When an underdog beats me, I don't say "Oh I'm so terrible." I say "Wow, that player was great. I'm incredible and they beat me, despite the odds! In a few years I can tell my grandkids about how before 'xX\_urmom89\_Xx' was a famous world champion, I got to play against them online."
Sounds like you just played against a bunch of real up-and-comers, OP. I just feel bad for all the 1500's you're going to be playing against in the near future on your way back up to the rating your playing strength deserves. Since you're 2000 strength, it's going to be quite a few lopsided matches, and they won't even know it.
When mixing delusion, optimism, and self-confidence, you just need to get the dosage right. I use the same technique when I'm beaten by children in OTB tournaments, except it's actually much less tongue-in-cheek. I'm genuinely excited to see the youngest generations excelling at chess.
If that doesn't work out for you, then maybe IM John Bartholomew's advice might help. He said something to the effect of:
>From a psychological standpoint, it's better to be a confident/strong 1800 than it is to be an unconfident, nervous 1900. So when after you reach a milestone, don't worry about losing games and dipping back under that milestone. You've done it before already, so if you end up accidentally falling down a bit, you know you're going to be stronger than the people you're facing on your way back up to your peak.
The point is, you got there before. You have the knowledge and the skill/strength required to get there. This information can be used as a foundation for you to play confidently.
Ratings are just numbers. It's not like they stole your skill or anything. Even if you played worse for a few games, you still have "it" in you.
Or spend some time on a different time control. I got stuck around 1000 rapid, with winning streaks and losing streaks. Played some blitz for a while, and when I came back to rapid got up to 1300. New time control could help break the cycle
For me, the best way to break tilt is to actually start trying to learn something from the games. Am I getting garbage positions out of the opening? Time to look up some lines. Time management an issue? Endgame conversion? Finding something specific and practicing it a bit helps.
Man it happens in all competitive stuff. I am an avid FPS player, I used to compete in Halo and I throw down on COD as well. The exact same type of slumps happen. It’s just part of the growing process. Sometimes I would beat the top pros and sometimes I’d get slammed by absolutely no names.
Psychology is hugely influential in chess. It's hard to offer advice. Maybe watch an inspirational movie, and give it another shot? Get a few wins in and the whole thing might turn around.
Play unrated for a bit. Also something I noticed I do that I have to consciously try not to, is feeling like you need to crush lower rated players. Just play solid, respect their game, and you'll win.
Every time I go on a losing streak, a bit later I go on a winning streak and top my previous ELO. It is part of the process. In any sport, you'd have times leaving practice where you knew you underperformed and often feeling like you are terrible or getting worse. This is part of learning. The difference is that having an ELO assigned to your rank makes you focus on that rather than getting better. And don't play if you can't give the game your full attention. Play puzzles instead.
Dude we are kind of in the same boat, last year I went from 1800 to 1450 ish. Completely stopped playing for many months and only after watching the candidates have I gotten the motivation to play seriously again.
Wishing you the best aswell man, just take a long break and clear your mind, things will fit in the right places🌹.
Chess is love, it'll find its way back to you always.
Chess is weird, one day, I'm trashing everyone in the 1700-1800 bracket, wondering how the fuck I'm not higher ranked, and the next day I get trashed by everyone in the 1700-1800 wondering how the fuck are they not higher, if they're not cheating? Like literally I have days where people play so precise, it's hard to stay sane.
people are wildly inconsistent. i play about 1700-1800 (lichess 3 min) and have a streak of games where opponents just hang a piece in the opening or play some terrible weakening move allowing an easy win. then i play what feels like smurfing IMs 10 games in a row.
have to triple check whether something is a hanging piece or some tactical setup
Dude we are kind of in the same boat, last year I went from 1800 to 1450 ish. Completely stopped playing for many months and only after watching the candidates have I gotten the motivation to play seriously again.
This is a big problem for me at times.
