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André posted an update

a year ago

Heya Nelson, hi everyone!

Nelson, I love your youtube content and also got a few of your courses in the past which helped me a lot to get started with chess. Your teaching style really appeals to me and b1500 totally lives up to my expectations so far!

Having said that I got two question I would love to hear your opinion on if you get a chance:

1. As a father of 4 (including two 7yo firecracker twin boys!) I’m often pretty tired when I get a chance to play chess. My question is whether you think it’s still useful to play chess when feeling tired and a bit cloudy up there or if it’s rather a waste of time or maybe even harmful. I obviously play much worse in theses conditions, but I would hope that it still helps to train the pattern recognition and just gain experience. I do have some doubts about that, however.

2. While trying the Owen’s Defense I ran into the move 4. a3, preventing me from putting my bishop on b4 to pin the knight. According to the lichess database that move isn’t played often (4% with the <1600 rated players) but it seems to be one of the best options for white. Unless I’m missing something it seems to completely ruin the base ideas of the opening for me because I can’t pin the knight and thus I can’t proceed to attack e4 and d5. Do you have any tips on how to handle this other than traversing into a completely different opening?

Cheers, André

Benjamin and Nelson

2 Comments
- Daniel O
  
  Hey mate, I find myself in the same boat sometimes – and I’ve given up playing when tired or distracted (I just get too angry when I lose) so I’ve started doing something low key, like a few puzzles or watching YouTube
  
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  a year ago
- Nelson
  
  Great questions, Andre.
  
  1) I have absolutely noticed a huge difference in my own games as well when I play tired vs well rested. I think it’s about 200 ELO difference for me personally (2200 ELO when I’m tired vs 2400 when I’m rested). That being said, I think you can still learn while tired, just go into it knowing that you will probably make more mistakes and miss more tactics than usual. One thing that I like to do is read chess books or go over some openings lines when I’m really tired because I find I’m still able to do that pretty well.
  
  2) Let me look into this and I’ll see if I can answer this in the group coaching call.
  
  1
  
  a year ago