My rating going down

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Potter56

I once got as high at 1200 rating a year or so ago but now I am well below 1100. I play most days and do puzzles regularly. However lately I seem to come up against a lot of lower ranked players who beat me even when I feel like I am playing reasonably well. I don't think  my play is getting worse so I dont understand why this is happening? It seems like some of the lower ranked players are either cheating or perhaps sandbaging.? Or is  the standard of play for a given rating much higher now on chess.com?

CoachBucci

I don't think you play as consistently as you suggest. You play 30 minute games which is good, but you play 1 game every other day at best and go without playing for almost a week at times. You also do 3 puzzles in one go every 5 days. Those numbers are unfortunately not reflective of consistency. Also if you only have time for one game a day, definitely analyze that game thoroughly after and use your 1 free daily game review.

I'm not saying you have to play a ton of games every day or do puzzles all the time or anything like that. But think of it like this, if you tell someone you go to the gym and one week go to the gym three times and then take the next week off, is that really consistency? The same thing applies to chess. Especially when starting out, when it comes to what you've learned, if you don't use it, you lose it. I would steer clear from cheating/sandbagging assumptions. It's a really bad mindset to get in and hinders your learning.