Have you ever had a streak of losing streaks?

I understand that losing streaks are a normal occurrence which I have come to terms with, but I am having losing streaks of 4 or 5 games punctuated by 1 win or draw only to instantly go back into yet another losing streak.

I have more than 150 rating points.

I went from chilling in the 1600’s to sinking below 1500.

I watch lectures on positional play and common pawn structures (and the common middle game plans arising from them)

I made it up to the beginning of the Class B section in Silman’s Complete Endgame Course, I do many tactics puzzles every day.

And none of it has helped me in the slightest.

It feels unnatural.

Do you ever study for something for hours every day for months and not see any improvement, and if anything fail even harder?

Tilt is a common phenomenon, but this is such a prolonged and miserable example of it, the likes of which I have never experienced prior.

I feel hopeless.

When every day is a new losing streak, it is hard to want to go on.

I don’t really expect an answer beyond “get good”, (something I am evidently incapable of) I simply am letting my frustrations out this way.

My common advice for people in this situation is “you are still improving, look at your rating over time” but looking at my rating chart, you only see failure and decay.

The next games I am going to play will either be primarily or exclusively losses.

I know it.

What chess platform do you play on? On chess.com you have only lost (in rapid) 32 out of 55.

You have to see why you are losing. You could be losing because:

You make a big blunder once every 30 moves

You make small mistakes frequently

You are playing a lot of people above your rating range

You resign too early

You move to quickly

You are missing something fundamental about chess

You memorize the variations of the game instead of understanding the concepts.

Or it could be something else. Which category are you in

I'm obviously not at your level, but here's my advice: take a break if you think you're getting worse. The thing is, you're not getting worse, but struggling through the challenge of chess. Chess is a game of psychology. If you're not in it psychologically, you won't win against people your level or better. It's one of the notoriously mentally daunting activities, and taking a break can actually help you more than forcing through another game when you've lost your last 7 in the same day.

To go down you questions, I do play on chess.com, and occasionally on lichess, though I play anonymously without an account there.

I usually don’t make big blunders, and I don’t resign if I see a hope of counter play in the position, I am playing many people who are above my rating, but most of them were not that much higher, usually 100 rating points or less, though I lose just as convincingly to peers in rating.

I probably do make a fair bit of small mistakes, many times due to nervous energy.

I don’t believe I am missing any fundamental concepts, I know about imbalances, initiative, superior minor pieces, outpost squares, tempo, tactics, mating patterns, and I am working on learning more about positional play, as mentioned in my OP.

Perhaps I should give it more time, you must understand that I am a hyper competitive person in all that I do, and I’ve loved chess for as long as I can remember, so you can imagine that a perfectionist like me finds this relatively transient issue lasting only a couple weeks to be infuriating.

I usually am a quick learner, so making the same mistakes over and over without learning from them is a new and unwelcome experience, despite it being a very natural occurrence in chess.

Thank you for the input Walking, perhaps I should step back from it for a day or two, I suppose I am thinking about a rather unhealthy amount, I’ve even had dreams of chess positions lol.

If you’re doing it all in one sitting it counts as one losing streak

Good to see I’m not the only one, and yeah 70 games a day is both impressive and alarming. :)

No B1ZMARK, it has been going on for about a week, I guess I’ve been having a losing streak every day lol.

Here is something useful. Your physical condition will affect your play. Being physically unhealthy affects your mental health, and therefore your chess games. Some people cope differently to this, so it may affect you more.

@BroiledRat The only way to improve is to change your play by fixing what you do wrong while playing. To do this may require a coach (outside observer) or a careful study of your games. Try learning against a computer in an analysis board and see why some moves are better than others.

i made this account at around 1500 level, went down to 1300, went back up to 1400, lost 120 points in one hour, now im under 1300 for some reason. and i know more than i did when i was previously 1200 so its pretty frustrating. i think playing excessive amounts of late night blitz and bullet probably diminished my ability tbh

Yep. Don't play in bad conditions. The human brain is great at pattern recognition. Chess is a game of variations. Don't develop bad habits which will resonate in your play for a while

Update: Another day another losing streak. Lost 5 out of 5 games.

Detergent looks more refreshing by the moment.

My dad taught me when I was age 8 and he beat ,me 100 games in a row. 

Later I had a wining streak of more than 400 games in a row vs variois players.

Your dad was brutal, but I suppose that it made you more resilient as a person.

Just played a game with my dad in the QGD, simplified into an endgame and laddered the king. :)

It pays to have family members that you are better than, so you can beat them when in need of an ego boost.

Although strictly speaking having a family of strong players would likely be most beneficial when it comes to actually improving.

Yes, you should take a break from chess if you're tilting

I once went on a weekend bender and lost close to 400 ELO points. Woke up and realized I lost 10 games in a row lol. Had fun though.

Now I don’t play under the influence. I have also changed my ratio between studying vs playing to 80/20. I’m playing less but climbing steadily.

I view the studying as an investment and long term gain. Also, I watch many chess personalities and recently started co-operate in the forums as entertainment and also indirectly learn chess.

Lastly, I have develop a habit to do puzzle rushes and practice ones, a few computer warm up games before my live games. I have learned the mental wake up is a real thing and does convert into my live games especially when it comes to processing speed.

You either play for fun or have to work hellishly and spend a lot of time on chess to progress. Reading literature, deciding tactics, maintaining your opening base, sorting out your games, sorting out the games of masters, and so on, all this takes a lot of time, the question is whether you need it. You can kill all your free time for this and progress in a short time, you can spend a little resources and slowly progress if someone needs it.