January slump

Not the result of a rigorous study, just an accidental observation, but the last 10 or 20 times I looked at anyone's profile it seemed they all had a ratings slump in January.

Is that typical? And if so does that happen with OTB ratings as well as online ratings?

Hi Kevin,

I'm doing OK this January, it's the other months I struggled in last year.
I was ill with covid thingy and may have been suffering from long covid
or I am getting too old to jump from game to game, but this was my worse
blunder on here ever. Usually I know I am taking a risk saccing and lose.

But and in some games last year I was in a trance. I was scared to log on to discover
what I had played previously. I took a break and seem better, not missing mates in one. (yet)

Here Game 14448101 (Black to play)


I did not play Qxf2 mate. The game was agreed drawn on my offer a few moves later.

@greenpawn34
Thank you for your reply, and sorry to learn of your stretch of illness!

Hi Kevin,

I was probably involved in a hairy game just before switching to this one and
my illness was just another marker for no one ever beats a healthy opponent.
But I had a whole string of games where I was not me for quite a while.
I know rating took a minus 100 point dip but it has been slowly going down
over the past three years. Go with old age. That is a genuine excuse.

My play "on another site" has been inconsistent
One game I did ,two exclams, another I had multiple discovered attacks, next game misclicked move loss, then blunder lose, then a great game, played several best moves
So it's been normal

@kevin-eleven said
Not the result of a rigorous study, just an accidental observation, but the last 10 or 20 times I looked at anyone's profile it seemed they all had a ratings slump in January.

Is that typical? And if so does that happen with OTB ratings as well as online ratings?

@venda said
Must be accidental I think.
If a player is losing,another player must be winning.
Unless a few players' ratings are soaring by beating everyone they play it's got to even out hasn't it?