Does your environment and choice of device affect your gameplay?

[u/Consistent-Disk-8472]

Does anyone else find that the environment you’re in, the device you use etc significantly impacts your gameplay? Because for me, it definitely does. I’m going to caveat this discussion with a disclaimer - I am autistic so I’ve probably unconsciously tricked my mind into the following 😂

I’ve noticed that I seem to play my best games when sat on my chair with a keyboard and mouse - being able to calculate moves by dragging arrows etc and it feels like I’ve got a wider scope of the board. Sometimes I overthink it, and miss a few things but who doesn’t - especially at 1150! (I peaked at 1300 and fell off tremendously).

On my iPad, I’ve been playing alright, nothing special. Usually when I’m on the train or if I’m at cricket, I tend to play decent chess.

However, on my phone I very rarely get settled and struggle to concentrate. I’m usually lying in my bed and it makes me feel tired. Smaller screen, less to look at, I feel tempted to see any notifications that come up on my DnD, naturally means more blunders and shocking games!

Sometimes I won’t want to open my laptop and play chess, and I’ve got an urge to whip out my phone and play after seeing a reel or a TikTok (otherwise I’d go on my laptop all the time).

Does anyone else go through this? Or is it that you always stick to one device no matter what? Or you’re consistent on all of them?

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[u/TheHems]

I see the game about as well as Helen Keller on my phone

[u/DotaFrog]

I play better on pc with the option to visualize and calculate by drawing arrows.

[u/Iammax7 → u/DotaFrog]

And the bigger screen helps.

[u/Consistent-Disk-8472 → u/[deleted]]

The phone thing is legitimately something I can’t help myself with. I’m happy to burn my bullet rating but sometimes I want my rapid elo to go up 🤣

[u/BobNieuport]

Playing chess when I first wake up is like playing drunk. And I keep doing it.

[u/Antique_Platypus_881]

For me, it is about how noisy my environment is. The size of the screen doesn't matter.
If people around me are noisy, I tend to be noisy too and hopelessly blunder. Every now and then, I am reminded of a quote from William James: "Noise is the thief of thought."

[u/2forslashing]

It's either locked in on my pc with music and no other distractions or taking a dump at work, anything in between is a blunder fest

[u/First_Coconut_9374 → u/2forslashing]

love me some blitz poops

[u/burning_stix]

Yes, I play better on a laptop than on mobile. I'm less likely to overlook something on a larger screen, and also less likely to misclick with a mouse.

[u/Sprinkle_In_Hole]

I cannot play on my phone. Have to play at my PC if playing online