Did people at my ELO get that much better or did I get that much worse?

I had to take a few months off. I was literally melting because I couldn't get better regardless of what I did. I tried Aimchess, analyzing games, watched videos, did tactic puzzles, bought an opening course (but am too stupid as it seems), and instead of getting better just dropped more and more. So I took as I said a break.

Now I'm back, refreshed, or at least thought I was refreshed. Only to lose more often, dropping another 100 points, and getting the feeling that every second opponent cheats. So please tell me the players at ELO 500-600 have gotten better. Because I'm already on a mental breakdown because I doubt someone can get that much worse just by taking a break for mental health reasons.

It's completely natural to be bad at a given task if you're new to it. Chess is complex, it's not an easy thing to master and takes years. Most people are "bad" for a long time before they begin improving. Believe in the process, it sounds like you're doing the right things it just takes time.

One thing I will say is try not to focus on openings, at your level it isn't what decides chess games. I watched chess network's series on youtube titled "beginner to chess master" and found it super helpful so I recommend you watch that through.

But I lose most games as black because of a terrible opening from which I can't recover. I follow every principle, every guide, check things twice, and either lose material or get so few pieces out that I am too far behind to catch up. And I also hate this "bad for a long time". Shouldn't I get better after 2 years) shouldn't I see some kind of improvement? Shouldn't I win more often? Because even that glorified aimchess they advertise here shows me that I've done worse and worse even though I follow their "program".

When did you take the break? Looked at your profile and the rapid graph is not flatlining for months during the last year so there has been no break that lasted a few months.

Also took a look at a couple of your games. Both you and your opponent are hanging pieces and pawns left and right. So try to focus on not hanging pieces and capturing the ones your opponent hangs.

Also you played something like h6 as your first move in one of the games. That is not following any principles. Play for the control of the centre and avoid unnecessary pawn moves in the opening.

I don’t think the 500 rated have gotten any stronger.

From what I see, your opponents play as expected. They make plenty of blunders. On the other hand, you are playing too fast (way too fast), and that means you play random moves instead of good moves.

Look at this game:

On move 13, your opponent blunders his queen (and a bishop) with 13. - Ba3 (??). Instead of taking the queen (or the bishop), you just bang out a move in 10 seconds (with more than 8 minutes on the clock). Next move your opponent saves the queen but leaves the bishop hanging, and you again ignore it. Next move black insists on blundering the bishop with 15. - Bxb2+, and in response you quickly and confidently blunder your queen. In 2 seconds.

Don't play random moves. Use your time and think.

@Habanababananero

It felt like months. And moves like h6 often happen if I'm frustrated because whatever I do, it doesn't works. So if openings won't matter at my level, why even care.

@neisan1sgoodatchess

tried the sicilian, doesn't work. And I've played the London at the beginning, but feel more comfortable with the Vienna.

@magipi

I try to think, but even when I take my time I either get the same result, or become impatient and do the same crap I already did. Maybe I'm just not made for chess. Or too stupid. Or both.

If you often ”become impatient and do the same crap”, chess really might not be the game for you. It does not mean you are stupid, just maybe not well suited for chess, beacuse chess and especially learning chess takes a lot of patience.

Or you could try to look at chess as a way to learn to become less impatient.

Anyway, you will have to take your time to think if you want to improve.

@Mordecai237

In your level, you have to basically forget everything and just do tactical exercices. There is this mate in 1 app on google apps, I solved more than 2500 exercises of mate in 1 before playing my first game online. There is this saying: "Chess is 90% tactics". So you should spend 90% of your chess time doing tactics.

When facing a tactical exercise, don't think about finding the solution quickly. Speed comes with time. Focus on this mental exercise: look at every possible move for both you and your opponent. Even the moves that do nothing or blunder pieces. Do not play until you have seen all the legal moves of the position. First see all them moves you have, than pretend is your opponent's move and see all of his moves.

@Habanababananero

I actually try to be more patient. I have that problem with several other hobbies, with my job, anywhere. But I don't know how. People always tell me to think more, to take a few breaths, to force myself to move or do something after 10 seconds, all kinds of tips that sound good at first. But they sadly never work. And yes, I must be stupid. Because a smart person would look at their problem, and come up with solutions.

@Dalaner

Sorry, but I hate that whole "90% tactics" thing. I solved 1600-something puzzles here, got a rating of 1400 in puzzles, and tried a few apps with puzzles, all rating me as an "ELO 900-1200 player", if that is even in any way reliable and true. And yet I sit at a decreasing rating and never see any similar situation in my games. The closest is one single instance of a back rank mate. So no, puzzles don't help in my case, because I never get into a situation that is remotely similar to a puzzle.

I'm finding this an interesting topic as I have fluke days were my elo drops really low and then the next day I can go up 300 elo easy.

1600 puzzles is nothing.

If you solve 18 puzzles every day (which is a SLOW pace) you reach 1600 puzzles in less than 3 months.

Yes, there are a lot of situations in your games that are similar to puzzles, you don't see it because you haven't practiced enough. The post from @magipi proves it. Capturing a hanging queen is the simplest of the tactics, and you couldn't find it.

In conclusion, the "90% tactics" is not a 'thing' or even a 'option'. It is a law in chess. If you don't like it, quit the sport.

Ya can actually do puzzles??? Thats crazy. I'm out here im having to use the hint

:)

Quite the contrary, a lot of very smart people have had massive problems in their lives that they have not been able to come up with solutions to. Take for example, Paul Morphy, probably the most well known chess genius (and this guy truly was a genius) who suffered of mental health issues. He was not able to solve the problems he had in his life.

You never had a puzzle wherethe solution is to take an opponent's queen? This is obviously not true.

The most probable thing is that in a puzzle, you pay attention, so you can solve a lot of them. But in games, you play on autopilot, so you miss even the most obvious tactics.

When you're playing a game, you are a noob.

When you're watching a game, you become a grandmaster.

That's what I find. I think I stress too much in games, especially because of time pressure.

You are taking 2-3 seconds for each move. How could you call that "thinking"? You got a whole 10 minutes, use it wisely. No, you won't get the same results. That's what you claimed by yourself.

I struggle really really badly with ADD, so I understand exactly where you’re coming from and so I’ll try to offer some advice:

A) I want you to start playing 30|0 and take a FULL TWO MINUTES on each of your first ten moves. Then, after that, you should have ten minutes left, which is what you’re used to playing with anyways. Make sure you have at maximum three minutes left in every game you lose.

B) After each and every game, spend at least five minutes looking through it without and engine and finding what your best moves and your worst moves were, then go back through for another five minutes with an engine and see if there were any you missed.

This should drastically improve your longterm chess, but in the short term this might mean that each of your games take an hour or more. If you don’t have that kind of time that day, play a 5|0 game and take a minute at the end looking back through it to see what you missed. 
Remember that the only rating that really matters is your rapid rating. If your rapid rating gets better, your blitz should follow. If your blitz rating gets better, your rapid most likely won’t follow immediately.

First you must play slower game!

Second if you want to reach 1200 this year just think very carefully at each move you and your opponent make.

Third play an opening that you feel very comfortable with.