The better I get the stupider games get

At 1200 I dropped pieces. At 1400 I still blundered. At 1600 games got better. At 1800 games went to endgames. At 1900 we’re blundering crap left and right again. What gives?

At 1900 it's called a "sacrifice" or "gambit".

I don’t know lol it’s relatable cuz I’m 1800 and people are blundering left and right

At 1600 you still blundered left and right, your opponents just didn't take advantage.

@laserguy you made me chuckle._ i call it playing loosely

I call that inconsistency.

I gambited that rook. Yah that’s what it was.

I've actually noticed this trend a bit too, when I started playing classical on Lichess. Granted, it might have been because I very quickly went from the provisional 1500 to my current rating rather quickly, but at about the 1800-1900 level players often make (really) silly errors that seem more frequent than they were at lower ratings. A while ago I was watching the top rated classical games on Lichess and I saw the following gem:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4?? b5 5. Bb3 c4, 0-1

I can't find the game now (maybe move 2 for black was different or something) but I remember the white player was rated over 2000, and it was a 15+15 game.

It's also worth noting that if you search for this exact line in the opening explorer, and restrict it to 1800+ classical games, 3 of the 24 players who got this position as black played 4... d6?? instead of seeing the obvious way to win the bishop.

Honestly at the moment it feels like a 1600 rated blitz player plays far more accurate chess than an 1800 rated classical player, even though the moves have to be made at more than 5 times the speed.