Advice on burn out due to ADHD
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Apr 2, 2026
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#1
So I am coming back to chess after a long hiatus. I belive I started playing chess at 25 years old and now I am 31. I want to progress to a good rating. I don't have an unrealistic goal considering I am starting so late in life. I am below 1000 in 30 minute rapid on here, but my current goal is to hit 1200 followed by my ultimate goal of 1600, the average club rating. I know that the ratings on chess.com are inflated so I am probably realistically at maybe 800. The reason for the long hiatus is because I have ADHD and after hyperfocusing on interests for a couple months or so I just get bored. Thats why I am still at this level 6 years later which is discouraging because I am even older now. Also I have a question about versing other people around my level. I played 2 games back to back with people supposedly at my level, but one had a game rating of 1650 and the next one had a game rating of 1750 with both of them having over 80% accuracy. Meanwhile, my game accuracy was about 1000 which is pretty discouraging. What's the deal on that? Anyways, I am hoping to get advice from people who suffer from ADHD like me who have maybe progressed to a higher rating despite their learning disability.
Apr 2, 2026
0
#2
Fellow ADHDer here, with the added handicap of Severe Anxiety™️
...Okay. Me trying to be funny aside...
First of all, don't take the game ratings seriously. They adjust it to your actual rating and so it doesn't really represent your actual strength at all.
Case in point: a couple of years ago, two GMs proved that game rating is pointless by starting a game together and playing as terribly as possible; they both still got a rating of around 2300. On the other hand, whenever I played a near-perfect game in the 700s, the highest game rating I would ever get was something like 1650.
As for burnout...yes. I have a tendency to play rather sporadically as of late, which can be a bit of a double-edged sword; I rarely tilt, but I also don't improve as quickly as I used to. Still, gaining 30 points very slowly is better than losing 100 points really, really fast.
I don't think there's much that can be done about it, though. Probably the only thing I can say is that you shouldn't force yourself to play when you don't really want to. Trying to play a game when you just don't feel like it won't lead to good results.