How to Overcome Chess Rating Anxiety and Play Confidently

Playing chess comes with a number of stressful moments. Losing games to checkmates you weren’t expecting from pieces across the board that you didn’t know were making threats, losing your queen from a surprise tactic, and also losing rating from an unexpected loss. For many players, the fear of losing rating, whether online or in person, can be enough to throw a wrench into their development. Being afraid to play real games due to rating anxiety can be a huge barrier to improvement. How do you overcome that barrier, and what can you do to make sure you are getting the most out of your chess playing time?

What is Your Chess Rating?

When you play a game of chess, you receive an ELO rating. This is a number with the primary purpose of pairing you up with other players in your same rating range. If you have ever tried to play a casual chess game at a chess club, or with your friends or family, it is very likely that the game was not a balanced match. If you played more than your family, you probably won easily, and if your random opponent at the chess club happened to be a National Master, you probably got destroyed as well. The beauty of ELO in chess is that it allows for chess games to be evenly matched.

How Chess Rating Works

Your chess rating is a number that gets updated after every game you play. Your chess rating is based on how well you perform, whether you're playing online or in OTB tournaments. Winning increases your rating, while losing lowers it, following the Elo system. For some players, this rating holds great significance. Aspiring grandmasters aim to surpass 2500, while other club players battle to break their own rating milestones. Losing games can be even more difficult when you know you're also losing rating points.

Rated Versus Casual

Rated over-the-board games are only the ones that are played during official tournaments. It is important to know whether your tournament will be official. If it is an official USCF chess tournament, you will need to sign up as a USCF member to get your member number. That is the number you will use to register for your tournaments and to receive your first official chess rating. At first, you will start out as an unrated player, and you will have to complete your preliminary games first before you receive your first official rating number. During those preliminary games, your rating might move up and down more quickly.

Different Kinds of Chess Rating

OTB rating is not the only kind of rating for chess players. As you play more and more chess, you are likely playing online. Different chess websites will have their own chess Elo. This means that playing online-rated chess games will also affect your rating on that website. Chess.com and Lichess.org are two very commonly used chess websites that each have their own rating. When you play an online rated game, your rating will be adjusted very similarly to the way it adjusts in an OTB tournament. Unfortunately, this can cause many people anxiety about their rating.

Chess Rating Anxiety

Because most online games and OTB tournaments carry the risk of losing rating points, players can sometimes experience rating anxiety. This can show up in a few different ways. The most common way I see this affect players, especially new players, is that it keeps them from playing! Many times, beginners will only want to play bots online or only play in unrated chess tournaments. Not because they are not ready for the official games, but because they have anxiety about their rating! More experienced players also experience this. Some players will sit on a rating they have achieved and not want to play out of fear of losing it.

The Problem with Not Playing

Unfortunately, if you don’t play because of rating anxiety, then your skills will naturally start to degrade. Chess is a skill that requires constant practice, even to just maintain your rating. If you want to improve at the game, you really need to play and practice regularly. When you sit on a rating, or don’t play games against the best possible opponents, it becomes very difficult to continue improving at chess. Your anxieties will become the reality as you become worse at the game by not continuing to practice!

How to Play When Anxious

If playing is bringing you a lot of anxiety, there are a few things that you can do. First. Identify what situations are stressing you out. For me, when I was new to chess, I found it to be very frustrating to fall for opening traps. Losing Elo to a simple gambit was frustrating. I spent time practicing my openings, even as a beginner, just to make sure I could comfortably reach the middlegame without already feeling lost. Find what it is about playing games that makes you anxious, and spend that extra time practicing those elements of the game.

Play Through the Pain

The biggest piece of advice I can give someone who is going through ratings anxiety is to play anyway. The rating is meant to help you find a good match. If you find yourself losing rating points, then that’s okay! It means that you will play easier opponents in the future. This doesn’t necessarily make it easier to get started. How can you prepare yourself to keep playing even if you feel anxious about your rating?

Study the Basics

If you are new to chess, it is possible that some of your anxiety is coming from the simple fact that you don’t feel confident in the basics of the game in order to play a rated game. There are a few solid ways to start feeling more confident with the basics of chess. Start by completing a good chess workbook or set of good basic chess puzzles that teach you basic tactics. Everyone’s First Chess Workbook is a great option. If you work through that workbook, I am sure you will feel more confident playing a rated chess game.

Play Somewhere Else

One option is to play on another website or play in a way that doesn’t affect your rating. You need to keep playing games to continue improving, so if you can play on Lichess instead of Chess.com, or maybe play in a rapid tournament instead of a classical one, that can help make sure you are still getting the practice you need without stressing yourself out. The key is to make sure you return to the rating that is giving you anxiety after a set amount of time. Maybe give yourself a week off from that website or a month off from playing OTB tournaments, but make sure you plan a return.

Talk About the Anxiety

This kind of rating anxiety is not unique to you! Most chess players have experienced this idea in one way or another and are probably feeling it right now. If you are actively feeling enough chess rating anxiety that it is keeping you from playing games, mention it to a chess-playing friend, a chess coach, or a chess mentor. Write out what exactly is stressing you out, and how playing that way makes you feel. Just talking through that anxiety could be enough to give yourself enough confidence to try playing again.

Caring is a Good Thing

If you find yourself feeling anxious about your chess rating, don’t feel bad about having that feeling. That anxiety comes from a place of deep care for chess and the effort you are putting into improving. The key is to not let that anxiety cause you to freeze. Think about other areas of your life where you have been successful. Either a work situation, a sport, or even a family success. If you had frozen up before those successes and let it stop you, you wouldn’t have been able to see the benefits of that hard work in your life now. I think chess, because it is a very isolating game, can be very easy to get in our own heads. You care about your chess, and that’s okay.