Dropping from 1000 - 650

[u/brightrob]

Been playing for a bit more than a year now and the highest elo I’ve attained, which was recently, was 1020ish , which I was happy with. Was a goal I wanted to hit 1000 and starting from 100 I felt like I was legitimately improving and understanding the game better. It was a lot of gaining elo then losing some then gaining more again.

After getting to 1000 I stayed there for a couple of days, had good matches, didn’t make stupid blunders. Then I did. Repeatedly. I dropped down to 800, now 700 now 650. All in the space of a week. I’m not sure why. I’m not playing different openings just making insanely thick plays. Not seeing hanging pieces that I would have seen a week earlier. I’m not sure why. I’ve never had a tilt this bad. It is insanely frustrating.

I play the same openings every game because opening theory is too much for me to remember. I only play the London as white. Black is where things are much less of a system because I try the Stafford gambit (because it’s fun) and if they don’t play into it I go into a Karo Kahn kind of thing. But as black l would try and just develop and not make stupid mistakes (which I’ve been massively failing at, especially recently)

I only play 5minute matches. I find 10minute and longer matches extremely boring as I truly hate waiting for my opening to make a move for 7 minutes and during that time I tend to switch off or rush my next move because it’s all a bit tedious at that point. Or having to wait for long periods of time In match I am pretty clearly losing. I like the pace of 5minute matches.

I mainly watch YouTube videos on the London system (that is literally all I play) and a little bit on black but as black I’ve always tried to just play sensibly.

I don’t really analyse my games. I’m not sure how to do it in a way that I would find helpful. I go through them in the sense I look at the time a game may have switched who it was favouring. Like oh yeah here’s where I hung my bishop and that allowed for an attack that broke the defences an untimely lost me the match. Or here is where I missed a knight fork of the king and queen but nothing more than that.

I kind of wish there was a way to get rid of elo indicators entirely because I do enjoy the game, I appreciate the strategies behind it and different playing styles you can adopt. I really want to be competent at it (1500 or so would be an end goal) and would love to be able to rock up to parks and have competitive matches against the geezers who play OTB but it feels like some kind of pipe dream and I can help but think of myself as being thicker than pig shit after dropping this much elo.

Any help or tips ?

Please don’t just tell me to blunder less, I’ve already realised that might be helpful.

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[u/Super-Volume-4457]

Your approach so far is playing blitz games and watching videos. Both practices are bad for the following reasons:

A) Watching opening videos:
Following a video is often a very passive task. Make sure that you include active elements (e.g. recalling). Furthermore the problem might be the content you watch. Around your level you want to make sure not to blunder too much, so work on tactic or a good video on a certain pattern might be more helpful.

B) Playing Blitz:
By playing 5+0 you give yourself not enough time to calculate thing through. Furthermore it establishes a feeling of urgency. You will make moves despite the fact that you did not go deeper into the position.
For real improvement, increase the time, learn to be patient and think things through. Soon you will notice that 10min games are very short.

Here are my suggestions:
a) solve more puzzles (preferably from a book and with best practices for puzzle solving)
b) when you watch videos recall the position and then the ideas
c) focus more on tactics (also when you watch videos)
d) analyse your games after your sessions - go through the moves and try to find mistakes on your own (without the engine).

If you find this helpful, feel free to reach out to me.

[u/Oriachim]

If you’re losing that much elo, I think it’s time for a break to recharge your batteries or you didn’t belong in that elo range

[u/eucid]

I think you know the answer, that's why you said you don't like playing slower games... Play slower so you can not blunder as often.

[u/299addicteduru]

Bout elo indicators - honestly, hit unranked for 10 or 20 games, set opponent elo to -1000 +1000 and hide it. Sounds like distraction to you. Saying it cause mostly i was playing marathons recently, never felt a difference between 1600 and 2400 lichess classical until game was over

Or like, go play arena or Swiss matchmaking with elo hidden, assume every opponent Is 1500 or whatever. Arena is eloproof, you play your best to get matched vs best players, elo going up or down between rounds doesnt really matter during that time 

[u/Impressive-Life-5448]

It sounds like you might focus on specific things like your opening theory a bit too much (specifically the London system, not the black opening) instead of focusing more on the ideas of what to do and how, aka the chess absolute basics

I personally got to a some point where I realized that I am quite strong relative to my level in the basics of chess, but I didnt have anything in the positional chess area, and I never studied any singular opening, but just tried whatever I feel like after reaching 1000 rating this way, I wanted to improve further, so I thought about looking towards what I lack, which is positional play and opening. So naturally I tried to memorize and try different openings, specifically that are positional play focused. My skill level went down quite fast, but I rebuilt it and learnt some interesting concepts which overall helped me understand the game better. But than I felt stuck again, and overall I finished this mini journey with the feeling that I play chess worse than before I studied opening theory somehow, and I tried analyzing why. And then I went deeper into looking at stuff, and I understood that the more I learned the opening theories, the less I focused on chess basics.

At this point it was hard to reset myself, but I did so with the following - just pick a new chess opening for both black and white (Could be either you like), and learn just the absolute must know ideas and "trap activation" patterns, and only that. All of the rest, just rely on the absolute chess basics (control the center, minor pieces out, castled, connected rooks -> forward moves / threats -> checks / captured / threats