One step forward, three steps back!

Ok maybe I exaggerated a bit there but it is definitely two steps back.

Rewinding to the start of the story, started playing chess in my mid 30s, dropped it for a few years and picked it up again last year.

I worked mainly on my Rapid (10min time control) brought it up to 1000 and (stupidly??) picked up my 5+5 Blitz in order to also bring it up to 1000. My ideal time control is 10-15 mins so may drop that mission after all.

Enough with the history; I have done the majority of chess.com lessons, do daily puzzles (perhaps not every day and not enough) and also train some openings in chessable.

I get the feeling that after every bit of opening knowledge that comes in I become slightly worse in the game of chess! I try to limit to 1-2 white and 1-2 black and “get good at them “ but it doesn’t seem to work!

Any advice on what could come next? I have seen people mentioning books but most chess books I have seen go Over openings and set games and don’t seem to offer an easy to digest benefit.

Any advice will help.

10 minute games might be too quick for you to improve, not to mention blitz chess. 

Anyway, here are my tips for you, if you have a bit of time for reading:

https://www.chess.com/blog/nklristic/the-beginners-tale-first-steps-to-chess-improvement

Good luck.

Chess isnt necessarily an easy to digest hobby. It takes time and requires regular study. Try to play some longer games, say G30 or longer. It will give you more time to think and deliberatelypractice what you've learnedrather than just reacting and watching the clock. I use Chessable daily. Train tactical puzzles. They will develop your calculation and visualisation skills. For tactics have a look at AlanB's On The Attack series. Do 5 a day every day, say. It focuses on pieces so you could also find a 'book's based on patterns and learn those. 5 a day on spaced repetition. For proper books made of paper, try Logical Chess by Chernev. It is a collection of GM games selected and annotated for beginners, to teach basic principles. Every moves is explained. Can be a good way to learn about positional chess. Play through a game every week 3 or 4 times and make some notes about ideas you picked up and want to try in your own games. Do all this for 3 months and see if it helps. Just suggestions.

Looks like I will ditch my “improve Blitz “ attempts for perhaps a year and focus on 1-2 30 min per day if time permits.

Will also start working through Chernev’s book and studying those games.

Thanks for the inputs everyone!

LOL 😁 yes. Improve blitz is the wrong approach. Its important to realize that many of the chess rockstar we see at the top of their game on blitz learnt their chess playing slow games. Blitz is fun and the short times are well suited to social media etc. But it is arguably a much slower way to improve.

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’m a chess coach based and chess book author based in California: www.ChessByLauren.com

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

I recommend playing with a slow time control, such as game in 30 minutes.  You need time to think.  
    Before each move, I highly encourage you ask questions before every move such as, “If I move here, is it safe?”, “Can I safely capture a piece?”, and more.  

Also consider all checks and captures on your side and also your opponent’s side.  Ultimately, you need to think ahead.  Can you find a forcing winning line, so you can win material?  

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 like how you plan on reading books and studying games.  
If you are serious about chess, I also highly recommend you hiring a chess coach to help you.  
I hope that this helps.  

Just keep trying.

Actually that is a typical pattern with learning chess (and other things): You reach a certain level, study a few new concepts, find that you are playing worse than before but then, after a while, you are suddenly playing better than you ever had. Absording new information and concepts can be disruptive but once they finally click you are firing on all cylinders again, plus a few new ones. It pays to be patient and persistent at chess.

Definitely play the longer time controls though. The majority of your games should be 15/10 or higher... and use all the clock.

:grimace

Its true