Play when you feel you are in a good mood. Bad mood leads to drop in rating.
Decline in performance - looking for feedback
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#1
"my chess performance has seen a sharp decline"
++ Fluctutations are normal. You have good days and bad days, good periods and bad periods.
Good sleep is very important.
A lot is psychological.
If you are rated 1300 and you play a 1500 rated player, then you give your best effort.
If you gain rating to 1500 and then play a 1300 rated player, then you may lower your guard, expect an easy win and... lose.
"Possible causes that I can think of could be a lot of life changes in recent months"
++ To play well you must concentrate.
If you worry about real life issues, then you play worse chess.
"While playing a chess player must forget that he lives" - Karpov
"studying less (but not playing less)" ++ Study is not that important and often more study leads to worse play, but analysis of lost games is essential
"even age (recently turned 31)" ++ 31 is top age for chess. Magnus Carlsen is 31.
"I have tried playing a little more" ++ Good
"spending more time on moves" ++ Good
"getting back into studying" ++ May be good or bad
"include some Youtube videos, which are probably not the best way for me to learn"
++ video is poor learning as it is passive.
You cannot learn to swim or to drive a car from a video.
Hello, I know there are likely posts like this fairly regularly, but I don't have much of a chess community around me so hoping to still get some feedback here. Basically since the new year, my chess performance has seen a sharp decline, which you can see on my profile quite clearly (FYI--I play most of my games on other apps and sites, but the trend is still on my chess.com profile from the few games I've played). I'm used to slumping for a month or so a couple times a year, but this is clearly worse. I know most say this is still normal, but I am a little worried. Possible causes that I can think of could be a lot of life changes in recent months (so maybe stress?), studying less (but not playing less), or even age (recently turned 31), but none of those explanations feel sufficient to me.
To be clear, I'm not necessarily worried about dropping rating, but I'd like to get my play back on track. I have tried playing a little more, spending more time on moves, and getting back into studying (which does include some Youtube videos, which are probably not the best way for me to learn), so far without results.
Thanks in advance to anyone who answers, I'll try to check in and respond with some regularity over the next few days.