Plea for help
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Used to be 1100 on chess.com and now plummeted all the way to 600. Just off the back of a 30+ match losing streak. I lose almost every game and hardly ever seem to be in a winning position. I seem to get into a worse position with every move, computer rates me between 100-500 every match. How can I be getting worse with time?! It’s the most frustrating thing to experience, getting worse with practice.
This can depend. Did you take a long break from playing? The trick to winning is not to look for winning positions but to force the other player to make a mistake. At our level, if you just focus on playing solid instead of complex attacking ideas, your opponent will likely do all the work for you. The people in the 600 range (me included) are dangerous people and will make many mistakes. The difference of winning or losing is if you can spot blunders. if you are playing Blitz or Bullet then let the clock do the work. I discovered that mastering and sticking to one opening for a while helps. For example, I gained many points by playing the Bird's opening, casting Queenside, and just pushing pawns on the Kingside. If you keep losing on one strategy, then switch up your style. If you were an 1100, then it may take a while but you should be able to get back up to your peak.
I wonder if you have ever used Game Explorer to look at your opening results. I tried it for you and didn't see many games. I think you have to actually use it yourself and sometimes ask for support's help to get it to populate. You should have a very good database of your own games to see if you are making repeated mistakes .
I saw one game with a failed knight attack. I think a lot of people face that often so you have to be very accurate.
Maybe try an opening that isn't such s high stakes one and focuses on good development for a while.
I saw that you did some puzzles , which is good. I saw that you missed a couple of mates in 1. I like the timed puzzle rush as a warmup. Knocking off 20 or more easy mates and combos will sharpen your eye.
Never heard of this, is this a facility of chess.com or is it something else? Thanks for getting back to me!
Latviya4Life wrote:
This can depend. Did you take a long break from playing? The trick to winning is not to look for winning positions but to force the other player to make a mistake. At our level, if you just focus on playing solid instead of complex attacking ideas, your opponent will likely do all the work for you. The people in the 600 range (me included) are dangerous people and will make many mistakes. The difference of winning or losing is if you can spot blunders. if you are playing Blitz or Bullet then let the clock do the work. I discovered that mastering and sticking to one opening for a while helps. For example, I gained many points by playing the Bird's opening, casting Queenside, and just pushing pawns on the Kingside. If you keep losing on one strategy, then switch up your style. If you were an 1100, then it may take a while but you should be able to get back up to your peak.
Not really to be honest. I didn't get to play as often as I used to, but still played daily. I think I've just reached a point where I lose heart when I don't feel any progress and just lose so many games. I miss tactics in real games and every mistake I make is always punished. Feels like the only thing to do is give up, because trying from that point on never makes any difference.
Hi.
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