Dealing with a big losing streak

Note: these games are intentionally analysed without the engine, so please don't share any computer analysis with me :)

I’ve recently written about my first season playing in OTB tournaments.

It’s been a really great experience, transformative even. When people talk about playing OTB changing their relationship with online chess, I’ve really found it to be true and hugely beneficial – freeing up the experience of playing online, as any mistakes or losses are better made over a keyboard than a real one, and also orientating your work towards a bigger goal.

I had a surprisingly good run for my first few games, even reaching a provisional rating of around 2000. When I did get a proper rating, it was still higher than I had initially expected: 1830. I harbour a lingering suspicion that I’m a tad overrated, but this is what the system says I should be rated as. Let's see how things progress.

But the last three games I played all went poorly – and this is what I’m writing about today.

Not changing plans

It isn’t just that I’ve lost a bunch of games. It’s that I’ve struggled against players rated nearly 200 points lower, repeatedly. Part of why I think the quality of my play has dropped is an issue with how I've been thinking about the games while playing.

In this game, I am a little clumsy with the opening but there's loads of play in the position and the momentum shifts back and forth a bit. Yet I become overly fixated on defending my d4 pawn – leading to a game-losing blunder on move 24.

I had expected Qa1 and simply didn't see Qf4, which sets up a nice horizontal battery on the pawn. It's about to fall. But the one thing Qf4 doesn't do that Qa1 did was defend their pawn on a2.

Part of the issue was time trouble. By that point, I was down to about 5 or so minutes and my opponent was around 15 minutes. The positions before didn't warrant the amount of time I spent on them, yet I kept trying to look for some way to force an advantage. Why? My best games have come from playing simple moves and checking to see if there's any unexpected moves for either side, but being content to let the game develop until a critical point appears. I need to get back into that mindset a little more.

I would have been more confident at different stages if my calculation and visualisation was better, a common issue through all the games. Often I would make a bad move in anticipation of how bad the position was going to be, but my bad move led into a worse line with less options. I had a better routine with mate in 2s and mate in 3s previously but have been slacking recently. Looking through the game now is a nice wake up call about how useful those exercises were for all aspects of play.

Pieces on the wrong side of the board

There were a lot of problems with how I played this game (and in time trouble towards the end, some silly blunders). One of them was missing a pretty standard queen and bishop battery, which is the typical move for this variation of the Smith Morra. In my defence, I've focused on tactics and endgames, doing as little opening theory as possible; I don't have plans to change this up, at least for now.

Yet this position pictured above is another example of where my visualisation needs to improve. I have some justification for why and how I moved each piece to where they are, but glancing at the position shows that all the pieces are on the wrong side of the board, are cramped and weak to a number of tactics. My opponent exploits this well – if anything, they could have considered shifting more pressure onto my neglected kingside.

From looking over more Smith Morra games played by masters since, I've begun to recognise how well placed the queen is on e2, and the strength of moving the rooks to open c and d files.

Be brave enough to hold a draw

B3 is a real killer. I'm in time trouble again, but I don't want to use that as an excuse: my instincts were all wrong and with sloppy play I handed an easy win to my opponent.

I tried to scan a few moves ahead and thought I could push through, but that wasn't possible. Why was I so uncomfortable with a draw, or at least, taking it a little slower? I played relatively well in the few moves before this. Part of the issue is the mindshift I mentioned in the first game – trying to force a win too often creates weaknesses. I might have been able to hold a draw if I hadn't pushed, or if not, it would have been a lot more difficult for my opponent to convert.

Conclusion

Like all of us below the 2000+ level, there's huge scope for me to improve the basics of my game – namely tactics and visualisation.

But one bad habit I picked up from playing more fast chess online was trying to force an attack where there wasn't one. In classical OTB, where the game can be upwards of three hours, small weaknesses become the whole focus of play and it's difficult to undo. But it's also true that playing solid, principled moves in fast chess can prompt your opponent to create weaknesses, it's just that you tend to get away more sloppy play.

And when faced with making decisions for the short and long term, I need to improve my visualisation and calculation. That's something everyone can improve on, but it's a clear gap in my recent games. So I'm going to return to focusing on Puzzle Streak, mate in 3s, totally stop playing blitz (some people can handle it; I can't), and try to shift my thinking during slower games (I think looking at more master games will help with that).