I'm giving up on this game.

After A LOT of effort and playing several games every day over the past two years I brought my chess game (I only play 10 minute games) up to just over a 900.  I had been on a terrific winning streak, now suddenly I'm losing every single game I play.

I'm sick of it.  I get incredibly angry when I lose a game and completely disgusted with myself.  I don't throw tantrums, but I'll stew about it for the rest of the day.  I have to remind myself that this is just a game, that is all.  I feel tremendously good and proud of myself when I win, but when I lose, ugh.  It just isn't worth it.

Years ago, during the first few 100 games I ever played, I went through the same thing.

I guess the pain of losing faded as I lost more and more. I realize not everyone is that fortunate though. That's too bad because after you can forgive yourself for losing it's more fun and less stressful.

I guess instead of winning, I made it my goal to learn 1 thing from the game that I'll do differently next time... unfortunately I usually had to lose the same way 3 times before I remembered heh, but having a goal like that was better than trying to win every game.

It's because you're only playing blitz. Play at the least some 15 | 10 games or 30 minute games.

you never lose when you learn. and if that doesn't help...bye

Ten minutes is a very short game.  People lose on time in these games, even if they have a better position.  I would encourage going to a longer time and see if the extra time translates into wins.  Also, as you get better, you start playing higher rated players.  Until you catch up to the new level, you can expect to lose...and learn...

What's weird to me is that I sometimes end up by random chance playing people in the high 700's low 800's and I pretty much destroy them.  So I've obviously gotten better over time with all the chess I'm playing.  It doesn't "feel" as good when I play someone that I easily beat.  I genuinely don't mind losing if someone is clearly better at the game than I am.

What I hate is when I feel like I'm in control of the game and by all accounts seem to be, then somewhere I make a dumb mistake.

Do you practice tactics?

Yes.  Is there a way to disable the stupid little post-game comments the site makes???  "The game slipped through your fingers" makes me want to punch a hole through someone's face.

there is, on setting at the play section there's an option to turn off the automatic analysis

 

I respect your decision, choking friend. I wish I had the courage to do the same.

chess is beginning to sound more like a sport with all the violence

Just study. You'll improve. But from the sounds of it, never play OTB tournaments with your attitude. Maybe read a book that helps with losing. You can lose a lot worse than a chess game. Otherwise, yes, you might as well quit.

There is something positive about your rating: you have a lot to improve, and it is very easy to improve from 900 to 1300 or 1400.

You have to stop the 10 minutes games. Forget about this. Try rapid or Daily Chess.

You have to learn.

To speed up the learning you have to go through your games. Without engine first. Try to understand when the game began to get difficult for you, and try to find a better move. Make notes in everything. Now you start the engine, and compare your comments with the engine’s evaluation. Be curious, ask yourself why the engine propose those moves. If you can’t explain, ask somebody in the forum. Free lessons!

Weak players don’t do this. This is why they are weak and have a hard time to improve.

You should have a basic opening repertoire. Everybody will tell you that nobody memorise openings, even super GMs.

This is simply not true. How do people improve from 800 to 1500? By learning tactics and by working with a basic repertoire.

A basic opening repertoire will tell you how to get sound endgames, and will tell how to punish your opponent in the opening phase.

Everybody will tell you to learn 1.e4. For this reason I recommend you 1.d4. Against A LOT of players you will get winning positions after few moves because weak opponents tend to make always the same mistakes by playing natural moves.

A great book to learn 1.d4 is the book by John Bartholomew in Chessable. Not expensive, not too big, and you will get a good feeling about chess.

Against 1.e4 I recommend the book Master the French. The French is very straightforward and most people do not have any idea how to play against it. You will find this book also in Chessable. I am surprise how many games I won just because people began to play unsound moves against the French.

As I said, forget q0 minutes.Play rapid (30 minutes) or Daily Chess.

