From 1200 to 1600 in a year? ideas for growth?

Hi! I recently re-dedicated to chess, having played a bit in middle school and here and there until my current age of 37.  My sugar mama is making more money now and I'll be working less, and with COVID etc limiting my social endeavors I thought chess would be a worthwhile intellectual and competitive domain in which to grow.  So I set a goal: I am going to try to reach 1600 chess.com rating in a year, and 2000 in 5 years (with emphasis on the first goal).  How plausible do you folks think this is?  And for those with higher ratings, do you have suggestions for improvement that I might be missing?  

My current regiment is about 30% puzzles, 30% reading/lectures, and 30% games.  

FWIW I also play blitz and bullet for fun but don't care about that rating.  I wonder if these games actually hurt my growth.

If there are any books, tools, or lectures that you think would aid my growth, I would love to hear about them!  I've already listened to a bunch of GM Finegold, Eric Rosen, and GothamChess.  I may consider starting a notebook too...anyone do that?

Thanks in advance for aiding my quest.

Prof Hipp

While I am by no means an expert, I think that if you play chess a majority of your time, you can definitely improve by 400 elo by the end of the year. Especially at this level, tactics and puzzles are very important, probably more so than looking at master level games, unless you have a resource that helps you understand those games. Making sure you have solid openings, a good grasp on tactics, and playing LOTS of games to build experience is in my humble opinion the most important. Bullet and blitz probably don't hurt, but blitz will definitely help build experience better than bullet, since most bullet games under 2000 are just who hangs a piece first. Good luck on your quest!

Hi!

This is definitely a plausible goal!

I recommend bumping up the game rate to around 50-60%. Experience on the battlefield is just as critical as knowledge of the game. Blitz and bullet games are alright, but if you desire a serious growth rate, dropping those variants off would be best.

At this level, tactics are the most important. Solve plenty of puzzles every day! 

Good luck ;-)

Hi. 1600 in 12 months is doable. I'm 44 and started playing january last year, currently about 1550 on Daily. Some suggestions. For tactics solve them in your head before moving pieces, this strengthens calculation and visualisation. It is also hard work. I can only do 5 to 10 in a session before I start getting lazy and guessing continuations. Have a look at Chessable which has some good free tactics courses and end game courses. For books, try Logical Chess by Chernev which is a collection of GM games annotated to teach basic principles to beginners. Amateurs Mind by Silman, and Simple Chess by Stean are also appropriate for 1200 to 1600. They teach positional chess, strategy and planning. For openings, try Discovering Chess Openings by Emms and Smithys Opening Fundamentals on Chessable. Both teach Opening Principles. Obviously, play long games, 30 minutes or longer. Some enjoy blitz etc, but if I dont feel like a long game, I'd rather spend an hour studying rather than rattling off a bunch of 10 minute games, though that's because I'm rubbish at fast chess. I dont enjoy knocking out trash moves then losing. Good luck.

I have the same goal, good luck in achieving it! :)

1200-1600 Almost there (1576 rapid) (1600-2000 is tougher I think)

Thanks all for the input, which I found very encouraging and helpful.  If I hit 1600 within a few months as icyboyyy suggests, perhaps the goal should be 1800.  I'm wary of shooting too high and missing out on the feeling of accomplishment, and also as teju17 noted, every ranking point is harder to gain the higher up the ranks you go, both absolutely (in terms of difficulty) and relatively (in terms of effort).  I will slog on, keep practicing tactics, and avoid playing while inebriated.  Thanks!

Hi! 

Been reading through the thread and am really interested to hear what you all think is the best way to achieve growth below 1000, I am 677 on rapid and looking to reach 1,000, what do you think are the best tactics? I've been playing lots of blitz but seem to just be on a loosing streak. 

1) Get good at tactics. I used to study puzzle books, and solve a bunch of them every day. Now on chess.com, it's super easy to do that. You have to sit there until you solve it, and you have to make sure to understand it if you can't. 

2) Learn general opening principles and understand the value of rapid development. Play gambits - that's the best way to learn how to try and seize initiative. Initiative + tactics is all you really need to beat anyone under 1800.

3) Go buy Nimzowitch's "My System", and work through that. You will be a better player afterwards, guaranteed. I probably gained 400 points after reading that book in high school.

4) Play longer games, and analyze them afterward. The best part is if you can analyze together with the person who beat you, so they can explain what they were thinking. Covid blew that up, so you can try and use an engine I guess. (Or get a tutor?) 

5) Before you make any move, stop! Look around to see how you are about to lose this piece. What can your opponent to do take it? It's your anti-blunder failsafe, which you'll eventually automatically build into every move. 

6) I don't think blitz will help. You have to sit there and think and work it out. The longer the game, the better. I sort of think blitz could reinforce bad habits, honestly. 

Hope that helps.

rapid ratings are inflated. u need to see how ur doing in blitz and bullet. that will give closer approximation to actual fide rating.

For sure blitz will hurt your game. 

Also you are making the same mistakes over and over again. Find out what mistakes you are making so you can try to avoid those mistakes..

Stick to one set of openings and learn them properly.

Improve your attacking ideas, how to develop pieces to better positions so you can properly attack your opponents positions, how to attack using pawns etc. It usually takes quite a lot of time to get good at it but once you get better at it your rating will go up quickly.

Improve your endgame skills so you can convert small material advantages to wins.

at your level just try to improve your board vision, look at each of your pieces after each move .

Eventually your opponent will blunder.

Thanks all.  I play rapid 30 minutes because it's the slowest game that most closely approximates classical games, which are really all I care about at the moment.  I also have a bunch of 24 hour games going with friends and family.

Chess improvement has brutal diminishing returns. I'd say the amount of study and practice needed to go from 1700 to 1800 is about as much as complete beginner to 1700.

I looked at a couple of your games. If you started playing when you made the account in January then 1200 is already excellent progress. 1600 in a year is definitely achievable with the right work. 1800 would be sensational, on par with the biggest young prodigies. I'd love to be proven wrong though

Beyond that if manage to improve your rating by 100 per year that would be incredible progress.

Good luck!

I review my games but I am new to that and so I don't see which mistakes I am repeating.  Can you point them out if you already took the time to look?

Hi. I looked at your last loss against vinod... It was G30 and finished with 22 minutes on the clock. You rattled off 40 moves in 8 minutes. You play to quickly which means you are not thinking, which means you are not practicing what you learn but just reacting. I thought you were to quick to exchange rather than hold tension and try and create the exchange in your favour. For example losing control of the file by exchanging off the rooks. This is connected with playing too quickly. You push pawns too much. It leaves many weak squares for your opponent to infiltrate or gives them stable outposts for their pieces, instead use pawns to control key squares and restrict the movement of your opponents pieces. Use them to shape the position. You aren't considering your opponents threats which is connected with playing too quickly, for example you cleanly hung your knight and allowed your opponents queen to infiltrate your position by pushing the pawn controlling a key square. You could have brought your king up to support the pawn. I think the best thing you can do is slow down and use the time to think harder about the position, threats and opportunities, critically evaluate exchanges, look for good squares for your pieces and play with your pieces rather than pawns. Use moves to improve your worst placed piece rather than push pawns. The little guys dont go backwards.

Tactics tactics and more tactics , stop fooling around with speed games , save those for when you know what you are doing.