I started sucking in chess suddenly for some unknown reason

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RJFischer960

My blitz rating used to be somewhere in 1400s and one day all of a sudden I started losing every blitz match I played for the past 2 days making so many obvious blunders which I normally dont and my rating has now plummeted to 1140s. I'm losing to 1000 rated players whereas I had no problem beating those rated in the 1400s. Is there any psychological reason behind this? Is this common? I'm scared to even play another game as I'm afraid that I'll lose all of them. 

godsofhell1235

Get enough sleep at night, get enough food during meal times, then play in a quiet place where you can concentrate. Try to put any stressful events in your life out of your mind before the games if possible.

Warm up with some tactics and / or unrated games.

These things may seem minor, but they can make a big difference.

torrubirubi
Or just give a break with blitz, start playing only Daily Games (only two, one with black and one with white) and invest a lot of energy in those games: following the lines of your repertoire, analysing a lot in complex positions (2 to 3 hours is not unusual) and making notes on all your thoughts and analyses during the game.

If you play long enough Daily (6 to 12 months) you can try with rapid, and after a while blitz.
RJFischer960

i dont know. after losing so many matches in a row. i dont even feel like playing the game anymore. its like somehow, even when I'm winning position, i accidentally blunder in the last second and lose the game. its starting to get so frustrating and annoying. I mean, I'm losing so easily to players who are rated 200 points below me all of a sudden.

godsofhell1235

Of course being upset about losing also makes you play worse.

Everyone fluctuates a few 100 points up and down. Don't worry about it, and try again the next day. Make sure you get enough sleep and food in between wink.png

IAmBored010

Despite what you think, this is actually very very good for you. It means you have stagnated. What you now need to do is stop playing blitz and bullet, buy a good chess book, buy a chess set, and work on your chess, and occasionally play 15 minutes with 10 second increment to practice what you have learnt. And alongside all of this, you should do tons of tactics on ChessTempo

 

I LOVE IT when I stagnate and all of a sudden I'm losing to lower rated players. In fact I look forward to it. Because it means I need to get away from playing online blitz and actually work on my weaknesses. AND EVERYTIME I come back stronger than before. That is how chess works.

"You will need to love the training just as much as you love crushing your opponent" - remember this and live by this.

And excellent short book you should read is a book called "Simple Chess" by Michael Sean. This book will literally open your eyes, and you will see things soooo much clearly. It's a short book, only 150 pages or so, but my god, it is priceless in what it teaches about the outposts, weak squares, weak pawns, open files, semi-open files and how to conduct a minority attack, black squares and white squares, white square strategy, black square strategy... this book took me from 1750 to around 2000 in the space of a month (that is how long it took me to read it) this is my lower rated account so don't pay attention to this current rating

 

As I said, THIS IS A GOOD THING FOR YOU. DO NOT BE DISHEARTENED BY IT

godsofhell1235

Looking at your rating stats, you were only over 1400 for a few games, near the beginning, when ratings will go up and down really fast.

You quickly fell to ~1200 and have been there ever since.

Looks like in terms of ability, you were never a 1400 blitz player, and you're stressed because you're not able to lie about it to yourself anymore.

Waredude
This is completely normal! It happens anytime you are learning something. This has happened to me lots of times (I am referring to things other than chess) Now I know I am a beginner to chess, but check my stats (Daily mostly) and you will see that my rating is dropping a lot. And I am also making obvious blunders that I don't usually make and if you check my Game vs XHopDeLamb you can see that I usually play better! Here is the link to the game https://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-analysis/how-well-did-i-do-1
drmrboss

Personally I dont recommand <1600 rated players in < 5 mins blitz. At that level, people need more time to make good strategy, prevent blunder check etc.  There are multiple reasons lower rated players need longer time control

1. They need to calculate  a lot to decide a plan ( better players just judge by intution)

2. Unncesssary calcuations for the tactics( better players apply memorized patterns)

3. Cann't decide which position is critical (better players dont calculate a lot on non critical positions)

By these reasons, better players can save a lot of times and play a decent game in a blitz time while the others cant do it normally.

