How to get out of losing streaks
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Speaker: [00:00:00] So this is a much more spontaneous podcast episode than usual because I think it's so important. So I'm just setting the scene for you. The topic will be losing streaks and how we react to them, how we learn from them and what we shouldn't do. And there's a lot of practical examples in here. And I will take the example of a student inside my, uh, simplified chest improvement system.

I am not sure if they want to be named, so I will just change their name and I will refer to the student as Peter. Okay, so I have seen yesterday a message from Peter that, uh, he lost 14 games in a row and naturally he came to the [00:01:00] community and was asking for feedback. Now. Just to make it clear, these 14 games weren't like a tilting streak.

So it's not like 14 games in a row and losing, losing, losing, tilting, just out, playing out of their mind. No, it's just playing according to the simplified chess improvement system, playing one or two games, analyzing them. And so over the weeks, Peter has lost 14 games, uh, consecutively. And that's a lot.

And that can hurt. And so. In this message, basically Peter is thinking about his whole chest study. So, um, Peter is studying five to six hours a week. Follows. The one third rule, uh, follows the guidelines that I have within simplify chess improvement system. And naturally is starting to think, Hey, am I doing something wrong?

Like, that's not normal. Losing 14 games in a row, right? What am I doing wrong? Basically has these, um, ideas of [00:02:00] maybe studying things that are too simple. Right. Um, quote, I'm just using two easy resources, meaning I won't improve and I might actually be getting worse, is one kind of, uh, train of thought that he shares.

Um, another one is which part, uh, he should study if it's more strategy or end games or different resources. At the end of the post comes up with should I have different resources, but also has a lot of self-awareness in saying. Uh, at the end of the post, or am I just overthinking my resources that I'm using?

And usually when I see such posts, I need to see the games because guys, you can't make a diagnosis from afar just based on results, right? If somebody tells me I, you know, lost 14 games, what should I do? Well, I don't know. It depends on your games and what is going on as a general rule of thump. This, we will get back in this [00:03:00] episode to this is when, especially when you have a bad sequence of results, stick to the basics.

And all human psychology, some somehow pushes us away from it. And the key is really sticking to the basics, going back to the basics, trying to simplify and not actually over complicate. Because here's the thing, now. Most of the time if we have such bad results, we have a quite bit leak and we will probably the longer this streak is going on.

Uh, make more obvious mistakes because we can overthink stuff. So what happens is you're losing a few games. You start overthinking, you start changing some things, maybe not the right things. You start getting much less confident. What does that mean? When you're much less confident, you play slower, you overthink everything, right?

So you play slower, you're. Trying to [00:04:00] make it even better because you're like, now this game, I really don't wanna lose. So you're uh, you know, trying to play the ideal move on every single move, which again, takes more time. So you're spending even more time than usually what happens. You're getting into time trouble, you're making obvious mistakes, and you're losing the game.

And this cycle, this vicious cycle continues to go on and on and on. So how to get out of it as, as a general idea is to say, okay, let's just play super simple chess. Let's just play, you know, the openings. I know we don't have to change openings. No, no, no. Let's play what I know best. Let's try to keep things simple.

Let's try to focus on the easy tactics. Am I missing some easy tactics? And then just, this is a general approach, but when you have this kind of bad results and you want to learn from them. I wanna walk you through what I did with Peter's [00:05:00] games, so how I look through Peter's games and try to make a diagnosis, but before I also want to share something that another student that tried to chime in and help, I.

Um, was sharing or that what their thoughts were based on checking, uh, Peter's games. And this is very, very common in the type of overthinking. So here, um, when I go into the discussion, I. It was very sweet because the student is saying, Hey, um, you're getting a GM diagnosis. Disclaimer, I'm no expert, but I just try to give my view on it, and I think this is very, very common and so it's super useful for you guys at home as well.

So what are they mentioning now? This is the second student just trying to chime in based on the, the games they saw. What they share is to the chest. It looks like you're getting way more than your fair share of crammed positions in your games, both with [00:06:00] black and white. Your opponent gets way too much space to play with these porn storms induce more time to spend trying to untie yourself.

Then lead to time, trouble, more tactic, misses, somewhat passive positions and so forth. So now I end the quote of this post. This is super, super interesting really because. If you're going through, uh, some of the games, yes. I realize also that, um, Peter is getting some cramp positions, but usually, and this is really the case for 95% of people out there, the diagnosis, uh, for such a big losing streak doesn't have to be as complex as something like, oh, you're getting cramped positions.

Usually it's pretty simple and obvious. When I do my diagnosis, so I go through, uh, Peter's games and I just click through, uh, most of these 14 games and what am I looking for? I'm looking for big mistakes that swing from [00:07:00] plus five to minus 10, or from plus three to minus four, like game, deciding big mistakes that are happening.

