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I noticed that when I play online I play much better than when I play facing a chess board. I suspect this is due to my table being tall so my angle of view isn't the best one.

So I was wondering if the height of the table and chairs are also more or less the same in tournaments. Does it happen to you too?

Raphael
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    SmallChess' answer does bring up a valid question: When you say "when I play online I play much better than when I play facing a chess board", are you basing this on rating, or other considerations like you realize that you simply hang less pieces? If it is rating, then your premise may be invalid. – PhishMaster Jan 16 '20 at 15:25
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    I miss a lot of moves playing in "real life" that I don't online. That's my point. And regarding SmallChess' question: "Are you sure you really performed stronger online?" Yes because I play sometimes with the same people online and 'offline' and the performance is alway superior online. – Raphael Jan 16 '20 at 15:30
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    OK, so you are not just saying that based on different rating pools, which although they can compare the same people within a pool, that does not extend to a different pool. – PhishMaster Jan 16 '20 at 15:32
  • @PhishMaster No, and for instance, I have a friend with ~1600 at lichess.org, I have ~1900. When we play in front of a board I sometimes even lost :) But never online, not to him anyway. – Raphael Jan 16 '20 at 15:46
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    Tables and chairs vary all over the place. I find the set and board makes more difference than the table although they do vary less. On screen I see better if I can pick the font, board color, and size. Suspect it is due to the viewpoint from above while the pieces are flat not at an angle. Those sort of supposedly realistic board views are terrible. – edwina oliver Jan 16 '20 at 16:31
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    @edwinaoliver I agree, I always use top view with flat pieces. I will try to find a board with flat pieces and see if things improve :) – Raphael Jan 16 '20 at 16:36

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There definitely could be something to this.

My father, and a friend of mine, were air traffic controllers. They both told me that you generally want a smaller screen so you can see everything at once.

The friend was also a chess player, and we talked about how big you wanted the chess app or browser to display the board. It does seem to make sense that if it is smaller, that you can see everything, and thus, not miss something that is in your periphery vision.

I can very easily see that translating to a larger physical board that you see the pieces on an angle, if playing on a computer is your normal way of playing.

Of course, there may, or may not, be studies about this in similar situations; but I figure if the U.S. government trains their people about this, there is probably something to that even if I do not have the source material they base it on.

PhishMaster
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    And yet LIchess in their arrogant whizdumb decided to force the board to fill my screen and removed the option of making it different sizes as I used to do with the browser. That put the clock off screen making the site useless. – edwina oliver Jan 16 '20 at 17:58
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I suspect this is due to my table being tall so my angle of view isn't the best one.

Online ratings are usually inflated or higher than over-the-board rating system. I remember I achieved an 2300+ on chessclub.com, but my FIDE is much less. There were GMs over 3200+ on the system, but they were just about 2600 FIDE level.

Are you sure you really performed stronger online?

ABCD
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    I understand, but I miss a lot of moves playing in "real life" that I don't online. That's my point. And regarding your question: "Are you sure you really performed stronger online?" Yes because I play sometimes with the same people online and offline and the performance is alway superior online. – Raphael Jan 16 '20 at 14:44
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    @smallchess Right back at you. Your "answer" is actually should be a comment asking for clarification first since you make an incorrect assumption, and thus, did not actually answer the question at all. – PhishMaster Jan 16 '20 at 16:44