Online rating swings can drive you insane!

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AntonioEsfandiari

Focusing on your online rating will typically only hurt you.  Online ratings have FAR too much fluctuation, obsessing over them will surely turn you insane.  Blitz and bullet ratings can easily swing a hundred points in just an hour! If your online rating is the sole measure of your chess abilities, you are in for disaster.
When your online rating peaks, you can get overly proud and then you might assume that you deserve to be at least that rating.  But if it goes down 100 pts you may begin to panic, become insecure, and question everything. This can lead to anger, frustration, resentment for others, reduced motivation, etc.  It can make you "afraid to play" when your online rating is high, or go on massive tilt when it is stuck below your peak.
Every chess player should play OTB chess with real pieces on a regular basis.  Even going to a completely casual blitz chess meetup once a month can be extremely good for your mental chess health. https://www.meetup.com/topics/chess/
Meeting actual people, seeing actual faces, socializing in a healthy way, is very refreshing and will help you emotionally disconnect from your online ratings.  Online chess is great, but if it is the only chess you play, you might develop an unhealthy obsession, and dangerous emotional connection to your online rating.

Online rating swings are inevitable.  You can't be on your A-game 24/7.  Your quality of play can be heavily affected by your mood, your energy, your focus, your motivation, and your mental clarity.  Some days you can be sharp as a tack, and then on some days you will miss a dozen easy tactics.  Also there is LUCK (variance) that is out of your control, for example, running in to a string of opponents that are playing openings that you don't like or that you suck at,  or running into lots of opponents that are over-performing and playing THEIR A-game.  

Playing Over-the-board chess regularly provides consistency and a solid grounding. As a result, this will allow you to be more care-free regarding your online ratings. When a weaker player that is a total stranger destroys you in an online game, it can be very upsetting and you might even accuse them of cheating.  But if that happens while playing in person, you can just shrug it off, (I guess Jeff is having a good day today) "Good game Jeff!"  Whenever I play in person, the losses are less devestating and the wins feel more rewarding.  Then when I come back to online chess I often have a renewed patience and a positive attitude.


Christopher_Parsons

I find beating people OTB who are at a particular rating, when you feel your online ratings don't do you justice can be good for the soul...

AntonioEsfandiari

Yes! This helps remedy the unhealthy online rating attachment.  It is hard though, for us mere mortal humans to detach from the numbers, especially when they are personally assigned to you as an implied measurement of your worth.

drmrboss

I saw a few of your games. You relied on speed on bullet and played sub optimal opening. e.g 1. d4 d5. 2. c4 c5???(from black). Really. Will you really play such opening OTB? Playing fast will scare 1600-1800. Beyond that people can take benefits of your weakness even at 1 min bullet.

My suggestion, at least in opening, choose 1-3, opening choice and master by heart ( know thoroughly , instant reply without thinking too much)

tipish

I'm sure that when you play otb your telling your friends how great it was playing online. you gotta enjoy the present....now your online enjoy what you do here. l mean its getting a bit crazy here that on every thread the same 10 ppl are telling us hey otb otb otb. we are here to enjoy chess.com thank you...

AntonioEsfandiari

You don't  have to play OTB rated tournaments to play chess with people.  You can play casual OTB chess at free meetup groups!  For example in seattle there are chess meetup groups almost every single day! monday night there is drunken pub chess (sometimes masters will show up even an IM) , wednesnday night there is casual chess at the chess club, friday there are at least 2 groups that meet every week, saturday morning there is a 5 hour panera bread casual chess meetup, sunday there are two groups that meet.  https://www.meetup.com/topics/chess/ Find a local chess meetup group, you don't even have to RSVP, just show up and play some chess face to face with people, I've made dozens of chess friends this way.  
Online chess is great, I play it for hours almost every day, but it will drive you insane if it is your only source of chess,  people are much more toxic online.  
Enjoy online chess all you want! I will never discourage that, but get out of your chair and play real chess once a month, the people who do are happier.

P.S. Tipish have you ever been to a casual chess meetup? Nobody ever talks about how great online chess is at a meetup group, lol... They are too busy socializing and/or smack-talkin'  

drmrboss

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drmrboss

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AntonioEsfandiari

You are literally toxic in this thread, No surprise coming from someone who never plays chess in real life 

AntonioEsfandiari
catdogorb wrote:

So yeah, your advice to get an OTB rating is good.

