Hidden Ratings: an underrated Lichess feature that changed how I play

Things that are well done should be celebrated. But I never thought that my chess experience could be more enjoyable and even improved my rating slightly.

Some days ago I was fiddling with my Lichess preferences and found this option on Display:

Shower Player Ratings
Yes/No
This allows hiding all ratings from the website, to help focus on the chess. Games can still be rated, this is only about what you get to see.

I highlighted "all ratings from the website" because I assumed it would only hide in-game or only things related to my games. Turned it on, and went back to gaming.

One thing about me: I play for chess for fun, usually as a work break or a casual weekend bullet tournament, and I play to learn how I manage my emotions when dealing with unexpected and unwanted outcomes.

And after playing for some days without ratings it changed my relationship with chess. I was surprised how much the numbers on the screen were changing how I would treat my opponent, how I would get nervous or angry when a certain outcome happened.

So... If you are like me and started to get frustrated when you lose a game to someone with less rating than you, or focusing so much if you are playing someone a "level above" that it turns the game into something stressful, try it out. Maybe that can work for you too:

To the Lichess team, a heartfelt salute!

The decision to be so thorough with the feature design to going as far as hiding the ratings from tournaments, syncing with my phone preferences, everything on point. It takes some courage to innovate on an ancient game like this, and get good results.