Chess Tilt & Bad Hours Detector

How to use the tilt detector

Type your Chess.com or Lichess username, choose the site and run it. The tool loads your recent public games through the official Chess.com or Lichess API, looks at when each one was played and how it ended, and sorts the results. You don't need an account and nothing is installed. The more games you have, the clearer the picture: a few dozen games give you a hint, a few hundred give you something you can trust.

You get five results:

• Best and worst hours of the day. Your win rate grouped by the local hour each game started.
• Best and worst days of the week. The same idea, by weekday.
• Win rate after a loss. How often you win the game right after losing one.
• Win rate after two or three losses in a row. Where tilt usually shows up most clearly.
• Your sweet spot. How many games in a row you play well in one sitting before your results drop. For example: "you win 58% of your first 3 games, then 41%. Stop after 3."

What the results mean

Bad hours are usually about energy, not luck

If your worst hour is 1 a.m., you probably don't need a new opening. You need to stop playing rated games at 1 a.m. Late nights, the hour right after work and quick games squeezed between other things all tend to look worse, because you are tired or distracted. A difference of a few percent between hours can be noise. A gap of ten points or more, across a good number of games, is worth acting on.

The win rate after a loss is your tilt number

Compare your normal win rate with your win rate right after a loss. If they are close, a loss doesn't affect you much. If the number after a loss is clearly lower, and lower again after two or three losses in a row, that's tilt: you are carrying the last game into the next one. Most players have some of it. The fix is not to feel calmer. It's a rule you follow even when you don't feel like it.

The sweet spot tells you when to stop

Many players do well in their first few games and then slowly get worse as the session goes on. The sweet spot is the number of games after which your results drop. If yours is three, a session of three games will usually be better for your rating than a session of ten, even though it feels like less chess.

How to stop tilting in chess

Tilt is a habit loop: you lose, you feel bad, you click "new game" right away to win it back, you play fast and angry, and you lose again. Breaking it comes down to a few plain rules.

1. Set a stop rule before you start. "Two losses in a row and I'm done" works for most people. Decide it before the first game, not after the second loss.
2. Cap your session at your sweet spot. If the detector says your results drop after game three, play three.
3. Wait before the next game. Even five minutes helps. Get up, drink some water, then decide whether to play.
4. Look at the loss before you play again. Find the one move that lost it. That turns a bad feeling into something you learned, and it slows you down. The free game review does this in about a minute.
5. Avoid your worst hours for rated games. Use them for puzzles or unrated play instead.
6. Switch to a slower time control. Tilt is worst in bullet and blitz, where the next game starts in seconds. Rapid gives you time to settle.

If your rating has been sliding lately, tilt is often part of it. Our guide on why your chess rating is dropping covers the other common causes, and how to break a rating plateau explains what to change when you've been stuck for months.

What is the best time to play chess?

There is no single best time for everyone. Some people play their best chess in the morning, others late in the evening. That is why this tool looks at your own games rather than general advice. Once you know your best window, protect it: play your rated games then, and use the rest of your chess time for study and review.

Handling a chess losing streak

Every player has losing streaks, including strong ones. A streak of five losses doesn't mean you got worse overnight. Ratings move up and down by chance. What makes a streak expensive is playing through it while tilted. If you are on a streak, stop for the day, review two or three of the losses, and come back tomorrow. If the streak goes on for weeks, look at your games for a pattern. A free chess weakness report shows your biggest leaks, and our guide on how to analyze your chess games gives you a method for reviewing them.

Want a laugh too?

Tilt streaks and bad hours are also great material for a roast. Try Roast My Chess to see your worst habits written up as jokes, or check Chess Wrapped for your year at a glance. More reading in the guides.

Chessy — AI Chess Coach app builds these limits into a daily plan: a set number of games, a reminder to come back after each one, and a coach who goes through the game with you before you queue up another.