how do you deal with losing 49% of your games?

out of curiosity, how does everyone else deal with losing nearly half their games? i hate it. i thought after playing chess a bunch i would get better at accepting loss, but it's just as frustrating now as when i first started. how do you cope with losing consistently?

Every match is a learning opportunity. Losses even more so. Put your ego aside and thank your opponents for what they have taught you.

Sparky Anderson once said about baseball" You're going to win a third of your games. you are going to lose a third of your games. it's the other third that makes it interesting!"

If I hit .510 in MLB. l'd be the greatest hitter of all time.

If I scored a goal in 51% of my attempts in the NHL. I would be the greatest hockey player of all time.

If I shot 51% in the NBA. I would be the greatest shooter of all time.

Its all about perspective.

You deal with it by recognizing this is normal. If you play people around your rating, then you SHOULD win about half and lose about half (and difference split by draws). The same is true for Grandmasters playing other Grandmasters around their level; they should also win and lose about half of the time.

It sounds to me like this is a mindset thing and not really just about chess.

Change your mindset to always focus on learning and improving. If you have this mindset for chess, then you'll naturally get better at your chess ability and your rating will increase as a result. Playing seriously and caring some about rating is healthy, but caring too much is detrimental because they you'll just grind for a number and then have the same grind if you are lucky to reach the first number. This is not fun and can easily turn into an obsession.

I discuss this a bit in this blog post if you really want to learn how to be okay with losing about half of your chess games: https://www.chess.com/blog/KeSetoKaiba/chess-motivation-through-purpose

50% of people lose more than half of their games. You're fine.

*ignoring draws

If you lose more than 50% of your games, then you play too strong opponents.
If you win more than 50% of your games, then you play too weak opponents.

some great attitudes in here! i find losing games just puts me in a bad mood for a little while, so chances are i just don't have the right mindset.

Welp, you can look at it as ur chess cup is 51% full.

I lost 42% (766) of my almost 2000 rapid games.

Losing is a normal part of chess.

You lost 48% of your games, won 50% and drew 2%. I'd say that's perfectly OK. The only reason I have a relatively low loss rate is because I have a high draw rate (8%).

I've read that statistically in a fair match, opponents should be within 50 ratings points of each other, which gives each player a 50% chance of winning.

I like playing higher rated opponents with increased losses, but I am able to learn faster against better opponents. Losing is a learning opportunity in chess, review your games to learn from your mistakes and try not to repeat them.

I have the focused view on for rapid and I don't know what my opponent's rating is until after the game. Makes for a much more relaxing game.

Most of your losses come from resignations. Just don't resign

The rating system is designed to pair you with opponents of approximately equal ability. So you should win and lose roughly the same amount of games in the long run. Thats the idea.

How do we deal with the fact that half of the people on Earth are below average intelligence?

Hint: The term "Average" is defined so that 50% are higher and 50% are lower.

Of course you are losing about half of your games. Whenever you win, your rating goes up so that you get paired against (on average) tougher opponents. When you lose, your rating goes down and you get paired against (on average) weaker opponents.

So... after your rating settles down... you will always end up facing a field of opponents who have a roughly 50-50 chance of beating you.

I have lost over 50% of my games and still somehow surviving lol. Don't lose hope. The tough time will eventually end.