Answers.Body: <p>A suggestion would be to delete your account on the website you are playing. It's hard to click "delete", losing all your statistics and games, but after it's done you might feel like going back to the point you were before would take too much time, so you decide to do something else instead.</p>
  
  <p>I had this issue with a particular video game, I decided to delete my character and never played the game again. I had urges, but I felt like it would take too much time to get back where I was and I didn't want to redo the same things I did before. I mean, you can easily rank up in chess with a new account, but the idea is that you might not want to do it.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-08-25T09:22:40.817Z
Answers.Text: Good suggestion but -1 because I don't want people do this.
Answers.UserDisplayName: TwilightSparkle
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-08-25T20:44:36.790Z
Answers.Text: @HighlyRadioactive can you expand a bit on this? Why wouldn't you want people to delete their account? Does it have an impact on you?
Answers.UserDisplayName: jgadoury
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-08-26T00:43:03.630Z
Answers.Text: For some people it may not work, it will haunt them for an entire life instead. I know this because I once did.
Answers.UserDisplayName: TwilightSparkle
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-04-19T20:12:18.740Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2017-04-19T20:12:18.740Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: jgadoury
Answers.Body: <p>"How do I get rid of chess addiction? Both winning and losing just make me play more, and in the end, <strong>after many hours of play</strong>, I feel miserable."</p>
  
  <p>You have a very solvable problem. 'many hours of play' is the real culprit. </p>
  
  <p>Limit yourself to a set timeframe. I won't play more than an hour or so in a day, which for me, would be 2 games at a time control of G15 (15 minutes per side for entire game). I find it gives me enough time to play reasonably, and the games are enjoyable.</p>
  
  <p>With the following time controls, in 1 hour you can play: </p>
  
  <p>G3 - 10 games</p>
  
  <p>G5 - 6 games</p>
  
  <p>G10 - 3 games</p>
  
  <p>G15 - 2 games</p>
  
  <p>G30 - 1 game</p>
  
  <p>An important aspect of this is that with G10 and slower, you should always review your games. Spend any additional time after playing on this and learn something.</p>
  
  <p>Chess is to be played and enjoyed.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2017-04-24T13:44:53.457Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2017-04-24T13:44:53.457Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Priyome
Answers.Body: <p>I gave the password of my online chess account to a best friend.  She controls when I can have access to my online chess app.  I can create a new account, however, I don't because I want to play with my existing account, which has a long history.  It worked. I ask her for it during the weekend and in the evening. It was the last measure I had to do after everything else failed.  Online chess can be very addictive.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-11-13T19:49:55.687Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-11-13T19:49:55.687Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Sami adami
Answers.Body: <p>If you are playing online, one thing you can do is to make a password like "dontplaytoomuch" or something. It sounds silly, but having this sort of password (I mix it up with numbers, for any hackers watching) is a small but nice nudge. There are studies showing these small things can add up, which is fortunate, because so often small things can send us into a time wasting spiral.</p>
  
  <p>Addictive behavior in general is tricky to deal with, and it's important to recognize when you are just playing out of inertia. Often this becomes obvious if you make a really dumb mistake. There's a double benefit to this: you save rating points. Maybe you can even step back and look to improve your game.</p>
  
  <p>But regardless of how your addictive behavior invades your life, there are ways around it. For instance, I caught myself playing FreeCell to put off things I needed to do, so I</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>deleted the Windows Freecell.exe app</li>
  <li>installed a SiteBlock extension for my various web browsers to avoid a certain freecell site. I googled "add-on to restrict time on a website" and found some nice ones. Now, you can use a password to re-enter a site, but the point is, it's deliberately intrusive and difficult.</li>
  <li>Finally, I wrote a FreeCell game in Python, to learn something. You may not want to take the drastic step of writing a chess engine, but I know I played chess out of inertia a lot, forgetting the main reason I played it was that I could learn and enjoy trying new things. So maybe you need to evaluate something you really want to learn that might give you the same happiness you used to get from chess.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Other points:
   - this may seem paradoxical, but set aside a half-hour per day for playing games. If you can stick to it, this will help you feel you aren't totally missing out.
   - I don't know if you have options to set up a profile, but even typing "I like to play chess, but sometimes I lose track of time play too much. If I've been on for an hour, and I challenge you, can you poke me to get back to work?" may help. This is true without beating yourself up, and maybe it will help other people get back to stuff you need to do.
   - Write a program to kick yourself out after an hour, or you might even ask on various channels if someone has written a time-management program that allows you an hour per day. You probably aren't the first to ask about this!</p>
  