And then I try to see if there is a pattern. And there is, and if you're looking at Peter's game, um, I remember one game where a rookie on H five is just left, uh, hanging. So basically the opponent attacks it. Peter moves something else, boom, queen takes H five R is gone. Right. In another game, uh, there is a two move tactic.

Uh, basically bishop takes night. If you take back, you lose your queen. Um, in uh, yet another game, there is an attack on a piece. If you move, move the piece away, you lose your queen again. So it's kind of a double attack. So if you are going through the games, you can see this. And then the second thing that I saw is that in basically every game, Peter is in time trouble.

So these are the two huge things that are going wrong. [00:08:00] Tactics and time trouble, and to those, um, problems, usually you don't need super, uh, difficult solutions, but you need simple solutions. So again, getting back to the basics, how can I avoid missing super simple tactical. Things because if you are going through these games and you're seeing, oh my God, I'm losing most of my games based on simple tactics, it's probably not something as sophisticated as you're getting a two cramped position because if you're just missing that a RU was hanging, it doesn't have anything to do with your cramped position.

It has all to do with your awareness during the game of looking at the tactics. This is also super interesting as long as you're making super simple mistakes during the game. Basically what you're doing in training doesn't impact this as much either you have a focus issue, so you're playing when you're distracted.

Doesn't [00:09:00] seem repeated this way, um, or you're having a process issue during the game, so you're not really going through the steps of looking at opponent's threats. Looking at your own ideas and then blunder checking at the end of the move. So that might be a problem. Um, or you're simply just, you know, not sharp tactically at the moment and you need to repeat it.

Or with Peter, there's a little bit of this as well, is really this lacking confidence that leads to time, trouble. And then when you have 10 seconds on the clock and you're blundering, the problem is not that you are blundering, but the problem is that you have 10 seconds and your brain will just be going.

Absolutely. Crazy. So this is just recorded on the fly, so I hope you are following along. But basically what I try to do is. Getting information from a student, going through the games, looking for these huge swings, and then coming up with a diagnosis. So what is the main problem? What is actually losing you?

The games, not what is, you know, [00:10:00] something that you could improve a little bit. For example, there is one game, um, that Peter loses in a R end game. And I could say, well, in this R Kin game, put the rook behind the pon and you won't, uh, be losing that r and game. Actually, objectively it was completely winning.

That's not really a pattern, right? That happened one out of 14 games. We can talk about this later on. You can still learn more kin games, but the kin games are not the reason why Peter's losing 14 games in a row. So here is what I, um, wrote to Peter within the community. What I, what my kind of general feeling was after checking these games, took me like.

I would say five to 10 minutes, really just going through the games. If you're inexperienced, it will take a little bit longer, but I'm really just looking for the big swings, what are the huge mistakes? And then I can make a diagnosis, um, for the problem. So I. This is what I wrote in the community. Here is my take.

[00:11:00] Most of your games get decided by big oversights like lightning, a Ang queen, getting forked or time trouble, which then leads to big oversights. So you don't have to change too much for your training. Stick with what you are doing and really focus on doing the tactics the right way. So. Inside the simplified chess improvement System, I teach the right way of doing the tactics.

You need to write down your solution before you execute tactics because this will be a way of bringing this skill into your games. They don't have to be super complex because your mistakes are very simple at the moment. So this ties into another thing that usually, again, back to the basics, right? When something's going wrong, maybe we're thinking, well, we should make training more complex.

We should do more difficult puzzles, we should do more, uh, whatever. But if the mistakes that we are doing are super basic in our games. Then we don't need to train Super difficult stuff, right? Let's say you're playing rapid. This was 15 plus [00:12:00] 10 games rapid online. If you're playing these rapid games and you make mistakes by not checking for blunders, not looking at the easy tactics, letting rooks hang right in one move.

Then it doesn't matter if you're doing a 10 minute deep thought calculation exercise at home, that's not the skill that you're needing at the moment to get out of this, uh, losing streak. You just need to get back confidence. See the small and simple, easy tactics consistently. So my kind of thought was then, this is back to the message I sent.

I'd argue you want to do things too well in your games. That's why you spend a lot of time on neutral moves or moves that don't decide the game. And now to the solution. Try playing simple chess. Develop your pieces and be extra careful for easy tactics for both you and your opponents. This is super key that it's easy tactics.

If you're overthinking it again on every single move and thinking I need to, you know, to play [00:13:00] the most sophisticated tactics right now, then again, you get in time trouble, you rethink everything and you lose. The games because of this time trouble. Uh, more often than not, it's really just about for nearly all levels, it's really just about checking for the easy tactics, playing these moves and playing them a little bit more quickly, and then you will get your chances.

