Lost 500 points today

Way back when, when I played chess, studied it and played regularly, I was somewhere between 1400 - 1600. Not great, not terrible. Improved well, gained maybe 50-100 points a month. I haven't played seriously in a long, long time.

A few weeks back, I decided to get back into it to kill time. And that's what I usually do. Unfortunately, I just keep losing. I think I won one out of eight games today, and that's generally how my games online always go. 

I face two big issues. Either I screw up the opening and resign, or I lose track. In any slightly complex positions, I totally space out and start throwing the game. Sometimes I resign because I don't know what move to make and just can't think.

I have a hard time believing a once-1500-ish player fell down to 300 after a couple years of not playing. That's just way too wild to be true. In any case, I'm losing motivation to even play. Beginning to resent the game. I can't go any lower in rating and still find myself consistently losing winning positions.

From 621 to 312 is 309 points and you recovered nearly 200, so things aren't as bad as you say.

You say you were a 1500. Was that online somewhere else? Ratings vary a lot between sites. 

At any rate, you just started up again. Give yourself a chance to recover.

I started out on 800 today, I thought... But yes. I'm recovering. I'm actually thinking before making moves now, and it seems to be paying off.

I used to be a 1500 or so, maxed out at 1600 on Chess.com a couple years ago. But then again, math, logic puzzles and board games were my main cup of tea back then. Now that I'm knee deep into music, chess seems harder than ever.

I looked at few of your games, and I am sure you never was 1600 rated on chess.com 

maybe on other sites but 1600 at chess.com, and playing like you do now is impossible, unless you had a serious memory issue. 

But not playing few years definetlly can get you 200-300 points down.

I can assure you that I was in fact in the 1500 range on Chess.com. If I could prove it, I would. But I can't, unfortunately. Which I suppose is understandable, as I've long since forgotten my login info.

But I agree. My playing is awful. Back then, I actually spent time doing puzzles, playing for a couple hours a day, actually knew some opening theory and had pretty decent knowledge of the game. Watched and studied games, applied it decently. I guess pursuing music and an engineering degree, along with an overall shift in life priorities can dull some skills. I don't remember a book I read two years ago, there's no way I remember any chess theory beyond the bare basics.

My brain just gets foggy mid game. I can't focus on it. Keeping track of what pins what, thinking more than two moves ahead - chess is a very exact science, and I'm a very play-it-by-ear type. Probably why I'm so bad at math as well.

I think you can play chess by ear - by intuition - to a decent level. GM Simon Williams plays like that all the time online. He just says, "I should probably calculate this but I can´t be bothered". If you develop your pattern recognition skills and an attackers nose, that should be more than enough to get your rating up even without calculating.

For example: This game was pretty much played "by ear". I was so out of it, and had such a foggy head, that I played a game as black thinking I was white and got confused why I couldn´t castle with my Queen! Didn´t even realize I was black until I put into the analyser and it said "Vienna Game: Zhuravlev Countergambit" and not the Trompowsky. Didn´t calculate, just took his hung piece, traded off and put my rooks on the 7th rank. Not a great game, but enough to see off a 1400.

Could't have said it better. I might be able to calculate a better move, but I can't be bothered. Gets me thinking chess might just not be for me anymore.

Nice game though! Proves the whole 'don't hang pieces to break 1500' jazz. So demoralizing. Spent all those hours learning not to hang pieces only to hang the Queen near every game years later.

Online chess is a bit like gambling, an addiction. The temptation when you're on a losing streak is to keep playing to try to reverse it, but I find that hardly every happens - you get more and more frantic and the mistakes get worse, Much better to take a break and try again another day.

Sure seems like it... Feels a lot like taking the one armed bandit for just one more spin. Except the result is 100% in your hands. At the moment, I seem to win some and lose some. Like it should be. Hopefully some educational youtube binges will help fix my terrible playing.

Weren't you a busy boy?

Are you being needlessly smug or am I being needlessly defensive?

Neither. Just a bit of innocent humor.

In that case it's the latter and I apologize! Sorry. I've been quite tense these past few weeks.

No Sweat. Sometimes jokes that work face to face don't always translate well to text. In any case, relax about your rating--it's not the measure of you, just how well your games have been going lately

I went from 1100 to 800-900 ish

If you are returning to chess after a long layoff, you should probably avoid playing fast games until you feel you are getting back to speed. You need to get used to calculating carefully, planning, and seeing the whole board.  Slower games give you an opportunity to practice and sharpen those skills, which will help a lot when you return to faster time limits.

One other thing. When you lose 500 points in a day, you are totally on tilt, and it's way past time to walk away. You are like a compulsive gambler, making more an more risky bets, hoping that a miracle will help you recoup your lost points. I suspect towards the end, you weren't even really playing chess, just making crazy sacrifices and hoping they'd work. You're like the guy who lost a thousand dollars at the blackjack table, and then lost his house trying to win it back

no u

I think you could get back to 1000 in a month or two with some puzzles everyday and some games but do what is fun to you!

Play me and youll most likely win.