What Is an Acceptable Amount of Online Games at Once?

I agree that it depends on the individual. I've known a player to have 150 games and a 2000+ Online rating, all with a FIDE 2110 rating.

20 and more is getting real difficult for me. around 12 seems to be perfect. When I play less I can recall a lot more games even months later, at one point I had 30 and more going and I barely remember 3 of them.

I think a good way is putting the computer away for 5 minutes and then trying to recall the positions of your ongoing online games: If you can't even come up with half of them i think it is an overload of games.

With recalling I don't mean that you need to know the whole movelist or the exact positions, I mean that you remember some key ideas, something you remember the next time you see the position.

Have fun playing though, no matter if it is one game or a thousand

I've got 10 games right now and its good enough for me.

15-20

I stick to 1 simultaneous games in matches. 2 simultaneous seems to overload the chess enjoyment.

Having said that i'm in 40+ vote chess games.

My best games are vote chess games

Used to have over 50 which was about right. Unfortunately my schedule tightened up a lot in December and won't lighten until April or so, so the ten games I'm currently playing are more than enough for me.

5000?

http://www.chess.com/members/view/ramon_palatan#games

If you want to increase your ability (and eventually rating) in individual online games, consider this method:

- Buy 3 rollup vinyl chessboards and 3 sets of pieces.

- Set them up on your coffee table.

- Start 3 online games, at 2-3 days/move.  If 3 is just killing you, try 4-5...but no more than that.  You must have a physical board set up for each game.

- Whenever you have free time (even TV commercials), ponder each game, cycling through each piece's possible moves, the pawn structure, etc.

- Play out lines, all the time.  Do not just do it in your head.  Play them out on the board and look at them (this differs from improving your OTB play).  If you have a line that you like but can't seem to figure out how to proceed, leave it sitting and come back to it next time.

- If you don't have 3 individual games going at any particular time, play vote chess, pick the 3 games that interest you the most, and use your coffee table boards for those.

- Learn to enjoy chess quality over chess quantity.  Optional:  buy an old world globe, a brandy snifter, a pipe or some cigars, and mount a moose head over your fireplace.

You said you should be at 2000 rating.  Why?  Your online rating is ~300 points higher than your standard/blitz ratings, which is normal (~200-400 difference).  If you use the method above, I assure you that you'll head more towards the 400 end of that scale, by beating all the players that are doing exactly what you are doing now:  treating online chess games like a whack-a-mole contest.  If you are going by your tactics trainer rating, don't.  Tactics trainer ratings are garbage.

I have settled into around 12. It seems that when I get many more than that, I start to lose track of the variations and candidate moves I'm trying to analyze. As an aside, I encountered a player a short time ago that had 4,988 current games going (really).

Or just turn the TV OFF!  :)

Now way, my rating would collapse. I can't take 80+ games at all

btickler, I should be at 2000, that is my USCF and FIDE. Don't count my live chess, I don't play on it a lot

I think I will play 20-30

minus 20

depends on how much time you have

Wow, I actually played that person. Game lasted only 17 moves

chessdex,

It would be surprising if you hadn't played him at that rate.  Honestly, I'm impressed he can pull off a 1500s rating on this site with nearly 5000 concurrent games.  He must be a way better player than me.

I fell appart after 25. I try to keep it to 10-15 now. but i enter a tourny and all of a sudden 10 simultaneous appear! I really should read the small print. But come on look at my rating, does it really surprise anyone I struggle with more than 10 games at once?

lol, Ramon has 10 minutes to get online and play a move, or else he's in trouble...