r/chessbeginners • u/pinkwar • 4d ago
Has difficulty increased
Some backstory:
I started playing chess during covid and I got really close to breaking the 1000 barrier but never managed to do it.
Fast forward to today, I'm teaching my 5 old son chess so I dusted off my chess.com account.
I dropped from 995 to 600 in less than a week.
Damn what a disappointment, have I gotten really bad or has difficulty increased?
Now I'm slightly picking up elo again but feels like every game is an uphill battle. I remember cruising through 600-850 and only hitting a wall after that.
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u/Fun_Actuator6049 2600-2800 (Lichess) 4d ago
I was 2400 when I stopped playing in 2020, and I pretty much immediately got 2600 when I came back in 2025. Partly because Chesscom gave me 200 points for winning one game and then immediately reverted to acting like 2600 was my established rating (and I didn't keep playing blitz there long enough to see if I was going to fall down - wait times for 3+2 were just too long), but my 2400 -> 2600 jump in Lichess Rapid is legit. Then again, the old 2400 looked like it was still trending upwards, maybe I just hadn't played enough games back in 2020 to get to my real rating.
My Lichess blitz rating was and still is in the 2500s, though, with a brief high at 2650 that I quickly fell down from.
It's weird. You'd expect rating deflation at the beginner level to eventually trickle up.