Answers.Body: <p>Improvement in chess often comes in waves, with periods of rapid progress followed by plateaus or even temporary declines in performance. It's a natural part of the learning process, and it's important not to get discouraged by setbacks.</p>
  <p>Nevertheless, I suggest that based on the information provided, your study approach might not be optimal, which could impact your chess skills. Merely doing Puzzle Rushes is unlikely to significantly enhance your abilities.</p>
  <p>The reason is straightforward. Let me pose a question to illustrate:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>Can you explain the difference between tactics and strategy?</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>Many people are unaware of this distinction, and without comprehending this concept, studying as I've described won't be logical. <strong>Strategy</strong> pertains to long-term plans and overarching principles guiding a player's decisions throughout the entire game. It entails understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the position, devising a plan based on that evaluation, and executing it over several moves or phases of the game. Conversely, <strong>tactics</strong> involve short-term, specific sequences of moves leading to immediate gains. While these tactical maneuvers can be learned through puzzles, they are just a part of the equation.</p>
  <p>Instead, you should engage in <strong>longer games</strong>, beyond the rapid format, allowing time for deep positional analysis. Play games, analyse them, find your mistakes, understand why they are wrong and do the whole thing again. Do not play Blitz games, it will not benefit you, Chess is not learning stuff by heart, its a sport for the mind, the brain should do the work.</p>
  <p>Start with endgame positions, take a friend of yours, set up a board and stare at it for 10 minutes without exchanging a word. Then, exchange your ideas.</p>
  <p>Start with this puzzle:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>White to move. Should White take on a5 with the rook or with the king?</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/hT4BY.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/hT4BY.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2024-04-06T00:04:01.067Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2024-04-17T10:40:16.300Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2024-04-17T10:40:16.300Z
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Body: <p>I usually play against playmagnus age 10 and I always lose to it more than I win or draw. But recently (around few weeks ago) I've been trying to improve my games and I saw some results, I'm frequently drawing against it and occasionally win against it. But starting a few days ago, things went downhill. I'm always losing to the bot now and I noticed that my puzzle rush score has also decreased. Back when I was drawing against the bot I was getting around 35-36 for the 3 min puzzle rush, but now I'm getting like 32 max. What could explain this sudden drop in performance? I should also note that my sleep has not been very good, but my sleep was also horrible when I was getting 36 in puzzle rush and drawing against the bot.</p>
  
Tags: <training><psychology>
Title: Sudden drop in performance
ThreadText: # Sudden drop in performance
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2024-04-05)
  
  I usually play against playmagnus age 10 and I always lose to it more than I win or draw. But recently (around few weeks ago) I've been trying to improve my games and I saw some results, I'm frequently drawing against it and occasionally win against it. But starting a few days ago, things went downhill. I'm always losing to the bot now and I noticed that my puzzle rush score has also decreased. Back when I was drawing against the bot I was getting around 35-36 for the 3 min puzzle rush, but now I'm getting like 32 max. What could explain this sudden drop in performance? I should also note that my sleep has not been very good, but my sleep was also horrible when I was getting 36 in puzzle rush and drawing against the bot.
  
  **Tags:** training, psychology
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2024-04-06. Score: 2
  
  Improvement in chess often comes in waves, with periods of rapid progress followed by plateaus or even temporary declines in performance. It's a natural part of the learning process, and it's important not to get discouraged by setbacks.
  
  Nevertheless, I suggest that based on the information provided, your study approach might not be optimal, which could impact your chess skills. Merely doing Puzzle Rushes is unlikely to significantly enhance your abilities.
  
  The reason is straightforward. Let me pose a question to illustrate:
  
  > Can you explain the difference between tactics and strategy?
  
  Many people are unaware of this distinction, and without comprehending this concept, studying as I've described won't be logical. **Strategy** pertains to long-term plans and overarching principles guiding a player's decisions throughout the entire game. It entails understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the position, devising a plan based on that evaluation, and executing it over several moves or phases of the game. Conversely, **tactics** involve short-term, specific sequences of moves leading to immediate gains. While these tactical maneuvers can be learned through puzzles, they are just a part of the equation.
  
  Instead, you should engage in **longer games**, beyond the rapid format, allowing time for deep positional analysis. Play games, analyse them, find your mistakes, understand why they are wrong and do the whole thing again. Do not play Blitz games, it will not benefit you, Chess is not learning stuff by heart, its a sport for the mind, the brain should do the work.
  
  Start with endgame positions, take a friend of yours, set up a board and stare at it for 10 minutes without exchanging a word. Then, exchange your ideas.
  
  Start with this puzzle:
  
  > White to move. Should White take on a5 with the rook or with the king?
  
  [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/hT4BY.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/hT4BY.jpg)
  
  
  ---
  
  