  <p>There are many tools out there to help you. But as @postnubilaphoebus says, and @Habbo commented, it's important to recognize there are better ways to spend your time. Playing chess has definite diminishing returns to scale.</p>
  
  <p>Having goals outside chess helps. Maybe it is just getting through a book before it is due at the library, or working out, or connecting with old friends, or making new ones. If you're worried you might not be good at it, well, you're not alone in getting sucked into online life.</p>
  
  <p>The main thing I've found with addictive behaviors is framing it as "I want to give myself a reason to do something cooler" works a lot better than "I have to stop doing this."</p>
  
  <p>Good luck! I think all of us chess players can be prone to going into a chess-playing shell, so don't be too ashamed of getting in a rut even if it's lasted a while. I hope you get lots of other suggestions on this topic, because moving on from habits that aren't quite as fun any more isn't as easy as it seems it should be. And some things work much better for some people than for others.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2017-04-20T00:05:10.770Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2017-04-20T04:24:10.150Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2017-04-20T04:24:10.150Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: aschultz
Answers.Body: <p>You are probably referring to online chess and I know this problem, because I've suffered from online chess adiction at least a year or so.
  It helped me to realise that those imaginary rating points online are not worth anything and that playing at fast time controls does not improve your chess (too much bullet might even harm it).</p>
  
  <p>Therefore, I suggest, you approach chess a bit more seriously over the board, so you have successes you can be proud of. This means that you don't need the kick of online chess anymore, or at least that was the case for me. </p>
  
  <p>Try finding something that makes you happy when you do it. For me, it is, at least sometimes, to be productive in any kind of way (choose an area of your liking) or to simply relax or hang out with friends. Generally speaking, playing lots of online chess is one of the LEAST PRODUCTIVE things you can do and nothing that will propel your skill in any area. Hanging out with your friends for instance, is a much better way of spending your time.
  I mean, I could go on about this, but those are my initial thoughts. If you have any specific questions about how I got rid of my online chess addiction, you may as well shoot me a message.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-04-19T19:53:37.913Z
Answers.Text: What are the list of things to do to get rid of online chess addiction that is just a click away.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Srinivasan
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-04-19T19:58:00.263Z
Answers.Text: There is no golden recipe, but it is a good start to acknowledge what a waste of time it is, already by the first game.
  Another way is to get rid of your mouse. Then your'e too slow and will be so angry about losing on time too often, that you stop playing.
  Another way might be to install "cold turkey", a program that blocks certain websites for a predetermined period of time.
  Also, take some of the advice I posted above.
Answers.UserDisplayName: postnubilaphoebus
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-04-19T20:08:14.807Z
Answers.Text: Why do you say that "playing chess online is one of the least productive things"? It can be both fun and instructive if you play the right time controls with what you aim to improve. Chess is a hobby and a passion after all, it's not like OP is smoking crack
Answers.UserDisplayName: jgadoury
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-04-19T20:56:00.247Z
Answers.Text: I just rated it on a productivity scale. That does not mean that playing online chess cannot score very high on eg a fun scale.
  
