I still struggle to gain ELO. 800 elo

Actually help me. To know what's wrong in my games.

To most of my students, I give this advice (and it's almost all they need):

The biggest reason people struggle in lower-level chess is because of blunders. They make them in almost every game.

A mistake can instantly put you in a bad position, no matter how well you played earlier: if you had great opening knowledge, great positional skills, great endgame skills, whatever; a single mistake can change everything (you lose a piece or get checkmated).

So, how do you avoid blunders? Follow these two simple steps:

1. After your opponent moves, think if it's dangerous. Ask yourself, “What’s his idea?”
2. Before you make your move, think if it's safe. Ask yourself, “What attacking replies can he play?”

If you feel like getting to levels like 1600, 1800, or 2000 in chess is super hard, let's look at it in a different way. Those players you're facing make blunders in nearly every game they play. Beating them isn't so tough if you stop making big mistakes and start using their slip-ups to your advantage.

Again, it does not require you to become a chess nerd or spend all your time on chess. Just doing this one thing can boost your rating by a few hundred points right away.

Lastly, while avoiding blunders is crucial, I also share a few basic principles with my students. These principles help them figure out what to do in each part of the game - the opening, the middlegame, and the endgame. Understanding these simple principles is like having a map for your moves. When you use this knowledge along with being careful about blunders, you're not just getting better at defending. You're also learning a well-rounded approach to chess. Keep in mind, chess is not just about not making mistakes; it's about making smart and planned moves to outsmart your opponent.

COME ON. Same thing again and again

Don't you see. About what you are saying is useless.

I made the same post before. And I listen to ppl who says play 10 min. Or 15|10. but it's useless. I explained things like brain doesn't work properly whatever you gamemode you play. Analyst what games? Your failure cause you let a mate in 1. Or you're queen. Well. Also Chessmasteryofficial who KEEP SAYING the same thing. Like copy paste. I'm mad cause no matter people say to weak ELO . It's useless.

:thinker

Only rapid? Alright. Time to play only 5 minutes on a 10 minutes game.

Hi there! I have a few things to say that I hope are helpful.

One thing about rating: I notice that you're rated 1102 in Rapid but 877 in Blitz. Maybe this is just me, but I think you should judge your actual playing strength around your Rapid rating rather than your Blitz rating. Blitz chess simply plays differently to Rapid or Classical because you have less time to think about your moves, time pressure is a common hazard, and you can sometimes get away with moves in Blitz that you'd never get away with in a Rapid game. Because of this, you won't always be playing at your "true" strength when you play Blitz: you might make mistakes more often, but so will your opponent. So don't put yourself down or say that you're a terrible chess player because your Blitz rating isn't as high as you want it to be.

If it's examples about why you're losing that you need help with, then here is one example from a game you played yesterday:

I've included some annotations with this to explain some key moments in it. You had a fairly equal position which you lost with one blunder. It's also worth adding that you spent eight seconds thinking about the move 11...Qc5?? in a 3|2 Blitz game. You weren't exactly under time pressure at this point either, especially since you gain 2 seconds per move.

And this sort of mistake is a common trend I've seen with some of your other lost games: you have an equal or winning position, you rush to make a move that turns out to be a blunder, and then you immediately resign. If it's your Elo that you're still worried about, resigning immediately is a surefire way to keep losing it. This is also why I noted the difference between your Rapid rating and your Blitz rating and why the former is more important: if this was a Rapid game, I doubt that you would have made this mistake.

I won't repeat the advice that you've likely heard before about blunders and how to avoid them. What I will say is that you shouldn't immediately resign after a bad move. It doesn't necessarily seem like bad moves are costing you Blitz games, it's your immediate resigning that does. You ought to continue playing until the end instead of just handing your opponent the win. After all, your opponent may well miss your mistake or make a mistake themselves later in the game.

