How Do You Stop Caring About Rating?

@Jingheking7 said in #39:
> I know but still if you focus, and imagine you can do anything! The chances are low but my rating is about 1,400 is Atomic and guess what? I beet a GrandMaster! You just need to focus and believe in yourself!
I know that. I know that almost every rating can beat any rating due Inconviniet Opponent Effect. But that apply much less to Engines

@aVague said in #41:
> I know that. I know that almost every rating can beat any rating due Inconviniet Opponent Effect. But that apply much less to Engines
Your right!

although I tend to agree with the general notion, please don't call random psychology-related nonsense "scientific evidence", it has nothing to do with proper science

@EastonAustin said in #40:
> Well you could go outside and play football for 24 hours
I have already played chess for almost 24 hours (almost because if you count the breaks and I stopped an hour before the end). don't give me such ideas!!

Wow, is quite the interesting theme to write about! Kudos!!

It's funny the article is written by a FM

Realising that you just can't seem to get any better no matter how much you study.

Hm, I study but I don't seem to get any better from this. Even reaching my old rating doesn't seem to be possible.
I study endgames (and I rarely profit from this), tactics (which is useful, but other players are studying tactics too, and there are just so many possibilities to go wrong), I do analysis and sometimes I do benefit from this. But the main point is that I simply overlook too much. Against strong players I often get winning positions but cannot convert them.
Against lower rated players I overlook simply too much (which loses the points again which I gain by using the knowledge from training).

It's not that I do not understand the position, but I am unable to understand this position in the given time.
Even in long games I cannot seem to use the time in a manner which is appropriate.

Der Stellungskrieg - the trench warfare

If your addicted to rating, you need to start to ask why ?
I guess it's cause of culture.
If you make a living out of trying to take an advantage over another beeing. This leeds to trench warfare.
Youre left alone with yourself trying to get an advantage over yourself. Thats the nature of matter.
Matters existence is caused by chaotic whirling latency.
Hmm.
I think im not this good in chess, cause i am able to not take it serious enough.
This could be a curse or some sort of silver lining.

Im just interested to know whats wrong with the game, that i can't concentrate on.
How to get out of the trench alive.

what @Gutzh and @Hurluberlu2 both say is true, but there is a wonderful irony about not worrying about rating: it lets you concentrate on the chess!
consider this, and i speak from personal experience:

- as a teenager, i was, in australia, an underrated junior, rated ~1200 where i was perhaps 1400-1500 in strength, though i can;t be certain for sure, as i rarely played anyone that wasn't an underrated junior in tournaments;
- as a 20-something-er, i rarely played a rated tournament, and only achieved a rating ~1400 ACF;
- it's a commonly known (in australia) fact that tournament players were underrated at the time i was a teenager, due mainly to the small pool of players playing tournaments in australia at the time, so that when i went to europe not long before i turned 30, i played a single tournament where i had a performance rating in excess of 2100;
- subsequent tournaments in europe had me consistently performing around that mark in europe, only to, when i came back to australia, perform around 1700 ACF in the few tournaments i played on my return.

so which number is correct?

once i stopped caring about that number, playing online here and other places, well, the results can be seen for themselves. at 50, i'm a lot slower than when i was a teenager, and it takes a little longer to see moves, which affects my quick play, and will eventually affect my long play as well, but for now, not caring about that number because my experience is that it's basically meaningless depending on where you were brought up, has led me to be around mid tier (to take the jrpg analogy of tiers) in faster time controls, yet a tier (maybe bordering on s tier? i don't think so, but who knows? and more to the point, who cares?) in longer time controls. i am living proof that rating means little, as can be evidenced by the wild variation in my otb results between australia and europe, as well as my onlie results between time controls. i play to enjoy the game.

those that know my play here, and have played the torunaments i play, will know what i'm about to say. forget about the number.

good luck and have fun