Improvement 800-1000?

Heya,

So, after about six months of getting into chess, I'm feeling that I've plateaued. In the first couple months, I absorbed stuff like a sponge, quickly picking up on the kind of standard beginner chess knowledge, but more recently upon getting to 850-890 rating, I feel like I'm no longer improving: all things aimed at beginners like development, opening principles, tactical ideas like forks, skewers, pins, basic endgame patterns and all that jazz I understand, I've been reading some books on chess tactics, watching as many materials on youtube as I can, taking my time over puzzles/tactics, avoiding blitz and bullet games (I don't really play anything other than 30 minute rapid), going through analyses on my games etc.

It seems like all learning materials aimed for the 800-1000 range address things that I do already understand (many advanced players that make chess learning content just say stuff like 'double check every move, don't blunder and know basic opening principles and you'll get to 1000', which with full honesty is a load of bull), but I can't seem to break out of the 820-890 range I've been in for absolute yonks!

Any advice or anything I should be doing differently? Help a gal out x

What has worked best for me so far is analyzing my own games and see where I went wrong. Don't follow the computer line the whole way, because that is just time-consuming and they tend to get way too complicated. I just see if I missed tactics, where my openings went wrong, etc. 

If you want you can add me and we can play a couple of games, maybe we can learn from each other, because I am only rated 1030 myself, so I don't want to sound like I know everything myself. 

Anyway, playing games always helps, since experience is the best teacher. If you don't want to lose rating, you can just play a couple of casual days every day, until you feel confident again.

Hope this helps, good luck either way!

Hi there!

Learning can come in leaps with stagnant times in between- sometimes weeks or even a few months can go by without any sense of improvement and then suddenly one day something clicks and you see the game differently, more clearly. When we study we study for the future and not the present as our brains take time to process, recategorize, and then sometimes reprioritize information. So don’t forget that or get frustrated when process seems to not be happening. Time can do wonders!

Higher rated players take in a lot more aspects of positions more subconsciously which is why to many higher rated players they can look over a game played by us and say “you blundered X piece, missed Y tactic that wins a piece, made strategic error by trading off Z piece” ect. To them these mistakes seem relatively simply errors because they are utilizing much more information and patterns than you are and as such “see” positions much more clearly. So it’s not completely wrong for them to say “you need to look over positions more carefully, you missed a tactic” because that’s what they see you doing.

All improvement, not just for your rating goal, requires you to utilize a solid thought process, one that helps you better evaluate each position, identify the critical aspects of them, and then with that information find the best ideas for that position, presumably reducing errors. In my view, we often miss tactical aspects primarily, but this often stems from mistakes in piece placement and strategy from openings to middle games. Knowing how to best develop your pieces in the opening and transition into a solid middle game with a good idea to forward your position will likely reduce tactical errors from even cropping up in your position- but you still have to take advantage of them in your opponents position!

And this is why the often cited CCT/other terminology for similar is promoted. If you’re consciously identifying all checks, all captures, and all threats in each position, then you shouldn’t miss many tactical ideas from either side, and if you do it’s likely because you didn’t understand the pattern of it or had a horizon effect- a tactic several moves deep that was beyond your scope of calculation or understanding of it, and that’s just a great way to spot new patterns to learn going forward.

High rated players use simply phrases and ideas as pathways to progress because to them that’s what they see in our games and they aren’t wrong. However the key is to focus on your thought process to fix those things and many don’t always understand that or how to go about doing that. Or they just can’t be bothered to do such tedious work. I know I’m guilty of that often. :)

This is indeed a somewhat special case. I went over a couple of your games. Your opening play is pretty good, you develop your pieces and castle. Great. Sometimes, you still need to "complete your development", meaning get castled, connect your rooks, etc before you take action. So your games are still mostly decided by one move blunders. Developing full-board vision comes with practice and experience. Doing a lot of simple puzzles will help at some point. There is no immediate cure. It seems to me that you're doing a lot of the basics right.

Have you done anything strategy-related? In this site, search for chess strategy | study plan for beginners. There are some instructive posts and videos. You could probably also start with a strategy book (I like Silman's How to reassess your chess very much since the concepts are understandable for beginners and intermediate players too) and work through it slowly. Let the new patterns sink in. Learning chess is not a sprint.

Learning some basic endgames is also advisable even if you're thinking now: Endgames? I don't get there anyway, so why should I? Once again I'd recommend Silman with his complete endgame course (note to self: I should ask him for a provision whenever I promote his books... ) Endgames will teach you how to handle your pieces better because with less material the coordination of the pieces becomes even more important.

Hope you'll find something useful in my suggestions. So long!

