What's the best way to come back to chess after ~2 years?

I began learning chess in early 2021, though would only really get into it in late 2022, where I would play a lot, as well as putting a lot of work into getting better at it (Watching videos, learning openings, recognizing patterns, etc).

Doing that, I managed to get to 900 Elo (Though one of my regrets was always taking way too much time every game, having o resort to 15 | 10 instead of 10 minute rapids so I didn't flag a lot of my games), but I stopped mainly due to "anxiety" (I know it's irrational, but I had adrenaline rushes doing games, and after every win I felt very apprehensive about playing other matches).

Recently I felt like going back and solving the issues I had two years ago, though I feel that I forgot much that I knew back then, what would be the best way to "get back in"? Can I use my forgetfulness as an advantage in order to re-learn things without certain vices I had?

There's a few portions I'd like to address here, so here's my bulleted list:

- First of all, welcome back to chess and chess.com

- The next part I'd like to answer is when you ask "What's the best way to come back to chess...?" The answer is that you taking a break from chess or not doesn't actually change how you learn chess. If you were working on chess everyday or if you were taking a hiatus from chess, then in each case you improve by working on your chess. This means analyzing your own chess games to learn from your mistakes, solving chess puzzles, studying basic checkmates and theoretical endgames and so forth.

- The "anxiety" part is the main thing holding you back here, but I appreciate the openness and honestly in sharing what you have. I'm all for longer time controls and giving yourself enough time to not feel rushed in your games, but this is obviously not healthy long-term if done to avoid (or "very apprehensive about") "playing other matches."

Chess is not about rating and numbers. If you want long-term improvement, then it is about learning and increasing your overall chess ability and level of chess understanding. If you do this, then your rating will naturally go up and catch up to you. It is good to value rating and care about it a little, but it is not good to obsess over the numbers and feel apprehensive about playing. Losing is part of the learning process. Variance is a mathematical concept and there is no way around it. Variance can sometimes be minimized, but you can't eliminate it entirely (you also might not necessarily want to lower variance at all, but that's a different and more complex topic).

I recognize that this video of mine is almost an hour long, but it is really important information and I recommend checking it out. I believe that this can help you. Your "anxiety" of resorting to 15/10 (and later taking a 2 year break) sounds like the start of my "What does NOT work" section just a few minutes into the video; quitting is not a cure.

Think of the information in this video as an investment. You invest an hour of your time to learn these things, but even if it helps you win just 2 chess games, then it was time well spent. 15/10 time control probably takes about half an hour to complete (15 min per player plus the increment), so winning 2 games (and not having to spend time gaining back lost rating) gives you a net gain on your time.

If you want a shorter video which is entertaining (and something more recent from me), then later you can watch a video like this Tal game which really impressed me

I do love memes

Use your current re-learning phase to approach chess concepts with a fresh perspective. Sometimes, having forgotten old habits allows you to adopt new, better habits more easily.

https://chessmood.com/?r=DfIjbsmZgGunEbo2DLQ24vd2PiZl0mpJ also has some learning materal

@1

"Watching videos" ++ Not useful

"learning openings" ++ Not useful

"recognizing patterns" ++ meaning what?

"I managed to get to 900 Elo" ++ A sign of frequent blunders. Blunder check before you move.

"taking way too much time" ++ Take time to think.

"15 | 10 instead of 10 minute" ++ Excellent: 15|10 is best for progress

"I stopped mainly due to anxiety" ++ No need for anxiety

"re-learn things" ++ Study Chess Fundamentals - Capablanca

@tygxc I agree with some of your sections, yet also not others:

- Watching chess videos can definitely be useful, but primarily when it is active learning or at least some way of remembering the information - not just an overload of binge watching videos.

- I agree that "learning openings" probably isn't the best use of time for most chess players, but I would personally rephrase it. Learning openings can definitely be useful, but there are other areas to study which can probably be more beneficial for time invested. I recommend starting with the endgame. For openings, you can get by on the guidelines known as opening principles. https://www.chess.com/blog/KeSetoKaiba/opening-principles-again

- Pattern recognition is extremely helpful, but you are correct that most people don't give enough thought to what this means. Repeating patterns can be harmful if it means repeating the same mistakes without learning.

