I took a week long break over a month ago and now I just keep losing. What happened?

Sort:
Avatar of jonahwalkermusic

I decided to take a week long break from chess after hitting my peak rating (1036) in early January. After starting to play again, I just keep losing most of the time and now I'm down to 817. That seems pretty drastic for just taking a week long break over a month ago, especially because my climb to being over 1000 was very gradual but pretty consistent. The thing is, I don't feel like I'm playing that much differently than before, so what gives? Can someone take a look at my games and tell me what I'm generally doing wrong that I wasn't before?

Avatar of MariasWhiteKnight

Not really, that would require a lot of time, which I dont have right now.

Nevermind chess.com is again amazingly slow and loading even a single game takes like a minute.

Generally you should review all your games and know what your problems have been, if any.

Literally when I finished this posting I finally saw your first game.

Avatar of MariasWhiteKnight

Best I can tell, you are not paying attention. At all.

You are playing slow games (good), but then you dont use your time.

You dont even notice when pieces are under attack. You happily blunder away pawns for no good reason.

You literally win a minor piece and the next move, you seem to have forgotten all about it and blunder it for the exchange, which you then later give back as well and lose the game in the end.

You miss simple tactics.

You dont seem to have an actual plan, most of the time. You dont activate your pieces. You dont apply maximum pressure on your opponent.

You dont seem to ever think of what plans the opponent has, allowing fatal attacks one could see from a mile away.

The worst game I found is this:

https://www.chess.com/game/live/163976851418?username=jonahwalkermusic

There was no reason to resign.

---

So I am sorry, but so far have not seen a game that justifies you being 1000 to begin with. I dont know what changed, but you should do these two things:

1. After playing a game, analyze it. Find the errors you did, even if you won in the end. Only if you know your weaknesses you can improve.

2. Solve chess puzzles on a regular basis. This helps you with board awareness, with having a danger sense, with calculating combinations, etc. Having a good tactical eye is essential in chess, even if your strength is in other areas (openings, positional play, endgame).

---

Avatar of brayden17022
Sheesh. Hopefully you didn't uninstall bud. That was brutal. Lol. I mean im kinda close to your rating a little lower so idk if i should give any advice, but i mean hes right. I play bullet even though i probably shouldn't. I work so in between customers i play. But when i go back to a 10 min rapid game, i always play too fast and rush when i dont have to. If you took any kind of break, you might just not be taking the time to critically think through each position. I just actually came off of like a couple month break and that was the hardest thing to fix. I would just say keep playing man. Dont get discouraged by losing. If you are losing, it just means you got something to fix. I know its not fun but you will figure it out. Practice and pay attention. Best of luck bro!
Avatar of Frieren-0

Thats completely normal, I have had instances in which I lose 200-300 points after taking a break too, it happens. Just keep playing and you will eventually climb to where you belong. If your skill is truly at 1100, then winning streaks at 800 is inevitable. Good luck 👍

Avatar of OCTOPUS_d6

@jonahwalkermusic This is just a WAG but when I used to come back from vacation, I felt slightly disconnected from it all ... like a layer of cotton existed between me and the world. It took another week to get back into things. Maybe this is part of it?

Overall, worrying about a number won't help; it'll make it worse because you'll be more worried and more prone to disgust or tilting. Take it from me ... I'm known as The Streaker (and not in the good way). :-)

Avatar of Sargon_Three

Don't sweat your rating. Enjoy the game.