Literally getting worse, and worse, and worse, and worse at chess

I've been solving puzzles like crazy lately, doing a couple hundred a day, and my score with the puzzles has gone up quite a bit.  I finally cracked 2300 tonight.

However, I am getting worse and worse and worse and worse at the game of chess.  My rapid rating hasn't been this low since early 2019.  My daily game rating is at its lowest point since a few weeks after COVID started in March 2020.  I literally cannot win at this game anymore.

You are probably at that stage where you lose games after learning new things or work hard to achieve something.

You will recover from it, though it takes some time.

Try to do concrete analysis in rapid and not just play by the feel

When will they ever learn….?

Practice puzzles and become a good puzzler solver.

Puzzles do not directly translate to game improvement. Tactics is but a single motif found from the start to finish of a chess game. Everything in it’s place.

Puzzle rush was an ingenious promotional tool. Don’t believe the hype.

What does that mean?  I lose games because I am learning how to play better?  I'm getting worse, not better.

You increased your puzzle solving and were able to adapt for a short period of time and set a record but if you maintain the same pace you can enter the early stage of overtraining so you need to back off and let the brain play catch up.

gee if nothing is working out just take a break, chess ain't everything.

tip of advice from DefenderPug2.

you are solving many puzzles with tactics and finding the best moves in those position…..but.

you must learn on how to get to those positions. 
also try playing against computer bots too, you can practice chess while not having to lose your rating.

As a 1900-2050 level blitz player I can say puzzle rush and puzzles help a lot and are great. Don't believe the 1200's. 

At 2200 level in blitz I could say the opposite. It all depends person to person. 

Thanks, I do play the bots and win more than I lose against the ones rated up to 1400.  But the 1400 bots do make blunders and mistakes.  When I play people around 1400, they don't leave me any openings like the bots do.

^

It looks like you are overly results centered. You lose lots of games, so you think you have gotten worse. Since you think you’ve gotten worse, you play worse, which drives down your rating… 

I would say that instead of looking at ratings, look instead on a move by move basis. For example, if you had a great position but lost, don’t focus on your loss- you played well enough to get a winning position, and work from there. 

You could also take a break from chess- just read books or do some other hobby for maybe a week. When you get back you should have a better mindset.

Normally a temporary dip in rating is expected as one improves. It happened to me as well as I sought to incorporate new ideas and techniques into my games, and of course at that point in time I had thought that my rating would go down forever. I was demoralised for a few days, but the permanent drop did not happen eventually. I eventually rose beyond my record to notch a new record.

So come on, we all know that you are improving! Give yourself some time and take everyone's advice here.

I think the reason why so many people fail to get good at chess is how they approach the game in terms of improvement. 

I've found tactics really don't help at the ametuer level because these players still lack skills in so many different areas of their game. 

I'm going to tell you what worked for me, maybe it can help you as well 

1 Good opening preparation and have a deep understanding on the middle game positions I'm likely to get. 

2 Reviewing my own games (without an engine first) and actually writing down what I think I can learn from the game. 

3. Play a lot. I played ALOT of blitz starting out. And building this intuition really helped me to become a good player. Not sure how much time you have to play, but definitely up your numbers if you can. 

Good luck. 

Go for a horse ride from New Jersey to Maine and you'll feel a lot more refreshed.

I see a lot of responses on how puzzles are "bad" for improvement for various reasons (e.g., they rarely translate into real-life positions, involve heavy lines of calculation you won't have time for in game, etc.). In these discussions I find many overlook the most important component to improvement, which is not the quantity of our training, but rather the quality.

A quick look at your profile shows that you rarely spend more than 2 minutes solving each puzzle you come across. You have a solve rate of about 50/50 for over 18k puzzles (which is a very impressive amount!), and you do dozens upon dozens of puzzles a day. While this approach will no doubt improve your play to some degree, the problem is you are not giving yourself much time to flex those all-important tactical muscles (calculation, visualization, looking at forced moves, etc.).

For comparison sake, my puzzle rating is sitting around 2450. I have a little over 1,300 attempts (probably closer to 2k if you include my chess tempo puzzles), with a solve rate around 70%-ish. Some of these puzzles have taken me over an hour to solve (in some cases multiple hours), and on several occasions I still don't get the correct answer! Yet taking the time to wrack my brain over positions which are well above my skill level has allowed me to progress not just tactically, but in my games as well (rapid is about 1400 or so playing in the 30 minute pool).

This is not me trying to "flex" about my rating; this is me trying to prove a point about how quantity of training does not always equal quality. Spending 30+ minutes on a single puzzle (and actually focusing on said puzzle) will do far more for your overall playing strength than an equal amount of time solving dozens which challenge you to a lesser degree. Pushing yourself to your limit by calculating out long lines in complicated positions will improve your calculation abilities (in every time control, not just longer ones). The same is true of any other skill we can work on (positional chess, endgames, etc.).

Of course, there is something to be said about improving your strategic capabilities as well. Chess books can be a great resource for this, but again, you have to be willing to sit down with them and give yourself time to digest them. Nobody becomes a strong player over night; this journey is a long and grueling one.

And don't worry about stalling out! Plateauing is a natural part of getting better at anything, chess included. Just keep up the grind and eventually you will find yourself progressing once again. In fact, by that point, you probably won't even notice it happening.