Chess Isn’t Fun (AKA my chess depression)

Yeah, it’s totally nice of people to spam while they’re struggling. It’s like sending a random spam text to someone who’s mourning.

OK.

A little thought experiment:  Let's imagine that you do, in fact, have a brain wired in such a way that you will never be any good at chess.  That regardless of how much you study, you will never get more than a 300 rating.

How would you feel about that?  And what would you do?

@DelightfulLiberty When everyone around me loves chess? And when I have a good brain that can’t? Try and help other people get better… but I wouldn’t be that much help. Maybe take up a different intellectual pursuit, I guess?

Fair enough.  Let's hold that idea in reserve, then.  If all else fails, you can just quit chess and pick up a different hobby.  Good plan.  Chess is just a game, after all.

Maybe give yourself a deadline?  No improvement in two years, then quit?  Seems reasonable.

OK, so given what you know about how others get better at chess, what do you think are the methods that lead to improvement?

@DelightfulLiberty advice from the Internet is vague. If I play enough games, and see what move makes me lose those games, then I can learn to win games like those. It would take… about 2 years, but it could work almost like a self-training AI.

Chess doesn't relate to iq mate. We are all fools here.

@LordVandheer it’s not about my IQ. Okay, it might be a bit about my IQ, but it’s more so about not being horrid at chess despite studying a lot (by my standards, anyways)

But you've also received advice from a coach, from books, and (hopefully) members of your chess club.

So what methods have you learned that, usually, lead to improvement?

I think what you've already suggested sounds good: play lots of games, then analyse them afterwards.

Doing lots of chessable, reading a chapter in a chess book every night, playing against myself, puzzles every day, etc. etc.

Chess is very fun...you just have to enjoy it

Therein lies the problem. It’s gotten less enjoyable for me because toxicity is slowly creeping in. The 300s think they're gods but they aren’t.

 Put these in rank order of importance, and tell us how long you spend on each, please.  Maybe we can see something there to help.

 What do you think about playing at 800?

Memorising is not the way to go. There are so many potential moves in chess its simply a herculean task to get better in chess via pure memory. What you need is opening principles.

Seems like you think you are better than everyone else yet cant prove it not in only chess but also in a maturity sense. You just sound bitter to me, tbh.

Playing against myself (and then running it through an engine to see what was bad and what was good) is number one, and I do it for about 30 minutes before bed.

Chessable openings for about 15 minutes (openings aren’t that important).

Puzzles for as long as I’m able to because I have a free account.

And then reading the chess book.

@LordVandheer and rightfully so. There are some toxic people, and I try not to let it get to me, but they get in your face so much it’s impossible to ignore them.

Lichess for puzzles, mute chat. 

Based on what's been said, I believe some constructive proposals can be offered.

But first, what's the highest rated bot you can beat?

Sven, at 1100.

i think enjoying what you play is key, for awhile i didint take chess seriously on chess.com (struggle agianst 1500s on chess.com, crush 2000s otb) and only otb. because otb feels more fun and real, and nobody otb plays like people play on chess.com, finding a fun opening that you can enjoy and not get bored with i think is key. When you get better, many people will play slow and boring to make you bored and blunder, but you have to do something about your opening if you commonly face that