Blindness

I have a reoccurring problem. Every week follows the same pattern. I play really well for a couple of days, get my rating up to about 1900, then i crash down to 1800, losing game after game after game. The only way i can avoid this is to stop playing completely for 3 or 4 days until my brain clicks back into chess mode and i play really well for a couple of days. I just can't put my finger on what it is, i just go completely blind! It's SO frustrating!! I need help, any suggestions? I've tried everything. Sleep, food, rest, exercise, study, reading. I just can't achieve consistency, it's driving me nuts. 🙁

Originally posted by Marinkatomb
I have a reoccurring problem. Every week follows the same pattern. I play really well for a couple of days, get my rating up to about 1900, then i crash down to 1800, losing game after game after game. The only way i can avoid this is to stop playing completely for 3 or 4 days until my brain clicks back into chess mode and i play really well for a couple ...[text shortened]... food, rest, exercise, study, reading. I just can't achieve consistency, it's driving me nuts. 🙁

Perhaps you are consistent.
It's your opponents who are playing inconsistently!

Originally posted by wolfgang59
Perhaps you are consistent.
It's your opponents who are playing inconsistently!

No it's definitely me. I go from a state where i'm seeing most of what's going on. Next minute i'm hanging my Queen, giving mate in one in a drawn position, stuff like that. So demoralising.

Keeping a steady diet of brain food might help, IE chess books.

Albeit I am lower rated I notice a huge difference when I study and with what I study.

Play slower, and check all checks!

That way you wont hang queens, like you did here:
Game 10258583

😉

Thanks all. I do tend to do all these things. If anything, it's probably a result of playing too much. It just gets so frustrating when you've been playing well for a while and then your level just nose dives for no reason. I spend my life reestablishing my rating, only to have it nose dive again. I need to change something so i can establish 1900 as my base level to work from rather than constantly dropping lower. When i'm playing well i'm beating 1900-2100 players regularly. I should make it to 2000 occasionally. As it is, i've only ever broken 2000 once in my life and that was a particularly good bullet run a few years ago when i got to 2150. I've been on some sort of plateau for about 5 years now and no amount of study or practice seems to be making any difference. These long periods of blindness just keep coming along and destroying my rating before i can get anywhere. 🙁

Originally posted by Marinkatomb
Thanks all. I do tend to do all these things. If anything, it's probably a result of playing too much. It just gets so frustrating when you've been playing well for a while and then your level just nose dives for no reason. I spend my life reestablishing my rating, only to have it nose dive again. I need to change something so i can establish 1900 as my ...[text shortened]... riods of blindness just keep coming along and destroying my rating before i can get anywhere. 🙁

Err, am I missing something, as when I looked at games during your 'nose dives' all I came across was a lot of timeouts when you had a perfectly playable position.

I think I must have clicked on about a dozen or so, and I didn't come across anything else.

Edit : clicked on another and it was a win for you.

Originally posted by Rank outsider
Err, am I missing something, as when I looked at games during your 'nose dives' all I came across was a lot of timeouts when you had a perfectly playable position.

I think I must have clicked on about a dozen or so, and I didn't come across anything else.

Edit : clicked on another and it was a win for you.

I'm not talking about here. I left the site for nearly a year? Something like that. My play here is ok, i just get fed up with the constant commitment to make moves every day. I'm talking about blitz/rapid. My graph there looks much the same as here..

http://en.lichess.org/@/marinkatomb

I don't know what it is about 1900, but as soon as i get over that magic number i start blundering left right and centre. 🙁

If you play several games against the opponents of your strenght (and/or lower) and if you are lucky you might have a series of wins. That may give you an impression you are good. Then you play against one or few 2000+ rated players and you feel powerless.

Originally posted by vandervelde
If you play several games against the opponents of your strenght (and/or lower) and if you are lucky you might have a series of wins. That may give you an impression you are good. Then you play against one or few 2000+ rated players and you feel powerless.

Well, i'd never go as far as to say i'm good. But i know when me level of play is at its best and when it's not. Some days i can look at a chess board and just feel the game pull me towards strong moves, often i'll play something and only realise how strong it is after i've moved. I'm sure this is familiar to others as well. On bad days though, i just can't see a thing. I look back over these bad games the next day and find countless simple manoeuvres that avoid all the problems. It's like my brain just stops working for a day or two and no amount of effort makes any difference. You must have experienced something like that before?

Yes, I've been there too - I used to play on FICS, and I could play two or three good games, then I would just start dropping pieces. For me it was just
fatigue - I started playing only those 3 games, and then I have to stop for the day.

Originally posted by Marinkatomb
I have a reoccurring problem. Every week follows the same pattern. I play really well for a couple of days, get my rating up to about 1900, then i crash down to 1800, losing game after game after game. The only way i can avoid this is to stop playing completely for 3 or 4 days until my brain clicks back into chess mode and i play really well for a couple ...[text shortened]... food, rest, exercise, study, reading. I just can't achieve consistency, it's driving me nuts. 🙁

I'm not in your league, but I have learned 2 things that contribute to better play: Before playing, I ask myself if I "really" want to play chess right now. Before moving, I ask myself if I "really" know why I am making this move. Not doing this can mess up a number of games in a single day.

Originally posted by Marinkatomb
I have a reoccurring problem. Every week follows the same pattern. I play really well for a couple of days, get my rating up to about 1900, then i crash down to 1800, losing game after game after game. The only way i can avoid this is to stop playing completely for 3 or 4 days until my brain clicks back into chess mode and i play really well for a couple ...[text shortened]... food, rest, exercise, study, reading. I just can't achieve consistency, it's driving me nuts. 🙁

If you're just talking about blitz, then you'll find my comments irrelevant.Blitz is always going to involve a lot of errors.
However I have read all the thread and on one post you say "fed up with the committment to move every day"
This is how I play on here now.
1.I only play 7:7 or greater.This means I am not under any time pressure to play in every game every day.
2.I look for the green dots(I wish they were brighter but I've tried that suggestion elswhere!!)I will always play games where my opponent is active first.This means that after the first moves,I am familiar with the position when it's my move and don't have to spend time going over previous moves to remind myself what is happening.
3.If /when there are no green dots showing I simply play "oldest moves first".As I only play 7:7 or 7.....this means I rarely get to the timebank.I have never lost a game by timeout!!!
4.If I get tired or there are distractions I stop playing.