A while ago I was afraid of facing opponents with an elo around 400, I was oscillating between 300 and 400, but I studied a bit, and although I am not good at finding solutions I think I got good at opening well enough so that my pieces have good standard positioning.
Currently on 523 elo I am afraid of playing and falling down (can't fall down without playing LOL), but I know it is natural. The chess league helps because I need to play a lot to get those trophies and advance the league, even at the risk of losing a few matches and lowering my elo.
Luckily I reached the 500's with a 5 win streak, which was great for my confidence.
My friends who are good at chess tell me to just keep playing, and I will, because according to them within weeks or months of practice I start to understand the patterns and it makes more sense.
It is also curious that I reached the elo 500 and it was exactly 500!! Now I am a bit over that and I hope I keep learning and improving. My friend who introduced me to chess was around elo 600, and I am sure he is underrated because he doesn't play often, and then I have some 800's friends to match and even some 1000+ but those are a challenge for the future. One step at a time. I'll keep playing with them though, will be nice to ine day win, would be unexpected for all of us!
