Afraid to lose Elo

For the past several weeks, I have neglected to play live chess because I'm anxious that I might lose the game and ELO. I am having trouble getting over this and I know I can't improve without playing actual people. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to get over this?

Is a game, just play, have fun and try to learn from your losses.

Same happened to me for a few weeks.

Now I just think of it like this.

The worst case scenario is that I get destroyed over and over, losing a large quantity of rating points.

Yet I can likely make that loss back in a few days of play, so in the long run that loss is completely meaningless.

And if you are this concerned about elo, then you must want to increase your rating.

The only way of doing this is of course to play.

If you play regularly there will be many crushing defeats, but in a few months time, it’s still much more likely that your rating increases and your play as a whole significantly improves.

It’s just like with any game that requires grinding, there will be plenty of losses among the way, that is simply the nature of the grind.

If you are higher rated next month then you are this month, your grind will be considered a success.

A crucial skill for grinding chess is endgame knowledge, as simplifying into a won endgame is one of the primary ways to convert winning positions, plus you will be able to recognize a drawn endgame and in many cases avoid a potential loss.

This of course translates to losing fewer rating points in the long run.

Silman’s endgame book is excellent, although there are also many free lectures on Youtube relating to endgames.

Also, if you need to, take a break for a few days, relax and do something unrelated to chess that you enjoy.

Chess is a difficult game that can get stressful, so the occasional break is always good.

:)

You could also play on L*chess.org. I care less about my rating there. Although im now a win away from 1600 there. I play games during the week there and study, then play 5 games here between saturday an sunday.

why would u care about a rating on a chess site? U think anyone cares if ur 200 rating points higher than what u are now? 

Ur just another person playing chess on a site, enjoy it, don't waste ur time worrying over something as superficial and inaccurate as a chess.com rating.

 

Try not to think about the short term of losing rating points (I understand this is difficult) but instead think about the long term. In the long term (I'm talking about 12 months plus), you are going to get better providing you put the time in to playing games and studying and I can say that you will almost certainly improve therefore you will be higher in rating than you are now. You just have to accept you will gain and lose rating points a long the way but this happens to everybody. Remember the points that you lose after going on a poor run of form are recoverable, it's not like once you have lost them you will lose them forever.  

The thought process you need to develop is that the only thing that matters is improving your chess skill and playing good chess. Longterm chess rating (rating over 6 months) is a reflection of how good you are as a player, shortterm chess rating fluctuation(daily/weekly/monthly rating) means nothing.

 

Your goal should be maintaining and hopefully increasing your rating over time while you keep on playing. Be happy if you reached a new goal but you need to make new achievable goals if you want to continue improving your play. Your rating will fluctuate but that shouldn't be a big deal.

 

To reduce my anxiety and rating fluctuation I focus on playing chess when I feel mentally sharp or whenever I feel in the mood of playing chess. If I feel energized after the first game I always make sure to play another game, if I played a good game and still lost I also play another game,  That way I keep the average performance fairly high for my level and i have become better to stop playing after 2-3 losses. 

Play unrated

Best thing is to play a few games not to much, so that is you go on tilt, you won't lose too much elo. Try to coordinate playing games with other forms of studying, like reading books and doing puzzles.

I am scared too.

Focus on playing the best game you can. Yesterday I lost around a hundred points in blitz... that would take hours to make up. However if you play the best of your ability, I’ve found out that I don’t get so mad after losing - I’ve done the best I can.

And so today I gained half of it back - and did it pretty easily lol

Rating is just an indicator of your playing strength on whatever platform the rating was earned, its no big deal. I had an OTB rating of 1800+ then I had a stroke and now here I am at 85 struggling to get a draw against keen chess hungry U10's. I consider online rating be a reflection of my poor health. Maybe you should consider your online rating to be a reflection of what and how you study, practice and analyse your games.

Most players of your rating can add 200+ points just by familarising themselves with basic chess endings.

Study, play, analyse (wins, draws & loses), repeat.

Who cares it is literally just a number

What is this ELO ?

Electric light Orchestra ! ✌️😎

It's Elo, not ELO. Arpad Elo. Google him.

Getting fed up of players quiting after losing there Queen

just accept the free win and move on. 

Stop capturing their Queen then lol.