It takes 30 to 50 good moves to win a game of chess, or rather 30 careful moves and one or two good ones, but it only takes one really stupid move to lose a game. I have been a 1600 to 1750 rated player on chess.com for several years and almost 2000 games, but in the last 6 weeks I have slipped to 1526.

I have played at my usual level, have gotten many even to winning positions with oponents in the 1500-1700 ranges, only to throw game after game away with one terrific blunder. It comes from playing too many games and by looking at the board for 5 seconds instead of a minute. Usually within 15 seconds I remember the themes of each game and which traps to avoid, but I have been afflicted with sporadic chess blindness lately.

I guess the first step to recovery is admitting I have the problem. I will play more consciously from now on and try to make 1700 again by September.

"Hi, my name is BirdBrain, and I've been coming to these meetings for the last 3 years.  I'm a recovering chessaholic."

All jokes aside, maybe you need to take a bit of a break - a week or two, or even a month, and let your mind take care of itself.  Take a break, you'll be back in no time with a fresh start.

I always play worse as a prelude to improvement.  At least, that's what I'm telling myself at the moment, with my current string of losses.  (The only thing keeping my rating up at all is people timing out.  )

I agree that you should take a break and then come back to it later.

Also, only 1 minute even when you were playing good?? Reminds me of something one of my teachers once told me: "God gave you the talent and the TD gave you the time, so use both to their full potential!"

Honestly, I take about 5+ minutes for moves in my important correspondence games, just to be double sure that there aren't any blunders or better moves that I missed; or sometimes, I will even analysis for a few minutes, then walk away and make a decision the next day after thinking it over. And why not? It isn't OTB chess after all--you have days to decide on the best move, not just minutes.

You play a lot of games simultaneously.  I'm sweatin bullets during our games and wonder how much more formidable you'd be with fewer games to concentrate on.

I always play for the win, but at some point as black against you, every time you force me to bunker and play for the draw.  Chin up!  You'll be back!

Good insight. I've been close to reaching my own game limit recently, and have definitely noticed that it is more difficult to play 100% when I have about 20+ games to worry about instead of just a few.

Maybe Jungle could try reducing his game load to a set number and see if there is any change in his play?

Thanks All for your comments!

LisaV, let's play again someday