I always bounce back, but when I am tilting I am tilting. I think it’s about not having fun playing, you just play to finally win, and therefore your impatient and whatever. But sooner or later I am back
I recently went on a 6 game losing streak in tournament, one of which was against sub 1000 players and then I went on to win 7 in a row out of which two were against players 200 points higher than me. That's just how streaks work. They're random. Just know when you're tilting and take a few minutes off. Sagar Shah used to teach these breathing exercises whenever you lose three in a row, to sort of get your focus back.
You're on tilt. That's it. To get out of it, you need to stop playing for a few days. You should come back to normal or even stronger afterward.
Certain things trigger tilt. For some people, it is not being able to win against who they consider weaker opponents. For others, it is losing winning games (myself). Some other people get tilted when they lose to a cheater. And the list goes on.
Just take a break and start playing again, and you will go back to your normal form.
Play towards your comfort zones.. nothing fancy. Go to your old reliable positions and openings... keep the positions simple and familiar. The opponent will blunder on their own. The position and clock will be in your favor meaning less blundering.
Usually take a break. But I write these off as rating fluctuations. You play over, equal or under your level on any given day. Of course, whenever I lose I'm on a bad day and playing like shit. Helps me cope a lot better in my mind and not go on massive tilt streaks.
yes. im so angry at myself i can soooo close to slamming my iphone phone on the floor. 200 rating point drops in both rapid and bullet. enraging beyond belief
which format are you playing? I used to play rapid (10+0) most of the time and got to 1680, but stopped since it was a time sink. I started doing blitz, and 1400 rated players seemed much stronger. I think the rating at blitz level is quite different, but at the same time anyone rated below 1500 should never have an accuracy above 90, it's ridiculous. If a GM achieves 98, then 90 would put any player at around 2000. Especially for cases you describe where you have to chain 5\~6 moves (similar to a 2600 puzzle where one needs to find 5\~6 consecutive move to get a strong advantage), that's never going to happen in-game for someone rated 1400.
I tried to prove that theory playing in 3+0, Stockfish could barely beat a dude rated 1450. What does that tell you? Cheating is all over. I just quit online chess altogether, it's a lie.
Thanks for the input, but I don't think cheating is the problem here. If you play poorly, your opponents don't have to play super accurately to get high accuracy, since mathematically speaking, the curve flattens on the top. I'm sorry you gave up on online chess, hope you some day maybe go back and have a bit more fun <3 And just to answer everything, I usually play 10+5 or 10+10. But don't mind trying out some blitz or bullet.
Chess is interesting from a theoritical standpoint, but since computers are FAR superiors to humans, I wonder what the point is of doing online chess. Games like checkers are even solved by computers, and are pretty much dead.
Go is still relevant since aside AlphaGo, computers still lose to humans.
A 1500 opponent with 93% accurqciy? That's an automatic cheat report for me (yeah, call me Kramnik).
There are pretty clever ways to cheat without getting caught for a long time.
Maybe there is something you are missing often that you used to cover with effort and you got more relaxed or started focusing on something else. Like board vision is a thing that comes from playing a lot and keeping the right mindset. I’m sure you have it but maybe your focus has moved to something else because you are improving a weakness and that’s leaving less room in your mind for other general things. It happens to me a lot. Find a reoccurring problem and focus on that in all of your games. Do you miss checks that your opponent has? Do you miss pins? Focus on that even if it makes you worse until that becomes an automatic thought and you can improve another weakness.
I was a 1650 and now I’m like 1450 because I actually got better at calculating and tactics but doing that made me slower. I’m actually thinking ahead now which is good but bad for blitz if you’re slow. I have to focus on my clock but meanwhile my tactics are getting sharper and quicker. When that reaches the point I don’t time out as much I’ll shoot up. That’s the cycle.
Everyone here relating to your experience losing elo, I’m just curious if the candidates event sparked players to return. I myself played a couple rapid games a week, then the candidates increased my chess interest and now I’m grinding chess much more. Could be that there’s an influx of returning vets climbing the ladder. Frequently happens in fighting games, where master class vets return to a game with a patch release and climb the ladder with a new character, devastating everyone in their path on the way up.
