How to play enough games to learn when you are supposed to stop when losing?

I see quite often the good advice given to stop playing when you have lost a game, especially on longer time formats, and to do study and analysis and rest your mind some before trying again.  This has absolutely worked for me to get out of runs of bad play in the past, so I want to be clear I have no problem with this approach.

My problem/question is, basically I am losing constantly day-over-day at this point, I play one game each day when I'm fresh, lose, and then per the advice, I analyze and study and come back at it the next day, and lose again.  So this cycle is really limiting the amount of practice time that I get because I only play a single game each day and it's just not a big sample size to study on.  Unfortunately the problem is compounded by not having solid wins (I realize I do have some wins in my recent record, but looking into them will show they were all won through horrendous blunders by my opponent, not tactics on my part).  So this denies me any sort of feedback on good approaches because nothing is really clicking for me right now.

Sorry for the long post, anyway, question is, should I just overload on playing games somewhat, perhaps unrated, just to build up a bigger data set of mistakes I'm making so I know what to study more?  Or since I will for sure play more poorly the more I push myself that wouldn't yield good inputs?  My only other idea has been to stick to what I'm doing and just study a lot more.  I guess I'm wishing there were some way to play weaker opponents (like 800ish) so I can practice fundamentals, but I've been having no luck with that, people invariably just quit since I'm higher rated.  Can anyone maybe suggest a bot that plays similar to a 900-1000 human player?  The bots rated below 1500 seem to be garbage, I beat them every time.

Play lots.

My indicator is I stop when I want to throw my iPad out the

I have the same problem. I’m both old and a newbie, so doubly cursed. It seems the game default just gives a ranking too high and the only remedy is to keep losing until your ranking drops low enough that you become better through a combination of “experience” (bad experience), and actually getting down to your true level.
Trouble is: if you only drop 5-10 points in rank per loss, and you’ve got 250-300 points to drop, that’s a lot of losses to rack up for a beginner.
In hindsight I should have selected “absolute” beginner instead of “beginner who knew how to play”. The game ranked me at 800 when I’m probably about 450. (Yes, I know I suck. What can I do, I still like chess.)
So I’m mostly playing the computer (ranked 1600?) and losing at around 30-40 moves. If I play a game I usually lose in less than 20 moves.
Really don’t feel like playing just to lose. Starting to think of deleting my account and starting fresh as an absolute beginner… 🤷‍♂️

Play. Lose. Analyze.

I game a day is perfect. Try slower time controls in order to spend more time thinking about positions.

Thank you, I agree, I try to play 60 min games when I can, usually I just don't have hours free in my day. I posted a while back and was advised 15|10 is next best which is what I do when I don't have any time for longer. I guess I should have mentioned this post is referring to my "rapid" games, which are the ones I care about and try to use for development.

PS: I sometimes lose 60 min games on time so I think I'm taking plenty of time thinking, lol. I guess my thinking just needs to get better, I suppose maybe I'm just being too impatient at the pace of learning.

Extend yr playing time to longer, -10/15mins puts one under pressure,in that alone mistakes blunders are made. Breathe,play from the centre with Pawns, e4 d4,Knights, Bishops, castle yr King as early as u can keep the Rook ar Centre with Queen,yr Rks behind yr pawns. Practice and retain wat u learn. Gd Luck my friend

Try starting a lichess acct for practice games in-between playing your daily games on chess.com. I have an acct on both and when I feel myself tilting on chess.com, I tend to play over there more, for practice and puzzles.

I really have never more than 30 minutes free time in my day, so 15 min is all I can manage, but thank you for the advice. As you mentioned castling, I have trouble with it, I find that I lose sooner if I castle early, basically it traps my king, I am not good at keeping the defenses secure. Unfortunately I have not found the lessons which address this topic yet, but I keep studying .

Is lichess a different playing experience? I don't have experience with it, is there a reason if I was tilting here on chess.com that I might have different experience on lichess?

