Flowers for Algernon (only worse)

It has been a year or so since I finished the De La Maza program. From the time I started to the time I finished, my rating shot up about 150 points. It probably would have gone up more, but I stopped playing in March 2005 when I finished. During the prior 3 months, I scored 9.5 of 11 with a performance rating of 1974. Impressive results, but were they permanent?

Last weekend, I was out of town on business, and I had a chance to play in a USCF tourney, U1800 section. I knew I would be a bit rusty so I ran through some level 1& 2 on CT Art the week before in my hotel room.

Results were worse than I expected. 1.5 out of 4 with a performance rating of 1050. My sole victory was over an opponent rated 560 (Beat the hell out of that middle schooler though!). My third round opponent looked at my dismal performance in our game and knowingly suggested that I must be sandbagging in an attempt to lower my rating. Can't say I blame him. I lost that game on move 10 when I hung a knight. Not "dropped a knight to a 3 move combination" but outright hung a knight.

I haven't done the math yet, but it is probably my worst performance in the 20+ years I have been playing tournament chess (and I used to play a lot of round 1 and 3's dreadfully hung over in my college years). If I had scored 2.5, I might have written it off to a bit of rust combined with a run of bad luck, but my performance required something extra. I was not playing nearly at the level I was before; I was not playing as well as I was before I started De La Maza training. In fact, I think I was playing worse than I ever had. I had become accustomed to playing very sharp lines that I could play better than my opponent. I had some good moves and saw a few choice patterns, but I couldn't calculate my way out of a (soggy) paper bag. I was thinking like a class A player and calculating like a class E player.

I play chess for recreation only, and I am always fighting the self-improvement rat race. It's just a game; and it should never be work. That said,

This cannot stand!

I absolutely refuse to be this bad.

Hiatus suspended.

I'm back.