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Bad chess, how to get out of a slump?
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Feb 24, 2014
0
#3
Take a break. Stop playing for one, even two weeks. If you try to play through a slump, it'll only get worse with each game.
Feb 24, 2014
0
#4
I've noticed the slump phenomenon as a regular and frustrating occurrence in my own game and wondered if it was just me or a normal thing that effects most players. Any thoughts?
take a break....
Play low rated players.
Feb 24, 2014
0
#7
haught wrote:
I've noticed the slump phenomenon as a regular and frustrating occurrence in my own game and wondered if it was just me or a normal thing that effects most players. Any thoughts?
The Slump affects everyone, even GMs.
Feb 24, 2014
0
#8
Afromexican95 wrote:
haught wrote:
I've noticed the slump phenomenon as a regular and frustrating occurrence in my own game and wondered if it was just me or a normal thing that effects most players. Any thoughts?
The Slump affects everyone, even GMs.
Good to know; misery has company. I feel better already
Feb 24, 2014
0
#9
I hit a major slump in December, 2013, diving all the way from about 2120 to 2041, over the board. Since the start of 2014, I've done nothing but go up, and have won over 60% of my 20+ games thus far in 2014 with an even split of draws and losses otherwise, scoring roughly 70% all told for 2014. Where am I now? 2096 with 2 more wins to factor in for a tournament that's 2-rounds in out of 5 where you play 1 round a week, so in essence, back over 2100.
What did I do?
Answer is simple - You need to play multiple openings. If all you do is play the same opening over and over and over again, your mind will get in a rut, and you'll play moves out of habit instead of thought. Not a good thing. Keep 3 repertoires handy, and when you see yourself slumping, change to the next in line. Then the third. Then back to the first.
What it will do is force you to focus, and expand your knowledge by playing thru different middlegame patterns. It's not about finding the 17th move novelty of some Sicilian line. It's about understanding different positions.
I myself have 3 different repertoires:
Agressive: White 1.e4, Black Modern Defense
Positional: White 1.d4 (Catalan, Slav, Trompowsky), Black Stonewall Dutch and Caro-Kann
Safe: White 1.Nf3 (Catalan, Slav, Fianchetto KID, Fianchetto Grunfeld, English, Anti-Benoni), Black QGD (Tartakower and Tarrasch) and Berlin
I cycle through these. It can be mixed and matched too. In December, I was playing 1.Nf3, QGD, and Caro-Kann. Made the change in January to alter my train of thought, and am currently playing 1.e4 and the Modern Defense. Give it another year, I may be back to 1.d4 along with the Stonewall Dutch and Double-Kingpawn openings.
Think of it like recharging a battery that has lost it's power!
If you are just blundering pieces and make stupid mistakes it might be problems of concentration
Make predictions on who will win the World Cup on my forum on it
You're just out of form. When you are in form, anticipation, muscle memory, heightened senses ... all work in tandem. But these go out of sync when you are out of form. Seriously ... take a bat and hit some baseballs in an open field. Or hit golf balls on a driving range.
Take a break. Playing more chess will only make you more frustrated.
1600 uscf doesn't necessarily translate to 1600 blitz rating, why do you have the idea that you are playing at a 1200 level?
Also bad form and good form comes in cycles, if you really are uscf and you haven't changed you will eventually be back there, just play (and enjoy) the game
Avoid playing blitz at the moment,and work on your thinking process. Make sure to always look at the whole board when you are playing.
Play 30 minute standard and correspondance
Thank you all for the great advice. I think I will take a week break and then take your advice ThrillerFan. I have been in the habit of only playing Italian (white) and Caro-Kann (black). I hope it works.
Feb 26, 2014
0
#19
ThrillerFan wrote:
Think of it like recharging a battery that has lost it's power!
I´m in the middle of one of this slumps. Going from 1630 to 1480 in blitz here.
I liked your suggestion of trying different openings, but maybe is not ok for blitz, just for longer games:
I have always (ALWAYS) played 1.d4, so I don´t know the lines 
I think that you should stop playing for two weeks but in the time you don't play you analyse Grandmaster games trying to find the purpose of every move and also you should watch games played by masters in youtube i am 1700 elo player, i got into a crisis and i went back to 1400 elo, i lost every tournament i played, i followed this method and i am ok now
I'm a 1600 USCF player, but lately I'm barely playing at a 1200 level. My rut has been going on for about three weeks now and it has made my favorite game nothing but frustrating. For some reason I can't get my pieces to work together anymore, and I am making amateur blunders, such as dropping my queen or rook for no reason.
I have tried tactics puzzles, endgame puzzles, watching professional games, taking a few days break, playing dozens of games, but I just can't play good. I'll make a blunder and realize how stupid it is the second I take my hand off the piece.
I normally play 10 minute blitz games, but during this rut I'm even doing it in untimed games. Any advice to get back my game will be greatly appreciated.