I'm not sure if you're looking for advice, or just venting. In any event, have fun!
what am I doing!?
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LOL I love the post ... Happens to me too
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Advice on how not to do stupid things is difficult to give so I guess I'm just venting, BUT If anyone else has been through this type of losing streak and overcome it, what did you change about your chess habits, etc. would be good points to discuss.
I go up and down in big swings too. Sometimes I'm just blind. It usually has something to do with what's going on in my regular life. Busy with school = sucking at chess. I'd advise you against reducing your number of games though. My biggest point jump actually happened when I had like 30-40 games going at once when I usually play half that.
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I have mad swings and am constantly changing from around 1400 to 1550 and back. My reason for these apparent swings in ability though are related to personal issues and mood swings to do with depression (which the damn NHS can't seem to do anything but make worse with medication, but thats a whole other rant!).
If it bothers you a lot, my advice is to do a little self-reflection, it is easy for me to know when I'm in a downward spiral, and I know I'm going to play badly, so I could limit the number of games or moves I make during these times. I don't actually do this because I find playing chess helps my mind in some odd way when I feel really low, even when losing. But maybe you could simply try to slow things down when you're on a downward slope?
Sleep deprivation can certainly effect your concentration, and from the sounds of it you have more important things to get sorted before you concentrate on your chess. Good luck anyway, and I hope things improve for you!
I have not had big swings. I could only say that it is a good thing to look over your games. Seeing your mistakes afterwords may shock your brain back to reality, heh. It does that to mine sometimes!
One thing that did contribute to my smack down was a higher than average opponent rating over the last month and a half, so about half of those were losses I expected.
I do notice that my play is much better if I can keep on a game and play it out over the course of a day but without the time constraints of live chess. when a game starts to get to be 3/day I seem to lose focus. staying on the game no matter the time does make for a better game for me. My live/blitz rating is 1358 and my online is 1417, this is too close in my opinion.
Josh, you've inspired my latest blog entry: http://blog.chess.com/view/how-to-prepare-for-a-game
Thanks.
When I had multiple games going (around 70 at one time), I would tend to miss things that I normally would have seen. This would cause me to lose to lower rated players, and that would drop my points. And if I lost to two or three at one time, then my points would go down 200 or so points. Nothing to fret about. The fact is, it is just a game. Don't think so much about the rating. The rating keeps you in a range that you find comfortable opposition with, and it helps you to grow.
The best way to improve is to analyze your own games. Look at what you did wrong, where you can improve, and apply that to your next game. Trust me - it works!
isn't this also just the nature of the ratings system?
lose two games, win two games, down and up 100+.
we're not as equally comfortable with all openings and styles of play as the famous players are, so their ratings are going to be more stable while ours are more likely to meet with bumps in the road as we find games we're comfortable with and then not.
what's tricky is there's lots of people who, for example, are currently 1400 but they've been playing against 1800 opponents and getting "beat down" by them as a learning experience.... in other words, their real rating could be like 1600, and then you sign on for a game against them thinking they're a 1400 and they start making way strong moves. Tricksters.
it surprises me that the ratings still move so much if we lose to someone equal. Isn't that kind of odd? If you lose to someone of equal power, shouldn't that count against you less because the outcome was more of a coin toss? (maybe once I play more games on here the rating will be less volatile?)
It's not so much losing but the kinds of losses...ugh... what was I doing...type stuff.
I was in a slump once... AND I went down 200+ points. : (
Most players, here, on chess.com experience this bump in the road.
From my experience, I would say this is temporary and you'll climb back up. : )
ADK
Yeah, it is definitely the sleep. I have the same problem. I go nearly undefeated when I have a good amount of sleep but when I go a few days with only 3-5 hours of sleep I begin to miss rookie tactics and overlook my own winning moves. I try to limit myself to just a few games when I am really tired and I play more when I am well rested.
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what am I doing?!
In the last 5 weeks I'm down almost 200 points. Ugh...
Granted this losing steak has been brought on by some serious sleep deprivations, I can't seem to even see the simplest rookie traps any more, I think I might need a CAT scan or something.
So from here on out I'm going to limit my number of games to <5, play the tactics trainer instead of live blitz, and maybe get some sleep. Definitely the first two.