  Concerning the improvement part though, I stay with my opinion. Online chess does not really help you to improve your skills.
Answers.UserDisplayName: postnubilaphoebus
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-02-11T23:59:10.000Z
Answers.Text: @postnubilaphoebus I'm new to the game, but I seriously wonder about the veracity of your claim.  A chess game is merely the sequences of moves by opposing players.  Why does "online" remove its value at helping one improve skills?  Why must we handle physical pieces?  If I play with long time controls online, how it is less experience-building than an OTB game?
Answers.UserDisplayName: TomServo
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Answers.CreationDate: 2020-03-10T12:21:28.617Z
Answers.Text: @TomServo
  That is a good question! I would say, it depends. Most online chess revolves around playing Blitz or Bullet games and they often resemble the fast-paced environment that is more akin to gaming (the kind that can be addictive, involves losing streaks and tilting). In Blitz or Bullet you just demonstrate the patterns you already know. Only longer games (rapid or long time controls) require you to challenge your assumptions, find a plan, calculate more and play "deeper" moves overall. In essence, long games teach you how to think properly and for instance avoid rumination.
Answers.UserDisplayName: postnubilaphoebus
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-03-10T12:24:58.643Z
Answers.Text: @TomServo
  So yes, online chess can also be productive and help you improve.
  I personally do not like playing long games online because there are a lot of cheaters and I'm often too lazy if the game does not involve real rating points. But if it works for you, that's great :)
Answers.UserDisplayName: postnubilaphoebus
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Answers.CreationDate: 2017-04-19T19:36:56.870Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2017-04-19T19:36:56.870Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: postnubilaphoebus
Body: <p>How do I get rid of achess addiction? Both winning and losing just make me play more, and in the end, after many hours of play, I feel miserable.</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-04-19T19:25:53.513Z
Comments.Text: The main reason of most addictions is the lack of social interaction. Do you have friends, work, school or anything else to spend your time on?
  
  If you are unable to join a chess community in order to gain some social interaction in your life, I recommend starting another hobby that includes going outside and meeting people. That is my experience.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Habbo
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-04-21T19:14:24.103Z
Comments.Text: I just add that you should not feel to bad about the addiction *per se*, because nontrivial games, particularly non-chance, perfect information variants such as Chess, are widely regarded to be intelligence building, with the history of Artificial Intelligence as an algorithmic validation of this idea.  Even [Confucius felt there way value to these games!](https://www.quora.com/What-did-Confucius-say-about-the-game-of-weiqi-Go), and he is still regarded as one of the great sages.
Comments.UserDisplayName: DukeZhou
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-02-13T00:43:50.397Z
Comments.Text: see a shrink.  they can help you solve addiction.
Comments.UserDisplayName: edwina oliver
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-02-13T07:34:56.727Z
Comments.Text: @Laska it's promoting behaviour that is illegal on many sites and unsportsmanlike.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Glorfindel
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-02-13T08:55:46.297Z
Comments.Text: I can see your point of view @glorfindel but I don’t think letting the post remain implies promotion and I don’t think it’s always unsportsmanlike to do this. It depends on the site and the context. There are certainly situations when it would be antisocial and should not be done in my opinion. I should say I have never done this myself under any circumstances.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Laska
Tags: <psychology>
Title: Getting rid of a chess addiction
ThreadText: # Getting rid of a chess addiction
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2017-04-19)
  
  How do I get rid of achess addiction? Both winning and losing just make me play more, and in the end, after many hours of play, I feel miserable.
  
  **Tags:** psychology
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: The main reason of most addictions is the lack of social interaction. Do you have friends, work, school or anything else to spend your time on?  If you are unable to join a chess community in order to gain some social interaction in your life, I recommend starting another hobby that includes going outside and meeting people. That is my experience.  
  > **username_2**: I just add that you should not feel to bad about the addiction *per se*, because nontrivial games, particularly non-chance, perfect information variants such as Chess, are widely regarded to be intelligence building, with the history of Artificial Intelligence as an algorithmic validation of this idea.  Even [Confucius felt there way value to these games!](https://www.quora.com/What-did-Confucius-say-about-the-game-of-weiqi-Go), and he is still regarded as one of the great sages.  
  > **username_3**: see a shrink.  they can help you solve addiction.  
  > **username_4**: @username_5 it's promoting behaviour that is illegal on many sites and unsportsmanlike.  
  > **username_5**: I can see your point of view @username_4 but I don’t think letting the post remain implies promotion and I don’t think it’s always unsportsmanlike to do this. It depends on the site and the context. There are certainly situations when it would be antisocial and should not be done in my opinion. I should say I have never done this myself under any circumstances.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 5 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_11 on 2017-04-19. Score: 10 | Accepted answer
  
