Slow decline for months, tried everything.

I've tried having a break. I've tried all sorts. But depressingly I am falling in the rankings for months now and I don't know why. I feel that I am playing just as well as before but am just losing the games through being completely outplayed.

I could really do with some advice because I'm on the verge of giving up the game for good this time. It's absolutely soul-destroying watching my rating decline in this way and no this isn't a tilt as its consistent loss over time. My accuracy is nearly 80% and apparently that just isn't good enough.

That was my up and down ratings problem too! You need to stop playing people and play a master rated computer program and it will show you very fast where your problem or deficiency is. Usually the culprit is you not seeing your opponent's critical squares or you're not calculating deep enough. Sometimes you have to go two moves deeper in calculations and that's how you get better by calculating deeper than before via" mental gymnastitics". Hope that helps and drop the depressed thing!! NEVER GIVE UP....NEVER SURRENDER!!!!! PEACE AND BLESSINGS ON YOUR JOURNEY!!!! Later Slice!!

Try not to get discouraged by temporary setbacks and instead focus on the process of improvement rather than fixating on short-term results.

You have a thread that's literally called "Absolutely fed up with chess". if you are frustrated by the lack of progress to the point that it makes you playing worse your ratings will continue to drop.

The only way to remove your frustration is to take a few weeks off playing rated chess. Maybe make an account on a different site and play without looking at ratings. When you return here, just play a few chess games each day and don't look at what happens with your rating.

I'll offer the obvious question: why is a rating so important to you? If the rating system did not exist, would you enjoy the game more? If so, play unrated games only. Ratings really mean nothing. If you're at 500 and win 50% you're doing well. If you're at 1000 and win 50% you're still doing well. It just means you're playing opponents at your level. Win some, lose some, it's all part of playing a game. Hang in there, just keep playing for the enjoyment of the game.

Well said.

Chess is a lifetime hobby. "Improvement" is not automatic or linear. You have to study and play a lot. The good news is that if you really love chess, the process of studying and playing is very enjoyable. Focus on understanding chess principles, not your rating.

I'm an utter novice at chess, but I'm pretty good at pool, and one of the best pool coaches in the world said that you should take a process-oriented approach rather than a results-oriented approach. When you are focused on results, it's easy to get discouraged when you have setbacks, because setbacks are guaranteed in competition. When you focus on the nuts and bolts of how to do the little things better, success follows.

It seems like the last few games you are playing on tilt. When we lose a lot of consecutive games we feel an urgency to win the next game to make up for the lose. That urgency causes you to be impatient and not focus on your opening and you very quickly make a mistake. Don't blitz out your opening on autopilot. You made your first three moves in less then three seconds in a 10 minute game. Unless you have your openings memorized don't do this. On your second move you already made a major inaccuracy, for no good reason, that made the rest of your game incredibly difficult. It is essentially self sabotage.

It sounds like you are beat even before starting the game.. You will loose with that mindset. It's time to hit the reset button. take a step back & see, look at the game again.

We ALL reach a peak in ANY endeavor, you might have reached yours at this time.