A lot to unpack here. Having lost 17,000+ games on here, this is my opinion:
"Has anyone experienced anything like this as a beginner?" There are posts like this every single day. I say that not as a criticism but rather to point out that's it's a stage everyone goes through. Anyone that's rated 1500 or whatever was at some point rated 800 and struggling. The commendable part is that you're trying to learn in a reasonable way, which is more than I can say for the "I tried nothing and am all out of ideas" crowd.
Winning half your games is expected if you're playing people at your rating. Even if you were rated 2000, you will only win 50% games against other 2000 rated players. If you're playing people better than you then odds are you will lose before the game has even started. That's just how chess is. For someone rated 400 above you, you have a 10% chance of winning or something (on average). Thus, if you want to beat higher rated players, then you need to learn more about how to play chess.
There's going to be so much about chess that you currently don't realise you don't know, especially after 30 games and a few tutorials. E.g., in the chess.com lessons sections, there are hundreds of useful concepts beyond openings, pre-move checklists etc. If you focus on learning more, and applying what you are learning, then the results will come against higher rated players. If you lose, OK it's frustrating, but there's an opportunity to evaluate and improve still. I.e., enjoy the wins, learn from the losses. Respect your opponents too. It's OK to admire a clever attack or a great defence.
Most games won't end in checkmate, so you just have to take wins however they come. If your opponent is rushing and blunders and quits, then you're still the overall better player for not having done that first. If they played well but ran out of time first, your time management was better. Any time your opponent quits, it's them realising you're going to come off better than they are for whatever reason.
By the way, bot ratings are overrated by ~400. So beating a 1400 bot is more like beating a 1000 rated player. You could try also playing unrated games against people if you're not feeling 100% and don't want to risk your current rating. Often people advise to try and play only a few games in a row, or less if they're long games. Once frustration starts, it impacts your play and a downward slide will start.
Hi, guys. I need some advice here.
I began playing chess on chess.com a couple of months ago. As I was more or less a newbie to the game, I didn’t feel confident enough to play against other players at first, so in the first few weeks I focused on watching tutorial videos, learning openings, practicing against bots and reviewing games.
After beating 1400-rated bots consistently I thought I was ready for some real action and started to play games against other players. Deluded me, I even had the audacity to believe that I was going to do well at the lower levels just because I beat 1400 bots easily. My miscalculation was epic. Wow.
I’ve played some 30 games against other players (yeah, I know that’s few) and won around half of them. But I feel that many of my wins were undeserved, as they occurred playing against people who abandoned too early after a blunder or moved pieces almost at random.
When I’m face to face with a more seasoned player, I tend to lose no matter what, even when I feel they are playing somewhat -or even much- worse than me. Either because I miss a couple of opportunities here and there or because I make a mistake at a given time, I end up losing the game miserably. And that only after a lot of struggle.
And here’s the thing. Losing so much despite all the effort I’m putting in is making me feel like shit. I’ve always wanted to learn how to play, but this is turning out to be an extremely frustrating experience I don’t really know how to deal with.
Has anyone experienced anything like this as a beginner? How did you deal with it? Any piece of advice will be appreciated.