I am finding chess extremely depressing.

@AnanyaMorzaria said in #14:
> i also want to achieve 2000 but i am not able to so i created another account and i got the default rating (1500) .....

But then, if somehow I play sombody like that, and get a 2000 performance from a 1500 player, I immediatelly, I mean immediatelly send a report for sandbagging.

just go for the free site Mangus Carslen created .
>
What site?

I think what you need is "Meditation".

you have been sold a lie. You're rating is average so I wouldn't worry over it. But if you are not satisfied with simply getting competitive matches and maintaining a 50/50 W/L then i'm not sure what to tell you.

Meditation doesn’t help here.

What helps is pulling through:

Don’t make plenty of multi accounts when your rating drops below a certain threshold. Instead take one step at a time. Took me nearly a full year to get into the average percentile. But along the way I had slow and steady improvement after my rating settled somewhere in the gutter region. This way you can get a more meaningful indicator of your progression. You don’t rubberband behind your expectations constantly and find out what your next intermediate goals should be. You define goals that are manageable and thus you’ll be more motivated. Improving will be easier once you accept that it takes time and work and there will be pushback (for example when you suddenly forget how to finish an easy endgame - when I was 1400 I forgot how to mate with 2B when 3 weeks earlier it seemed very easy and I thought I got it down. Then I saw a thread where a 1800 blitz player let the enemy king run away 3 times until he timed out in that endgame, made me feel slightly better about being so forgetful). I guarantee if you know all the stuff in the practice section except N+B mate and KQ vs KR endgame you’ll easily be above average. You may need a refresher for rare endgames from time to time and you may even forget some checkmate or tactical patterns and hang a mate or a piece every now and then. Two steps forward, one step back. Just revisit the practice section if you find holes in your chess study when analyzing games.

From "I, Asimov: A Memoir" by Isaac Asimov ...

My failure at chess was really distressing. It seemed completely at odds with my "smartness," but I now know (or at least have been told) that great chess players achieve their results by years and years of studying chess games, by the memorization of large numbers of complex "combinations." They don't see chess as a succession of moves but as a pattern. I know what that means, for I see an essay or a story as a pattern.
...
That's not enough, however. I never thought of comparing myself to grand masters of chess. What bothered me was my inability to beat anyone! The conclusion that I finally came to (right or wrong) was that I was unwilling to study the chessboard and weigh the consequences of each possible move I might make. Even people who couldn't see complex patterns might at least penetrate two or three moves ahead, but not I. I moved entirely on impulse, if not at random, and could not make myself do anything else. That meant I would almost certainly lose.

And again - why? To me, it seems obvious. I was spoiled by my ability to understand instantly, my ability to recall instantly. I expected to see things at once and I refused to accept a situation in which that was not possible.

@myocarditis said in #1:
> Okay, posting here because my failure to improve at chess is starting to impact on my mental health. First of all this is about my 7th or 8th account so my games on here aren't an accurate reflection of what I've put into this game so far.
>
> First of all, why do I play chess? I don't enjoy the game, to me it is a massive issue that I am beaten all of the time by ~1200-1300 players, I consider myself a pretty intelligent person, I was a high achiever at school, have written several books etc, to me chess is this abnormality in my life which I need to correct by at least achieving a 1700-1900 rating, it drives me literally mad that I am not at the level I expect of myself, I feel like a huge failure and disappointment because of my realities playing this game.
>
> I feel like we've been sold a lie by Youtubers, e.g. take Eric Rosen playing the Stafford Gambit and winning game after game, I watch the video, try it, and literally no player falls into any of the traps which happen on Youtube, I feel like we are being sold this myth that we will get the glory and fame of getting good at chess when 99% of us it will NEVER happen, we simply do not have the mental ability to do what professional players do.
>
> Example - how many openings are there and gambits to learn and memorise? 100s, each with 100s of variations and confusing names, there is literally no way to beat somebody who has memorised all of these lines which requires a brain which is good at numbers, repetition and patterns, if you do not have this kind of brain you can't get good at chess.
>
> Tactics - yes okay but if you try to use tactics against somebody who has memorised all of the movesets you are just wasting your time. Endgames - comes down to pure number crunching and as per the above, you will get smashed on openings anyway.
>
> In terms of puzzles yes I do them, half are really easy, half I just stare at for hours then get wrong because there is no obvious way to proceed within them. Games, I have tried to focus on E4/D4 openings but even 1200 players seem to have learned all the openings and play some crazy counter, I am also convinced half the players on here are cheating with other chess engines open and stuff.
>
> I guess I am just feeling so disillusioned right now, the other thing is half of the coaching resources out there etc are just money-grabbing schemes aimed at selling you this idea that you'll get good, but I guess there is a part of me now wondering if it is just futile and I should just stop playing chess so that I feel better about myself? Another part of me wants so badly to keep trying, but I find chess so ultimately depressing now, the anger I feel every time I lose, the amount of focus I put on my rating all the time and the fact that it isn't good enough,, that maybe someone like me should just quit for my own health?
Bro, you took your opponents knight and you sacrificed your queen which your opponent can win easily. You should watch out for your queen because its piece is 9 points (powerful piece).

@jomega said in #35:
> From "I, Asimov: A Memoir" by Isaac Asimov ...
> And again - why? To me, it seems obvious. I was spoiled by my ability to understand instantly, my ability to recall instantly. I expected to see things at once and I refused to accept a situation in which that was not possible.

Once a chess player is at that last level, thinking communicably rationally becomes painful. They prefer to talk OTB without words. unless they are motivated otherwise also during that development. Thesis.

Your doing decent. You got decent amount of wins.
Look at mine, I am HORRIBLE. Your win rate is higher than mines. Not trying to discourage myself, but just being an example.
Coming to the point, don't focus on winning. Focus on HAVING FUN! This game dates back to Ancient Indian Era- God Krishna and Radha are playing chess! Just for the fun of it!
You might be thinking then, what is the point of rating? Rating is just a side thing, a mere room that shows improvement in the vast mansion of chess. And in that mansion, you have- Enjoy, Practice, and Train!
If you don't want to play, don't play. It is just a game. Just a game. Game...
Oh, and also take a break! Recover from your emotional trouble! Don't worry, I also went through this era. Game...

You resign too often. Forbid yourself from resigning and you'll automatically increase 300 points.

everything is subjective, for example I was stupid enough to read the whole discussion of @tixem75 without noticing that he to copy paste the same sentence 100 times