Feel like quitting

I don’t know where to begin, I started playing chess in December of 2017 . I have read the articles etc about reading books watching videos and doing tactic puzzles etc. I do so much everyday of it not all of it on chess.com but books websites etc. My rating was at one point 800 which I thought was ok for someone just starting to play, then I lose a bunch then win a few. Thought I was doing so good yesterday because I had about a 11 game unbeaten streak going now I am losing to players better than me and to players worse than me. I don’t know how to stay consistent. I know that losing is part of it but there are some days it’s like I make such stupid mistakes, trying to be fancy and winning in your moves then my whole game is gone. I thought I was climbing back to get around 800 but now I am like in the 600s again.
My question is for someone who just started in December is that to be expected or should I be like to a 1000 by now after two months. What’s realistic goals at the beginning. I love chess but if I can’t get out of 700 what’s the point.

Thanks
Kenneth

Opening Principles:

1. Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5

2. Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key

3. Castle

4. Connect your rooks

Tactics...tactics...tactics...

 

Pre Move Checklist

 

1. Make sure all your pieces are safe. 

2. Look for forcing move: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) this will force you look at, and see the entire board. 

3. If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board. 

4. If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece. 

5. After each move by your opponent, ask yourself: "What is my opponnet trying to do?"

I know about the controlling the Center and the rooks and castling I do that, I wish I knew how to post my last game so you can see it

https://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=2618339648

You hung your rook, and queen.

Use what i posted and it will help.

 Very good advice, I've taken note of it too, but I have a question for the OP: do you play OTB?

Thank you guys for the input, I appreciate you guys trying to help. I guess I look at chess as every game being different so how can you study any previous games to learn moves in a new game when it’s never the same game twice

Every game of chess is different.  When you first learned to play, you fell for the 2, and 4 move mates.  But then you learned how to avoid them, and then dropped pieces left and right.  You learned how to take better care of your pieces, and then started falling for 1 move tactics.  You grew past those, and fell for 2 move tactics.  You grew past those, and fell for 3 move tactics.  You grew past those, and lost games for positional/strategic reasons like weak squares, weak pawns, bad piece placement, etc.  

Take each game as a learning experience, and learn from them.

I'm not only in the same country but also in a similar position.  The truly unnerving thing I find is that the more I study, to worse I play.  I also notice, when reading the forums, is that players rated higher than I am seem not yet to have learned points I have long since mastered.  All of this suggests that I simply lack the talent to put what I know into operation on the chess board, and I find that games seem to get away from me very quickly, so that I am just trying to protect myself from my opponent's attacks rather than trying to execute any of the basic principles of chess or carry out a coherent plan of attack.  I guess you can learn rules but you can't learn the talent to use them.

everyone has a different learning rate, Capablanca for example beat the national champion of Cuba when he was a 9 year old, Karjakin was a GM when he was a 12 year old, but just like this there are guys that can take a while to improve, the important think is to ensure a constant improvement, if you are fat and you go to a gym you really think that you are going to be like the Rock? is not going to happen like that, if you want I am giving a free lesson, just message me

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

from the list, consider starting with "Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess" by Bruce Pandolfini...it's very instructive..

Kasparov’s book, Checkmate is perfect for beginners, then a tactics book ranging from about 1000 to 2000 will help massively, along with getting a stronger player to analyse your games.

@OP FishEyedFools gave you really good advice. Put that into practice consistently and you will no doubt get better, even though it will take time.

I have a pretty "lax" study routine :-)

@Luitpoldt it may feel that way, but we need patience when we are studying and trying to improve your play. Just because someone is higher rated doesn’t mean they won’t make mistakes; they are just winning more consistently than you against stronger opposition. Consider how much time they have spent studying and playing and compare it to the time you’ve spent. If someone has spent 10,000 hours playing chess and you’ve spent 500, it shouldn’t surprise you that they’re better, even if they occasionally blunder a queen (which Nakamura did last week against Carlsen) and violate a rule that you know in theory but don’t execute always in practice. It’s not talent if they’ve spent 10x or 100x more time playing than you have. The rules of chess and even basic principles are easy to learn. Executing them properly is the challenge.

I started playing around June 2017, a bit earlier than you, in this time I thought about quitting chess countless times, but the reality is I keep coming back because there's nothing more fun than winning a chess game. My first rating was around 900-ish, now I'm around 1900-2000 classical, some tips ... whenever you feel in bad mood, just don't play chess, trust me, it will only worsen your mood and leave a very bad impression of your skills. Do tactics everyday, endgames tactics, etc ... study a few openings and try to understand the opening stage of the game, after you feel more or less comfortable at the opening stage, study the middle-game, each opening have very specific middle-game plans, whenever you start getting the picture and start combining your opening principles with tactics and calculation you'll see that rating climbing up in no time. Don't quit, and don't be so hard on you, try to remember yourself that chess is just a game, and like anything else in life, losing makes part of it. Best regards, Dumitru.

Thanks very much everybody, I appreciate it

@Nfld709, add me if you want me to help you improve, on my free time I can create a study plan for you, I'm not a master, but I'm sure I can teach you something valuable.

 

There shouldn't be any rating expectations because everybody learns at a different rate.  Also, rating isn't really that important as long since you love the game.  why give up something you love just because of a rating number?

 

As for improvement, frankly, the easiest way IMHO is just to play Majestic Chess Adventure chapters (a chess video game).  What makes it good is that, after it introduces a concept, it immediately puts you into a game where that concept is needed.  For example, during its checkmate patterns adventure chapter 2, you end up solving so many mating patterns while trying to gather your army, that after chapter 2, you've learned it pretty well.  Another example is forks, if you can find forks (double attacks) then your game is a lot easier.

 

Come to think of it, after Majestic chess, I'm not improving much at chess; kind of stuck at where Majestic Chess left off.

 

I am "exactly" in the same boat as the original poster! I knew how to play basic move chess for many years,but only got really into it in November of 2017.....Read The Complete Idiot's Guide,cover to cover and it helped me.Then Discovering Chess Openings and followed it with Attacking The King......My rating went from 430 to 909 as of last week....but....Yesterday I decided to play too much and was tired.I also had other things on my "to do soon" mind and had an extremely bad losing streak.....Lost 135 points over the day.....Went to bed very frustrated,but played today and knocked off about 6 wins in a row.....Still,I realize it's nothing to be thrilled about,but I'm not going to give in to losing! Never have! I'm working on The Amateur's Mind and pretty much doing everything the better players suggest.....Btw,this thread has some of the nicest folks I've seen on this site!! People really wanting to dole out good advice and I deeply respect them! Thanks-

And because you lost 135 points, does that make you a worse chess player?  Of course not.  Rating is a measure of your last performance.  Its not a measure of your ability.