But also, I think it's useful if you can play the same people face to face, over and over. That way you see for sure that sometimes people just play much worse (or better) than usual and it happens to everyone.

Yes I enjoy seeing the same people at the weekly meetup group, some people have been going every week for years.  It is a community, and generally everyone gets along really well.  There is some friendly banter and trash talking, but that is all part of the experience happy.png 
And I wasn't actually promoting getting an OTB tournament rating.. I am just saying get out once a month and play CASUAL chess Go slam down some real pieces, it is more satisfying!  Find your local meetup group!  https://www.meetup.com/topics/chess/    NOT saying to stop playing online chess at all, you should definitely do both (unless you just hate people, lol) Find the time to make it out to your local chess meetup, people who do are happier!

Eieddkendndeuu

I definitely agree that playing too much online isn't good for you. I'm going to try and just play 1-2 10 minute blitz games a day and then analyze them so I don't end up breaking something going on 10 game losing streaks or something lol.

AntonioEsfandiari

@kemp new york city https://www.meetup.com/meetup-group-QIpvcxNH/  there's over 200 people in the meetup.com new york group, probably lots more that dont use meetup.  You ever make it to a meetup or chess club?  

Smositional
drmrboss wrote:

I saw a few of your games. You relied on speed on bullet and played sub optimal opening. e.g 1. d4 d5. 2. c4 c5???(from black). Really. Will you really play such opening OTB? Playing fast will scare 1600-1800. Beyond that people can take benefits of your weakness even at 1 min bullet.

My suggestion, at least in opening, choose 1-3, opening choice and master by heart ( know thoroughly , instant reply without thinking too much)

c5 is not a bad move. Mamedyarov who participated in the candidates played this in a lot of his games in the past and with a lot of success. So playing like this OTB is not a bad choice.

 

 

AntonioEsfandiari
Smositional wrote:
drmrboss wrote:

I saw a few of your games. You relied on speed on bullet and played sub optimal opening. e.g 1. d4 d5. 2. c4 c5???(from black). Really. Will you really play such opening OTB? Playing fast will scare 1600-1800. Beyond that people can take benefits of your weakness even at 1 min bullet.

My suggestion, at least in opening, choose 1-3, opening choice and master by heart ( know thoroughly , instant reply without thinking too much)

c5 is not a bad move. Mamedyarov who participated in the candidates played this in a lot of his games in the past and with a lot of success. So playing like this OTB is not a bad choice.

 

 

Lol I will play ANY opening as black that gives me any kind of dynamic chances.  I have been experimenting with the scandinavian gambit with some decent success, even in slower games.  e4 d5 exd5 c6! dxc6 nxc6.  Been castling kingside and enjoying the interesting games, 4v3 KS majority, 2v4 QS minority, but reasonable compensation, its evaluated as +.6 or whatever for white, but often my pieces end up better placed, they can't figure out a consistent plan , and then they make a mistake.

 And note he was critiquing my bullet openings, lol...  Who really cares what opening you play in bullet if it is working. 

Smositional
AntonioEsfandiari wrote:
Smositional wrote:
drmrboss wrote:

I saw a few of your games. You relied on speed on bullet and played sub optimal opening. e.g 1. d4 d5. 2. c4 c5???(from black). Really. Will you really play such opening OTB? Playing fast will scare 1600-1800. Beyond that people can take benefits of your weakness even at 1 min bullet.

My suggestion, at least in opening, choose 1-3, opening choice and master by heart ( know thoroughly , instant reply without thinking too much)

c5 is not a bad move. Mamedyarov who participated in the candidates played this in a lot of his games in the past and with a lot of success. So playing like this OTB is not a bad choice.

 

 

Lol I will play ANY opening as black that gives me any kind of dynamic chances.  I have been experimenting with the scandinavian gambit with some decent success, even in slower games.  e4 d5 exd5 c6! dxc6 nxc6.  Been castling kingside and enjoying the interesting games, 4v3 KS majority, 2v4 QS minority, but reasonable compensation, its evaluated as +.6 or whatever for white, but often my pieces end up better placed, they can't figure out a consistent plan , and then they make a mistake.

