Why am I so bad?

I (and some others) have posted some advice. It's mostly on page 3 but look back as well.   

This is now the motivational thread! If you have been playing badly recently, or are not a very good chess player, then please comment and post some games and (hopefully) the chess community of beginners (and maybe some more people) will help you! Thank you!

(below is the original message when I started this thread) 

It seems that recently I have not been playing chess very well(making lots of mistakes,blunders etc.) and I have lost games that I really should have won.

Am I just being careless or does everyone have a spell where their form goes bad?

Thanks,

Henster

The best way to stop making mistakes imo is to make sure nothing else is on your mind and look at every move, perfect the simple things

Everyone has bad patches, don't worry about it.

Yea I have had huge jumps in form. Recently, I won a bunch of games in a row and got my rating almost past my initial peak of 1570 on here, and then proceeded to lose 13 out of 14, and then leveled out to where I am now. So assuming that other players on this site are relevantly similar to myself, I believe that this is quite normal.

I've been dropping pretty much every game recently, a sizeable proportion against much lower rated players too. It just happens - sometimes, you'll be up against opponents who are all playing well and/or you're playing badly.

It's happened before too. It'll pass.

Even professionals in all sports have their off times.   But as  MasterThePawn said, "...make sure nothing else is on your mind and look at every move, perfect the simple things."  If at all possible, before playing a serious game of chess, I lie down to relax. 

Play some games without being concerned about winning, well, play to win, but be more concerned about the game itself and not your past failures.  Enjoy it. 

1. Never play hugry. Eat lots of sweet stuff.

2. Drink lots of water.

3. Find which time control is best for you (bullet, blitz, standart, turn-base).

4. Sleep.

i play ten min games and lost a lot them .i realize i was always rushing for my clock won't run out big mistake.... take your time and always play some body rated higher then you . will see your game improve trust me .....

We all go through rough patches.

Are you sticking to a few set openings or have you been trying out different openings. I find that I play better when I stick to a few openings for white and black.

Pick a few openings and go to Game Explorer and look at the most popular responses and come up w/ a semi-strict opening regiment. Stick to your guns. Analyze your games yourself then analyze w/ computer.

Remember to ask yourself some Questions before moving:

-What was the intention of my opponents last move. Do I need to react or can I go about my plan.

-What are the weak spots in my position.

-What are the weak spots/squares in my opponents position. etc.

Hope this helps.Good luck and keep playing!

* Also- Do you play Live Chess or Online Chess?

Online Chess really gives you time to think about every move. I like it a lot.

I play badly because I'm not a good chess player.

Concentration is the key here, play less focus more, only way.

Worst comes to worst just set out not to get beat never mind winning just break the losing run.

I often ask myself the same question.  As an older player just relearning the game I get really frustrated by my dang chess computer.  It beats me, all the darn time.

Playing people online I've had much more success but find that it's almost too stressful for me.  I hate to make blunders and the thought that I'm going to dangle my queen out there or worse, get stuck in an obvious fork makes me lose hair at an increased rate.

I do love the game and it is an addiction.  I've been reading Kasparov Teaches Chess and while it's not the greatest chess book ever written it has enlightened me more than I was previous. In my book that's a good thing.

Another thing I notice which is why I think that I too am a bad chess player is that I have no patience.  I'm not a real "sit back and think it through" kind of guy.  Maybe it's because I don't know what kinds of questions to ask as I analyze the board, either way, I have a rough go of it because I blunder into mistakes at lightning speed.

Regarding playing people who are obviously better than I am, well, all that losing starts to sting after a while.  From the limited blitz games I've played I see that there is little conversation so aside from watching and re-watching my past games and trying to figure out where I went wrong I don't know how else to learn from the more experienced players.

Pardon the random thought but I've been mulling them for some time so when I saw a thread like this I had to toss in my $0.02.

Cheers. 

you should check to make sure it isn't that you've changed something in your playing style. I lost 50 pts in a few days because I was expirimenting with a new French line.

No, the best way to stop making mistakes is to cheat.

lol, good answer.

But wouldn't the choice to cheat be considered a mistake by many?

Its pretty rare but you do see such moves annotated as !!??

Nope, nowhere is there ?!, ?, or ?? in the report of closed account:

??!!

my brain goes on vacation for 2 weeks, 4 times a year. i wouldnt worry about it.

Actually, I say worry about it, but only worry enough to do something about it.

Worry is a good motivator.  Too much worry is like too much electricity, will blow your fuses instead of getting things done.