Ugh, why am I so bad at chess?

I always lose on time and/or lose on position, it feels like. I blunder constantly and I never have good ideas or plans, when playing. I've been doing tactics training on Chesstempo and watching chess videos on youtube (though these are mostly for fun), and in about a month I've crawled from 1100, to hovering around 1300 right now, but I feel like I could drop any number of games and I'll be right back where I started. It's just very frustrating because I don't feel like I'm improving at all. At these levels, it's more like winning coin flips than playing chess; wait to see who drops a piece or two first. Anyone more experienced or in the same situation have any advice to offer?

That's the way she goes. Keep at it...if you are tenacious enough you'll go far. Or maybe you've peaked...who knows...

That's just how chess is. As for losing on time, play longer games. The same thing happens to me.

Play slower time controls and give yourself time to come up with plans and avoid blunders.  Blitz is a lot of fun but you'll probably never get much better if that's all you play.  Bring on the hate mail, blitz lovers....

Also think about it like this. You can beat most people who don't play much chess. But most people you lose to, have played/studied a lot more than you.

You aint bad, but you aint good.

Good takes years and years of work and experience.

(I am also speaking for myself)

You may be bad at chess but you'll be better at life than most strong chess players.

I'm with you, fourcubed.

I'll be honest: I think it is the level of the players you meet on here. When I play with friends, I tend to perform infinitely better. The players you will generally find on a chess website have much more developed gamestyles and interests in chess than, say, relative newbies like you and me.

I think it takes much more practice to get to the level of many of the players here. Just stick with it and know it is probably better in the scheme of things to play with those who are more advanced every once in a while, because they will inevitably teach you a thing or two and challenge you to improve :)

Also, don't forget that rating isn't everything, especially at this stage in your learning. If you focus too much on that, you will likely become frustrated with the game and will forget to enjoy it. Now is the time for making mistakes, honing your skills and having fun. I stopped worrying about my rating when I realized many low-rated players are in fact very developed chess players, which I am not.

But hey, if you want a fun, stress-free game with someone who has only been playing about a month or so, feel free to play me anytime . Just please, none of those freakily-fast ones. I'm not quite ready for that...

FourCubed14 isn't playing blitz. She is playing 30-30. I wish this site would let you just use 1, 2 hr time controls. That's probably what she needs. She probably can't play at home, so she have to use this website. I know they allow 1 day per move, but that isn't fun to have to wait that long.

Not sure where you're getting that information DarkDragon but all I see are blitz games.

DarknesMetalDragon

Sep 3, 2013

0

#12

baddogno wrote:

Not sure where you're getting that information DarkDragon but all I see are blitz games.

Turn-based: Standard Chess960 Live: Bullet Blitz Standard

Rating

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Live Chess - Blitz Current: 1232 Today's Rank: #365,295 of 1,390,628 Percentile: 73.7% Glicko RD: 22 Highest: 1431 (May 5, 2013) Lowest: 995 (May 7, 2013) Avg. Opp.: 1192.87 Best Win: 1474 (alex_relax)

Jul 2013Aug 2013Sep 20131,0001,2001,4001,600

7 Days | 30 Days | 60 Days | 90 Days | 1 Year | All Time

Avg. Opponent Rating when I... Win: 1164 Lose: 1240 Draw: 1191 Games Archive Games

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Games Vs.All opponentsSpecific opponent

Total: 1028 Won: 546 (53%) Lost: 457 (44%) Drawn: 25 (2%) Unrated: 0 In Progress:   Timeouts: 0% (last 90 days)Winning Streak: 9 Games Losing Streak: 6 Games

Won: 53 %Lost: 44 %Drawn: 2 %

Record  WinsLossesDrawsGamesTotal 546 (53%) 457 (44%) 25 (2%) 1028 White 279 (56%) 207 (41%) 13 (3%) 499 (49%) Black 267 (50%) 250 (47%) 12 (2%) 529 (51%)

 

 

Home My Stats Play Now Settings View Players Forums Games Archive Help

 I guess I should have checked with her games first before even posing. To 4cubed, I really don't see you as a bad player. You certainly are getting better. The average tournament player is 1400, so your actually not a bad player. Certainly better than me on this site.

 

Lizalyn69

Dec 4, 2013

0

#13

Try a visit on this http://chess-teacher.com/what-obstructs-most-players/.Make a free account so you can receive more chess lessons for free. I'm sure it's 100% helpful to you too. 

tigbench

Dec 4, 2013

0

#14

I see nothing wrong with those stats.

JavaTigress

Apr 26, 2014

0

#15

2200ismygoal wrote:

You may be bad at chess but you'll be better at life than most strong chess players.

 

And what good is that if you are miserable about yourself?

Seriously,though, I can honestly say I know the the OP feels. Its like I feel like I will NEVER be as good as I want to be. I feel at times like I should just give up at the whole thing if I am never going to be a grandmaster...

Thing is I don't WANT to give it up, not really. 

Scottrf

Apr 26, 2014

0

#16

Check post 73 if you want to win more.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/help-support/2random-is-hackingor-something?page=4

Till_98

Apr 26, 2014

0

#17

Play slow time control. when you get better at chess you will of course get better at blitz.

wishiwonthatone

Apr 26, 2014

0

#18

Do nothing. You have a life. Reward yourself.

GaurangRai

Jul 12, 2022

0

#19

I used to be a better player but now I'm worse, I played more worh bots than I played online, even after using KIA, I lose to a bot like Nelson, he just brings his queen out and thrashes me in no time

Chessflyfisher

Jul 12, 2022

0

#20

2200ismygoal wrote:

You may be bad at chess but you'll be better at life than most strong chess players.

Not necessarily true.