Why am I playing so horribly all of a sudden?

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Avatar of Just_an_average_player136
chalky_no1 wrote:

It is strange, I am only a 900 noob player. But I can easily play and lose 100 points one day then the next easily gain the 100 points back, It happened to me only last night lost over 100 points then this morning i win 14 of 17 matches and gained it back. its like some days you're just bad it makes no sense that its what you eat etc as I literally always eat rubbish food. It makes more sense to me that its some kind of matchmaking algorithm, It is more rare for me to win and lose the odd game its always like a streak of wins followed by a streak of losses. Anyway at my level of chess I don't take it too seriously. I just play for fun, but I obviously play to win too. So the losing streaks can be frustrating. Be interesting to know what the real cause is.

This is from 2017

Avatar of Tribbled

I'm surprised the OP can reach such a high rating without encountering the phenomenon of winning or losing streaks.

On several occasions I've dropped 180 elo, maybe as much as 200 with an almost uninterrupted streak of losses.

It's down to a combination of:

1) Ratings fluctuate, but we tend to think of our "real" rating as being whatever is the high watermark. But when you're at the top of your rating range, an element of good fortune has probably contributed (e.g. opponents with poor connection, or who made a blunder below their typical level), and now the rubber bands are pulling you back to your actual strength rating.

2) I play poorly when I am playing just for the points, hoping my opponent will make a trivial blunder. I play much better if I go in with a mindset of wanting a tough opponent and embracing the complications. Enjoying defending a lost position (then miraculously finding a win).
Unfortunately, after a streak of losses, my mind is often in the cynical "I just want to win" mindset, and so it becomes a vicious circle.

3) You can just be tired or whatever, and need to stop playing

Avatar of analist76bis

1) you are overburn

2) your brain thinks obout other subject..usualy women if you are male

Avatar of BaptisteYannick

Out of my experience, over- and underpracticing leads to those moments where you don't know what is happening - those moments where you calculate but you still miss obvious options for yourself or your opponent.

I would recommend you to see what is happening, are you calculating badly or NOT AT ALL ?

If you calculate badly, you have to train calculation with puzzles (trust me, it is that simple).

If you don't calculate, then make sure that you are not overstimulated while playing or simply too tired - in both cases it will be a mental work based on retrospection on yourself.

Hopefully that helped