Some background first:
I'm a 24-year-old undergrad history student making roughly $12k/year and expect to graduate in December. My dad first taught me chess when I was in kindergarten or first grade and I fell in love with it. I enrolled in my school's chess club in second and third grade but discontinued as I had no friends interested in the game by the time I was in fourth grade.
I made a Chess.com account over four years ago but never played any online games until December, 2019. By that point, the pandemic peaked and chess was receiving tons of attention from online streamers on Twitch and popularity gained after Netflix's adaptation of "The Queen's Gambit" released. I began playing against friends and bots alike and enjoyed the puzzles as well.
Timed controls bothered me, so I stayed with Rapid and played consistently against players with an ELO rating of above 1,000. Nelson, a 1300-rated bot, gave me troubles at first but I managed to defeat him and now practice against the computer at the 1400 level. Unfortunately, I began to do worse and worse the more I played. One year ago today, my ELO peaked to 1082. Right now, it sits at 825, even though bots below 1300 don't give me any problems. Over 75% of the time I play as Black, I lose and only half the time I play as White do I win.
the bots rating are infalated which will explain why the bots below 1300 arent a problem for you.
I want to play better chess or at least do as well as I did a year ago. However, I'm a fulltime university student making very little money each year so a chess coach, books, a premium membership, and anything else that requires money or several hours a week of study are not plausible solutions. So bearing that in mind and recognizing also my weaknesses on the board (poor time management, failing to recover after a blunder, making poor moves, etc.), how do I do better at chess as a college student? Does it just come down to memory and spatial awareness on the board with tactics such as pins, forks, castling at the right time, discovered attacks, openings, endgame, etc.? If that's all there is to it, how come I still do so terrible the more I play?
chess does require a lot of spatial awareness for tactics of all kinds but there is a lot more to it. Chess also requires knowledge of when to trade pieces, how to improve your position, creating an attack/preparing an attack. Getting better at chess is going to require you to hone your skill on 'basic' principles like openings, endgames, castling at the right time, etc.
There are many ways to learn chess, by far the best option imo is looking on youtube and learn about these subjects, and play games trying to use your knowledge. I really reccomend looking at Chessvibes and Gothamchess. I understand that you are in college so your proggress will be slow, but i believe yojcan reach 1200 by the end of this year if you spend 3-5 hours a week on chess.
Also you might be tired and stressed about college so it may contribute to a lower rating.
Hope this helped
Some background first:
I'm a 24-year-old undergrad history student making roughly $12k/year and expect to graduate in December. My dad first taught me chess when I was in kindergarten or first grade and I fell in love with it. I enrolled in my school's chess club in second and third grade but discontinued as I had no friends interested in the game by the time I was in fourth grade.
I made a Chess.com account over four years ago but never played any online games until December, 2019. By that point, the pandemic peaked and chess was receiving tons of attention from online streamers on Twitch and popularity gained after Netflix's adaptation of "The Queen's Gambit" released. I began playing against friends and bots alike and enjoyed the puzzles as well.
Timed controls bothered me, so I stayed with Rapid and played consistently against players with an ELO rating of above 1,000. Nelson, a 1300-rated bot, gave me troubles at first but I managed to defeat him and now practice against the computer at the 1400 level. Unfortunately, I began to do worse and worse the more I played. One year ago today, my ELO peaked to 1082. Right now, it sits at 825, even though bots below 1300 don't give me any problems. Over 75% of the time I play as Black, I lose and only half the time I play as White do I win.
I want to play better chess or at least do as well as I did a year ago. However, I'm a fulltime university student making very little money each year so a chess coach, books, a premium membership, and anything else that requires money or several hours a week of study are not plausible solutions. So bearing that in mind and recognizing also my weaknesses on the board (poor time management, failing to recover after a blunder, making poor moves, etc.), how do I do better at chess as a college student? Does it just come down to memory and spatial awareness on the board with tactics such as pins, forks, castling at the right time, discovered attacks, openings, endgame, etc.? If that's all there is to it, how come I still do so terrible the more I play?