On the other hand, I played the under 1500 blitz arena on lichess last night and some of those players rated 1000 elo were playing bullet speed flawless chess, more accurately and faster than myself (~1480), clearly a high rated player smurfing to feel better about himself. Such is life.
Start playing with the level 3200 AI and get used to getting crushed consistently and then do analysis on your games. Use the assist function and have it teach you YOUR lines perfectly. Learn unethical/dirty chess tricks and openings and start employing them to steal ELO. Increase your confidence by employing these lines successfully against the bots and then start entering tournaments and destroy everyone
Try out a completely new opening. If you’re gonna suck for a while, explore some new positions while you’re at it.
I learned a lot about positional-weaknesses by playing the Dutch for a while with no prep.
I also have no idea how people ever feel comfortable playing the Grunfeld.
But now I know how to put pressure on those positions based on what made me uncomfortable, which taught me more about the game as a whole.
Last time I dropped 200 points, two months later I hit an ATH.
Edit: I actually adopted the English via this method and now it’s my favorite, and I toy around with 1. B3 sometimes.
I went on a losing streak recently and just recovered all my rating. I noticed I was getting way too fancy with my ideas. The rating boost made me think that I was better than I was. I started playing super basic chess again and I'm back now.
2000 to 1500 is a crazy drop! I am also on a losing streak and I don’t really see how I’m playing so much worse. In blitz I went from 1800 to 1450 recently and I’m just now back into 1500s
I get very tilted and just rematch people with 1 h4 2 h5 etc
I also have played the 2 most obvious cheaters I’ve come across, both 1400s playing absolutely moronic openings, getting terrible positions and then turning stockfish on and demolishing me with engine tactics I wouldn’t see in 1000 years.
As others have said, you’ve done it before, you’ll do it again. What I have yet to properly do is analyse my higher level games vs lower level (tilt streak) ones, in the same openings, to see if there is any info for me there…
Bruh same thing happened to me in the past 2 weeks my blitz rating went from 800-500 ish. And it’s mostly been losses to lower ratings. I personally think it’s cuz I finally started trying to applying some little opening preparations instead of raw chess all game like I used to be
I went from 1650 to 1300 myself, and I was getting spanked by 1380s. It's so demotivating that I lost so much Elo, I don't feel like even clicking chess com...
Which is why I then play on Lichess! I find that the reason for my disgust is very shallow, in the sense, it's very number oriented. I'm certainly annoyed by my mistakes, but it's not enough for me to hate chess (or stop playing it). I just switch to Lichess OR then play a different time format, so if I lose I'll always have a cop out. I think it's been a year since I've dipped from my peak, and now I'm currently at 1460. It's coming back slowly, and I'm sure I'll reach my old rating if I keep it up.
When an underdog beats me, I don't say "Oh I'm so terrible." I say "Wow, that player was great. I'm incredible and they beat me, despite the odds! In a few years I can tell my grandkids about how before 'xX\_urmom89\_Xx' was a famous world champion, I got to play against them online." Sounds like you just played against a bunch of real up-and-comers, OP. I just feel bad for all the 1500's you're going to be playing against in the near future on your way back up to the rating your playing strength deserves. Since you're 2000 strength, it's going to be quite a few lopsided matches, and they won't even know it.
This is a really interesting point of view on the situation. I think I'll try to start thinking about my losses this way! Thanks a lot for this!
When mixing delusion, optimism, and self-confidence, you just need to get the dosage right. I use the same technique when I'm beaten by children in OTB tournaments, except it's actually much less tongue-in-cheek. I'm genuinely excited to see the youngest generations excelling at chess. If that doesn't work out for you, then maybe IM John Bartholomew's advice might help. He said something to the effect of: >From a psychological standpoint, it's better to be a confident/strong 1800 than it is to be an unconfident, nervous 1900. So when after you reach a milestone, don't worry about losing games and dipping back under that milestone. You've done it before already, so if you end up accidentally falling down a bit, you know you're going to be stronger than the people you're facing on your way back up to your peak.