SeniorPatzer
IAmBored010 wrote:

Despite what you think, this is actually very very good for you. It means you have stagnated. What you now need to do is stop playing blitz and bullet, buy a good chess book, buy a chess set, and work on your chess, and occasionally play 15 minutes with 10 second increment to practice what you have learnt. And alongside all of this, you should do tons of tactics on ChessTempo

 

I LOVE IT when I stagnate and all of a sudden I'm losing to lower rated players. In fact I look forward to it. Because it means I need to get away from playing online blitz and actually work on my weaknesses. AND EVERYTIME I come back stronger than before. That is how chess works.

"You will need to love the training just as much as you love crushing your opponent" - remember this and live by this.

And excellent short book you should read is a book called "Simple Chess" by Michael Sean. This book will literally open your eyes, and you will see things soooo much clearly. It's a short book, only 150 pages or so, but my god, it is priceless in what it teaches about the outposts, weak squares, weak pawns, open files, semi-open files and how to conduct a minority attack, black squares and white squares, white square strategy, black square strategy... this book took me from 1750 to around 2000 in the space of a month (that is how long it took me to read it) this is my lower rated account so don't pay attention to this current rating

 

As I said, THIS IS A GOOD THING FOR YOU. DO NOT BE DISHEARTENED BY IT

 

One of the most encouraging posts I have ever read here on chess.com.  Thank you for writing this.

Brunnhilde

If I start having an unstoppable losing streak where I make blunders uncharacteristic of me for no apparent reason, I simply stop playing chess for a day or two. Such blunders are a classic sign of chess burnout--or, as I call it, being "chessed out." I recommend taking a break from chess for a day. Like many other people in this thread, I also recommend simply playing longer games. A little blitz to get better at playing under time pressure and to familiarize yourself with openings is fine, but too much establishes bad habits and is quite destructive.

0xtja

I don't usually reply these forums bbut I feel I will make an exception today.

Firstly, Chess is not a life nor a death matter. Why do you play Chess? If you believe it fuels up something to make you feel secure that you are good at "something" then lol stop.  

You will know by yourself why there is no use to think like that, even subconsciously. Don't use this as an escape world. 

 

The way you play chess does not define who you are nor  how you handle your daily task etc Idk what else. Take a break, your brain is tired from the same daily stuff on the same day. Challenge yourself in a different way. As mentioned above you can look at chess books etc. I am not a professional nor a good chess player, so all I can say is live life , enjoy your day, go out everywhere and gather knowledge and experience and Idk spent time with your loved ones, don't get too afraid of loosing in chess lol. bUt if it is your ambition to be good at chess then yeah with the stuff I have mentioned right now, you can naturally just try and keep on trying! After all that is the secret of success is it not?  The professional or good chess players like IamBored010 have already given you advise on how to improve happy.png

 

Best of luck

 

RJFischer960
IAmBored010 wrote:

Despite what you think, this is actually very very good for you. It means you have stagnated. What you now need to do is stop playing blitz and bullet, buy a good chess book, buy a chess set, and work on your chess, and occasionally play 15 minutes with 10 second increment to practice what you have learnt. And alongside all of this, you should do tons of tactics on ChessTempo

 

I LOVE IT when I stagnate and all of a sudden I'm losing to lower rated players. In fact I look forward to it. Because it means I need to get away from playing online blitz and actually work on my weaknesses. AND EVERYTIME I come back stronger than before. That is how chess works.

"You will need to love the training just as much as you love crushing your opponent" - remember this and live by this.

And excellent short book you should read is a book called "Simple Chess" by Michael Sean. This book will literally open your eyes, and you will see things soooo much clearly. It's a short book, only 150 pages or so, but my god, it is priceless in what it teaches about the outposts, weak squares, weak pawns, open files, semi-open files and how to conduct a minority attack, black squares and white squares, white square strategy, black square strategy... this book took me from 1750 to around 2000 in the space of a month (that is how long it took me to read it) this is my lower rated account so don't pay attention to this current rating

 

As I said, THIS IS A GOOD THING FOR YOU. DO NOT BE DISHEARTENED BY IT

Thanks so much. this is very refreshing to read and I will follow your advice

RJFischer960
0xtja wrote:

I don't usually reply these forums bbut I feel I will make an exception today.

Firstly, Chess is not a life nor a death matter. Why do you play Chess? If you believe it fuels up something to make you feel secure that you are good at "something" then lol stop.  

