I win casual games but lose rated games...Any tips?

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

Be on constant lookout for tactics, for both you and your opponent. Play longer time controls, with increment possibly, and each time your opponent moves take a second to see what the purpose of his move was. Make sure to pay attention to the game and make sure you don't have any distractions. Your opening repertoire looks completely fine to me so no problem with that.

If you're really struggling, then just play casual games for a week or two and then come back to rated games. If you're frustrated it does no good to continue to play, lose again, and get even more frustrated.

I have two suggestions that might help:

1. Play only one game of 30/5 on lichess once a day. 30 games in a row on a fast time control is way to much and your just losing as your not playing optimally.

2. Play five correspondence chess games at 2/3 days a move. The nice thing about correspondence chess on here is that only the traditional rules apply. Printed materials and opening databases, but no computers to generate moves. Great for learning!

So remember, Quality instead of Quantity! Sometimes less is more! Hope this helps!

I think this might be useful.

youtu.be/ZYIDIJ_0OEM

Bests,

Paul.

Thanks, @Water_Flame, for the tips. I have taken up daily puzzle training and it seems to work. I'll see how it improves my game after a month or two.

Thanks for the suggestions, @MasterMind14! I'll try out the one long game a day. I'm confused at how correspondence games are different from live games other than time, but I'll try some. Rated or Casual?

Great video, @Paulcarrero. It is very interesting how our ego gets hooked on winning. I'll do my best to focus more on chess, the game, the fun, and less on my rating.

I'm really appreciating all the suggestions I'm getting. Thanks to all!

It is normal to get better results in casual games. Casual game players take the game less seriously and have a less competitive attitude towards it, or they want to protect an overrated rating by avoiding rated games or they play casual while they are not fit: tired, drunk, ... Advice: play rated only.

IMO it's not worth playing rated as long as u dont have the material (freat connection, great mouse, super high speed computer) ! It's online chess, not OTB... So... games are full of misclicks, mouse slips and disconnections and so forth... I lost tons of games because of this, thus losing tons of points... Now, I only play casual and I dont care about the rating anymore... Chess is important, not rating ! Stop focusing on rating and focus on the game ! :))

Hi Jim, first of all thank you very much for everything you are doing for the Lichess community! (especially the Studies)
Missing that an enemy bishop can take your rook is very common. Asking concrete questions during every blundercheck could help.

Hi Jim, i saw your 2 games and if you allow I have some overall tips for you:

-play more prophylactic (watch opponent`s plan, if it`s good destroy it, if it`s bad ignore it)!
-focus on exchanges (very, very few are really equal)!
-don`t loose the tension too quickly!
-stay flexible as long as possible,first make the moves you make anyway (more difficult for opponent, more possibilities for you)!
-make the right! move against the opponent`s move already in the opening (don`t autopilot too much)!
-chess isn`t easy! :-)
-stay relaxed as possible during the games

You really playwell for 13 months of experience!

I hope you can use something!

Thanks and good luck!