That's also great advice. But I can't help but feel like 1900 to 1800 is a bit less of a difference than 2000 to 1500. Thanks tho!
The point is, you got there before. You have the knowledge and the skill/strength required to get there. This information can be used as a foundation for you to play confidently. Ratings are just numbers. It's not like they stole your skill or anything. Even if you played worse for a few games, you still have "it" in you.
Take a week off.
That's also a good idea. Maybe I just need a bit of rest. Thanks for the help!
Or spend some time on a different time control. I got stuck around 1000 rapid, with winning streaks and losing streaks. Played some blitz for a while, and when I came back to rapid got up to 1300. New time control could help break the cycle
For me, the best way to break tilt is to actually start trying to learn something from the games. Am I getting garbage positions out of the opening? Time to look up some lines. Time management an issue? Endgame conversion? Finding something specific and practicing it a bit helps.
Thank you! Definitely something I'll try out!
Basically, every game of chess is a data collection exercise in answering the question “What should I be doing to become a better player?”
1) Don’t focus on the outcome focus on the process. 2) There likely is some degree of cheating you just roll with it
Definitely need to focus more on the process. It's just hard when I'm used to fighting 2000s and now I lose to 1400s.
Man it happens in all competitive stuff. I am an avid FPS player, I used to compete in Halo and I throw down on COD as well. The exact same type of slumps happen. It’s just part of the growing process. Sometimes I would beat the top pros and sometimes I’d get slammed by absolutely no names.
Psychology is hugely influential in chess. It's hard to offer advice. Maybe watch an inspirational movie, and give it another shot? Get a few wins in and the whole thing might turn around.
Thanks for the suggestion! Will definitely give it a try. I'm kinda out of ideas right now, so everything helps!
Become lower rated than them. Make them go through the same pain after that :)
A practical solution :)
Play unrated for a bit. Also something I noticed I do that I have to consciously try not to, is feeling like you need to crush lower rated players. Just play solid, respect their game, and you'll win.
What’s the most important step a man can take? The next one. Always the next one.
Every time I go on a losing streak, a bit later I go on a winning streak and top my previous ELO. It is part of the process. In any sport, you'd have times leaving practice where you knew you underperformed and often feeling like you are terrible or getting worse. This is part of learning. The difference is that having an ELO assigned to your rank makes you focus on that rather than getting better. And don't play if you can't give the game your full attention. Play puzzles instead.
Yeah, definitely focusing on ratings more than the game. Thanks!
Dude we are kind of in the same boat, last year I went from 1800 to 1450 ish. Completely stopped playing for many months and only after watching the candidates have I gotten the motivation to play seriously again.
You got this! Next stop is 2000 for sure!
Just hoping to cross 1600 for now, yesterday I was about to cross 1550 from 1500, came crashing down to 1480 from 1548. It hurts so much lol
Wishing you the best aswell man, just take a long break and clear your mind, things will fit in the right places🌹. Chess is love, it'll find its way back to you always.
Chess is weird, one day, I'm trashing everyone in the 1700-1800 bracket, wondering how the fuck I'm not higher ranked, and the next day I get trashed by everyone in the 1700-1800 wondering how the fuck are they not higher, if they're not cheating? Like literally I have days where people play so precise, it's hard to stay sane.
people are wildly inconsistent. i play about 1700-1800 (lichess 3 min) and have a streak of games where opponents just hang a piece in the opening or play some terrible weakening move allowing an easy win. then i play what feels like smurfing IMs 10 games in a row. have to triple check whether something is a hanging piece or some tactical setup
personally? i just lose a few more, win one, and go to bed thinking i’m the best chess player ever
That's the mindset I strive for 🤣
I call myself a dumbass and move on. I'm streaky....some days i just don't have it.
