Endless Cycle of Fluctuation | April 17th, 2025

For the past few days, right after I've reached the legendary 2100 mark, I almost immediately tilted back to 2050-ish. If I had to describe my chess rating during this time in one word, it would just be "fluctuation". Hit me with a three winstreak, it'll hit me back with three consecutive losses. I've had very slight improvements which I definitely do appreciate, but single digits doesn't satisfy my greed for virtual elo.

Today was definitely no different. A mix of different time controls was in my game history, but primarily blitz: I played 28 games today, won 13, drew 2 and lost 13, a very harmonious, balanced winrate. I started from 2060, finished at 2079, which is still very much progress, but I never once passed 2100. The program is programmed to play blitz until it gets back to its old glory of 2100, but it keeps failing, which is average.

I find myself playing more blitz than ever: one day I might actually spend two hours just playing blitz alone, which is definitely not good for chess improvement, because mindless playing does not make you improve, it just makes you more prone to repeat your mistakes. Blitz chess is a haven for tactics and entertainment, but it also develop bad habits: maybe you keep playing this dumb opening that you thought this line was good, just to find out that they have this crazy sacrifice that is just a forced loss (I've been there).

Anyways, me being sick and tired of overplaying and grinding, I searched for some other ways. I opened up the blog tab, and I read this entire blog written from Kamryn on things that she learned reaching 2000 in 2 years. I actually reached 2000 in about that same time, yet, I still found her article very useful for a numerous amount of stuff, and Kamryn is somebody that I have been watching fairly recently: she makes some very helpful, educational and pure chess content made with love. Here are some things I really learnt from her:

Analyze your games

This advice seems self-explanatory, but I don't analyze all my games: I think I'm fairly transparent with the way I've been describing my days recently. I might annotate a couple of my games and point out losing patterns that I've known for months, but it seems like it isn't enough. Post-game, Kamryn takes a quick look and then writes down what she missed, what tactics or what problems were she facing, and see if there is a repeated pattern, all stored in this little document called "Why I'm Losing". I don't know if I'll actually be able to follow through this as most of my games are on mobile and therefore I can't immediately note down mistakes post-game, but it is a very useful thing to do and a good habit to have.

Occasionally take a break

In her own words, "My fastest period of rating growth (1549 to 1807 in about five weeks) came after I’d taken a few days away from chess.". Sometimes I feel like I'm suffering from chess fatigue too, I mean, I used to have extreme mental health problems from playing chess, and after a two week break, things got better, and I got back on track getting a new blitz peak. However this is the most time I've ever spent on chess: I'm spending at least an hour everyday on chess-related stuff, and while I haven't felt burned out yet, if this issue persists I could definitely use a hiatus again, which I don't like to abuse.

Setting appropriate goals

Set the correct goals. When I started the 2025 Improvement Challenge, my only goal was to push all time controls to a peak of 2200 elo by the end of the year. The problem is I don't know how to get that: I don't have any study plans, I didn't gather any resources other than a couple chess books that I barely read, and I don't have any schedules that I can stick to. This is probably a fatal problem.

I was definitely the most inspired by this advice and the way that she sets her goal. Right now, I'm consulting NateSolon's 1-1-1 Study Plan: 1 puzzle a day, 1 serious game a week, 1 concept learnt a month. Along with my endgame study plan (which isn't really a plan, just a gathering of informations and resources), I think in this weekend, I'll come up with a much more detailed plan, how to study chess and improve, while obviously balancing school and other major factors too.

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