Advice please.

I seem to be badly out of form at the moment. I quickly become disorganised and fail to see even quite simple traps etc. A few weeks ago I seemed to be playing o.k. but not any more. 

I have tried playing a lot of fast games on another site to try to "sharpen up" my game but if anything it has made me worse as I seem to be hurrying things to much.I suppose my age could have something to do with it as I do generally take life more leisurely now I am retired.

Any advice would be welcome.

Play with time to think, correnspondance, or maby 15 minutes if you wanna play live.

 I am experiencing the same issue. Historically, I have played mostly long games but at 5 minutes-up against the clock, 2 things happen.....

I make a poor move or miss something because of the rush of time.

I lose even though I have developed a winning position due to time. My time being zero and my opponents sometimes having 1:30 or more remaining on their clocks.

I don't have any proven advice right now because I am going through the same thing. My recommendation (and what I am doing) is to play more. More 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and varying times. I think some things that might help would be to be sure to study your games so you familiarize yourself with the position at the time of your error. Try to visualize the position with a stronger move. I think your game will advance when you do this.

Good luck!

 The other thing I would suggest is to play long games where you usually excel and do well. This will keep your confidence up while you learn (and sometimes lose) the quick games. 

I am three years older than you.  I also  have good and bad spells.

 Regular coffee seems to help a bit, especially if you are used to decaf.

Short fast games are good for reviewing opening problems that crop up BUT NOT MUCH ELSE.

 The tactics trainer is a fast way to tune up tactics .  I would advise playing no game less than 15 minutes.  This gives us old timers MORE time to think and analyze than a 5 minute game.

 I know,  that for me, five minute games played one after the other makes me play worse in the long and short run.

Lastly, take a good break between games---go walk somewhere, get some exercies or play xbox, but get away from the board.  There are lots of other things than chess.

Good luck!

Good luck

Many thanks for the replies and the sound advice. It's good to know there are some other " older middle aged"  guys on here. They say a problem shared is a problem halved so I will take the advice and hopefully get my game back.

Everyone has stretches where you miss things that you know that in top form you should be able to see.  I play correspondance chess myself, and while I certainly don't spend 30 minutes per move (and I think very few, other than a small number of fanatics do) correspondance does have the advantage that if your brain simply isn't up for the challenge you can let a move go until later in the day or the next day.  Although I like to keep my games moving along, and send several moves a day when I can, I aslo will let a game simmer in the back of my mind for day if I can't find something that I like the first time I look at it.  If nothing else you might try some correspondance chess as an exercise to try some long, slow thinking about games.

Just relax and play with joy this is just a game that force our mind to think harder and actually we dont really know who we encounter with, are they smarter than us that causing the blunder ??

More physical exercise, the kind that breaks a sweat. Sharpens the mind like nothing else.