  You are probably referring to online chess and I know this problem, because I've suffered from online chess adiction at least a year or so.
  It helped me to realise that those imaginary rating points online are not worth anything and that playing at fast time controls does not improve your chess (too much bullet might even harm it).
  
  Therefore, I suggest, you approach chess a bit more seriously over the board, so you have successes you can be proud of. This means that you don't need the kick of online chess anymore, or at least that was the case for me.
  
  Try finding something that makes you happy when you do it. For me, it is, at least sometimes, to be productive in any kind of way (choose an area of your liking) or to simply relax or hang out with friends. Generally speaking, playing lots of online chess is one of the LEAST PRODUCTIVE things you can do and nothing that will propel your skill in any area. Hanging out with your friends for instance, is a much better way of spending your time.
  I mean, I could go on about this, but those are my initial thoughts. If you have any specific questions about how I got rid of my online chess addiction, you may as well shoot me a message.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: What are the list of things to do to get rid of online chess addiction that is just a click away.  
  > **username_11**: There is no golden recipe, but it is a good start to acknowledge what a waste of time it is, already by the first game. Another way is to get rid of your mouse. Then your'e too slow and will be so angry about losing on time too often, that you stop playing. Another way might be to install "cold turkey", a program that blocks certain websites for a predetermined period of time. Also, take some of the advice I posted above.  
  > **username_6**: Why do you say that "playing chess online is one of the least productive things"? It can be both fun and instructive if you play the right time controls with what you aim to improve. Chess is a hobby and a passion after all, it's not like OP is smoking crack  
  > **username_11**: I just rated it on a productivity scale. That does not mean that playing online chess cannot score very high on eg a fun scale.  Concerning the improvement part though, I stay with my opinion. Online chess does not really help you to improve your skills.  
  > **username_12**: @username_11 I'm new to the game, but I seriously wonder about the veracity of your claim.  A chess game is merely the sequences of moves by opposing players.  Why does "online" remove its value at helping one improve skills?  Why must we handle physical pieces?  If I play with long time controls online, how it is less experience-building than an OTB game?  
  > **username_11**: @username_12 That is a good question! I would say, it depends. Most online chess revolves around playing Blitz or Bullet games and they often resemble the fast-paced environment that is more akin to gaming (the kind that can be addictive, involves losing streaks and tilting). In Blitz or Bullet you just demonstrate the patterns you already know. Only longer games (rapid or long time controls) require you to challenge your assumptions, find a plan, calculate more and play "deeper" moves overall. In essence, long games teach you how to think properly and for instance avoid rumination.  
  > **username_11**: @username_12 So yes, online chess can also be productive and help you improve. I personally do not like playing long games online because there are a lot of cheaters and I'm often too lazy if the game does not involve real rating points. But if it works for you, that's great :)  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_6 on 2017-04-19. Score: 6
  
  A suggestion would be to delete your account on the website you are playing. It's hard to click "delete", losing all your statistics and games, but after it's done you might feel like going back to the point you were before would take too much time, so you decide to do something else instead.
  
  I had this issue with a particular video game, I decided to delete my character and never played the game again. I had urges, but I felt like it would take too much time to get back where I was and I didn't want to redo the same things I did before. I mean, you can easily rank up in chess with a new account, but the idea is that you might not want to do it.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_7**: Good suggestion but -1 because I don't want people do this.  
  > **username_6**: @HighlyRadioactive can you expand a bit on this? Why wouldn't you want people to delete their account? Does it have an impact on you?  
  > **username_7**: For some people it may not work, it will haunt them for an entire life instead. I know this because I once did.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_8 on 2017-04-24. Score: 5
  
  "How do I get rid of chess addiction? Both winning and losing just make me play more, and in the end, **after many hours of play**, I feel miserable."
  
