OTB vs online play, engines vs. not engines and the realities of life

Good day everyone!

My tournament prep continues!  My first OTB tournament since June fast approaches and I am excited.  I am continuing to win and lose online but have raised my rating (for whatever that is worth) at ICC to 1501.  I of course have no delusion how that will actually translate to my USCF rating in real games.  BUT it does mean I am a better player than I was just last September when my start rating (after a few initial losses ) was hovering at 1200 at ICC.  And of course a few years ago during my first run at ICC my rating was never able to climb past 900 or so.

When I set a seek I always set it for about 30-50 points less than my current rating and about 100-150 points higher than my current rating.  I am definitely trying to get games with better and better players.

But on to today's topic.  I am choosing not to inundate you with my games for this post but instead want to tackle two topic that have come up in recent comments: 


1)  Are internet games a waste of time?


2)  How to use chess engines for post game analysis OR should one use them at all?

These are valid questions!!  VERY valid questions.

Before I provide my answers I want it to be known that this post is in no way meant to be a retort to LinuxGuy, ChessTiger or Laurent S.  (the three posters who inspired me to meditate on these topics!!)  All three of these bloggers have made GREAT and insightful comments throughout the history of my blog.  I welcome their comments.  I am glad they made me think about this stuff.  :)  Now on with it:

Question 1:  Are internet chess games a waste of time?

I will go on record as saying that given the choice, I would ALWAYS prefer OTB play at G/90 or longer over any internet play.  Period!  In fact I believe this SO MUCH that it actually held back my progress as I avoided internet chess for a few years.  My mistake!!   The truth of the matter is that I live, at best, two hours away from a club that has tournaments on a regular basis on weekends.  So even when I do have a Saturday off, it is hard to give up that day off to drive fours hours round trip!  A man has to rest a bit!! 

The closer clubs have tournaments with one game a week BUT my schedule during the school year precludes me from taking part in these types of tournaments.  My weekly schedule deviates SO MUCH with concerts, gigs, last minute rehearsals etc. etc. that I can not commit to a tournament that last 4-5 weeks during the school year.

Now during the summer this should be a little better, and it would have been this past summer until my leg and back problem took me out of commission for the bulk of the summer.  But hey that is life!

During the school year is another issue entirely!  I could just not play at all or play my weekly G/65 at ICC (playing a bit more right now to gear up for the tournament).  It is these weekly G/65 games that I THINK have been a big help in my recent improvement!  It has to be better to play than to not play.  I don't play less then G/60 (unless I am totally bored and whip off a G/30 at Chess.com-but those are RARE and I never play blitz...hate blitz!)

So LinuxGuy is correct when he states OTB is better for us, but reality won't let that happen too much at the moment.   It is better for me to play some games, even if on the internet, than to not play at all!!

So the answer to question 1 is NO, internet chess games are not a waste of time as long I try to find serious competition (within a certain rating range correlated with my rating) and play G/65 or longer 95% of the time.

Question 2:  How to use chess engines for post game analysis OR should one use them at all?

Both LinuxGuy and Chesstiger (and Laurent S) advocated using the engines sparingly, if at all, when going over my games.  And again in a perfect world they are correct.  One should aim to use engines less and less as we grow as players.  I agree with ALL three of them.

Laurent S advocated going over my games with strong players.  But this is tough for the reasons stated above in my answer to question #1.   But the thing is, is that since I can not really get to a strong player for help, the engine(s) is my strong player or players.  They are there to offer me suggestions when I can not figure out the answer myself.  They also make great training partners when a serious internet game can not be found.

Although I have posted on this already (here)  I want to reiterate that I DO NOT just let the engine annotate the game for me while I drink coffee and watch a movie.  I go over the game on my own at least once (usually twice) looking for mistakes and improvements.  THEN I go over the game again with an engine, BUT I have the engine's move choice hidden.  I do not know what the engine is picking!  I can only see the engine's evaluation.  This helps me to see critical moments in the game that I may have missed on my own.  At this point I STOP the engine and try to figure out the better move or plan on my own!  IE:  A styoko type exercise or two or three every time I go over one of my games.  After I give that a go, THEN and ONLY THEN do I look at what the engine's choice would be.  And then for fun I see if another engine or two or three may have another trick up their sleeve!  This part is fun and can often be very very educational!!  This type of analysis has been very instructive and again my recent improvements in play have coincided with taking up this EXACT method of post game analysis.

So the answer to question 2 is YES I should use engines BUT I should strive to gain more and more independence from them.  AND NEVER just let the engine annotate the game while watching a Rugby match!!  Engine use must be interactive for it to be of any benefit.

So there ya go!  Have a great rest of the week everyone!