Chess and Bipolar

I play quite a bit of chess online. I've noticed the following:

When I'm depressed, I lose a lot of games and tend to give up without trying. Sometimes I quit the game altogether and watch my rating tumble down by a hundred points.

When I'm manic, I tend to lose a lot of games because I make rash decisions and don't think things through properly.

When I'm stable, I tend to win far more games than I lose. For example, I've won 14 out of the last 17 games I've played, and I've been feeling pretty well, with the exception of a little anxiety here and there.

I guess following my trends in chess would be one way to track my mood.

WB

Interesting, I have not played in quite awhile but your post has aroused me and I think I will give 3D Chess a try again. I don't know how well I will perform since I am on so many meds now.

I play on a site called Redhotpawn.com. It is free and is basically correspondence chess, so you can make moves as leisurely and carefully as you want to.

I like solitaire games like mahjong. I can track how well I'm thinking by my wins and how fast I'm winning. I tend to do best when I'm hypo manic, when I'm depressed or over drugged I make obvious errors lose or take much longer to complete the game.

It reminds me of how I was at work.

Depressed, I couldn't concentrate and did practically nothing.

Hypo, I did more than any human possibly could, but was prone to errors up the wazoo.

Stable, I was steady and accurate.

Congrats on winning all those games. That must feel awesome. I've never played chess and something tells me I wouldn't be good at it. I admire people who can play. It's a complicated game from what I've "tried" to understand about it.

I play chess online all the time! Yea I have stretches where I'm winning a lot and then I get in a rut and loose a bunch! I think it's related to my mood.