I notice I get bad spots in chess and to be fair I have noticed it a lot more when playing online chess and going over the games myself. I see moves that I missed or really should have played and in the years of playing chess I can say that going over your games is a good thing I should do it more often. But sometimes do not have the time.
I analyzed with both Deep Rybka 4 and Houdini on a very strong computer lots of games of the greatest masters of all times, and Capablanca (100% of his games analyzed) was the big winner, ahead of Fischer and the "K champions". Alekhine always made lots of mistakes, even many blunders. He even castled under mate in a world title match against Euwe, and also in a world title match Steinitz allowed the infamous Knight KQR triple check.
Everyone makes mistakes. Even computers, because not all games between Rybka and Houdini end in a draw.
But Capablanca did played the openings like a book, the middlegames like a magician and the endgames like a machine.
Everyone makes mistakes. Even computers, because not all games between Rybka and Houdini end in a draw.
But Capablanca did played the openings like a book, the middlegames like a magician and the endgames like a machine.
On the original poster's question, sometimes it's just variance. Skill fluctuates based on a lot of things, like how tired you are, what sorts of positions you're playing, exactly what opponents you're playing, etc.
All of those things are just normal factors, and fluctuations based on those can more or less be ignored.
On the subject of which opponents you play, one of the deficiencies of the rating systems used for chess is that they all make the assumption that strength is transitive (that is, if player A is stronger than B, and B is stronger than C, then A is stronger than C).
However, some players have especial difficulties against particular opponents much lower rated than they are, because what that particular opponent knows about chess exploits some deficiency in the stronger player's knowledge.
So, if you start getting paired against such players, you can lose a lot of points quickly, and once you factor in things like fatigue, it can get really bad.
In my experience, though, usually the really bad slides in my rating occur for concrete reasons in addition to the above.
For example, I used to play a lot on ICC in the 3 minute pools. My rating was pretty steady in the 2100-2200 range in that pool, and then I didn't play in the pool for something like a month, only studying and playing over the board blitz.
When I started playing in the 3 minute pool again, my rating just plummeted, getting as low as 1700 (!) in the course of a 5 hour marathon session.
Now, I should have just stopped after the first handful of terrible losses, waited a day, and then looked at my games, because then the slide wouldn't have been so dramatic, but I was too frustrated to stop, because I'm somewhat stubborn like that sometimes :)
What I noticed when I examined my games a couple days later was quite informative. In most of my games, I would finish the game with about 1:30 or 2:00 of my initial 3:00 still on the clock, while my opponent as much lower on time, but usually winning.
Consistent with that, I was also moving instantly or premoving a lot, and that cost me a lot of games to mistakes that I wouldn't make if I had thought for a few milliseconds before making the move.
So, I started playing 3 minute again, but made a conscious effort to take a second or two on every move, no matter what.
Voila, my rating started going up again, and ended up back where it started.
In that case, something about the break I took changed my brain so that I defaulted to playing super-quickly, which dropped my level of play drastically.
I said all that to say this: some fluctuation is normal, so I wouldn't worry about swings of, say, 100 points or so. That will inevitably happen at some point.
Once you notice you're in a major downward slide, though, I think the first thing you should do is just stop playing, take a day or two off, and then go over the games you played.
You'll probably notice that, like me, something concrete changed about your play (playing too quickly, playing too slowly, playing openings you don't know well, playing too passively, playing too aggressively, etc.), and then you can take measures to fix it.
The brain is a funny thing, and sometimes things change and you don't know why, so you just have to take a break and make an effortful study to fix it :)
All of those things are just normal factors, and fluctuations based on those can more or less be ignored.
On the subject of which opponents you play, one of the deficiencies of the rating systems used for chess is that they all make the assumption that strength is transitive (that is, if player A is stronger than B, and B is stronger than C, then A is stronger than C).
However, some players have especial difficulties against particular opponents much lower rated than they are, because what that particular opponent knows about chess exploits some deficiency in the stronger player's knowledge.
So, if you start getting paired against such players, you can lose a lot of points quickly, and once you factor in things like fatigue, it can get really bad.
In my experience, though, usually the really bad slides in my rating occur for concrete reasons in addition to the above.
For example, I used to play a lot on ICC in the 3 minute pools. My rating was pretty steady in the 2100-2200 range in that pool, and then I didn't play in the pool for something like a month, only studying and playing over the board blitz.
When I started playing in the 3 minute pool again, my rating just plummeted, getting as low as 1700 (!) in the course of a 5 hour marathon session.
Now, I should have just stopped after the first handful of terrible losses, waited a day, and then looked at my games, because then the slide wouldn't have been so dramatic, but I was too frustrated to stop, because I'm somewhat stubborn like that sometimes :)
What I noticed when I examined my games a couple days later was quite informative. In most of my games, I would finish the game with about 1:30 or 2:00 of my initial 3:00 still on the clock, while my opponent as much lower on time, but usually winning.
Consistent with that, I was also moving instantly or premoving a lot, and that cost me a lot of games to mistakes that I wouldn't make if I had thought for a few milliseconds before making the move.
So, I started playing 3 minute again, but made a conscious effort to take a second or two on every move, no matter what.
Voila, my rating started going up again, and ended up back where it started.
In that case, something about the break I took changed my brain so that I defaulted to playing super-quickly, which dropped my level of play drastically.
I said all that to say this: some fluctuation is normal, so I wouldn't worry about swings of, say, 100 points or so. That will inevitably happen at some point.
Once you notice you're in a major downward slide, though, I think the first thing you should do is just stop playing, take a day or two off, and then go over the games you played.
You'll probably notice that, like me, something concrete changed about your play (playing too quickly, playing too slowly, playing openings you don't know well, playing too passively, playing too aggressively, etc.), and then you can take measures to fix it.
The brain is a funny thing, and sometimes things change and you don't know why, so you just have to take a break and make an effortful study to fix it :)
Yes. I think people actually underestimate what an abundance of time one has when he plays 3 minute games. I really don't understand people who pre-move half their game on such time controls. No wonder they're completely lost after about 20 moves.
I have just started to use the review and analysis after every game and it has given me so much info about the way I play and the style I play to. When I get a bit of time I will defo check out. All the games I have played on here as some of the games I have made massive blunders in my games that has lead me to lose the game and I know there is one game that I could have won but so went wrong. I can then analyse my strengths and weakness in my games to.
There are many players who will deceitfully lower their ratings online in order to fool other players into thinking they are weaker. If you run into these players, it can quickly lower your rating and you may not even realize what's happening. I'd recommend putting a rating floor on your game seeks of under 100 points, playing unrated games, or playing consistently with a player you know well.
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