved through the process. brain improvement is the whole object of this endeavor. yea..take care..joe 13 months ago

it s hard for me to accept the fact that other players improve much faster than i do at chess. i practice, read, study, play more than any of them and yet they improve faster than i do. it s hard to accept that this game is so much more difficult for me that many others but i know in order to keep playing this game which i think i love, i must accept this fact. i have probably written on 43 more about my chess hobby than any of my other goals. i don t know why that is but i suspect that chess presents a challenge to me that no other part of my life does. i think it s good for me if i can keep negative emotions out of my game . take care..joe 13 months ago

in order to keep playing chess, i need to learn to keep my emotions out of the game. i have to understand skill levels and that i will lose often. i want to feel as if losing doesn t matter, learn from it and move on. i want to remember why i lost, learn from that and play again. i have won 720 matches both live and on line in the past two years, so i know i will win again eventually. losing streaks are hard on my ego but i pull out of them and win. write to me if you feel as if my concerns about chess seem silly with all the world s problems. thanks.. take care..joe 13 months ago

i am confused, ashamed and embarrassed about my behavior during the chess match last thursday against the old chess player roger. why did i act like that ? i lost my queen carelessly in an aggressive move and then resigned in anger after i did that. if i write about that event here and confess it to all of you good people, maybe i can build the self control necessary to not do such things again. i should hand write one thousand time..do not move your queen until you see that such a move is a safe one..take care..joe 13 months ago

i want to take emotions out of my chess games. is this possible ? i hate that people who never practice,read or study chess continue to beat me who studies, practices, reads about chess. i need to accept this fact in order to play these people and to continue to enjoy my hobby. how can i take emotion out of my games ? take care..joe 13 months ago

i think my main problem in chess is forgetting the things i have learned when facing an opponent. can one improve one s memory at age 70 ? i have an acronym s.p.i.t which i try to think of when playing but i keep forgetting the s=safety part. s.safety.. before each move i should think safety first and then move,,position..gain position through development of my pieces i. invade my opponents territory or watch for his,her invasion..tactics..try to use a tactic or trick to gain an advantage..i also need to remember successful ways to avoid problems which opponents present to me. i apologize to those of you who have problems on this site and know my problem must seem trite to you. take care..joe 13 months ago

in order to continue to enjoy chess, i must eliminate the emotional downs which come with the many losses i obtain. i have gotten to the point of accepting losses unemotionally when i have played well but simply outmanuevered but the careless loss of the queen or other important pieces still invokes an emotion which is still very difficult for me to cope with.
i know the people on this site with serious problems must think it s silly for me to worry about chess match losses, but in retirement some seniors, like me, create problems to overcome the boredom of not having any problems.. take care..joe 13 months ago

i lost 2 chess matches to george whom i felt was feeling discouraged. i couldn t sleep thinking of those moves of his. he uses pawns much better than i do. here i am, chairman, starter of the local chess club and becoming the poorest player there. why do i continue this self torture ? i need a better coping mechanism for dealing with these losses. i want to stay with this club and with this came. subconscious, i am asking you to think up a better coping effort so that i may continue to enjoy the game and my club.
the biggest problems in my life involve meaningless chess matches..weird.
the 3rd game i played involved terry , a young man, whom i practically taught to re play the game. he had played on his high school team. at the end of a tense game, with few pieces left on the board, he put a pawn in front of my king and after studying the position, we thought it was a checkmate. curtis, my older friend, whom i also have helped to return to the game after many years of absence, he played in college. curtis said,,,hey, that s an en passant move,,. we have had much trouble learning this en passant rule. a watching player is never to say anything about a game. terry, didn t protest verbally to this advice but he had a disappointed look on his face. the game went on into a draw. i must tell terry next time i see him that he actually won that game. and that would have been my 3rd loss of the night.
we keep no records and have no formal league or anything so the wins and losses have no lasting meaning, anyway. 14 months ago

im getting tired of chess especially the losing part. i have played over 2,500 games both live and on line. i have won 671 but the wins come slowly and after many losses..i will never give up..lol 14 months ago

i have done well with my chess club project and my own game has improved. i am afraid to feel good about this success fearing that it will all crumble and go away. i have been through many tough losses in chess both online and live since march 2010 and have weathered every storm with my hobby intact. my main goal is to maintain this chess hobby regardless of outcomes. i now, truly believe, that i can reach that goal and achieve my secondary goal of growing a chess club in my small town. 15 months ago

i need to accept the fact that george is learning chess faster than i am without studying and only playing a few games a week. 15 months ago

as the time approaches for our chess session, i become anxious, nervous. i have to say my platitudes to myself- serenity, courage, wisdom. i have had much success at starting and growing this chess club. i should be proud. i still hate to lose those silly matches since i am the leader of the club. i have surfed here all day and am tired of all of these web sites.. talk to me. thanks 15 months ago

while playing chess today and losing, i heard my inner voice say, ‘you ll never learn this game’. i don t know why i say such things to myself but i know i want to stop doing so. i made the first step today by hearing the voice. i went on to win the 2nd game. why do i say these things ? 15 months ago

i want to take emotions out of my chess games. it is really absurd to get emotional over a chess game when people around the world need water, food, health to survive. i should be grateful for a healthy mind and body with which to play chess. 15 months ago

this morning, i have heard myself saying negative stuff to myself and i want to quit saying- ‘i am too dumb to learn chess. why can t i remember what ive read about chess ?.. why do i have to work so hard at it while others seem to improve much faster than me ?- i also want to stop comparing myself to others. words of advice and,or encouragement should be commented to me..lol. thanks..joe 16 months ago

one of our club s best chess players is blind and plays with a braille board. if he can deal with all of the difficulties in life which he has to deal with than i can deal with my slow learning of the great game of chess. i can cope with maybe being a laughing stock of the club due to my lack of results equal to the effort i put in. jack , another one of our good players, has the use of only one arm. i am going to think of these two players when i get discouraged. my problems are tiny compared to theirs. 16 months ago

i feel bad knowing that people whom i have taught to play chess are now beating me and they don t study chess like i do. i have to accept my limitations and enjoy the friendships i am making while introducing people to this great game..bad feelings be gone. 16 months ago