Downward Spiral....

Let's face it, I suck right now. It would seem that the statistical property of 'regression to the mean' alone would be helping me at this point but ultimately I seem to only be merely regressing. Three observations:

1. It is possible to burn-out on chess. Symptoms include: making silly blunders, beginning games haphazardly, and/or seeing double.
2. It is possible not to know you are burned out when clearly, upon reflection, this is so.
3. While it appears obvious now, getting into a losing streak fuels burnout.

My current ratings (as "Edukator")

ICC: 811

Chessbase: 1034

AVE: 922.5

End of January Goal: 975

Dissertation: Pulled from drawer and on table...but have plans and great intentions.

All in all, my ratings took a nose dive in one night when I lost 19 of 11 games on ICC by both players near my level (there weren't too many below!) all the way up to the 1200 range. This sent my rating diving from the low 900s to the high 700s. My Chessbase went a bit better...I only took a dive only losing 7 of 8 (but the win was a much higher rated player) and sending my rating down to 950...which on Chessbase is pretty bad. All in all...I played way too many games that evening...almost all 6/12 blitz games or longer.

I took two days off only spending time reading forking tactics (303 Tricky Tactics) and playing a few games on my PDA. This appears to have done something as I have now won 8 of 10 games since. My plan is to begin "circling" with the tactics book and limit my game playing to 5 or 6 a night (at the most).

Lesson Learned: Burn-out happens and needs to be monitored.

Ancillary lesson: Drinking beer and playing on Yahoo Chess is quite therapeutic...my name is "recess_bully" (rating:1199). I sure hope Yahoo ratings are generally higher as the notion that I'm better while drinking is both discouraging and, in some ways, enlightening...I just can't fathom being a better chess player under the influence of a few beers!?