Does Anyone Have a Cure for Anger Problems? |
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Thursday, 04 July 2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
by GM Danny Gormally I played a game a couple of days ago where I lost from a rook up. At the end of the game I completely lost my rag and starting screaming, which was quite embarrassing in hindsight. Really I was angry at myself. Other players in the tournament (including my opponent) saw this meltdown and must have thought "what a nutter". Increasingly I'm suffering from poor emotional control. You'd think I'd get calmer as I get older but at times I even feel I'm tettering on the brink of madness. The problem is as I get older I feel increasingly under pressure to do well, and get distressed when I don't do as well as I think I should. I'm 37 now and chess is the only thing I have and the only thing that I'm any good at. That creates an awful lot of pressure. I've been stuck around "high 2400" - "low 2500" for some time now. I feel that I'm at least potentially better than that but I'm not proving it. The four tournaments I have coming up over the remainder of the summer (Scotland Champs, Ghent, British Champs, Vienna) will go a long way to answering my question about whether I can find any improvement. Looking on the bright side, I've blown off the cobwebs now with that event (the Big Slick in London) so I've certainly not got any excuses for finding my best form. But is my best form good enough? Increasingly I'm beginning to doubt that it is. Not achieving what you want to in life, continually being frustrated, can lead to anger and resentment. Bitterness. It certainly has in my case. It's not just chess that is making me angry though, I'm losing my rag at silly little things and feel I need to get some professional help if it's not to get any worse. It can't be good on the heart either to be getting into a state of rage all the time. I must be in heart attack city right now. GM Daniel Gormally is open for chess lessons. You can contact him using this This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Other posts by GM Danny Gormally: The Depth of Chess Fundraising in chess Nurturing a Chess Prodigy The Sad Case of Borislav Ivanov 4NCL Impressions: no country for old men - Part II 4NCL Impressions: no country for old men One move, one line - Part II One move, one line Candidates Final Review & Preview of Upcoming World Championship Match Would Carlsen have beaten Capablanca?
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 04 July 2013 ) |
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