- Yup, blunder checking before each move is valuable. Congrats to them for reaching 900 rating on here though. It's a great start

- Agreed. Play longer time controls if you feel rushed constantly. It is okay to take more time to think when starting out. Higher rated players need less time to think because of past experience and pattern recognition, but starting out, the chess player hasn't developed this yet.

- 15/10 is a good time control. I also played a lot of 20 min games when I was starting out. I generally wouldn't go any shorter than 10 min games though.

- Literally easier said than done @tygxc that's like telling a depressed person to just not be depressed. Oh gee, thanks. -_-

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond.....

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

I've also returned to chess a couple times after long breaks (first a decade after playing in the high school club, and with shorter breaks after each kid was born). Some of my notes:

• I warm up with a 3-minute puzzle rush before playing a game. Gets me in game mode.
• Maybe try 10/5 time controls? I liked that setting because it reduced the time scramble pressure but is a bit more contained than 15/10, which doesn't always fit into my schedule. I've only played one 3/2 blitz game since coming back this time, and it was a hot mess that I don't want to repeat.
• I analyze my game right afterwards, compare against engine lines. Sticking with 10/5 and then doing an analysis gets me to a half-hour time slot. Reason why I do the analysis immediately is the next bullet.
• Whenever I make a mistake or miss a win, I check how much time I had left and how much I spent on the move. I try to remember my thought process in the moment and figure out why I made the mistake. Was it that I calculated bad on a prior move and snap-captured back, missing something big? Did I spend a bunch of time and not get a good plan to move forward in the midgame? Did I miscalculate a tactic? Did I not realize when the critical moment was, and didn't spend my time effectively there?
• I do more puzzles now than I used to, and very often don't have time to play a game, but I do have time to work through a puzzle. Of all the things I've done coming back to chess, getting good at tactics in puzzles was the most useful.
• Finally, I save and organize some of my games into the library here. I got a folder to learn from, mostly games where I got positionally grinded down. I got a motivation folder too when I feel down, nothing like seeing your best wins to get you ready to play again.

I'd say your whole question could be simplified to "how do I get over my chess anxiety?". Because the way to get back in is to just start playing again, really. But you have anxiety about doing that.

Throughout like 25 years of playing competitive strategy games... I've lost alot of games. I've played SC, WC3, SC2, Civ 6, chess. I've become very ambivalent to losing. When I first starting out I did get anxiety. The way you ultimately overcome that anxiety is just by playing alot and losing alot. Though it may also help if you have a plan going into the game, if you lack a plan then there's uncertainty which breeds anxiety.

But another thing you can do is focus on improvement rather than results. So you should figure out which areas of the game you want to focus on, and then come up with a plan for improving those areas. Generally I do recommend beginners learn the first 5-6 moves or so in the opening, just so they have a reference point for learning the position they're playing, and for analysis / improvement. Then losing is no longer some unknown catastrophe but rather it's an opportunity for analysis. There are many threads in this beginner forum where people ask questions like... how should I learn chess, what mistakes did I make in this game, how do you think my game is lacking, etc.. I'd recommend looking through this forum and reading qeustions of this nature / gathering feedback from the various players and putting it together in a way that will work for you.

Some people also benefit from playing on a trash account where they don't talk to anyone and they feel more free to experiment / play badly. You could try doing that as well. It'd probably be good for you to just start low rated and climb the rating ladder again, really. That way you end up at your actual current rating.

There are also many great youtube channels on chess, one of the fastest ways to improve is to watch this sort of content and just listen to people talk about the game.

When asking people for advice on how to improve it's also important you know when to ignore bad advice such as this. Because there is unfortunately alot of this garbage advice floating around. For this just trust your instincts... your improvement has to be self-motivated. You should have some reference within that tells you what you need and what you're lacking / what you feel like doing, which you can use to sift through the advice and listen to what seems like it will work for you.

I took a break from chess of about 5 years, when I went to grad school. In my first tournament after the break, I dropped almost 100 points.

one thing that helped me return to form was being in a group that played speed chess, analyzed one another’s games, and played some non rated matches against other university teams.

it took about a year or so to bring my rating back up and then I was able to improve another rating class or so.

you can’t improve without playing, so you do have to get back on the horse. But it will likely help to have some friends or a club to provide encouragement, mentoring, and camaraderie.

Good luck.

Yey