I recommend analyzing all your games.

The ones you win and lose.

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Also, I think the amount of games you play should be based on your time available and burn out.

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For example:

Lets say you only have 1 hour available because you have family and house hold stuff to do.

In that situation, you might only have enough time for 1 - 30 min game + 1 - 30 min review of the game.

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However, let’s say you had 4 hours available.

I think you could have potential 4 games + 4 reviews.

Again this is assuming your playing 30 min games.

My rule of thumb is to match my review time with game time. Sometimes, I might take less time or something I might take more time review, but I think it’s good to have base line time set as an idea.

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If you was to play 10 min games, Than I would aim for 10 min reviews which would mean you could play around 3 games per hour.

If you have 4 hour available, it could be 12 games with reviews.

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The only down side would be player burn out.

As you play more and more game, your mind will start to get tired and you will begin to experience burn out which is bad. No one knows what your burn out limit is only you will know when your feeling tired mentally.

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My philosophy is playing and review as many games as you can to improve.

However, you need to also be responsible and know your limitations. Trying to win a game is hard enough. Their is no point is playing a game if your feeling burnt out. Everyone limit is different so you have to gauge it.

Thank you for so much advice. I like your idea about review time, it may be I'm not spending long enough on reviews. I have only straight losses lately so I do try to review each, but giving equal time as the game time seems to make sense. I wish I ever had 4 free hours! lol, but you are right about mental fatigue, I can only play max 2 rapid games per day no matter what before my brain goes fuzzy and I simply can't finish any additional game. So with that in mind, perhaps I am being too optimistic, and 1 game per day + equal review time is exactly what I can handle and I should just stick with it.

Your Welcome!

Another interesting approach I wanted to mention was by an International Master.

The IM recommended for players to play a Chess Time Cocktail so to speak.

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Basically, you would do the following:

1 - Classical Time Game - 30 Min Game + Review

1 - Rapid Time Game - 10 Min Game + Review

1 - Blitz Time Game - 5 Min Game + Review

1 - Bullet Time Game - 1 Min Game + Review

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It was interesting because the time would start reducing and you would have to adopt to new time as each time changes faster and faster.

Personally, I didn’t do the above approach, but I have always wanted to give it a try. I guess the reason I didn’t do it was because I do other methods.

If I lose 2 or 3 games of rapid in a row, like today, I'll take a break and look at what I did and didn't do. Today I just didn't think things through and moved too quickly.

I'm glad you shared this, I have been wondering about it actually. The interesting thing is that even though I do have strong tilt going on with my rapid games the past couple weeks, I am not experiencing this in blitz (I even won a single bullet game I tried recently just for fun). I've casually observed in the past that my fundamentals are sometimes a bit better in faster time formats because I don't have time to overthink, so maybe pursuing this kind of mix from time to time can help exercise different aspects of the game.

Losing is fine. After all, you lose & you learn

Play games focused on specific openings or themes.

Sorry, I don't understand quite what this means. Like to play a game following a certain opening or specific tactical theme no matter what the opponent does, just to see how it plays out? Often times the engine rates my opening accuracy in the 90's even when losing, and I only ever play one opening as white, and maybe 3 total as black depending on what white's move is, so I don't think I'm spreading myself too thin. I usually just get lost amid all the tactical possibilities in the mid-game. If you can, I'd love to hear advice how to cut through that and focus on just one theme as you said?

Sometimes I make endgame errors but those are usually pretty clear cut errors of calculation where seeing what to study is quite obvious.

wow so much good content on this post best i have read in a long time

Just a thought from a rubbish player from England....!

I watched a video on tactics...specifically "Remove the defender", where you take a piece that's guarding another piece before then gaining material.

Having done that, and practised a few examples in the Puzzles, I then played several live games. What I love is when the thing you've just learned comes up in the game, you see it, and then put it into practice! Makes the study worth while.

Worth a try?