The advantage of Daily is that you can spend a lot of time calculating. Two days ago I spend 4 hours to find out how to make a draw (or perhaps even win) a very difficult game. When I finally found the most promising continuation it was a great feeling! It was not an intuitive move, I had to push a pawn and sac him. But now the continuations are very promising, my rook is back to the game, just wonderful.

Play only few Daily Games at once, something between 2 and 6. The rest of the time you spend learning.

Learn tactics. Really a lot of tactics. I recommend you two books. 1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners and 1001 Mates in One. Both you will find in Chessable

The first one is about tactics and calculating. After two or three months learning this book you begin to play nice combinations, winning material or mating. And you will make less mistakes.

The second book is about mating net and pattern recognition, you should learn it in blitz mode. Big fun to learn, very useful.

Even GMs make mate in one puzzles (I read this in an interview with a Swiss GM recently).

Good luck!

Now chess isn't a sport you can master fastly. I have been playing chess since i was around 9. My DAD always told me "You can never master chess, without first mastering tic tac toe" Now guys I did master tic tac toe and I am becoming a world champion chess player. Take the advice from me a well educated 30 year old man. I own a plumbing business and we have nightly chess games which I always win I have brought over 20 pounds in the last 9 years. This is a successful business <3. (If you want some plumbing done our business is called 'Clayton and co plumbing solutions'

Yours truly xX_SexyBisch_Xx

If it were easy, everyone could do it.

Work hard, stay focused on your goals and you will improve in time. It won't happen overnight, and I can't tell you what exact things you need to do; no one can. I can't tell you WHEN you will feel yourself improving; no one can. However, I will tell you that after weeks, months of steady and consistent practice, you will begin to see improvement in your play.

my blitz rating is forever stuck at 1500-1600 because I keep winning then keep losing and it repeats all over again

maybe you shouldn’t just play 10 minute chess

maybe I should stop only playing 3 minute chess

One way to get better is to use the computer to analyze your games.  Then go through, move by move, and see where the computer points out your mistakes.  It's a lot of hard work, and progress is on the slow side.  But it is definite and steady progress.

Playing 10 minutes games is fine. Just analyze what you miss when you lose. You get pissed when you lose. You will be more upset when your opponent abandon a game when you are winning in longer time control.

I saw some games of OP. And the theme of the games is:

Kings are in the centre and both sides are trying to open the centre. Then, it becomes a tactical melee with both sides missing tactics and hanging pieces and one side ends up winning partly by luck and partly by skill.

Solution:

Castle quickly! Don't play f3 or f4 before castling. Open the centre only after you are castled. And you are at an advantage if you are castled, your opponent has not castled and the centre is open.

I think a lot of people get upset about losing a game of chess because it's an ego blow. They think that they're somehow not as smart or mentally-adept as their opponent. What they don't realize is that chess, for the most part, isn't about being smart. It's a skill, like playing the piano. Maybe I'm wrong, but I believe anyone who puts the time and effort into learning the skill of chess can reach expert or even master level. It's only when you go above that rating that you need a certain genius that some have and some don't. Going back to the piano analogy, if you start practicing piano for eight hours a day, I guarantee you'll be able to play Bach or Chopin. You'll probably never be good enough to play Carnegie Hall, however. The same with chess. Most of us will never be grandmasters or even masters, no matter how hard we try, but you can still obtain a very high level of play, if you put in the time. But a lot of people have no desire to study and play chess eight hours a day.

I've played opponents whose knowledge of openings destroy me (the Danish Gambit comes to mind). Sometimes you simply have no chance to get to the middle or endgame with a decent position. But sometimes when you do get through, you find that your opponent has no idea how to play a simple endgame. Just because someone spends hours studying openings, and knows the traps and pitfalls of certain positions, doesn't mean that they're better at chess than you are.

One last thing. When someone asks me if I'm good at chess, I shrug and simply reply "No idea." No matter what you're rating (unless you're Magnus Carlsen), there will always be someone who will mop the board with you. And there will always be players who'll you'll easily dominate. Knowing that brings a certain peace and lessons the blow when you do lose.