Long covid and chess

As a kid I was obsessed with chess. My grandparents had the most beautiful chess set which I was drawn to like a moth to a flame each time we visited. I joined a chess club a few years later and won quite some matches. But somehow I lost interest. Fast forward to Covid. I joined chess.com (as did most of the world) and enjoyed playing once again. But then I developed long covid which impacted me tremendously. Especially the brain fog is hard to deal with. I have periods in which my brain functions normally again but after a week or so the brain fog hits me again. My ELO has dropped significantly as I just don't see the patterns anymore. I've lost two accounts already, probably because my playing jumps from very poor to pretty good overnight and back again. But I seem to be stuck around 1000. Anyone else who's dealing with long covid and brain fog? And how do you cope with it? Especially the frustration?

Thanks.

Nooo I'm so sorry to hear that have you had that properly checked out

I have phases of long covid as well, they come back every 4 to 7 months, causing brain fog and fatigue. I just play for fun without any goals, pressure and expectations. I'm proud of being able to stay around 450 rapid and around 300 blitz and bullet.

Whenever long covid strikes I listen to certain music genres like ambient, IDM or psybient, they all help tremendously dealing with it, just listening to albums and do nothing else.

That's excellent

I somehow just accepted that I lost my accounts and started over again. Nowadays I just don't play during bouts of brain fog. I'm always listening to music as well, mainly 90's grunge, blues, jazz, (classic) rock. But when the brain fog hits I mostly listen to Jeff Buckley, Chris Cornell, Counting Crows, etc.

Cool