I'm in a slump

Hey 

So, my rating has decreased about 100 points in the last two weeks, from mid 1600s to the mid 1500s. I play a lot worse than I used to, and I must have a consecutive losing streak of 20+.

How can I get out of this mess? I do tactics everyday and on there I do fine. My rating has actually increased there.

Any advices?

Everyone has bad patches, don't think about it too much.

Yeah, but what causes these bad patches?

Variance. If there's a chance for you to lose any game, then there's always a chance for you to lose a lot of games in a row (or win).

A month ago I was on the hottest streak of my life. The last few weeks the wins have been few and far between. It just happens.

i agree.  play through it.  it'll be cool.

You should try to not let it bother you. But it's tough.

I really dislike dropping under 1600. My previous slump, I dropped rating points in 2 games I lost, against a player rated around 1100 I think. I know his real rating to be around 1800, he lost rating points because he timed out in hundreds of games. I spent 2 weeks telling myself it's unfair that i dropped under 1600, not my fault. The more I worried about it, the worse it got.

Once I got over it, I started winning again. :)

Perhaps a brief break from chess playing may be in order. Come back after a couple of weeks and see what's up.

I just got back from a tournament, played 20 games, some were very good some were catastrophic, I will learn from them and build on it. I would,nt worry too much about a slump, jusy play and enjoy as it will change.

Good luck!

Dropping 100 points is nothing special, particularly in bullet or blitz.

A lot of players get frustrated because they think of the hot streaks as their "real ability" and the slumps as some abberation where there must be something unusual happening.

You can always give up playing chess any longer. I mean, 20+ losses in a row is telling you to give up, once and for all!

I would like the good players to stop playing altogether, so I may become World GD Champion!

Agreed. One's realistic rating is probably somewhere in between their highest ever and the "slump."

I view that as a healthy mechianism that drives us to improve on the long run.  The climb will not always be one of steadily increasing rating.  There will be noise along the way.

I'm torn on whether I think it's healthy or not.  A good amount of confidence is healthy, but the cognitive dissonance between "I know my rating says I'm a (1XXX), but really I'm more like a (1XXX+300)" that seems to be everywhere leads to a lot of players being very frustrated.

"You get worse before you get better" - general sport improvement advice

Just keep playing chess. Two players for each game, someone must win and someone must lose, unless it's a draw.

I get worried about my rating sometimes and get discouraged when I lose several games in a row. Chess is strange, sometimes you're on it and sometimes your not. Just like life. Play chess, always try and learn new things, and stay creative.

Tell me about it!!! I'm pissed off when i get into a bad streak, especially when I lose to someone that isn't better than me...it messes me up pretty bad  ...but i guess this should make your problem easier,always cheers me up 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ

I'm in a slump too. Keep making stupid mistakes in games to players with worse ratings. It's happened before, and it will happen again.

I don't know whether this will help:

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/why-am-i-so-bad

i was just 1900 in bullet, now only 1823 :(

its a slump, just take a break from chess. idc what other say, the only way to recover is to not play chess for about 2 days!!! 

i slump so much, my graphs look like pointy mountains instead of rolling hills