You will know by yourself why there is no use to think like that, even subconsciously. Don't use this as an escape world. 

 

The way you play chess does not define who you are nor  how you handle your daily task etc Idk what else. Take a break, your brain is tired from the same daily stuff on the same day. Challenge yourself in a different way. As mentioned above you can look at chess books etc. I am not a professional nor a good chess player, so all I can say is live life , enjoy your day, go out everywhere and gather knowledge and experience and Idk spent time with your loved ones, don't get too afraid of loosing in chess lol. bUt if it is your ambition to be good at chess then yeah with the stuff I have mentioned right now, you can naturally just try and keep on trying! After all that is the secret of success is it not?  The professional or good chess players like IamBored010 have already given you advise on how to improve

 

Best of luck

 

yea, you're right. both u and @brunnhilde are right. I've been logging into chess.com everyday for the past month. I think i should prolly take a break now and then

RJFischer960
Brunnhilde wrote:

If I start having an unstoppable losing streak where I make blunders uncharacteristic of me for no apparent reason, I simply stop playing chess for a day or two. Such blunders are a classic sign of chess burnout--or, as I call it, being "chessed out." I recommend taking a break from chess for a day. Like many other people in this thread, I also recommend simply playing longer games. A little blitz to get better at playing under time pressure and to familiarize yourself with openings is fine, but too much establishes bad habits and is quite destructive.

Yea, I've been thinking the exact same thing

RJFischer960
drmrboss wrote:

Personally I dont recommand <1600 rated players in < 5 mins blitz. At that level, people need more time to make good strategy, prevent blunder check etc.  There are multiple reasons lower rated players need longer time control

1. They need to calculate  a lot to decide a plan ( better players just judge by intution)

2. Unncesssary calcuations for the tactics( better players apply memorized patterns)

3. Cann't decide which position is critical (better players dont calculate a lot on non critical positions)

By these reasons, better players can save a lot of times and play a decent game in a blitz time while the others cant do it normally.

You're most probably right. I've been playing almost nothing but 5 minute blitz matches. 

torrubirubi
RJFischer960 wrote:

i dont know. after losing so many matches in a row. i dont even feel like playing the game anymore. its like somehow, even when I'm winning position, i accidentally blunder in the last second and lose the game. its starting to get so frustrating and annoying. I mean, I'm losing so easily to players who are rated 200 points below me all of a sudden.

Well, it is nice to improve constantly the rating, but you should expect fluctuations in your rating when your training is not straightforward. Years ago I had a better rating in Daily and blitz after winning against some higher rated players, but went down again. Now I am very close to the rating I had once (almost 1600 in daily). 

Perhaps giving a break would also help. I learned that playing less but with higher quality in the games help me to improve, and if I improve my rating goes up. It is actually that simple. Forget for a while your rating and focus in the games - but not blitz if you want to improve. 

Do you spend enough time analysing your games? Because if not you will not be able to recognise your typical mistakes. If you know the typical mistakes, you will be able to avoid them in the games. Chess is a game of avoiding mistakes and playing in such a way that help the opponent to make mistakes (giving him problems which are difficult to solve). 

JayeshSinhaChess

I go through such swings on a regular basis. I peaked an elo of 1533 but have fallen back down to 1300s. Its common. I will get to 1400s and then drop 100 points.

 

In poker words its tilt. You play poor and then go on playing poor and don't think properly. Take a break let go of your ego and earn back the points. Let go of the ego means that when you play a 1000 elo guy, think I am way better than him and I got this.

 

You don't fully focus and hence mistakes. Pay full attention to the games like you were playing and equal and you will win.

imsighked2

Anything causing stress in your life? I know I struggled for awhile and I think it was work-related stress (nothing more stressful than working with incarcerated killers in a unit where they are not adequately supervised). Are you getting stressed out about your losses? Try some mindfulness stuff (there are You Tube videos with meditations that might be helpful) before you play and see if it helps. Do you feel playing blitz is helping you learn and improve? If not, try slower time controls. I think, as others have stated, ups and downs are pretty normal in chess

ecafkcoc101

Don't play against another person or their rating, just play the board and have fun. That's what its all about my friend.