Opinion - The Best Way To Get Better At Chess

TLDR at the bottom

Besides the occasional one-off session with friends, I haven't formally coached in several years. 

In spite of this, I still get messages here on chess.com (and elsewhere) asking "how do I get better at chess?".  I usually reply to these questions, and my answer is almost always the same.  So it's time to write a blog and settle this once and for all.  

I'm open to hearing your opinions in the comments below, but for now, here is my comprehensive guide to getting better at chess.

I am a...

Complete Beginner

• Good for you for getting into chess, it's an amazing game and the odds are you'll play it on and off for the rest of your life .
• Just play! 
• Learn about 'staircase' mates.
• Make sure you know all the rules. 
  • How pieces move.
  • What are the relative values of each piece? Why is a queen worth more than a rook?
  • What is en passant?
  • How do you castle?
• During your games, focus on looking one move ahead. Make sure you aren't giving away pieces for free. You'll get a feel for this pretty quickly .
• Stay away from blitz. You need to take your time with each move because you have to develop some pattern recognition. 

Beginner

• Tactics! 
• Play!
• If you split your time between studying tactics and playing long(ish) games, you'll improve rapidly. Everyone seems to.

Intermediate

• If you've been playing for a while and you're starting to feel stuck, this is probably you .
• Once again, up the tactics. People are still blundering pawns and pieces left, right, and center. If you are sharp enough, you can make it to 1600+ without ever touching an opening or endgame book.

Advanced Intermediate/Tournament player

Congrats! You're one of the better players at your chess club, you're pretty sharp tactically, and you know the names of all the openings you play.  It's time to start with some basic endgame technique. Knowing what I know now, I'd probably work through the book 100 Endgames You Must Know by Jesús de la Villa. In my opinion this is the quickest path to essential endgame knowledge and if you know each of those endgames inside and out, you might not have to touch endgame theory again until you're a grandmaster.

That said, tactics are STILL the most important aspect of your training.  If you're serious about improvement you might want to consider a 50/50 games to tactics ratio. 

Advanced 

You're pushing 1800 or maybe even a bit better. You know your basic endgames, you're tactically sharp, and you rarely just throw a game with a catastrophic piece hang or similar.

First off, congrats. You're a monster and most people never get here. You've demonstrated that you're serious about pushing into the expert and master ranks.

No doubt you've picked up some opening knowledge organically at this point. I'd suggest accelerating that process by playing games (blitz or not) and looking up the opening in the database every single time. Be disciplined and be honest. Only you know when you were actually 'out of book'. Look up your lines, find something better, and memorize it.

For clarity, I believe it's still a little bit soon to buy opening books. You won't fully understand the logic behind the sub-variations provided, and so it becomes a memory exercise instead of one of understanding.  I got way too into opening preparation around 1800 and often found myself in razor sharp positions without a clue what to do. Save yourself the trouble and learn your openings by studying games, including your own.

Once again, though, I have to say that tactics are still your best path forward. You might see less tactics appearing over the board at this level, but they still show up in sub-variations and you need to see the possibilities when you make decisions about what line you want to play. In my experience the biggest difference between an 1800 player and a 2000 player is confident calculation. The 1800 will make 'chicken' moves while the 2000 will trust her calculation, even if it's wrong sometimes.

Experts

You're 2000+. That's insane. You have a serious chance at the NM title and you should go for it .

This is the only level where I consider tactical training 'important' instead of 'most important'. It's time to start analyzing games. A combination of careful study of your own games, coupled with rapid replays of GM games should train the pattern recognition and intuition that you need to supplement your tactical abilities.  My push from 2100 to 2300 was directly the result of replaying every single Carlsen game that ever made it into the database.

I'll make another book suggestion: The Grandmaster Preparation series by Jacob Aagaard. This will be extremely challenging (I still haven't finished this series), but I think getting used to working that hard is key to earning a title. 

tl;dr

In order:

1. Tactics
2. Play longer games.
3. Endgames.

If you're looking for tactics trainer recommendations, here are a few good free ones:

1. Chess Tempo: Probably my favourite. CT has a mixed mode where it's not clear if you're playing for a win, or simply finding the only non-losing move. You're also limited to 5 minutes per problem, which is pretty realistic for a tournament setting. There is a paid tier but it's not necessary for most things.
2. Chess.com: I think Puzzle Rush is pretty cool. It challenges you to always do better, and it trains you to find tactics quickly. The downside is that as you get better, the first few tactics are too easy and basically a waste of time.
3. Goatedchess.com (beta): This replaces my old recommendation of chess.emrald.net (which no longer exists). You're given only ten seconds per problem, either you see it or you don't.  This is awesome for pattern recognition and is also pretty realistic compared with OTB chess. There's also a spaced repetition and iOS/Android apps in the works. I'd argue it's the prettiest of the three as well (although, full disclosure, I helped design it ).

Hope this helps . I'd love to hear what helped you improve in the comments!

-Matt