Large Rating Drop

I have been playing on Chess.com for a month now, and went from 173 (my lowest) in Rapid all the way up to 507 (my highest) in that amount of time. But for these past two days, I have continually lost a bunch of games, especially to players that were lower rated than me, taking my rating all the way down to 409. There are many reasons I could come up with, but I can not find anything that would explain why. As previously mentioned, I have only been playing for a month, so I assume it might just be a normal slump.

Yeah you keep tilting duh

there're this weird thing happened to me (which probably ain't the same with you since you losing to lower rating) but in every round number rating 500, 600, 700 i found it has some berrier lol like if i hit 500 i will like stuggle to maintain 500 for awhile always drop big rating and stay in 400 until i figure something out same with 600 etc.

Like it sound weird cause i know rating didn't mean to do that but i really feel like every round hundread numbers people played different. at 300 it is truly a mess you will found weird openning and move not much trick. at 400 people opening the same thing sicilain or london mostly sure some still use weird openning but...mostly they ain't. at 500 i suffer a lot of tricks - wayward queen, mate in 4-5-6-7 moves things. at 600 people are more round and predictable (in a good way) but still hanging pieces like crazy sometime. at 700 ughhh people's end game is much much more tactics than below 700 rating. like i never losing at end game state even i have extra prices this much before hit 700.   

yeah,the opening queen/bishop players are so annoying.Thats how they rise in rating....but when they reach higher numbers,they start doing the stupid openings.I was up for a bit,then seemed like I was taking one step foward and two steps . Went from 400's to 200's fast because I did not know how to defend the opponents queen/ bishop opening.Its pretty easy to identify now,along with the sicilian

Hi!  My name is Lauren Goodkind and I'm a chess coach based in California.  There are several reasons why your rating might have been dropped.  

Are you asking questions before each move, such as, "If I move here, is it safe?", "Can my opponent safely capture a piece?" and more.  You need to ask these questions before every move so you can avoid losing pieces for no good reason.  After you answer these questions, then move appropriately.  For example, if your opponent can safely capture your knight, then move your knight to a safe square.  

   I hope that this helps. 

  Also, I recommend playing with a slow time control, such as game in 30 minutes, so you have time to think.  

I am just curious. Where is the big difference between a 500 rated player and a 300 rated player? Both will blunder on every second/third move.

If the rating is accurate, person who is rated 500 will win 3 out of 4 games against a 300. 

They both blunder like crazy, but the 500 would be more likely to take advantage of their opponent's blunders and more likely to be able to make a plan that works.

Hi , dont try to find reasons for droping 100 elo points, you are now in progress mode, and chess is not a game where you will exponentialy go better... Just play lot of games and analayse each game... If you feel that your progress stoped then try to find someone to give you personal advices for your progress.

Best regards Ivan

how the heck did you get a rating under 300??? (no offense wondering)

OP:  If you, like I am, are still at a skill level where many of your games' outcomes are determined by either your blunders or your opponent's, your rating is not going to be very stable because there will be more variability in your performance from game to game.  This means you might have significant rating swings.   I've been playing seriously for about six weeks, and my rapid rating at the moment is 809 but has swung as low as 736 and as high as 858 over the last couple hundred games.  I feel I'm generally improving, but so far the swings are a lot wider than my demonstrated improvement.  As others have suggested, just keep at it and don't stress too much over your rating.  To get from 173 to 507 is a huge step forward, and a dip to low 400s along the way just means that ratings can swing around a lot.  Stay focused, play your best, and you'll gradually start to make fewer of the kinds of errors that cause losses at our levels.

I have nothing statistical to back this up but it's my opinion that all players under 800 are equal strength. Until you are above 800 don't even pay attention to your rating and only focus on making good moves.  Until you can play consistantly without hanging a piece, rating is irrelevant.

The purpose of rating is for differences in rating to be predictive of win rates.  Being at somewhere between 700-850, there's no doubt my games are blunderfests.  However, I have friends who are closer to the 500 range whom I can beat reliably, 10 games in a row.  That's in line with what a few hundred rating point difference predicts.  So, even though there's a lot of variance in my rating, it doesn't mean it's entirely unpredictive of results.  Large movements in rating (over maybe 200) are a reasonable measure of progress even at the low end.

I'm not sure about this, but I believe when you start playing, it will ask you if you are "New to Chess, Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced". I think it assigns a starting rating based on that. Since I chose New to Chess, which I am, it gave me a starting rating of 400. The first two games I played, it took me up to 485 since the players resigned. Once I started playing complete games, my rating dropped to 173; the first couple of games affects ratings significantly.

Don't sweat it.  Look at all of my rating drops, especially when I first started.

For the last one, I found I was playing too much and not analyzing enough, so I took a few days off.  And now I'm playing two games a day with more time spent on analysis.  This has worked for me in the past.  Fingers crossed.  Hopefully, I can break 900 by the end of the month.

i lose 100 rating points sometimes... but never 200 *shudders at the thought*

it happens.

me who lost 150 points today: nervous sweating

thx (: