How To Climb The Rating Ladder: 1000-1400
Hi guys!
It's me, BMblogmaster, with another post. Yesterdays blog got about 400 views in a day, which doesn't make sense if I'm not a top blogger because I only have like 120 followers. I think I may now be a top blogger.
Today will be about improving your rating from about 1000 to 1400. I will share several tips on how I did it, and what you can do.
Tip #1: Read Chess Books
This first tip is one of the more obvious ones. Reading chess books can improve anything about chess, depending on what the book is about. These two books helped me a lot.
Credits: amazon.com, amazon.com
Don't judge a book by it's cover. It appears that these books are for kids, but they really aren't. These are written by very strong players, and they think that a child chess player is rated between 1000 and 1400, which is sometimes true, but not always.
If you want to improve your tactics or openings up to about 1400 level, I would recommend reading these books, and if you master all of the things in these books, you are GM level.
Tip #2: Watch YouTube Videos
Watching YouTube videos, related to chess is actually very helpful. Some of my favorite chess YouTube channels are these.
There is a final YouTuber that is less serious, but he is very fun. He is Joseph Truelson.
Books can sometimes be boring, and complex, but videos can sometimes be more fun, and easy to understand.
Tip #3: Analyze Your Games
You can analyze your games a few different ways.
- Use chess.com analysis.
- Look over your games yourself, and take more time to think about the game.
- If you know a player that is stronger than you are, ask them to analyze your game.
Analysis is very simple. The easiest way to do it is click the analysis button next to the share button after a live game is played. You can also click learn, and then analysis, where you type in your game.
If you analyze your games, you can find your mistakes, and avoid them in the future. This may be the most helpful tip on this list.
Tip #4: Always Have A Goal With Your Moves
Tip number four is an important tip, and is different from the rest. When playing a chess game, never play a move with no point other than it looking like a good move.
What are you trying to do? Common things to focus on are:
- Attacking your opponent with a sacrifice.
- Controlling the center.
- Setting up tactics.
- Pushing pawns to attack.
- Defending your king, or other pieces.
- Trapping an opponents piece.
In every game that you play, look for these things, and your rating will shoot up.
Tip #5: Play A Lot Of Chess, And Have Fun With It
Earlier I wrote that tip number three might be the most important, but I take that back. This is by far the most important. If you aren't playing a lot of chess, then you won't get better.
How Much Should I Play Chess?
You can choose an amount of minutes a day, or even hours, as long as you play that same amount of time every single day. Consistency is key.
How Can I have Fun With Chess?
- Blog about it! That's what I do!
- Play forms of chess like bug house and three check.
- Try a new opening.
- Challenge your buddies.
- Just play normal chess! It's fun enough already, right?
I hope you enjoyed these five tips on improving your rating from 1000 to 1400. Since I started following these tips, I've gained over five hundred points of rating, and I haven't had my rating go down in too many tournaments to count, but I can say since I was less than 900 rated.