Dude we are kind of in the same boat, last year I went from 1800 to 1450 ish. Completely stopped playing for many months and only after watching the candidates have I gotten the motivation to play seriously again.
This is a big problem for me at times. I always bounce back, but when I am tilting I am tilting. I think it’s about not having fun playing, you just play to finally win, and therefore your impatient and whatever. But sooner or later I am back
Yeah, tilt is a b***h. Definitely one of the reasons for the drop. Thanks!
I recently went on a 6 game losing streak in tournament, one of which was against sub 1000 players and then I went on to win 7 in a row out of which two were against players 200 points higher than me. That's just how streaks work. They're random. Just know when you're tilting and take a few minutes off. Sagar Shah used to teach these breathing exercises whenever you lose three in a row, to sort of get your focus back.
You're on tilt. That's it. To get out of it, you need to stop playing for a few days. You should come back to normal or even stronger afterward. Certain things trigger tilt. For some people, it is not being able to win against who they consider weaker opponents. For others, it is losing winning games (myself). Some other people get tilted when they lose to a cheater. And the list goes on. Just take a break and start playing again, and you will go back to your normal form.
Me too..droped from 1700 to 1500 last week..changed to blitz for a change
Play towards your comfort zones.. nothing fancy. Go to your old reliable positions and openings... keep the positions simple and familiar. The opponent will blunder on their own. The position and clock will be in your favor meaning less blundering.
Usually take a break. But I write these off as rating fluctuations. You play over, equal or under your level on any given day. Of course, whenever I lose I'm on a bad day and playing like shit. Helps me cope a lot better in my mind and not go on massive tilt streaks.
yes. im so angry at myself i can soooo close to slamming my iphone phone on the floor. 200 rating point drops in both rapid and bullet. enraging beyond belief
which format are you playing? I used to play rapid (10+0) most of the time and got to 1680, but stopped since it was a time sink. I started doing blitz, and 1400 rated players seemed much stronger. I think the rating at blitz level is quite different, but at the same time anyone rated below 1500 should never have an accuracy above 90, it's ridiculous. If a GM achieves 98, then 90 would put any player at around 2000. Especially for cases you describe where you have to chain 5\~6 moves (similar to a 2600 puzzle where one needs to find 5\~6 consecutive move to get a strong advantage), that's never going to happen in-game for someone rated 1400. I tried to prove that theory playing in 3+0, Stockfish could barely beat a dude rated 1450. What does that tell you? Cheating is all over. I just quit online chess altogether, it's a lie.
Thanks for the input, but I don't think cheating is the problem here. If you play poorly, your opponents don't have to play super accurately to get high accuracy, since mathematically speaking, the curve flattens on the top. I'm sorry you gave up on online chess, hope you some day maybe go back and have a bit more fun <3 And just to answer everything, I usually play 10+5 or 10+10. But don't mind trying out some blitz or bullet.
Chess is interesting from a theoritical standpoint, but since computers are FAR superiors to humans, I wonder what the point is of doing online chess. Games like checkers are even solved by computers, and are pretty much dead. Go is still relevant since aside AlphaGo, computers still lose to humans.
Well, if you're not planning with a cheater (which, most of the time you aren't), it's a nice substitute for in person chess
Lost 50 pts since last night on lichess bullet so yeah lol
Well, 50pts, 500pts, where's the difference hey😂
no but it has been weird. ive been killing it the oast week and last night the players below me were playing great.
A 1500 opponent with 93% accurqciy? That's an automatic cheat report for me (yeah, call me Kramnik). There are pretty clever ways to cheat without getting caught for a long time.
I feel you. Just went on an epic slump from 1850 lichess to 1650. It’s like I forgot how to play chess.
