"The Rating Obsession: Why It's Ruining Your Progress" over at Chess.com is an excellent article (and wakeup call for all improving players) about its title phenomenon. I think every serious chess improver has to grapple at least some of the time with the psychological problem of playing for rating, rather than playing for progress, which is a key point made by article author GM Gabuzyan. (One of the earliest posts here was on Ratings Fear and Loathing).
The full article is well worth the read, but this introductory excerpt really hit home:
One day, I nearly fell out of my chair during a 1-on-1 call with a new student.
The reason?
He told me, "I’m afraid to lose my rating."
I asked. "Alright. What’s your rating?"
A short silence. Then he said it.
"588."
The point is that this type of psychological affliction is common to all of us who take risks as players - something necessary to make progress - from beginners to IMs; GM Gabuzyan relates his own story about being 12 points shy of GM (2500) level and how he ultimately dealt with that. I don't think that we ever completely get rid of the rating monkey on our back, but we can certainly choose not to give our attention to it - and definitely should not listen to its advice.
