How many times did you lose?

I went 0-4 in my first OTB tournament too. And that was after I had been playing about a month. I ended up with a rating of 694 .

Not aware of any general rule. Probably most people use asterisks. A leftover from some online instant messaging system or similar, perhaps. I suspect I'm not even consistent. Perhaps it's emphais: '*' is stronger than ':'. And we're drifting well off topic. :-)

('*') ^ ('*')  looking for a better way to use it.

I lost a lot! Many years ago (about 30+), when I first got serious about improving, I played one of the early chess computers obsessively. I got to the point where I could beat it on its highest level (probably about 1000) on a regular basis. So I decided to spread my wings at our local chess club and show those duffers how the game was really played.

Needless to say, I got pasted over and over and over again. One time, in fact, I managed to capture the resident 1900's queen, and STILL lost the game. Gradually I improved and started winning some games.

It's a journey with no end, but, believe me, you will improve. Just don't play blitz until you're confident at online and standard.

How about...  ('*')=^._.^=('*')  Kitty was here!

I hear he's not a good player. Make mince meat out of him next time!

I lost almost every game until I had been playing about 6 months.  It got to the point that I didn't think of wins and losses...  my goal became an effort to stay in the game for more than 20 moves.  That way I could tell myself I was getting better as the number of moves I could hold out for got larger.  Gradually the wins just started happening.  Stay with it. I think with your serious thought about your performance you have real potential!

I have mentioned to stay in the game a few games for awhile, but my strategy isn't always there. I just came in 5th in a Blitz tournament, but that's because two people abandoned and I lost the rest! Imagine if I would have actually won some! hahaha. I find myself having difficulty getting my pieces in the middle without everything getting captured by a Queen. Time to start studying up again!

Chess can really be a humbling experience.  Persistence and a thick skin help, I think.  If you can deal with some brutally honest criticism, you could put a game or two of yours onto the forum.  The center losses to your opponent would, I think, be quickly solved. 

Okay, I will do that. I don't mind brutal honesty, I just gotta figure this all out. Starting to memorize the openings the study plan mentions so I can at least see what my opponent is doing.

Here is a match I lost last night that I had been doing okay in, but my middle and end game ruined it (and my start wasn't very strong either):

And here is one more from today. My big mistake was getting an early check which prevented me from castling right in the beginning.

That's good.  I use the study plan myself and think it helpful.  I have a good feeling about your progress.

jus out of curiousity do u go over urgames nd anotate nd use an engine to check thru as well???

I would like someone better than me to look at your games. In the first game I liked your first 10 moves. Your king is protected, your pieces are centered and I think you have decent development.    But, in the first (Move 11)I think I would have taken his pawn at F7 with my knight to fork his queen and rooks.  Don't know why he did not take your hanging knight with his queen next move. Comments anyone?

Flatters1, I'm not sure why. I was pretty confident in that game but of course did lose. I think maybe my idea was that their queen would capture the knight, then would be able to use the bishop to capture more, but not totally sure about that. I think the first one had a good opening, but from there I wasn't exactly sure how to go about the defending process as much as I did within the beginning. I'm getting much better at getting the pieces out, but making the decision to take pieces or defend with the purpose of higher gain? Well, I'll get there.

Thank you Kombaiyashii, that is something I will look into (the book). All I need to do is keep playing and I'm sure I'll improve in this environment!

In person I've lost a seemingly infinite amount of times, although I've managed to get better and haven't lost against any of my opponents IRL in several months. On here it's a different story, I think I've only won twice on here and that was only because the other person timed out. Seems like I'm better in person than I am on here and I don't know why.

Capablanca had not lost a game in 11 years

I have not lost a game since last evening ...