I have been playing chess for 13 months and am learning off of the internet, books and go to a chess club for experience. I play chess very often and it is my main hobby. In OTB USCF tournaments, I am winning against 1900s and drawing 2000s. I am estimated 1950 USCF (I have a provisional at the moment). However I am constantly losing to many rating levels on lichess, even though ratings are inflated! Some example games:
90% of the time, I win casual games but lose rated games. Every time I play a bunch of casual games and win, I say to myself I'm on a streak, and try out some rated games... I get crushed very quickly. These were both classical games (which is what I'm trying to improve my rating on, classical) and I'm sure these both had several mistakes. My point is I'm wondering how I can just get some rating points so I can advance up a level. I was very close to reaching 1800 classical but since then I have come down to 1720 after playing about 30 rated games. Every once in a while I win a few which may bring me one step forward, but then I take 2 steps backward.
I have tried playing against lower rated players (800-1400) to farm little bits or 2 or 3 points a game, but I've found it's not worth it once you've lost a game and therefore lose 20 at once.
I've also tried competing with those who are 1700-1800, but I lose those as well, maybe because I wasn't really concentrating...
I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to improve lichess rating so it's more accurate. Who knows, maybe it's accurate where it stands now. Some common suggestions I'm getting are, "Play slower time controls like 15+10". I will definitely try to be doing this. The tournament games I win are G75 and I use 40 minutes of that time, so that could be a major factor, but how am I supposed to stare at a virtual chess board for an hour? Also, "Do a blundercheck every move" I think it's a great idea but I find it very hard to implement into my games. In the first game I gave above, I tried to do a blundercheck on as many moves as I could and deliberately on the 23rd move, but I still missed Bxb8 by my opponent. I suppose I need to be more focused and work on self-control. (Often I play up to 10 moves without actively thinking)
Openings I use (My main openings I would use in tournaments):
White: Queen's Gambit/Catalan
Anti-e4: Caro Kann
Anti-d4: Nimzo-Indian/Semi-Slav
Anti-Nf3/f4/Systems: Reverse Catalan
I am a more positional/cautious than sharp/aggressive player- I quite enjoy the openings I play and am working on getting more practice and experience with them.
I know this is an extremely long post, but I'm just curious what people may think about the situation. I appreciate it if you have read thus far. Happy Checkmating!
-FAJTV
90% of the time, I win casual games but lose rated games. Every time I play a bunch of casual games and win, I say to myself I'm on a streak, and try out some rated games... I get crushed very quickly. These were both classical games (which is what I'm trying to improve my rating on, classical) and I'm sure these both had several mistakes. My point is I'm wondering how I can just get some rating points so I can advance up a level. I was very close to reaching 1800 classical but since then I have come down to 1720 after playing about 30 rated games. Every once in a while I win a few which may bring me one step forward, but then I take 2 steps backward.
I have tried playing against lower rated players (800-1400) to farm little bits or 2 or 3 points a game, but I've found it's not worth it once you've lost a game and therefore lose 20 at once.
I've also tried competing with those who are 1700-1800, but I lose those as well, maybe because I wasn't really concentrating...
I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to improve lichess rating so it's more accurate. Who knows, maybe it's accurate where it stands now. Some common suggestions I'm getting are, "Play slower time controls like 15+10". I will definitely try to be doing this. The tournament games I win are G75 and I use 40 minutes of that time, so that could be a major factor, but how am I supposed to stare at a virtual chess board for an hour? Also, "Do a blundercheck every move" I think it's a great idea but I find it very hard to implement into my games. In the first game I gave above, I tried to do a blundercheck on as many moves as I could and deliberately on the 23rd move, but I still missed Bxb8 by my opponent. I suppose I need to be more focused and work on self-control. (Often I play up to 10 moves without actively thinking)
Openings I use (My main openings I would use in tournaments):
White: Queen's Gambit/Catalan
Anti-e4: Caro Kann
Anti-d4: Nimzo-Indian/Semi-Slav
Anti-Nf3/f4/Systems: Reverse Catalan
I am a more positional/cautious than sharp/aggressive player- I quite enjoy the openings I play and am working on getting more practice and experience with them.
I know this is an extremely long post, but I'm just curious what people may think about the situation. I appreciate it if you have read thus far. Happy Checkmating!
-FAJTV