I Realized How My Mood Affects How I Play Chess

Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

I just realized that my mood factors in a lot when I'm playing chess, whether it be online or over the board. The fact of the matter is that chess is a game that's played not just with one's wits or strategic prowess but it's also a game of one's psyche and emotions. Having a good mood or disposition could enable you to think clearly and feel good about the moves you're making.

I just realized this now although I probably knew about it but I just didn't put much emphasis on it before. And I decided to write about it because I think I figured out why my performance varies from time to time and why it goes on a cycle. It's the same thing with elite players. When they're in "form" so to speak, they tend to have better results against their peers. It doesn't matter what their current rating may be or what their record is against a certain player, when they're in good form, expect them to produce great outcomes even against the best of the best.

In my case, I've just been playing online so there really shouldn't be much pressure unlike professional players whose livelihoods depend on their performance and results in tournaments. However, I've just noticed that when I'm feeling stressed and couldn't focus on the game, I tend to make very amateurish mistakes even in very simple positions. It doesn't matter who my opponent is or what their rating may be, it may even be against someone who's 400 rating points lower than I am, if I'm not able to concentrate and have a clear mind, it's going to affect how I play. And that's what happened last night.

So it was pretty late in the night, but I was still playing chess online. I had actually wanted to play in order to relieve some of the stress I have from studying for exams but it ended up doing the exact opposite as I wasn't able to make the right decisions, often committing heinous blunders, and it frustrated me a lot. I lost almost a hundred rating points in a span of three hours. I decided to just sleep it off and vowed to get back those points some other time, in much better conditions.

Since our exams had finished today, I had no other worries and so I decided to play chess again. However, I still had some worries so that affected my play. It was only in the past hour or so wherein I was able to take a deep breath and just play the game. That allowed me to concentrate and look at the important things to keep in mind while playing. And because of that, I was able to regain most of the points I lost from yesterday.

I wanted to write this because when I look back at my history of playing chess, there were so many times when I was so, so, so frustrated and kept losing. I didn't know what to do and instead of getting relieved of stress, I was being more stressed out by the activity. Of course, I'm just a casual player so there are other things that occupy my time. But I imagine that for professionals, they would spend most of their waking hours training, studying, and just trying to improve their game. And there might be times when they would also get frustrated or even lose motivation and interest, but at the end of the day, chess is their life and they will always come back to it. So despite the stress they receive from training and all that, it's probably really fun for them as well.