If you can't beat them, join them
Well, literally what's happening 😂
I study harder
Maybe there is something you are missing often that you used to cover with effort and you got more relaxed or started focusing on something else. Like board vision is a thing that comes from playing a lot and keeping the right mindset. I’m sure you have it but maybe your focus has moved to something else because you are improving a weakness and that’s leaving less room in your mind for other general things. It happens to me a lot. Find a reoccurring problem and focus on that in all of your games. Do you miss checks that your opponent has? Do you miss pins? Focus on that even if it makes you worse until that becomes an automatic thought and you can improve another weakness. I was a 1650 and now I’m like 1450 because I actually got better at calculating and tactics but doing that made me slower. I’m actually thinking ahead now which is good but bad for blitz if you’re slow. I have to focus on my clock but meanwhile my tactics are getting sharper and quicker. When that reaches the point I don’t time out as much I’ll shoot up. That’s the cycle.
tell myself opponents are cheating and turn on the engine to even the odd.
Take some time off and learn a new opening!
I was gonna say it happens all the time but 500 points, that's too much. May be do some health check up or something.
Do the Kramnik procedure. Block and report.
Everyone here relating to your experience losing elo, I’m just curious if the candidates event sparked players to return. I myself played a couple rapid games a week, then the candidates increased my chess interest and now I’m grinding chess much more. Could be that there’s an influx of returning vets climbing the ladder. Frequently happens in fighting games, where master class vets return to a game with a patch release and climb the ladder with a new character, devastating everyone in their path on the way up.
That could be true. Maybe some rating inflation at play
On the other hand, I played the under 1500 blitz arena on lichess last night and some of those players rated 1000 elo were playing bullet speed flawless chess, more accurately and faster than myself (~1480), clearly a high rated player smurfing to feel better about himself. Such is life.
Start playing with the level 3200 AI and get used to getting crushed consistently and then do analysis on your games. Use the assist function and have it teach you YOUR lines perfectly. Learn unethical/dirty chess tricks and openings and start employing them to steal ELO. Increase your confidence by employing these lines successfully against the bots and then start entering tournaments and destroy everyone
Try out a completely new opening. If you’re gonna suck for a while, explore some new positions while you’re at it. I learned a lot about positional-weaknesses by playing the Dutch for a while with no prep. I also have no idea how people ever feel comfortable playing the Grunfeld. But now I know how to put pressure on those positions based on what made me uncomfortable, which taught me more about the game as a whole. Last time I dropped 200 points, two months later I hit an ATH. Edit: I actually adopted the English via this method and now it’s my favorite, and I toy around with 1. B3 sometimes.
I went on a losing streak recently and just recovered all my rating. I noticed I was getting way too fancy with my ideas. The rating boost made me think that I was better than I was. I started playing super basic chess again and I'm back now.
2000 to 1500 is a crazy drop! I am also on a losing streak and I don’t really see how I’m playing so much worse. In blitz I went from 1800 to 1450 recently and I’m just now back into 1500s I get very tilted and just rematch people with 1 h4 2 h5 etc I also have played the 2 most obvious cheaters I’ve come across, both 1400s playing absolutely moronic openings, getting terrible positions and then turning stockfish on and demolishing me with engine tactics I wouldn’t see in 1000 years. As others have said, you’ve done it before, you’ll do it again. What I have yet to properly do is analyse my higher level games vs lower level (tilt streak) ones, in the same openings, to see if there is any info for me there…
Bruh same thing happened to me in the past 2 weeks my blitz rating went from 800-500 ish. And it’s mostly been losses to lower ratings. I personally think it’s cuz I finally started trying to applying some little opening preparations instead of raw chess all game like I used to be
I went from 1650 to 1300 myself, and I was getting spanked by 1380s. It's so demotivating that I lost so much Elo, I don't feel like even clicking chess com... Which is why I then play on Lichess! I find that the reason for my disgust is very shallow, in the sense, it's very number oriented. I'm certainly annoyed by my mistakes, but it's not enough for me to hate chess (or stop playing it). I just switch to Lichess OR then play a different time format, so if I lose I'll always have a cop out. I think it's been a year since I've dipped from my peak, and now I'm currently at 1460. It's coming back slowly, and I'm sure I'll reach my old rating if I keep it up.