If it is Blitz specifically that you want to get better at, then the only way to do that is by either getting better at chess generally, or by applying what you already know in a faster time control. As stated, you are 1100+ Rapid, so you're an otherwise good player. So here are a few things that might help:

• Practice your pattern recognition. A key part of Blitz games is being able to spot good moves faster than your opponent and be able to punish their mistakes relatively quickly. Pattern recognition involves seeing common checkmating threats and/or patterns, being able to spot potential forks or pins, and memorising opening lines. A good way to practice this is through puzzles, playing longer games where you have more time to spot these kinds of patterns, or by looking over your old games or by watching other people play.
• When in doubt, look for adequate moves. Because of the fast time control in Blitz, sometimes you won't always spot the best move. If that's the case, you need to make a move that either won't hurt the position, allows an equal trade, or will otherwise allow you to stall so you can find better opportunities later. The worst thing you can do is panic, rush, and make bad moves. Again, by playing Blitz and Rapid games, you will eventually get better at spotting these sorts of moves.
• Stop playing 'Hope Chess'. As stated, Blitz games let you get away with outrageous moves that you wouldn't otherwise do in a Rapid game (e.g. threatening a Queen with a completely undefended piece, then taking it). While these moves may sometimes win you games, they're bad habits which impede your overall play. You should play in the same way that you would if you had more time, and that means spotting the best, or just a good, move, and seeking opportunities to exploit your opponent's mistakes or tactical failures.
• Don't immediately resign after a mistake. You may still win, or at the very least secure a draw.

That's about all I have to say (sorry for the text wall). But I hope some or all of this has helped!

Thanks. You are right about a bunch of things about me and my games. I play only rapid games now. One day I'll go back to blitz. However puzzle are like hell to understand. Sunday puzzle or every puzzle is so hard to understand. That's why I can't copy or learn them. Those guys who says "ez" each time and they are 500 ELO. Or 1000 ELO. Alright. Thanks Logan.

I forgot about opening. And still I can't learn them cause I don't understand them no matter what I do so. Copy paste openings is not what I want.

Don't try to memories openings , the moves in openings have a certain motive and are based on principles and the objective of memorizing them is so that you don't need to spend time in calculating the right move . If you understand the basic principles , you can play them on your own . Some openings are told to be memorized because they provide a sort of unconventional approach and not knowing exactly which move to make in the sequence can result in the player making blunders , especially beginners

I can't reach800 elo

Womp womp

If I don't practice puzzles before I play, or I'm tired, I find that do much worse. I have win/loss streaks, which is very frustrating, especially losing. Now if I lose a game or two in a row, I stop playing and go back to doing puzzles for a long while.

I started improving when I did my puzzles differently. Instead of making a quick instinctual move, I sat with the puzzle for a couple minutes. I went through the checklist, first counting the material, then looking for any threats, then looking for checks, captures, and other tactics. The great thing about puzzles (which annoyed me at first) is that they don't tell you the type of puzzle, you just have to find the best move. Sometimes it's checkmate, sometimes taking a hanging piece, sometimes a good tactic. Once I worked on identifying the type of move I had to make in puzzles, it became more natural to think through the process in games.

Puzzles helps you develop pattern familiarity and hone a good thought process. If you aren’t using a systematic thought process with puzzles you aren’t getting the benefits it can provide and be helpful in your games. I just watched you play a 15 minute game. You played fast and gave away pieces and eventually lost. Opponent had 3 minutes left and you over 13. Slow down. Think before you blitz off moves.

If you aren’t going to slow down and find good moves then thats why you aren’t improving. It’s always relevant on how much time you take on your moves, as I demonstrated in the example game you recently played. You played fast, lost pieces, and the game. Continue to do that and you’ll continue to see the results you get now. Either way, the poster you responded to originally is correct and your rebuttal is baseless.

play slow or fast doesn't matter. u move a piece cause you want to. and don't say about "look the position, is it a blunder? " cause it's doesn't work. let's see, i play rapid now like someone told me to do, doesn't change the fact that even with 30 min or 1 day, you lose.

How much time you take on a move absolutely matters. Players play better in slower time controls than in faster ones because you have time to better understand positions, calculate lines, and blunder check. Are you seriously suggesting quality of play is unaffected by time? That’s absurd.