I resent losing. Why should I bother playing chess?

It's totally okay to take a break and think about what you really want to spend your time on. If chess isn't making you happy and just feels like a headache, there are probably other things you'd enjoy more. Feeling good mentally can come from lots of different activities, so try to find what makes you genuinely happy and satisfied. It's all about picking things that make you feel good and bring some extra positivity into your life.

Okay, but why do you keep coming back to it? You joined two years ago and from what I can see, play a few games a day, so why do you keep coming back? What makes you see past the loss, and see a game that you come back to regularly?

If it's honestly stressing you out this much ask chess.com staff to IP ban you.

I get that, I took a break for a week, and when I came back I was doing quite badly at first but then improved drastically. Maybe you just need a break!

I had the same thing happen. Along with time, the only thing that I could think of that changed was that I was learning new openings as opposed to just winging it.

My advice is to do puzzles and watch Gotham explain his thinking as he plays lower level players. It helped me a bit. Also, I've learned that if I start losing games I take a step back and either just study chess or take a break from it altogether.

What the heck is wrong with you? Yes chess is hard, but chess isn’t for everyone, like you said, some people take a lifetime to get it. Just because someone says it’s hard for them doesn’t mean you get to crack down on them. Chess is fun, it can be beneficial, but for some people it doesn’t have practical benefits, and it’s harder for them. Let’s have you wrestle lions and see how well you do. Oh you got torn apart? Guess you were spoon-fed and thought you were special, but you aren’t. Some people it just doesn’t work out. The one who started this thread might have trouble with chess and want to quit, I suggest you actually learn civility, sounds like you need it.

Sir Winston Churchill used to point out that one vital ingredient for eventual success was the ability to go from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

... in other words, fall flat on your face, pick yourself up, and keep going.

I am personally convinced that people nowadays have forgotten this... if they ever knew it.

Get lost. You sound like a real toxic and nasty person. I would say what I really think but I'd get banned. I'll just say I hope a certain major vessel of yours decides to have a big vertical tear. You can infer from there what I mean I'm sure.

Me personally, I don't do well in chess. I came in thinking this would be hard, and it was. Chess is about improvement. People fare better or worse depending on their environment. Others improve aswell. Even if you aren't the type, you can still try

Ad hominem attacks get reported.

If you don't like playing chess, don't play. It's not a required activity. If your purpose was to tell those of us who do enjoy the game that we are wasting our time you're wasting your own time. Chess players know it's just a game, we do it for recreation.

I think he just wants to rage lol. Fair enough. I've done it plenty of times.

"I don't like this optional activity. Should I keep doing it?" -- seems like a strange, yet oft-repeated question. To me, it seems like the question answers itself. I don't enjoy golf, so I don't participate in it. Same goes for cooking, watching reality TV, and knitting. At the same time, I understand that OTHER people enjoy golf, cooking, watching reality TV, and/or knitting, so I completely understand why THEY do it.

Well said.

You can be banned from chess.com, but not from chess.

Agree, but OP seems to like chess, just not so much the way it's going on for him.

IMO all of the things happening to us right now are connected from the past and how we perceive our future. If at a certain point you are struggling to know the point of what you are doing right now, always ask these 3 question to yourself: what are the things that happens in the past that makes you do this certain action?, what are the things happening right now that is troubling yourself? and what are the things that you are gladly want to do in your later life?. I know that these are deep question but it turns out that the whole time frame of human existence are connected beyond our imagination. If you want to bend this space time dimension always ask these deep questions yourself until you are satisfied. These things are hypothetical so always bring a salt to yourself.

This I can completely understand. Having a safe way to practice something as difficult as loss and then both handling and overcoming it is an important outlet to have. I can see why one would play chess for this reason: to steel oneself up to handle real life better. Having a safe environment to release a negative emotion like anger (for example, video games) or gut-wrenching sadness and grief (for example, metal music) is a powerful and effective method to regulate your mental health, so I agree that chess can be treated more as a preventative measure next to journaling and other regulatory activities.

Thank you for understanding what I mean, despite my initial post's frustrated tone. I was truly struggling to enjoy the game as I used to, and given my current plans, I don't think it wise to integrate something as frustrating as chess back into my life unless I can truly enjoy it beyond the "overcoming the odds" aspect. My issue with chess is that it doesn't make the effort seem worthwhile. Math is something that will have multiple benefits, like understanding speed and time formulas or managing my finances better. Videogames like Doom and Quake have a story and atmosphere to appreciate and learn from, despite how they can have a crushing difficulty spike. Why those games are different for me is because they actually (or at least more obviously) reward you for overcoming those difficulty spikes and provide a proper sense of pride that won't get crushed. They allow for that feeling of success to sink into you in a way that doesn't crush that feeling right after.

Chess isn't a bad game, no. It can be interesting, and it has benefited me before. It taught me how to better think ahead, yes. It helped me tackle life's challenges, yes. However, if it requires me to read and study chess for potential years to truly appreciate its benefits? Both of us can think of better things to study than chess, some I already listed earlier in the thread. Doesn't make chess bad, it just isn't for me and likely others who grew up with at least some exposure to it. We all enjoy different things, and we can equally dislike things despite being of a time-tested quality.