Good topic, this is one of the hardest things to deal with for me. Often times I find I just have to take a few days break, because once I'm on a streak I seem to play worse and worse. One thing that helps me is to try and treat both losses and wins equally as learning experiences. That way your "loss" has at least some element of "gain". In the past I used to go for a game against a Guest or lower rated player, hoping to stomp them and take the sting out of my losing streak but I try not to do that these days.
Breaking a losing streak
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Aug 5, 2008
0
#3
A sure-fire method is to post about it in the forums - and hope your opponents ease up a little - out of sympathy!
Hey artfizz, thanks for posting this in the forum. I'm still having a losing streak and my rating is falling like a rocket. I'm starting to believe that the main reason that I'm losing is that I'm not confident enough for the moment. I don't believe in myself and start playing over-passive and miss enormous opportunities.
I think yoshtodd is right and that I should consider a loss as a learning experience. That means I need to start analysing why I lost.
researching for a good inspirational credo, i once read the following...
out of the gloom, a voice said to me
"cheer-up, smile and be happy, for things could be worse"
so i cheered-up, smiled and was happy
and behold...
...things did get worse
ok so it turned out NOT to be very inspirational but despite it,
i continue to play chess because it is enjoyable
and a hard fought win, even if few and far between, always lifts the spirit !
When we loose continously its difficult to concentrate for long, because we would have lost patience after loosing or we want to prove again fastly that we are a good player, which will tend us to make more misatkes.
Its matter of emotional control.
I have had a losing streak, lost about 80 points to lower rated guys. when we lose we lose our confidence and start making blunders.We have to think that it doesnt matter and start playing with a positive attitude.Sometimes taking a break also helps.
Dec 15, 2014
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#8
I have had a losing streak and I can tell you that I think it's all about self confidence (unless your not really physically healthy). Just take a few days break and get back to your old self........ :D
Whenever I have a losing streak at chess such as these last couple of days. I think it's best to just play it out. I had a big winning streak for a month and before that I stagnated.
Just my two cents: a losing streak could have a lot of causes. Maybe one is (in a mentally) tired (state). Or your concentration could be waning because of personal troubles that occupy your mind. Or maybe one has been playing too long without pause and your mind is like a saturated sponge. In these cases a break of a few days could solve the problem i guess. Maybe it's a kind of numbness that takes out the sharpness of your plans.
Or maybe you're just getting old and losing the daring? (half in jest)
"Aim for failure and you will always succeed"!
I really don't understand losing streaks, today I had a streak of winning 14 games in a row and then one loss led to 12 more losses in a row. How the heck does this work. A whole day of gaining rating wasted on a losing streak.
Nov 24, 2017
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#15
I figure my losing streak will end when my rating gets low enough to actually beat someone.
Nov 24, 2017
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#16
I tend to suffer from these streaks sometimes too. Sometimes it is mental, sometimes it is just in the pattern of improving, sometimes it is just confidence. However, there is one exception... One time I lost about 200 rating points in only several days (although some losses were to internet connection). It only upset me when people told me to take a break, or quit - as I did not know why it dropped in the first place with a fear that it may happen in the future if I did not know the cause (root of the problem). I only discovered the reason far later. At the time, my tactics rating was about 200 below my actual rating; I began to practice tactics more. Subconsciously, I began to constantly look for tactics for every move in the games. Essentially, my rating fell to my tactics rating. I did not notice the cause until in retrospect, so I suggest focusing on your strengths more than weaknesses. The book Strenghts Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath (from Gallup) reflects this concept. I hope that no serious chess player ever crashes 200 rating points, perhaps this will save some people the experience that I suffered.
Having this issue too.I would win 4 games in a row then would suffer LLWLLLL.Like Yesterday I won like 6/8 games.Then today I lost 8/10.It's insane.I think I am getting better then down I go.
I go in cycles and attribute it to mood swings. Your rating will eventually drop low enough so that you start winning again.
Dec 31, 2018
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#19
every body experiances these, i awas 1900 about a month and i have dropped down 100 points it happens. once this happens i stop playing and go watch youtube. don't do chess for the rest of that day. ever i will get angry and start cussing when i get into a very bad losing streak like 5 or 6 earleir today.
CeGi raises the point in his blog - http://blog.chess.com/CeGi/bad-bad-bad2 -about playing badly in several concurrent games. This non-chess-related link http://curtrosengren.typepad.com/occupationaladventure/2004/10/how_to_break_a_.html proposes a number of generic ideas about how to break a losing streak, including
Remind yourself that you really do have it in you to succeed.
What has worked for anyone else?