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Stall/speed up psychology
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tactical_abyss
08-Feb-13, 15:10

Stall/speed up psychology
Often,I hear complaints about an opponent slowing down when he is either in a mating net,down a major piece or is simply in a hopeless position.Some players are so slow,that a turtle could move faster if it was stuck in liquid nitrogen.This is not my opinion,just passing on the info!But then when a player is in a winning scenario,he wants everything suddenly "sped up" and suddenly expects his opponent to move like greased lightning and throw in the towel yesterday.Right?But lets examine some of the "deeper"reasons that few players talk about,admit or have no idea of true reality.

Yes,if a player is in a losing situation,many times they will slow down.It could be for reasons that they want to examine the game a bit closer,or seek perhaps another way to possibly escape the loss,maybe find a draw or stalemate or maybe they simply want to finish the game to checkmate for their own personal learning reasons.These are all good legitimate reasons,including the fact that they are entitled to use the full length of time alloted in their game to move,even if down to the last picosecond or trillionth of a picosecond!

But are these the only reasons?Hmmmmm.....ahhhhh.....NO!
There are,for example,more "sinister"reasons for the stall and other reasons not sinister at all.

1.Some players want to purposely annoy you and get you agitated!Not necessarily on the higher rated levels,but on the lower rated levels i've seen players winning the game and were "floating"high with confidence,then the game slowed down from a fast heart beat to a slow drop of water off an icicle.Well what does this do?Just like the OTB strategy of moving slow,when your opponent is moving fast,it can cause subconscious ripples in your opponent.
He may be playing 50 other GK games,maybe more on additional chess sites and the delay may be "just enough" of an annoyance to make him blunder one of his CONDITIONAL moves he lined up for you due to the other players stall.It may,for example,rush him into a frenzy even faster,where he does not recheck all his conditional moves and makes some kind of blunder.Even if its 1 chance out of a 1000,well,why not,that player is thinking?And even if not a conditional blunder,it could cause a player to lose his "train of thought"due to being just a tiny bit edgy about that players slowdown and make a small mistake somewhere.

2.Another reason would be:Lets say the player who is winning and wants the game to proceed like warp 25 has a history of time-outs.Lets say its perhaps 18% or higher.Ok.Then the stalling player "hopes"that the player who is winning just by chance times-out during the max time the losing player is using.See?Trust me,it happens alot.And heres a secret:Time-outs occur more around Christmas and Thanksgiving than any other time of the year!So,then,it would make sense,to stall the game during this time,in the hopes's(even remotely) that the winning opponent times-out!Again,it happens!

3.The stalling/losing opponent wants to use the full amt of time to plug his moves into a strong chess program with full analysis(cheating) to see what the silicon can do for him.Maybe find a miracle?

4.And heres one other reason that is never admitted:
Some players know they will lose soon but slow down because they are sooooo close to that special rating number they waited for 3 years that are finally in reach BUT not quite!Its soooooo close say,they are at 1998 and desperately want that 2000 rating.But if they throw in the towel to you,they may not see it again for another year!But by stalling,they may have just one other WIN coming up that they can reach that precious 2000 rating to raise it above their heads and smile ear to ear!Even if they have a 2000 rating for only 24 hours!So they delay.And even when they lose to you a few weeks later(by stalling as much as possible),they will in the meantime MAY have beaten that other player and reached that 2000 level!Its a psychological reward to themselves.Maybe they might even beat 2 or 3 other players in the meantime,so that their 2 or 3 point loss to you won't even be noticed and they will still be at exactly 2000 in rating.Again,some opponents play the numbers game.

Speeding up:

Other players need to speed up the game they know they are about to win to gain that rating plateau or to simply get that ego boost...."ill dare that lowly opponent of mine to wreck my thrill of victory for another 2 weeks"!See?

Don't let that staller put bad thoughts in your mind!Just keep saying...you can run,but you can't hide!
Heres's some medicine for the impatient:
Next time your losing a game on GK and especially if your in a mating net,plug in your OWN conditional moves to mate yourself saving time for your opponent to destroy you!Kill yourself,do not let your opponent do it for you!That may be harder to do than you think!
Go ahead!Cross over that psychological barrier!

Can you do that?Then you will have snatched one of the pebbles from the abyss's hand of wisdom and have learned something on the higher plateau of your "id"!

TA







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