Recover lost passion

Question

Last year I played in a chess league in my city (Average of 1800 ELO). But I currently have a sense of boredom with chess in general. I have lost the passion for this game. Winning or losing don't affect me too much. I'm focused mainly on the quality of my games.

Playing chess tournaments takes some preparation: like tactics, endings, openings, ... I don`t feel bored with preparation or training.

But In the moment when I play with another person, I don´t enjoy it. I enjoy more playing against the computer. but this doesn't make sense. If anybody trains to be better, it is to put this learning into practice.

Could you give me any suggestions to recover the encouragement to play? Any tip to enjoy playing chess tournaments? What tips do you use to maintain your motivation at a high level?

Answer 1

First, there seems to be nothing wrong with wanting quality over quantity in your games. But if you're worried that a creeping perfection is ruining your chances to enjoy a game, maybe you just need a break. I know there were times I thought I was getting bored with chess, so I played in a tournament to prove I wasn't, and I wound up playing what was frankly pretty boring chess just to avoid blunders, and I wound up more and frustrated than when I started.

Discovering knowledge for its own sake can be extremely rewarding. I had a lot of fun running my old games through a chess engine to see what sort of mistakes I commonly made. It was tough, but revealing.

Perhaps you are at a phase where studying things without the pressure of winning and losing is more exciting, or the enjoyment last longer. "Winning isn't everything" is a bit of a cliche, but in this case, maybe you will have more fun just meeting once a week to play several blitz games and to try out new odd openings.

Answer 2

If this only concerns playing in tournaments just play casual non-tournament games.

I am not sure how you would judge the "quality of your games" if the outcome (win/loss) is not important to you.

If you haven't done so already, perhaps joining a chess club and playing in team competitions could motivate you.

Answer 3

If you are new to Chess subject, then you might be interested in gaining the knowledge of Chess.

This and this site suggests different books to excel in Chess.

If you already aware of subject then you might be interested in Chess variants. Few are:

1. Crazyhouse
2. Chess960
3. King of the Hill
4. Three-check
5. Antichess
6. Atomic
7. Horde
8. Racing Kings

In Lichess, all the above listed chess variants are available to play.

Trying different Chess variants would probably interests you in playing.

Answer 4

I think you need to change your Openings . There are a lot of Youtube vidoes from different GMs and Players . Do not repeat the same kind of positions , Websites or materials .

You must change everything to gain back your interests . Even you should change your Chess Heroes .

Change is inevitable and you should be flexible and adaptable to it . Do not follow a rigid course .

Answer 5

To quote IM Jeremy Silman:

What to do if a Young Player Gets Stuck After Achieving His/Her Goals

A young player that achieves his goal (in this case making master) but then stalls for a long period of time has, in most cases, moved on to other interests (school, sports, dating, other intellectual passions, etc.). For him to improve, he’ll need to study hard AND, most importantly, get jazzed by chess again. In other words, if he doesn’t find chess more than a fun pastime, then it’s doubtful that he’ll make another surge until some future time when he decides that’s what he wants to do.

Of course, there’s no doubt that a talented young player could be much stronger if he decided that this was a life priority, but I’ve seen the passion for chess vanish in many promising kids once that master rating was achieved and university beckoned. This might or might not change at some point in the future. If the newly minted young master does decide to go to another chess level, and he understands and embraces the need for hard work to achieve that goal, then his talent will easily take him there.

I should add that those young men who become grandmasters by their early teens are driven to do so. To them, chess is usually life itself – it’s all they can think of. They eat it, breathe it, and live it in their dreams. The young men and women you asked about don’t have that kind of obsession, and I think that’s usually a good thing!

To answer your original question, "How to enjoy the (local) chess tournaments?" Remember if you keep improving you're going to grow and become better. Eventually you'll be playing at a well-known state, or even national tournament.