Because going through these 14 games, I saw so many games from Peter where he's just a peace up, right? And Peter is a 1830 rapid rating online now lost a hundred points. Um. So this is just a com rating we're talking about. So this is not a beginner, right, by all means, but it's still just the obvious things that are losing, uh, Peter, the games.

So, uh, I also share that when you're up a lot of material, keep it super simple, trade down pieces and watch your clock. You are super close to [00:14:00] wins and or draws in a lot of games. So this will turn around if you focus on the basics. And then I wish him all the best. And this is really, really, really so important when you have these difficult periods, understand what went wrong and don't change everything.

Because usually you might have one or two big leaks, big problem in your games. And if you resolve those. Everything else will fall into place and make sense. So it's not that you don't understand chess at all. You need to completely change all of the resources you have. You need to get new openings, new whatever.

Sometimes this is a 14 game losing streak, so it really took a time. Sometimes if you're losing five games in a row, there is just nothing that you have to correct. Right? You just had five bad games, um, or you had five strong opponents. And it happens. And if you just continue [00:15:00] working on your chess the right way, um, with the right system, you will get out of this without any changes.

And just to share, where I really learned this very well is actually when I started playing poker. When I stopped as a chess professional, I started learning, uh, the Game of Poker. And I find it very fascinating because there it's even more. That you can have bad results, but good decisions. So, uh, right in poker you have a part is luck, but a lot of the game is skill.

So what you need to do in poker is when you're getting, let's say you, you lose five tournaments, you get out of five tournaments in a row. We can also say 14 tournaments in a row. Now, because there is part of skill and part of luck, it might be that you did all the decisions correctly. But you just got a little bit unlucky.

And that happens. That even happens to, uh, professional, uh, tournament [00:16:00] players. And so the difficult thing in poker is to dissect what was your decision making, right? And what is the outcome? So outcome and process are different. And in poker, this is really obvious. And what many people do is outcome is bad, okay?

I need to change something in my process. But hey, wait a moment. It doesn't have to absolutely be, and maybe we need to change one thing, right? Maybe in poker we have one big leak. Um, some people in poker, for example, they have this leak that when they start losing chips, they go completely nuts, right?

They have, they play all, all of their decisions are good. And then they have one moment where, um, there is a, you know, unfortunate moment. They lose, let's say 20% of their chips. So they still have. A lot of chips in front of them, but now their brain just goes completely mad. Just they go crazy, they do stupid stuff, and they lose all the chips so they can lose a hundred tournaments in a row, [00:17:00] basically, if they have this habit, because you will always lose some chips.

And now you could either say, well, everything is bad in my poker game. I need to re redo everything. Or you can just say, oh, what is this one trigger that causes all the bad decisions later on? So I find poker very fascinating in this sense. I don't mean that you guys should play poker, but just to look at poker and to say, okay, when we study chess as well, is there is one thing which is the results, and there is the other much more important thing, which is the process and the quality of our decisions.

So when we have bad results, and by the way, that also goes for when we have good results, sometimes we have bad process, good results, which is dangerous. We can talk about this another time, but when you have bad re bad results, you need to look at your process in order to determine. If you need to change something and if you need to change something, what exactly you need to change?

Don't just take, oh, I have bad results, obviously I need to [00:18:00] change everything. And you just completely change your whole system of studying chess. And it might be that you make things even worse. And that's how these sometimes, some people are really in like what you can call eternal plateaus, right? And often this happens.

Bad results. Oh my God, I need to change something. Changing something still, you know, not fixing the the problem or just making overcomplicating everything again, having bad results again, changing stuff again, having bad results, and you're never getting out of this loop. So how do you get out of the loop?

Stick to the basics. Do your training the right way. Wait, don't lose your mind. Objectively observe your results. So sometimes what can help, if you have a losing streak, don't just, you know, lose three games in a row and then analyze and then take a decision for your whole chess. But maybe wait a day or two and then say, okay, let me look at the games objectively right now.

Let me get an insight from somebody else, right? For [00:19:00] example, now Peter can ask in the community and I'll have a look, and other people in the community have a look. And then somebody from outside can like say it more objectively, Hey, I think not so much is going wrong, just change these two things. Stick to it.

You can get there. And then this might be enough to, you know, go from a bad losing streak to hopefully a success story. And I will follow up on this story at some point in the podcast or in my email newsletter. I hope this helped. And, uh, I hope you don't have a losing streak at the moment, but if you do, then take it slow.

Go back to the basics and do the tactics the right way. Focus well during your games and slowly but surely you will get out of this. I'm sure about it. Hey guys, just two quick things before you take off. If you enjoyed this episode and want more structured chess improvement tips from myself, check [00:20:00] out my newsletter@nextlevelchess.com slash newsletter.

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