I keep losing in Chess and it’s not becoming fun anymore.

Currently on an 8 game losing streak. I fell in love with the game 17 years ago but it seems like it’s unrequited. Tried doing puzzles, practicing with bots, just playing and trying to learn from my mistakes, etc. Nothing has helped.

My friend suggested to take a 5 day break from chess so I did that and came back only to lose a few games after solving a lot of puzzles. The only think I can think that I haven’t done is invest with real money into the game (Chess.com premium, chess coach, books, etc.)

There’s got to be an easier and freer way to improve my game besides taking breaks when I’m losing, solving puzzles, practicing with bots, and using openingtree.com. All great for other players but apparently not me. Any other suggestions?

You've played ~50 games and done ~200 puzzle in ~3.5 years.

So... no, don't take a break. You've been taking a break the whole time... to get better you have to play a lot and study a lot.

I guess "a lot" means different things to different people, but for example, spend 2 hours a day on chess (and not just passively playing, but while being conscious of identifying and learning from your mistakes) and you'll improve over the course of years.

Yeah, it takes years for adults to improve... although after just 1 month of working on it every day I'm sure you'd see some changes and maybe even a slight increase in your ratings.

And while I can understand how an 8 game losing streak might be devastating to someone who has only played 50 games, the truth is everyone who has played chess seriously has lost at least as many as 8 in a row at some point.

"Currently on an 8 game losing streak." ++ Whenever you lose one (1) game, stop playing and analyse your loss first to learn from your muistakes.

"The only think I can think that I haven’t done is invest with real money into the game (Chess.com premium, chess coach, books, etc.)" ++ No, you do not need to invest any money at all. All resources you need are available for free. You only need time, effort, dedication, persistence.

"using openingtree.com." ++ this is useless

"Any other suggestions?" ++ what time control do you play? recommended is rapid and classical, preferably with increment. How much time do you use per tactics puzzle you solve? How much time do you use per move when you play?

I think that in Settings you can specify the strength of the people that you play against? Someone more knowledgeable will tell you how to do that.

If you set it so that the best people that you play are only 100 points better than you, then that's nothing and you will beat a lot of them. The negative thing is that it will take you longer to get a game.

 

 

Try the app “magnus trainer” on the App Store it’s freemium and I got a lot out of it a while back

Por favor pueden traducir al Español los comentarios 

You keep making the same mistakes over and over again. You need a strong player to point out the mistakes in  your game. [class A or expert or stronger]

Also don't play fast chess if you are serious about improving.

Take some time off from chess and pursue a high wire act.

I'm not close to an expert, so take my annotation with a grain of salt.

 

Hope the annotations help .

Everybody loses many games but if you learn from your mistakes, you will start having 8-win streaks.

Who would like to date with the boy in my profile picture?

Thanks. All of the mistakes I made I notice sometimes immediately after I make a move or else when my opponent captures one of my pieces. What confuses me is I haven't made those mistakes months ago when my rating was almost 200 points higher. I don't know why that is. Stress? If anything I expected my games to be going better as I began to take my SSRI medication again not longer after I peaked.

Well, I see that after you made this post you lose and win about half your games, as expected. I saw your last game with j4nciok. There your opponent played a quite bad opening, and you was doing well. At some point he left a pawn undefended and you didn't capture it. Take a few moments to think about it, did you see you could capture it for free? was you afraid of falling in a trap?

Later, when his knight forked your king and queen, there was a posible escape, take a moment to look for it. In the game, if you spent about ten seconds on it, and that wasn't enough to spot the saving move. But in that situation you have to spend as much time as you need, because a queen versus knight advantage is definitive both for the material advantage and the psicologycal impact, so if you don't find a saving move you are losing that game anyway, and if you do find a saving move you will probably turn the game all around and the time invested would be worth it.

I've had 20 game losing streaks, and 22 game winning streaks. Get over it.

Thanks for the analysis. From what I remember, I didn’t want to take the pawn with my knight because I feared it didn’t do me much good in capturing it. Yes, it’s a free pawn, but my opponent could just threaten my knight immediately afterwards anyway so I felt like it was too insignificant.

The most obvious choice when my opponent forked my queen and king was to just capture the knight with my bishop! I often unintentionally ignore bishops unless I make an offensive attack but this bishop would have been my saving grace and could have any secured a win later on. Other than that, like you said, I had a much stronger opening than my opponent who should have had the advantage anyway as white. If I had not made those two crucial mistakes, I may have still found a victory.

Also "not becoming fun anymore" is, quite literally, a moment of peak enjoyment.

So probably not what the OP meant.

-

Your stats say your best winning streak was 8 but ok. Come back when you have relevant advice.