A rating of 890 is a sign of frequent blunders. Always check your intended move is no blunder before you play it. This little mental discipline alone is enough to get to 1500. As long as you hang pieces and pawns all other effort is in vain.

You unjustly call "double check every move", "don't blunder" a load of bull
"I can't seem to break out of the 820-890 range" it is because you blunder

No, double checking every move will get you well past 1000.

It’s not bs, you just are too undisciplined to do it. (Which I can’t really get on your case for, because I’m also too impatient and undisciplined to do so)

When people say every move, they mean every move.

Every. Single. Move.

Most of my losses are from one move blunders, and most of my wins are caused by my opponents committing such blunders.

Despite both myself and my opponents being far above 1000’s in playing strength.

Sometimes I play as a guest on here, and I’m matched with 1000 rated players.

I usually just beat them on autopilot, making intuitive safe moves and collecting all the pieces they drop, which ends in them getting their kingside blown apart or their position ground down into an endgame in which they are hopeless.

1000’s blunder frequently, as do 1400’s. From the 1600’s I’ve played, they blunder too.

I’ve had one such high rated player hang mate in one.

Just checked, and your last four games contained many one move blunders.

This is your main problem, like I suspected.

"Players under 1800 blunder almost every move" - Carlsen

The same thing happened to me at about 750 Rapid. I switched to playing Daily chess and gradually got up to 1200 level.

I blunder a lot in live games but much less frequently in the daily games.

Except for a few very talented players who find the game relatively easy, it is a long process of gradual improvement. (Actually this is true for everyone, it just at a higher level where it gets hard for the most talented players.)

You will always make mistakes from time to time, sometimes big ones. But over time the number of good moves played goes up and the number of bad moves goes down.

One piece of advice that is generally applicable to anyone below about 1800 is to think more about what your opponent can do. What could they be planning? What threats are there in one move, two moves, three moves? The more that you think about those things the better you will get. And it takes time to think through all of those things and that is why you will commonly see the advice to play slower games.

Reading or watching video to learn all you did was good but knowing intellectually and doing it on the board is two different thing!

In your last game,did you play 35 moves in 8 min? 

Congrats on winning!

 

 

 

Probably the issue is that "understanding" and performance are two different things.

Understanding a knight is worth 3 and a pawn is worth 1 is easy, but actually doing it in a game?

In the position below you have 28 minutes on your clock. You thought for 20 seconds and decided not to capture the knight.

-

-

Obviously this is not a normal move for you, and you know better.

There are probably 1000 different excuses too... but getting better is about improving moments like this. You can know a million things about chess, but if you make moves like this you'll never be much above 1000.

I remember that video... he didn't actually say that.

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’m a respected chess coach and chess YouTuber based in California: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP5SPSG_sWSYPjqJYMNwL_Q

 I'm glad that you want to improve your chess game!  

 

I have tips and resources to help you improve your chess skills so you can win more games.  

-I  offer a  free beginner’s free eBook on my website, www.ChessByLauren.com in case you are interested. The book is about asking questions before each move.  

-Learn basic tactics such as the fork, discovered attack, pin, and more.  I offer interactive puzzles on my website: https://www.chessbylauren.com/two-choice-puzzles.php  

-I recommend two books for you: “50 Poison Pieces”   and “Queen For A Day: The Girl’s Guide To Chess Mastery.”  Both books are available on Amazon.com.  Both books are endorsed by chess masters!  

-If you are serious about chess, I highly recommend you hiring a chess coach to help you.  

-Also consider all checks and captures on your side and also your opponent’s side. Always as, “If I move here, where is my opponent going to move?”

I hope that this helps.  

I think if you really want to improve your elo, you don't need to play that much. U just need to do puzzles, learn theory and watch videos about strategy.

I am 2100 blitz and this vid really helped me: http://adfoc.us/69123580849490

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

PUZZLES

Dear Amelias,

I am 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 general way to learn. 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 analysing your own games. Of course, if you are a beginner, you can't do it efficiently because you don't know too much about the game yet. There is a built-in engine on chess.com which can show you if a move is good or bad but the only problem that it can't explain you the plans, ideas behind the moves, so you won't know why is it so good or bad.

You can learn from books or Youtube channels as well, and maybe you can find a lot of useful information there but these sources are mostly general things and not personalized at all. That's why you need a good coach sooner or later if you really want to be better at chess. A good coach can help you with identifying your biggest weaknesses and explain everything, so you can leave your mistakes behind you. Of course, you won't apply everything immediately, this is a learning process (like learning languages), but if you are persistent and enthusiastic, you will achieve your goals.

In my opinion, chess has 4 main territories (openings, strategies, tactics/combinations and endgames). 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.

I hope this is helpful for you. Good luck for your games!