Chess burnout

How many of you have suffered this? I re-learned chess here on chess.com and really got back into it, managing eventually to play pretty well and cutting errors down, raising my online rating to over 2000. 

Then I hit this point where looking at the board started to stress me out rather excite or interest me, a few ups and downs (mostly downs) and a few months later and I am down to 1790 and can hardly see moves . . .

After my current games I'm probably going to just play the odd game or none at all. 

Anyone else suffer this kind of slide; how did people deal with it?

You're certainly not alone on this one.  The last time I went through an extended slump I ended up taking a few weeks off from chess, no games at all for like a month.  When I started back up again the game started to be fun again and less stressful, partly because I expected less of myself and to be rusty at first.

Have you tried mixing up your openings too?  For me there's nothing like finding a new opening you love to make me excited to play.

Yeah I think I'll do the same. Good point on the openings, I've been D4 ing with white forever . . . 

I often get to where I feel like chess isn't any fun any more, so I take a few months off while I dabble in other hobbies, then eventually come back to playing again.

You can substitute chess playing for a while by following the Tromso Olympiade. There's good chess to improve one's own.

It can help to develop multiple interests.

Maybe you were too result focused.  Losses suck, and no one wants to see their rating go down, but that's not why we play right?  To win and for our rating?  No, chess is fun!

So yeah, take a break (no one ever quits chess for good ) and remember what made you like the game in the first place.

Correct it is supposed to be fun but it stopped being so, so a vreak is the thing. I'm off to Berlin and Barcelona now, woo! 

I wish I could just flit off to Berlin when I get bored by chess.

Keep in mind that Chess is only a game= Have fun

Agreed...