 And note he was critiquing my bullet openings, lol...  Who really cares what opening you play in bullet if it is working. 

You play that opening,too? How do you play it?

I play it like this:

Against 1.e4 this is one of my main openings in bullet. It's not entirely correct but in bullet many players have problem dealing with the activity black gets for the pawn.

KT_17

was that a real game? only play bullet with incroments

tipish

akdwivedi wrote:

tipish wrote:

I'm sure that when you play otb your telling your friends how great it was playing online. you gotta enjoy the present....now your online enjoy what you do here. l mean its getting a bit crazy here that on every thread the same 10 ppl are telling us hey otb otb otb. we are here to enjoy chess.com thank you...

We are not suggesting anyone to leave online chess, we mean ... Everyone should also play OTB... It gives real experience for tournaments...

my point was that I don't have to see it on every thread. its like someone 1600 blitz player on chess.com asked how can I improve my chess and those same ppl commenting on every thread otb otb answered "ignore your online rating otb otb" come on ENOUGH. let us enjoy our sitting on our couches and socialize playing online chess. that's all.

SeniorPatzer
AntonioEsfandiari wrote:

Focusing on your online rating will typically only hurt you.  Online ratings have FAR too much fluctuation, obsessing over them will surely turn you insane.  Blitz and bullet ratings can easily swing a hundred points in just an hour! If your online rating is the sole measure of your chess abilities, you are in for disaster.
When your online rating peaks, you can get overly proud and then you might assume that you deserve to be at least that rating.  But if it goes down 100 pts you may begin to panic, become insecure, and question everything. This can lead to anger, frustration, resentment for others, reduced motivation, etc.  It can make you "afraid to play" when your online rating is high, or go on massive tilt when it is stuck below your peak.
Every chess player should play OTB chess with real pieces on a regular basis.  Even going to a completely casual blitz chess meetup once a month can be extremely good for your mental chess health. https://www.meetup.com/topics/chess/
Meeting actual people, seeing actual faces, socializing in a healthy way, is very refreshing and will help you emotionally disconnect from your online ratings.  Online chess is great, but if it is the only chess you play, you might develop an unhealthy obsession, and dangerous emotional connection to your online rating.

Online rating swings are inevitable.  You can't be on your A-game 24/7.  Your quality of play can be heavily affected by your mood, your energy, your focus, your motivation, and your mental clarity.  Some days you can be sharp as a tack, and then on some days you will miss a dozen easy tactics.  Also there is LUCK (variance) that is out of your control, for example, running in to a string of opponents that are playing openings that you don't like or that you suck at,  or running into lots of opponents that are over-performing and playing THEIR A-game.  

Playing Over-the-board chess regularly provides consistency and a solid grounding. As a result, this will allow you to be more care-free regarding your online ratings. When a weaker player that is a total stranger destroys you in an online game, it can be very upsetting and you might even accuse them of cheating.  But if that happens while playing in person, you can just shrug it off, (I guess Jeff is having a good day today) "Good game Jeff!"  Whenever I play in person, the losses are less devestating and the wins feel more rewarding.  Then when I come back to online chess I often have a renewed patience and a positive attitude.


 

Excellent Post, Antonio Fan.  

AntonioEsfandiari

If you ONLY play online chess, then you just might start hating everybody, and you can even become toxic yourself!  For whatever reasons, people aren't as nice to each other online, I guess it's the anonymity and reduction of consequences/guilt for being a jerk.  When you go to casual chess meetups you realize that it is supposed to be a fun group activity!  You will never see a group of random pesky trolls in real life chess who have no interest in playing, but they like to sit on the sidelines, insult everyone and stir up drama.   (or maybe I have just gotten lucky these last 100 meetups) 

When you play casual chess in person, your confidence will probably go up, and you might even realize that you don't hate everybody tongue.png 

tipish

go look for it in the forums it wasn't tipish who asked this question it was someone 1600 or 1800 player who wanted get his online yes online rating higher and of course he asked for a book that can help him and you guys tell him ignore your online rating otb otb... obsession! I think I made my case I'm out of the back and forth...