Hello All!
I've recently gotten really frustrated with chess and how I play. I'm rated around 1270 at the moment but just two days ago I was rated 1350. I lost a game that I could have won easily and have just snowballed from there. If you visit my profile, you'll see that my last 5 games have resulted in 15 point drops, and all of them are games that initially am winning, but then my position collapses or I blunder and I lose the game. I was wondering if anyone understands how I feel and how I can maybe improve and not feel frustrated and depressed after I lose a game because of a blunder. It weighs me down a lot, and I feel is partially why I'm losing so much recently. Any and all advice is appreciated! :)
I suggest taking a break. Could be for a day, could be for a week.
If you get worried about every game, chess will be tough.
You have to focus on how you play, and try to play your best moves in each game, and learn from your last games.
If you see chess as a learning experience and not as just holding some rating, your rating will improve anyway. But you have to focus on learning, not on what your rating is. Each loss is a learning experience and its best to think of it like that. If you learn something, it wasn't a waste of time.
kesh, I think most everyone has experienced the same thing at one time or another. I've experienced crazy losing streaks and some very sad loses. { TAKE A LOOK AT My -profile } / I get frustrated, i laugh at myself, i remind myself that it is just a game... A BEAUTIFUL GAME and then i empty the cup... RELAX and find the right move, one move at a time. cheers, have heart.
Yes, one bad move can easily spoil a completely winning position or vice versa, which is essentially the nature of this game. That doesn’t mean this game is merciless, it’s more about how one reacts to what’s thrown at them.
Ofcourse, it might not just be the rating loss and blunders you may be frustrated about, even little things can be frustrating to some such as playing in a noisy environment or even fudging up a line you’ve learnt in a particular opening.
What I’m getting at is, I think it helps to enjoy the overall process while playing, i.e. don’t just focus on the destination but the journey itself. Even if you end up miscalculating or blundering away the entire game, just be perfectly relaxed and continue playing the position with a fresh set of eyes.
It’s definitely tricky at the start, but working on mindfulness and meditating has helped me. Not just in chess, but you will notice that you are less susceptible to become frustrated in other things you do day to day.
Just my two cents, hope it helps. Feel free to PM me if you need anything else.
Have a wonderful day! :)
Just don't play standard chess, it's not yours. You should try variants, and maybe you'll find yourself in one or couple of them. I know some players who are bad at standard, but they've become very good at variants. As for me, I have no idea how to play normal chess, but I even was an antichess champion for several hours (now I'm in top-50).
Good luck.
"The hardest game to win is a won game." — Lasker
One way to think about chess is that you're only as strong as your weakest move. The strength of your moves, especially as you improve, doesn't really average out since if you lose a piece then it's pretty much game over in many positions even if you play like Carlsen for the rest of the game.
Something that can help with this is doing tactical puzzles. They help improve your board vision. And try to play slower games. No idea how you're playing 12 10. When I was your rating, I struggled to keep hold of my position in a 30 30 game!
Finally, and this is probably the most important - play stronger players. In your history it looks like you're only playing people rated below you, frequently quite far below you. Even though losing doesn't feel good, avoiding it by playing weaker opponents is going to wreak havoc on your game and instill habits and laziness that might be hard to undo later on.
Don't focus too much on rating,focus on getting stronger.Don't start nickel-and-dimeing your rating points "oh,I lost 20 points to that guy" or "oh,I lost 30 points to that guy".That's a recipe for depression right there.
Last week I reached my highest rating,then a few days later started slumping and sucking again.It is what it is.Improvement isn't linear.
Whenever your rating goes up,and if it was just a lucky streak and not real improvement,you'll play stronger opponents and they'll knock you down where you were.So don't focus on the rating at all...play Zen mode if you have to.
Also,play some blitz and study the endgame to inject some fun back into chess. :)