  You have a very solvable problem. 'many hours of play' is the real culprit.
  
  Limit yourself to a set timeframe. I won't play more than an hour or so in a day, which for me, would be 2 games at a time control of G15 (15 minutes per side for entire game). I find it gives me enough time to play reasonably, and the games are enjoyable.
  
  With the following time controls, in 1 hour you can play:
  
  G3 - 10 games
  
  G5 - 6 games
  
  G10 - 3 games
  
  G15 - 2 games
  
  G30 - 1 game
  
  An important aspect of this is that with G10 and slower, you should always review your games. Spend any additional time after playing on this and learn something.
  
  Chess is to be played and enjoyed.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_9 on 2020-11-13. Score: 3
  
  I gave the password of my online chess account to a best friend. She controls when I can have access to my online chess app. I can create a new account, however, I don't because I want to play with my existing account, which has a long history. It worked. I ask her for it during the weekend and in the evening. It was the last measure I had to do after everything else failed. Online chess can be very addictive.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_10 on 2017-04-20. Score: 3
  
  If you are playing online, one thing you can do is to make a password like "dontplaytoomuch" or something. It sounds silly, but having this sort of password (I mix it up with numbers, for any hackers watching) is a small but nice nudge. There are studies showing these small things can add up, which is fortunate, because so often small things can send us into a time wasting spiral.
  
  Addictive behavior in general is tricky to deal with, and it's important to recognize when you are just playing out of inertia. Often this becomes obvious if you make a really dumb mistake. There's a double benefit to this: you save rating points. Maybe you can even step back and look to improve your game.
  
  But regardless of how your addictive behavior invades your life, there are ways around it. For instance, I caught myself playing FreeCell to put off things I needed to do, so I
  
  * deleted the Windows Freecell.exe app
  * installed a SiteBlock extension for my various web browsers to avoid a certain freecell site. I googled "add-on to restrict time on a website" and found some nice ones. Now, you can use a password to re-enter a site, but the point is, it's deliberately intrusive and difficult.
  * Finally, I wrote a FreeCell game in Python, to learn something. You may not want to take the drastic step of writing a chess engine, but I know I played chess out of inertia a lot, forgetting the main reason I played it was that I could learn and enjoy trying new things. So maybe you need to evaluate something you really want to learn that might give you the same happiness you used to get from chess.
  
  Other points:
  - this may seem paradoxical, but set aside a half-hour per day for playing games. If you can stick to it, this will help you feel you aren't totally missing out.
  - I don't know if you have options to set up a profile, but even typing "I like to play chess, but sometimes I lose track of time play too much. If I've been on for an hour, and I challenge you, can you poke me to get back to work?" may help. This is true without beating yourself up, and maybe it will help other people get back to stuff you need to do.
  - Write a program to kick yourself out after an hour, or you might even ask on various channels if someone has written a time-management program that allows you an hour per day. You probably aren't the first to ask about this!
  
  There are many tools out there to help you. But as @username_11 says, and @username_1 commented, it's important to recognize there are better ways to spend your time. Playing chess has definite diminishing returns to scale.
  
  Having goals outside chess helps. Maybe it is just getting through a book before it is due at the library, or working out, or connecting with old friends, or making new ones. If you're worried you might not be good at it, well, you're not alone in getting sucked into online life.
  
  The main thing I've found with addictive behaviors is framing it as "I want to give myself a reason to do something cooler" works a lot better than "I have to stop doing this."
  
  Good luck! I think all of us chess players can be prone to going into a chess-playing shell, so don't be too ashamed of getting in a rut even if it's lasted a while. I hope you get lots of other suggestions on this topic, because moving on from habits that aren't quite as fun any more isn't as easy as it seems it should be. And some things work much better for some people than for others.
  
  
  ---
  
  