Here is my advice: turn off ratings for a long time.

Your rating will still exist. Lichess will still calculate it, match you with players, and record the result of every rated game. You are only removing the number from view. That small change can make it easier to see the position in front of you instead of the status you might gain or lose from it.

On the Lichess website

While signed in:

  1. Open Preferences.
  2. Choose Display.
  3. Find Show player ratings.
  4. Select No.

You can also go straight to the Show player ratings preference.

Lichess also has Zen mode, which removes additional information during a game. Press Z while playing to toggle it. Zen mode is useful when you want the board to become almost the whole experience, but it is separate from the account-wide rating display preference.

On the Lichess mobile app

In the current Lichess mobile app, while signed in:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Open Account preferences.
  3. Choose Display.
  4. Set Show player ratings to No.

The preference belongs to your Lichess account and syncs across signed-in devices. If your installed app version does not show the control, change it on the Lichess website, then return to the app.

Why leave ratings off?

A visible rating invites a second game to run alongside the actual game.

You start calculating what a win is worth. You decide an opponent is frightening because their number is higher, or harmless because it is lower. You protect a peak. You chase a milestone. You turn one blunder into a verdict on whether you belong.

None of that helps you find the move.

With the ratings hidden, the useful questions get more room:

  • What is my opponent threatening?
  • Which pieces are loose?
  • What changed after the last move?
  • What candidate moves should I calculate?
  • What can this game teach me afterward?

This is not a trick for making the number rise. It is a way to practice giving your attention to the part you can improve.

The rating will come

Get better and the rating will come.

There is a little Field of Dreams logic to it: build the game and the number will follow. Build the habit of checking threats. Build the patience to calculate one move deeper. Build an honest review process. Build a chess player whose rating eventually has no choice but to catch up.

Do that work for a long time. Let the rating arrive as evidence, not as instructions.

When should you turn ratings back on?

Oh, you’ll know.