I need a break

I feel tired and need a break. Online chess is addictive (at least for some of us) and it takes a lot of my time and attention which could be used better.
Yesterday I lost a few rating points here and tried to win them back, but instead tilted terribly, playing very poorly for my standards. I even considered temporarily closing my account.
Today I played well again, but still with moderate results. I know that the online ratings are not very relevant, but reaching the lowest blitz rating in about 2 years still hurts. At the moment playing here brings me more harm than good. I want to take some break from blitz here (for 1-3 weeks) and then come back in a better shape again, as now I am too much influenced by the recent poor results. I might play some Chess960 even during this break.
If you are wondering why am I writing that, it might help me to fulfill my resolution.

Good healing my friend

Take a mini vacation maybe or attend a music concert for a change. Get some exercise too.
Cya soon.

We all take breaks from time to time. It is healing to see that even great players struggle with chess emotions. Peace my friend, you are a fantastic player.

I never thought I'd hear such words from a GM. I mean you guys are professionals, that online elo even matters to you is sort of astonishing. Still, I feel what you are saying. We are excited about your comeback, take your time big man <3

Maybe the fix is to play more casual tournaments.
lichess.org/tournament/WC23d131

How should the online Casual chess games be time controlled?
OTB Casual is normally without a clock ! So online Casual chess maybe we should be using Only Increment time or a time Limit per Move.

The above special occasion linked themed tournament was Casual, but stressed on the clock without increment time. So it was not that casual. We need more successful Casual tournaments that don't stress the players.

Enjoying the difference between casual and rated seems essential for a healthy chess community.

Why not just switch the routine?

Go for a walk, buy the economist or financial times.

Go some more, visit a Coffee Shop. Sit down drink a Coffee, read the paper than go home and play chess.

Do that for some time and see if it helps

good luck David!

I just want to add that there are many very strong players with very similar or even lower ratings, but most of them play in prize tournaments and/or berserk a lot, both of which makes them underrated. Given that I lost that rating without either, just through poor play (too many big mistakes coupled with slow play), I felt really disappointed about it.

Casual over-the-board blitz is fun, unless one is too much out of form. It also has a big advantage that one need not care that much about hiding the opening preparation, as the number of spectators is incomparably lower.
@Toscani said in #6:
> Maybe the fix is to play more casual tournaments.
> lichess.org/tournament/WC23d131
>
> How should the online Casual chess games be time controlled?
> OTB Casual is normally without a clock ! So online Casual chess maybe we should be using Only Increment time or a time Limit per Move.
>
> The above special occasion linked themed tournament was Casual, but stressed on the clock without increment time. So it was not that casual. We need more successful Casual tournaments that don't stress the players.
>
> Enjoying the difference between casual and rated seems essential for a healthy chess community.