This happened today. Always an incredible feeling, and my god I was so nervous... not to play this critical game but once I realized I was winning but down ~1 minute on the clock. Then my hands were sweating like crazy and my heart beating out of my chest...

I occasionally let the schtackers know what my chess progress is like (#1306859, #853488).

Blitz (3:0 or 5:0) is usually what I work on, though Ioni (#1579572) recently got me excited about improving my rapid rating (and play more carefully on 10:0 time controls).... basically playing higher-quality chess without relying on the clock as a weapon. Background was that even though I think I'm slightly better than him (~100-something higher ATH rating), he plays slower games (15:10)... so the half-dozen or so daily correspondence games we've started, I'm inevitably losing.

It has been a painful 114 days since I first popped over 1700

Feels pretty unbelievable... and definitely terrifying. We all know that from here there's basically only one way... dooooown, and I'm gonna be so mad and disappointed when I play myself off this elevated position.
...#1516467

I was very happy, very excited... only to, obviously, proceed to lose it all... and it took fucking MONTHS to come back. That jagged trendline downwards for ~6-7 weeks was incredibly demoralizing. As were those recent two blips down to just around (even slightly below) 1500.

The amount of bottomless pain there is to just throw away hundreds of points #899312 -- usually late at night, rage-/revenge-playing to get it all back -- is indescribable. You probably need to be obsessed with chess to understand this guttural, desperation-sort of pain.

The good/bad news is that there isn't really much of a difference between 1700-level chess and 1400-level chess... your opponents know more tricks in the opening; are slightly faster at finding good/best moves; slightly better at taking advantage of your vulnerabilities. But in chess the margins are so crazy tiny. Look at these stats over the last 90 days (1,478 games, ~16 games a day):

That razor-thin edge between 47% and 46.2% might be enough for a blackjack trader or a high-frequency trader but us mortals can't even observe it. Play a hundred games, win 47, lose 46... you won't even know the difference.

Now, last 1 year:

I'm remarkably consistent with how much I play (~16 games a day, LOL). Also, 47-46.5%... among these six thousand games there are thirty-four games that constituted my positive edge... and during that time period I go from mid-1400s to over 1700. (Fair enough, with ELO rating there's also a quality dimension in that I get more points/loss less when I beat/lose to higher-rated players.)

CHESS PUZZLE

This is the critical moment in the game that pushed me up to 1706.

I'm proud to announce that Den found this tactic in eight seconds... ready, set, GO! (fair enough, I was in the game, know the way here so I'm more familiar with it... you get eight minutes!)

Also, computers are such scumbags... I had a bishop sacrifice earlier in the game that would have liquidated everything and left me up ~2 pawns and with a much safer king in a better endgame. OK, boomer stockfish. Also, the immediately preceding transformation here was incorrect: I traded bishop-for-knight because I saw I could win a pawn and then push the other knight around. Computer says I should have just brought the e-file rook to double up on the open d-file and pressure/dominate the rest of the position.

I'm getting to the point where I suspect I can't just play anymore. I need to actively study openings, actively do puzzle/puzzle rush to improve my tactics. Can't just rely on luck, getting good positions on the board from the openings I like/use (Jobava London w white; Scandinavian, King's Indian or Petrov w black)

It doesn't feel like I'm losing a ton with black, but the numbers say otherwise:

I definitely feel like my visualization and greater board-awareness is better; I can calculate better but still won't/don't evaluate positions properly. Time-control issues, too... I frequently fuck up, lose winning positions or stalemate/draw opponent because I run out of time. (Grok is incredibly unhelpful in saying: "The two collapses (especially the recent one to ~1500) highlight volatility—common at this level from inconsistent form, time-control issues, or temporary loss of focus.") Also, going forward I need:

• Fewer blunders (this one is massive... the game before getting up here, I hung my queen: took a pawn that was undefended on the previous move but when he moved his knight of the way, that pawn got protected by his queen. The most obvious thing ever... just single-minded focus on grabbing a pawn -.-)
• better calculation (3–5+ ply consistently),
• positional plans,
• endgame technique, (!!)... almost fucked this up... hung the bishop because I was so stressed.
  -practical decision-making under pressure—not just flashy tactics.

THIS is very helpful:

...and very encouraging, thanks clanker!!

Your history of multiple ATHs and quick rebounds after collapses is a positive sign—you have the capacity. The limiting factors will almost certainly be consistency of high-quality review/study and avoiding long form dips rather than raw talent.

ANYWAY, back to the board... and let's avoid those crazy downfalls in my not-so-distant future.