How to lower my rank

Usually that's trade pieces, as distinct from losing pieces. And like everybody else says, 1200 is a random point to start at. Average player is a little above that, but average player has probably played hundreds or thousands of games over years, on and off, and may even have learned a few basic openings.

I never have any good moves because my opponent eliminates any chance of me finding a good move. So I end up seeing how many of the opponents pawns I can take out before I get beaten. Either that or I get beaten without capturing many pieces. I figure the former is better.

That's a pretty negative way of looking at it. Do a bit of reading (wont take too much for a big improvement), on openings (just search for opening principles and get some general rules), tactics (that tactics site I sent is good), and then some general positional goals, and look over your games for mistakes.

Playing slower games is a good idea.  I've been playing online and just started playing live a few days ago.  I'm much less bad when I can take a few minutes to look the board over before my move.  Even playing 15 or 30 minute games instead of 1-10 minute games makes a difference.

I tried copying and pasting my game here, but it failed, as seen above. I have no idea how you guys have been looking at my games, but check out the game I'm playing right now and tell me, what do I do when this kind of thing happens?

Thanks to the people who have offered to play me and let me know what I'm doing wrong; I have to get off soon though.

I've been playing 15 minute games instead of 10 minute games, and I'm not doing any better because it doesn't take me much time to look over moves.

We can see your games if we click on your profile.  There may be a better way to paste in a game, but I do so by clicking the link to get the PGN file.  Having done so, here's one of your recent ones.  Others will have far better ideas on improvement than I, but at least this sets it up so we can all see what we're talking about.

17. f4

You just reduced your king's protection by breaking up the castle you put him in.

18. Ng4

Your knight had been protecting your g pawn, but no more!

25. Nb5  Qb6

Oops! His queen now has a fork between your knight and your rook! We think of knights with forks, but queens can fork by attacking different pieces on a rank/file attack or on a diagonal. Worse than the fork, the rook is pinned against the king.

27. Rc3

He could have just captured your rook for free with his bishop.  For some reason he didn't, but look more carefully.

Black isn't playing well either.  By move 31, he had his bishop and queen alligned on the g2 pawn.  As black, I would have captured it with the bishop, threatening to push it through to the h file and allow the queen to come to g2 for the mate.  Just capturing that g2 pawn would have made your king look for some way to evade.  In that situation, I would have put my queen on row 2 so I could also cover that g2 pawn.

Others may contradict some of my ideas.  If they're rated higher than me (~1250 online) believe them. But look for the problems I've pointed out, at least.

you can go back to nursery school to find the answer.

Neat article.  The mistake it identifies that I recognize in most of my games is leaving a rook idle.  I usually castle, so one is somewhat active, but the other often sits still for a long time.

Problem is not that your rating is high but that it will be difficult to find opponents with rating 600. You have to players though they may be stronger that you, maybe one day you will start to win some matches

There are a few basic principles you'd probably do well to keep in mind as a beginner. Obviously there are loads of exceptions, but at that level your opponent likely won't spot them anyway, so it's not a problem.

-- Try to control the centre. Classically this is done by occupying it with pawns, and developing knights and bishops so they control the centre squares (d4, d5, e4 and e5).

-- Don't move the same piece too many times in the opening. Normally once is enough.

-- If you see an open file or a half open file, it's normally a good idea to try to control it. Typically this is done with a rook.

-- Castling sooner rather than later is a good idea. The king is normally vulnerable in the middle of the board.

-- Try to place your pieces on squares where they are active (controlling a lot of squares, or attacking a critical point). Also try to develop them in a coordinated manner.

-- Normally it is weakening to move the pawns in front of your king once it is castled. Unless you see a concrete plan to do so, or are simply forced to, don't move them.

-- Regarding the last point, the next logical step is to play in a way that prevents your opponent from forcing you to weaken your own position.

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Lesson 1:

Relative value of the pieces.

Queen: 9
Rook: 5
Bishop: 3
Knight: 3
Pawn: 1

Second lesson:

Don't lose material.  This is giving up pieces for free as well as making bad trades.  For example if your opponent captures your rook with a bishop and you re-capture the bishop you've lost 5 and gained back only 3, so that was a losing exchange.

After you play some games (lets say 50) trying to limit material loss as much as possible, then you may find some of these other things useful like opening principals and basic tactics people are telling you.

A suggestion I have is to join Dan Heisman learning center. Many resources and people to help. I've been a member there for a while and am overwhelmed at the generosity of the people there. Additionally, play SLOW games!!!! For us as beginners, 15 minutes is still far too fast. I've lose games 45/45 on time because I take my time to study the board. Anyway, I'm low rated -- my number hasn't changed much yet but I'm getting far stronger and am putting into practice many of the concepts mentioned here.

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Let's forget the errors for now...what I see is that you don't stick to a plan.  In the posted game you often play knight moves that attack another piece but with no purpose.  If you are not forcing the opponent to move somewhere that is worse for their position, then attacking with your knight haphazardly is actually just wasting time at best, or giving your opponent a chance to position their piece in an even better spot while you waste a move, at worst.

If you are losing quickly probably you are making basic opening mistakes. There are people here who will run through your games with you.

Yes. I had a lesson the other day where we noted some of my games were lost as a result of opening mistakes, specifically not developing when I should be. I'm really trying to do that now but I am still losing many due to tactics and miscalculations. Feel free to check a few of my blogs where I discuss these. My blogs are written in cris angel style, meaning you can clearly tell its a beginner but I also get into some lengthy variations that might surprise you (although some are obvious). Better might be my own games although I annotate other pkayers' games as well

Yes, I really hold a PhD. Feel free to check out my about me section where I discuss that a bit. It's in research although I'm not currently working in research at the moment. I had to perform a research study of my own and I chose cognitive stimulating activities and leisure activities and their relationships to the development of dementia in the later adult years. Toughest thing I ever did! If I had to do it again, I don't know if I could do it!

Oh yes. I got fussed at for that queen move, let me tell you! I didn't realize what could happen and as a beginner, I have to be burned a few times to "get it".

Research, thankfully, is finished. I fight mine too. Very hard to learn this game in your 40's. I must be demented for even trying!