Everybody has a surge in rating if your "true" rating is above the 1200 you start with. You play weaker players, your rating goes up from all the wins, then suddenly you hit a range where players are much better, and you get clobbered.
Don't get mad when you lose, and keep playing.
Everybody has a surge in rating if your "true" rating is above the 1200 you start with. You play weaker players, your rating goes up from all the wins, then suddenly you hit a range where players are much better, and you get clobbered.
Don't get mad when you lose, and keep playing.
I understand the rating changes itself and that it moves more at first. It is more than that though. There is a guy at work who I play a game of chess with here and there. I won the first 10 we played easily. I've now lost 3 of the last 6. Although he has improved from us playing, I am making mistakes the likes of which I'd never make in the past.
I feel your pain, although I am slightly getting better.
I think the problem is that I don't have a coach.
Yeah, you're better than 1300.
Keep studying and playing, and have fun while you play!
Have you considered the implications of "the Peter principle"?
I'd recomend Online Chess instead of Live Chess for a while.
Online chess is a pace I am not interested in. Yes it gives me all the time in the world to think but I don't want a single chess match to take two months.
Have you considered the implications of "the Peter principle"?
As interesting as that may be, as I've said I can directly see myself making mistakes I didn't use to make and and getting beat by a regular offline opponent who used to never even get close to beating me (and he does not study chess or play outside of our games).
ChessSponge said: "Online chess is a pace I am not interested in. Yes it gives me all the time in the world to think but I don't want a single chess match to take two months."
Doesn't take 2 months. Most of my games have taken about 2-3 weeks. You can often get the first 5-7 moves out of the way in a couple days, and with conditional move options and mobile chess apps, one can make forced moves (or moves that require less thought) very quickly.
And I'd like to point out that online chess does not give one "all the time in the world to think". This is a really popular misconception from people who have never tried it. You play blitz or OTB and think, "sure, if you can take 3 days to move, you have as much time as you want". In reality, most players have 5-10 games going at once, and with work and family life, there is still a finite amount of time for the games. One cannot explore all variations. Even with 3 days to move, one has to make decisions about what lines to explore and exclude, how far to analyze, etc. Online chess is not "chess without time limits". It is time controlled, in a very real sense.
I was 1505 (this wasn't the beginning of my chess.com account) about 3-4 weeks ago, now i dropped down to 1450-ish.
Keep your cool bro. You're not alone. I've hit that wall more times than you can imagine. :D
I think looking at your annotations - you'd be able to tell what your weaknesses are. From the game you should us, it would be playing a little passively than you should and underestimating your position.
I found that adopting that mindset makes me cower and play moves that are so passive...and maybe it's the same for you. :)
Be a tiger chesssponge! (a spongy chess tiger maybe :D)
I just forgot which GM said it but it's better to err on the side of overconfidence in your position than thinking inferiorly. Doing the latter just sets you up for defeat.
Dualbishops
PS: I love slow chess, too. 45 minutes to an hour. Let's play some time. :)
I keep playing against players with higher ratings than me, and my rating suffers in the short term, but who cares?? I am getting better, and eventually I always get to the next level, my rating comes back up, and my level of competition goes up too. That's the whole point. I'm never going to be a Grand Master, but I can always improve by playing against better players; my own rating will dip and rise, but gradually it continues to go up.
Well I'm back on track at least. After losing ~200 points I've won 5 out the last 6 (and the loss was because I was an idiot and not paying attention to my opponents threat, up until then I was ahead and doing well.) and regained 100 of those points.
I'm still making an occasional dumb mistake, like with the loss, but my games look better after I review them so that is good.
The loss:
My latest win:
My second to latest win:
I misplayed the early middle game slightly to be down a pawn and have a crappy pawn structure when trying to avoid a trade thinking I could trap his knight before he could stop the trap, didn't work out. But I stuck with it and I think the end game was pretty cool. Black thought he had a great attack coming on my King but really I had a checkmate setup waiting to spring into action.
You know, I feel exactly the same way.
I seem to have gotten a lot worse at chess over the years. I used to play on Yahoo back in the late 90's and I was consistently rated around 1500. Now I seem to hover around 1200 for the most part. I get frustrated easily and always seem to miss critical moves.
I am going to try and spend more time watching videos and training I guess.
I am a relatively new player and I advanced close to 1100 from 600 or so. After spending the majority of my time in the 900's I broke through the rut and got a bit better hovering mid 1000's. AND NOW I'm low 900's again. I'm barely winning against 800-900's. I'm completly confused as to why this has happened.
I don't believe you get worse at chess.....BUT I DO!!
this happened to me, I got my rating from like 1071 to 958 and now, i AM BACK in the 1000's.
It seems to me that you're doing all the right things. Which is to say that you're analyzing your play. Here are some ideas:
1) Spend a few moments in-between games to remind yourself how awesome you are. If you won, good job. What worked that game? If you lost, even better. That's a learning opportunity and your opponent deserved the win. After all, s/he did beat you and that's not an easy thing to do.
2) Change your mind-set. Make yourself believe that there are hidden combinations underlying every position. Look for them. Be confident in your play. Take risks if you want to, but make sure you think them through.
Keep up the good work! The best part of any challenge is the struggle. Embrace it.
Unlikely since a/c closed.
Probably off to start again with "new" rating.
So I started up on here a little while ago. I quickly pulled my rating up close to 1500 and then I just started playing worse. Worst part is I know I'm playing bad but I can't stop it. Now I have quickly tumbled down to below 1300 and I know I'm better than that.
I've been trying to assess what is going on so I can correct it and get back on track to improving. So far I've noticed a few things.
1) I lost a couple of games either directly due to time running out or because I got so low on time that I had to make fast moves and messed up. Then the next few games I didn't think as much because I was concerned with getting low on time again so I just didn't play as well (still think chess.com should put 45 minute or 1 hr games in the preset drop downs instead of people having to hope someone wants custom).
2) When I lose I get mad at myself (well if I lose because I did something stupid and at my rating level that is typically what causes someone to lose). I also then quickly jump into another game without cooling down or looking over the last game to see why I screwed up. I'm going to try not to do that anymore.
So now I'm looking for other things I can fix. I figured the best way would be to post a few games on here so maybe others will spot something that is going on.
So here is a game from last night that was a little crazy and I feel I was in a better position for a while then swung to being behind and finally got a draw out of it.