Too much play, too little study?

Hi,

Ive been playing for a year now, and have well over 4000 blitz games. My rating is currently at 890, wich is my all time high.

When i look at equal rated players, i see they have almost always way fewer games played than me.

I feel like ive should have better rating with that amount of games.

So my question is. Should i play fewer games, and use more time on analysis and theory? Or will i brake the code eventually.

Ray

Not only that you should do other things apart from playing, like analysis and learning about chess, but blitz itself is far from an ideal time control for improvement for most people. 

Some people can do it, not everyone is the same, but majority of us can't really progress significantly by playing speed chess. Even if you eventually want to play only blitz, it is not easy to come up with some more quality moves in 3 or 5 minutes, so even then you will probably have to play longer games.

All of this of course if improvement is important to you. 

I agree. Try rapid for a bit and work on chess puzzles. Give yourself time to think about positions. Many positions show up over and over, so when you recognize the patterns you can play a little faster over time and you'll do better in blitz and/or bullet. So do both. Study and play. But lengthen the time controls. 

You just need to get better at chess.  However, you are unlikely to get better at chess by playing exclusively speed chess.  You would increase your chances of getting better at chess if you were to....

Play Longer Time Controls...
For many at the beginner-novice level, speed chess tends to be primarily an exercise in moving pieces around faster than your opponent while avoiding checkmate, in hopes that his/her clock runs out sooner than yours.  And/or hoping to notice and exploit your opponent’s blunders while hoping they don't notice yours.  The reason for this is that in speed chess there is little time to think about what you should be doing.

It makes sense that taking more time to think about what you should be doing would promote improvement in your chess skills and results.  An effective way to improve your chess is therefore to play mostly longer time controls, including "daily" chess, so you have time to think about what you should be doing.

This is not to suggest that you should necessarily play exclusively slow or daily time controls, but they should be a significant percentage of your games, at least as much, if not more so than speed games which, while they may be fun, do almost nothing to promote an understanding of how to play the game well.

Here's what IM Jeremy Silman, well-known chess book author, has to say on the topic...
https://www.chess.com/article/view/longer-time-controls-are-more-instructive

And Dan Heisman, well-known chess teacher and chess book author…
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627052239/http:/www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman16.pdf
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/dan-heisman-resources

and the experience of a FIDE Master...
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/how-blitz-and-bullet-rotted-my-brain-don-t-let-it-rot-yours

Learn what you should be doing...

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

@1

"well over 4000 blitz games. My rating is currently at 890"
++ Do not play blitz, play 15|10 rapid.
You learn more from one 15|10 rapid game than from five 3|2 blitz games.

"I feel like ive should have better rating with that amount of games." ++ Quality > quantity

"Should i play fewer games, and use more time on analysis and theory?" ++ Yes. Play 15|10 rapid. Analyse each lost game thoroughly, for about as long as the game itself.

Hi,

Thank you all for the replies.

I was hoping for; "Wow, that is actually pretty good! Keep blitzing!" But, I understand now that i need too study the game also, not just playing. And will immediately start doing more rapid and daily games, besides the lessons that are available on chess.com.

Thanks again for all the great tips!

Cheers

What I do is play the bots at 3x my level, assisted. And I see what moves they suggest and why. Then I play on my own with "friendly" so I can make moves and have the algorithm coach me. It'd say things like "b4 is a good move, but Re5 is best" and I'd try to see the overall pattern of the best moves. They tend to be sharp, accurate, deadly and well-defended. That's what you should aim for. I'm sure at the advanced level some things change or new rules come up.