I've recently found that playing 15|10 games rather than 10 min has been a big improvement for me on rapid. I had the usual pre-game jitters when I hit Play but I very quickly realised that with some quick and decisive opening moves I could allow myself as much as a full minute sometimes to work out a strategy in the middlegame...
Nervous about online play
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Mar 27, 2021
0
#23
Ke1san schreef:
Hi, I’ve been practicing chess for a couple months against bots and friends and went into my first online match last week. I got steamrolled and now I’m hesitant to play any more matches as I feel I’ll just get crushed every time. I watch my game reports, study popular openings, try to activate my pieces and look for good ways to take but I don’t know if it’s enough. Should I just stick to bots or am I fearing something that could be a better learning experience (at the cost of my ELO)? I’d say my biggest fear is losing like 50 games in a row and just being stuck as a terrible player. What do you guys and girls think?
I don’t understand ... you lost your first match and have a rating of 1044. I won my first and only got 500 or something. 
... how is that possible? Can anyone explain ?
p.s... I know how you feel. I really suck. Literally just learned the basic rules , never played before... I sometimes think I should have played against computers first or learned more before I went playing.
But like the other guy said... don’t bother.. it is fun and you learn more and more to be a better player.
Mar 27, 2021
0
#24
OldN1ck schreef:
Hi Ke1san, I’m going through a similar experience - very apprehensive before playing my first live game last weekend! Decided I really needed to get on and find out where my rating is at this stage?
Then - disaster - somehow I won my first 2 games (opponents making mistakes) and my rating shot up to where I was sure it shouldn’t be.
Now I’ve had a 4 game losing streak and my rating is heading back down - I just need to get on and play more to see where it settles out? Still feeling the nerves... but it is getting better, I’m sure that keeping going with live games is the best way forwards for us:-)
Then - disaster - somehow I won my first 2 games (opponents making mistakes) and my rating shot up to where I was sure it shouldn’t be.
Now I’ve had a 4 game losing streak and my rating is heading back down - I just need to get on and play more to see where it settles out? Still feeling the nerves... but it is getting better, I’m sure that keeping going with live games is the best way forwards for us:-)
Seriously can someone explain what I am doing wrong with the rating system? OldN1ck ... has lost 4 games and I lost 3 and one draw , I also won more than him. And his rating is twice as more than mine.
I would be thankful if someone could explain it to me. Cause I still got just 500 
... doesn’t seem fair...
Mar 27, 2021
0
#25
Yeah boy first the ELO system rewards FACTS not opinion basically how it works is based on your oponnents, you and the outcome of the battle it basically goes like this
You (330) vs Opponent (400) = You win = Opponent - 30 You + 50
You (380) vs Opponent (200) = You win = Opponent - 10 You + 5
You (385) vs Opponent (500) = You lose = Opponent + 7 You - 3
You (382) vs Opponent (100) = You lose = Opponent + 50 You - 40
And similarly with draws so quoting chess.com ""
You have been playing better games against lower rated opponents but he has been playing kinda ok games against higher rated opponents so that's why he's better rated, also maybe he has a FIDE rating IRL so that just sets him up to higher ratings that he already had to begin with
Mar 27, 2021
0
#26
W0m3nR3sp3ct0r schreef:
Yeah boy first the ELO system rewards FACTS not opinion basically how it works is based on your oponnents, you and the outcome of the battle it basically goes like this
You (330) vs Opponent (400) = You win = Opponent - 30 You + 50
You (380) vs Opponent (200) = You win = Opponent - 10 You + 5
You (385) vs Opponent (500) = You lose = Opponent + 7 You - 3
You (382) vs Opponent (100) = You lose = Opponent + 50 You - 40
And similarly with draws so quoting chess.com ""
You have been playing better games against lower rated opponents but he has been playing kinda ok games against higher rated opponents so that's why he's better rated, also maybe he has a FIDE rating IRL so that just sets him up to higher ratings that he already had to begin with
Thank you very much!
I have been playing for years for fun, I don’t really care about my own rating to be honest but enjoy playing chess full stop. It’s a great game with some brilliant players on here ( Enjoy )
Mar 27, 2021
0
#28
If you get stressed, start out playing daily games. It's the best way to avoid blunders because of time pressure. Chill out and find the best moves.
Tatatadaaa wrote:
OldN1ck schreef:
Hi Ke1san, I’m going through a similar experience - very apprehensive before playing my first live game last weekend! Decided I really needed to get on and find out where my rating is at this stage?
Then - disaster - somehow I won my first 2 games (opponents making mistakes) and my rating shot up to where I was sure it shouldn’t be.
Now I’ve had a 4 game losing streak and my rating is heading back down - I just need to get on and play more to see where it settles out? Still feeling the nerves... but it is getting better, I’m sure that keeping going with live games is the best way forwards for us:-)
Then - disaster - somehow I won my first 2 games (opponents making mistakes) and my rating shot up to where I was sure it shouldn’t be.
Now I’ve had a 4 game losing streak and my rating is heading back down - I just need to get on and play more to see where it settles out? Still feeling the nerves... but it is getting better, I’m sure that keeping going with live games is the best way forwards for us:-)
Seriously can someone explain what I am doing wrong with the rating system? OldN1ck ... has lost 4 games and I lost 3 and one draw , I also won more than him. And his rating is twice as more than mine.
I would be thankful if someone could explain it to me. Cause I still got just 500 ... doesn’t seem fair...
I think it's just that we haven't played enough games on here yet for the ratings to find our correct position. My first blunder was not realising that you could set your own rating when first starting, so began with the default 800 and expected it to drop... then somehow won two games against the odds (nerves a mess, and sure it had to be undeserved good fortune... although a teeny corner of my brain was wondering if an old duffer might amazingly turn out to be a chess prodigy?!!!:-)
Reality has now kicked in and I've got a nice losing streak going as I try to slide gracefully down to where I really should be in the ratings.
Mar 28, 2021
0
#30
Wait you can set your own rating? So thats why I have been able to back rank checkmate 1600 people and get Boden'd by 600s
Mistakes makes you stronger, keep playing with people
I have the same problem, I always feel like I didn’t learn yet. However, I will start playing online so that I don’t feel bored.
Here goes my experience. I'm a very competitive person, so when I started playing (2-3 weeks ago) I got really mad because I was losing ~10 games in a row.
My heart races everytime I play online and I realised most of my mistakes happened because I was too nervous and tried to play fast. What happened then? Well, the opponent found a weakeness and destroyed me. In fact, 98% of the time I found a better play a few seconds later. I started to pay more attention to the game and try to think of multiple plays. It's not good yet, but I now I can win 3-4 games in a row in a convincing way. I still lose too many games because of silly mistakes, though.
I hope I can keep improving. Its kinda hard because I cant hire a teacher or anything, but I will just keep playing. My advice is for you to go online. Even if you lose, just try to study WHY you lost. Even if you keep losing the same way, sometime you will learn how to counter certain attacks and defend yourself.
Don't be surprised if opponents with (what you regard) really LOW ratings destroy you. Players on this site are very good at all levels...It's just a game. play thousands of games and you will end up where you belong ratings wise.