Most games between 1200 and 1600 are decided by tactics, so I recommend doing puzzles each day and learning the basic principles behind common openings.
From 1200 to 1600 in a year? ideas for growth?
Sort:
Oldest
poosyparadise wrote:
Cryptosilver wrote:
ProfessorHipp wrote:
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.
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!
My FIDE rating is slightly above 2000 and I think you exaggerate the amount of study and practice needed to go from 1700 to 1800. I believe that 1800 FIDE is the rating where you can say to yourself that you really need to put in serious work and study if you want to make any progress; this is where chess improvement "gets hard". Below that I know there are plenty of tournament players that have never studied chess at all and have ratings above 1600.
interesting. but here ratings are inflated compared to FIDE. especially rapid is really inflated. wonder what can be the rating difference between FIDE and here in rapid/blitz/bullet.
@ProfessorHipp I might of rattled on a bit but if the game is typical of your time management, do try and slow down. The brain needs output as well as input to learn. In a game, the output is spending a minute or two on each move, thinking about the position, your opponents threats and some candidate moves. Streamers play quickly because the time format is suited to the internet and their viewers, not because it's a good way to learn. Good luck.
#1, yes that is all good. Certainly the book part. I hope to teach my grandson and I will certainly create a book with it.
The one thing you have left off is blindfold skills.
1200-1600 is all about stopping hanging pieces
1600-2000 is all about visualising 8-ply deep.
Rat1960 wrote:
#1, yes that is all good. Certainly the book part. I hope to teach my grandson and I will certainly create a book with it.
The one thing you have left off is blindfold skills.
1200-1600 is all about stopping hanging pieces
1600-2000 is all about visualising 8-ply deep.
I think there is a third range : 1300-1800 Consistency is what we need. Sometimes, you defeat a 2000, or even stronger players, but the very next game, you lose to a 900 and 'dump' your points. That's where I am stuck right now.
ProfessorHipp wrote:
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
i got from 400 to 1500 so i think i can help u. learn simple openings like london and KID and do a load of puzzles
I looked at one of your loses.
Pity you were winning but it ebbed away and then you hung a rook.
My notes cover the next stage of development, recognising tactics a couple of moves deep.
#30 well sure, draw your grade standards according to your own experience.
I went with mine and what OP was asking. It might be I had exams in my teens, so I was reading about chess rather than playing but came back stronger as I "revised" from my previous aged 13-15 games.
Apr 17, 2021
0
#30
Lots of good advice here already but just for another point of view I don't share the preoccupation with rating. I think just play the kind of games you want to play, the openings that interest you, study whatever seems important to you, to whatever depth and commitment fits the rest of life balance, and the rating is whatever it is. On chess.com the rating will find you a well matched opponent, that's about it. Of course people have different objectives, and in my case my low rating hasn't trended up or down much in now years, but chess has been a fun diversion (admittedly just mostly blitz/bullet, hardly "real" chess). Your effort will tend to increase your rating, and when that happens, your "new" more highly rated opponents will tend to decrease it, mostly equilibrium.
Apr 17, 2021
0
#31
I went from I was rated 600 in January of 2020 and in April 2021 I’m rated 1670 Andy I haven’t even put much work in so it is very possible for you to get there
You can do it as long as you actually do things that improve your chess like improving tactics and endgames and stuff. The best thing you can do is to enter a real life chessclub. You will meet likeminded people and the club give you the help you need. Also the option of having someone you can play a long games with and then analyse with them afterwards is invaluable. Make sure you annoy them and ask question about every single move you are not sure about in the analysis. One of the world champions even said every game not analysed was a waste of time
Thermonuclear corncobs
Apr 17, 2021
0
#34
Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I'm a chess coach based in California: www.ChessByLauren.com
I recommend getting "The Amatuer's Mind' by Jeremy Salman to get better.
laurengoodkindchess wrote:
Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I'm a chess coach based in California: www.ChessByLauren.com
I recommend getting "The Amatuer's Mind' by Jeremy Salman to get better.
Hi Lauren! Thanks, I actually just ordered that book 
Rat1960 wrote:
I looked at one of your loses.
Pity you were winning but it ebbed away and then you hung a rook.
My notes cover the next stage of development, recognising tactics a couple of moves deep.
Thank you for this effort! I will look at your analysis and take it to heart.
I read Amateur's Mind last autumn. I thought it was excellent. Enjoy.
1598 right now. nervous... Just 1 more win...
Feb 26, 2025
0
#39
I'm 1200 uscf and I'm 65 years old
What would it take to get to 1500 uscf .. ??
If you are inclined ,.. message me .. (no vendors please)
Dear ProfessorHipp,
I'm a certified, full-time chess coach, so I hope I can help you. 
Everybody is different, so that's why there isn't only one given way to learn and improve.
First of all, you have to discover your biggest weaknesses in the game and start working on them. The most effective way for that is analyzing your own games. There is a built-in engine on chess.com which can show you if a move is good or bad but the only problem is that it can't explain to you the plans, ideas behind the moves, so you won't know why it is so good or bad.
In my opinion, chess has 4 main territories (openings, strategies, tactics/combinations and endgames) and if you want to improve efficiently, you should improve all of these skills almost at the same time. That's what my training program is based on. My students really like it because the lessons are not boring (because we talk about more than one areas within one lesson) and they feel the improvement on the longer run. Of course, there are always ups and downs but this is completely normal in everyone's career.
If you would like to learn more about chess, you can take private lessons from me (you find the details on my profile) or you can visit my Patreon channel (www.patreon.com/Bgabor91), where you can learn about every kind of topics (openings, strategies, tactics, endgames, game analysis). There are more than 20 hours of educational videos uploaded already and I'm planning to upload at least 4 new videos per week, so you can get 4-6 hours of educational contents every month. I also upload daily puzzles in 4 levels every day which are available with a FREE subscription.
I hope this is helpful for you. Good luck with your games!
Thank you! I will consider and try to implement your suggestions, and will look that game over.