Lazy Man Chess

I love chess. I love it. I practice tactics puzzles when I first wake up. I play it when I'm drunk. I play it when I'm stoned. I play chess when I'm sitting on the toilet. I have played thousands of games. Of the games that I have a list of, chess.com tells me that I've played over 17,600 games. Wow! And I have played many other games that I have no record for.

Here is my problem. I don't seem to get any better. My rating is still what it was nearly a decade ago, fluctuating between 1300 and 1500. It's not that all my experience doesn't help. I fear nobody on the board and have beaten very strong players, friends who I know have beaten master level players.

So what is my problem? Why am I not ranked higher? I think I have a combination of problems that that I can point to for my lack of consistent play: comfort, complacency, too much bullet chess, lack of reflection on my own games.

Chess is something that I do for leisure and I often choose lazy options and don't think deeply enough. Perhaps this will always be the case. To some extent I can mitigate this by practicing extremely difficult tactics puzzles. This allows me to see much deeper than most players in the pool that I wallow in without much effort or serious somberness.

While I understand strategic principles and have read books and articles my application of positional ideas is weak. I've begun to reflect upon my games and play through with a computer, noting my shortcomings. My normal style is to consume games like potato chips, wipe my greasy fingers and move on to the next. Because of this I'm not learning from my mistakes. I'm hoping by adding this to my chess time I will become wildly stronger.

It's so hard. I'm lazy. Wish me luck.