The downside of daily chess

Losing a daily game is like dying by a thousand cuts. I've been told by my betters that at my level (1074) I should never resign. There is no end to the possible mistakes that can be made by the players I play. My opponents aren't GMs. But, dayyum, it's maddening watching your game go down the toilet day by day! (Okay, thanks for listening. I'm better now.)

I recently resigned two games because after staring and staring at my positions, I just could not see a way forward. But then when I analyzed one game--the first time I have ever analyzed one of my games--it revealed that I was winning when I surrendered. It was disappointing, because I could not see that I was winning, but it also showed me that sometimes I play better than I think I do. I don't pay much attention to my betters, especially if they are being arrogant about being so much better than me. I care more about the joy I find in studying great games from the past than I do about winning or losing. Winning is nice, but for me the process of studying and playing is the best part.

I did well at Daily at first, it was fun.  Then I didn't play so well (meaning, badly), and lost more.  Finally I resolved to play my best and take my time, really focusing and ... I was competitive.  But ... the game was taking days and weeks and over time, giving me migraines.  I just had to get out of it somehow.

Thankfully my opponent - who was much better than me - agreed to a draw and that was that.

I haven't played Daily since, and I am happier.

I don’t agree with the using database thingy and put more stock on live chess or OTB than daily chess.

I get it with the effort and research thing but it’s borderline cheating to me.

I agree. And believe me, it takes everything I have not to hit that resign button.  It's excruciating to watch. If it gets any worse, I'll probably give in. Oh, the pain! LOL!

I am not a big fan of daily chess, but mostly because I like my chess games to take a single sitting...even if longer time controls. I just don't like one game going on for weeks of months - even if I'm winning...and losing is worse xD

Daily chess is good for post-game analysis because you've had plenty of time to think about each move before you played it, but if you are starting out, you can probably also play a 10-60 minute game and also feel you had plenty of thinking time. Playing shorter time controls becomes easier once you become more experiences and know more chess patterns, so I wouldn't recommend playing anything shorter than 10 min chess when starting out (10 min chess takes up to 20 minutes per game as it is 10 min per side to complete all of their moves unlike Daily format where the time control is for each move).

It's not for everyone, it has the fewest players of all the time controls over 2000, blitz players over 2000 are ten a penny.

Recently I have lost the patience to play well in Daily. I flick off moves without really analysing carefully, whereas in a 30 minute live game I will often take longer to consider the best move.

I don't like that either and was surprised to find out it wasn't considered cheating. Players can use Explorer, for example, and find out the most popular moves, by master level players, for common positions... you can't use an engine but you're getting the same suggestions. This only works until you or opponent plays something that isn't a book move, of course. Chess.com has an end game tablebase too, btw... you can access it from the Analysis page every time there are seven or fewer pieces on the board, but using it during a game, daily or not, IS considered cheating.

That's somehow the point of correspondence chess since its beginning, although it would be just books by then. It's a different way. Can't be considered cheating if both players do the same. And beware of blindly following moves suggested in books and databases, one could get in trouble if they are not fully understood.

Right.

I personally have grown a bit bored of daily, but living in a house with two teenagers, a two years-old hound and a wife who asks "are you even listening?" when she's talking to me during games, I consider it my choice by default.

Databases are irrelevant in under 2000 elo in Daily, because all it takes is one odd move which does not follow the general idea of the opening, in order to move you out of most of the games in the DB. 

Not to mention if you copy moves without understand why they are being made, you are going to be a bit lost when you have to start moving on your own. 

Combine that with the odd move that will throw you out of most games in the DB, and you will be left in a position you don't know why it is the way it is, and NOW you have to make a move that does not ruin it. 

Being able to move the pieces around in an analysis board is a lot more useful and more of an advantage than databases so getting hung up on databases is wrong.

 The only downside I can think about is if you only play Daily chess, you are going to have a lot of trouble when playing very fast time controls, such as 10+0 or faster. And the reason is if you are used to taking 5 minutes per Daily chess position to think before making a move, and then go blitz or 10+0, you will probably blunder as won't have enough time to run through your standard mental thinking process. 

 You may do well in Classic time controls, though. 

daily chess doesn't exactly praise good instinct, because you can use the analysis board and also spend a lot of time on the moves

Which is a great way to develop good instinct.