About a few months ago, I was around 1100 ELO and got back to chess after a little break. At first my games were going well. As I played more and more games, somehow my rating kept dropping! Then I got stuck at around 900 ELO. It was bizarre; shouldn't the extra practice mean I would get better? This was an example of practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.
At some point, I just got addicted to chess. I wasn't playing the game seriously and really respecting the amount of thought it requires. I would just impulsively start games on my phone even if I wasn't ready to seriously think through my moves because I just wanted the dopamine hit of winning a game. I would think about my moves a little bit but I was more interested in feeling like I would win, in feeling like I was doing something. Does that make sense?
I wasn't paying attention to what my opponent's possible strategy could be. I was playing moves as soon as I thought of them without checking to see if they were good moves. And of course if I lost a game, that made me want to earn the points back and I would play more. I wasn't really playing chess anymore, I was just addictively moving pieces and hoping/expecting I would somehow win. No good.
So I just took a step back and only started a game when I could commit to some level of patience and thought. When I did play, I gave the game some respect. It's not slot machine that I just keep pulling with the hope of a reward, it's more like a painting or a story that I'm making. Now I'm back to 1100. Hopefully I didn't jinx anything with this post but I hope this is helpful to someone else.
submitted by /u/TheVoidRobedInLight[link] [comments]