should I keep playing even though I suck...

He destroyed me with 4 moves btw

Just won my last game. I open with the London did very well to the middle got behind. But right at the last second saw a rook sacrificed to a pawn and then check ckeckmate.

You should absolutely keep playing. I was TERRIBLE when I started. analyze your games, do puzzles, and just play. by just playing you will get better even without major studying. Good luck.

Stick to it, you will get better eventually. It works for everyone.

Hat tip...

no

Well if you don't keep playing you will always suck. So can you remember what God gave you a brain for? To use it.. So use it.

keep playing i used to have 250 elo now i have 400 elo

If you play you might win which is fun.  If you lose the other person wins, so the other person has fun.

that advice about just playing and you will get better is horse @#$%hit

more games just mean more losses and reach time you lose you play a lessor grade of player who beats  you again and then you play a lesser grade of player  till there is no lesser grade of player till 100 then everybody is equal and then you might win if luck is on your side - puzzles  i think are the way to go -- but then i lost  from 350 down to 100 in two days again for the fourth time in a month -- so my advice  is to take time off and play as a non signed in person so you won't feel as bad as every person there seems to be 800 and losing doesn't feel as bad --or better yet sucking doesn't feel as bad when you lose to a 800 player-- good luck just keep at it and maybe listen to the advice given here -- i don't it listen to well, being an old guy ( old dog thing) it seems and look where i am at 100 again tonight-- hey maybe we can play a game and see who sucks the most 8 blunders a game is about right for me   

The way to learn is through tactics puzzles.  Make sure you work out the solution in your head before making the first move.

When you get it wrong, understand why the solution is right.

Chesstempo is great for tactics puzzles.

Y'all are great. Won last 2 and it feelzzz....advice has been awesome

Good job

Good job, keep pushing!

Nice job!
Though I would add -- don't let your confidence depend too much on the outcome of a couple games, or even a run of several games. Players run hot and cold and that's to be expected. I would describe chess as a more long-term pursuit, if you care about improvement -- but focus on applying the principles that you know in games, and the payoff tends to come over time.

'Ice_cream _cake' offers an excellent first-principle test... Are You Enjoying Playing Chess?!

Here's my experience:

The very first computer chess games (yes, I'm that old) did not allow taking back a move, so I just could never get into computer chess because of the huge investment of time and effort (and competitive emotion) only to get humiliated over and over again by a machine.

Years later, "web-surfing" one day, wishing to try chess again, I encountered a modern chess engine that allowed "take-backs". Well, I was off to the races! I could now play non-stop and never worry about a mistake. I never had to lose.

It was weird. Suddenly I did nothing BUT play computer chess. Removing the competitive emotional component freed me to really enjoy the simple purity of the near infinite treasure trove of 2-D spatial puzzles that is the game called CHESS.

HERE'S WHAT'S INTERESTING:

I sucked!... which is where you started this thread. But it didn't matter because no matter how many mistakes I made, they could always be undone. I PLAYED A HUNDRED GAMES... then I played a THOUSAND GAMES... and then one day it happened.

An epiphany!... The Clouds Parted!... The Angels Sang!... Suddenly... I DIDN'T SUCK!!

Ok, let's not get carried away, I had only achieved mediocrity, but it was a quite sudden and profound quantum leap in skill level!!... again, it happened quite suddenly!! - suddenly I could see all the complex patterns and potentialities. What spaces mattered, what pieces could be ignored. No more laboring over all the possible moves of each piece. The game suddenly became faster and more instinctive - less mechanical, less an exercise in deliberate logic and more of an art. For a brief moment I glimpsed just hint of that rarified genius, that mysterious realm, that ethereal Shangri-La occupied by Grand Masters.

One day I sucked, the next I day I didn't... It was just that fast!

AND that's where I sat, for at least a couple of years. I had proudly achieved "Not Sucking".

Ho-Hum... I played ANOTHER THOUSAND GAMES, and another, and another... and then it happened again! Another epiphany! Another dramatic improvement, again quite sudden and profound.

BOTTOM LINE:

So I would say, YES, keep playing, at least for a couple of thousand games. Don't be discouraged by a lack of progress because it doesn't come as a gradual upward incline, but in leaps and bounds. You may find, as I did, that you will see ZERO improvement for what seems like ages, then one day the light bulb will go on over your head and you will suddenly "Get It".

A Tip from the great Magnus: It doesn't hurt to put it down occasionally, just walk away from chess for a few weeks. When you come back, it will seem new and fresh and fun again... And YOU may have an epiphany!

CHEERS!

cnj

P.S. To this day I have never played against a human, but I have played against a chess engine every day for at least a decade

We all suck.... But sometimes we shine

If I was in OP's shoes, I'd probably quit. But you do you.

Playing improves your game, but before that can be the case, you have to learn the most basic chess principles, otherwise you're just guessing because you don't understand what you're doing wrong and of course you won't improve. You can't learn unless you take in information about what you're doing wrong.

Take your recent rapid game against gernni. 6 out of your first 10 moves were queen moves. Your queen is only supposed to move after all your knights and bishops have moved. For several of those moves, you kept your queen diagonally right in front of your king and at any point the opponent could have put their bishop on b5 and you would have lost your queen. Literally never put your king and queen on the same diagonal.

After you stopped doing random queen moves, you also started making multiple moves with your knights you got out, instead of getting your bishops out. Pieces are useless on their original squares, they're just targets. Aim to not move any piece a second time until all your knights and bishops are off their original squares.

So, opening principles for beginners: put pawns in the centre (the ones on C, D and E), move each of your pieces into the game towards the centre of the board (knights first, then bishops), then immediately castle to get your king to a safe spot. Then you can move your queen. Following those principles will get you to a consistent 500 immediately.

You also promptly hung your queen (put it on a square it can be captured). Now even Alex Botez does this, it will happen occasionally for everyone, but this one is a failure to just look. Before playing every single move, you need to ask yourself "It's the opponent's turn next, can they take any of my pieces?", "Am I about to put my queen on a safe square or a dangerous square?", "Is my queen under attack right now?".

You also need to use your time if you want to get better. That was a 10 minute rapid game (a good time control to play in if you want to learn and improve), but you lost in less than 3 minutes. If you had taken a moment to check if your moves are good or bad before playing the first one you thought of, you would have used an extra couple of minutes but you wouldn't have lost. Eventually those checking habits become automatic and you start to spot more patterns while you check and habitually avoid bad moves. That's how you improve chess skill, and it won't happen unless you play slower and more carefully and follow those basic opening principles. Stop using your age as an excuse.