Struggling to get to 300 ELO

I've been trying to get to 300 ELO using the advice you guys have given me (common sense, checklist, other things) but for some reason I fluctuate between 260-280 ELO. I know I suck and I really don't feel like trying to grind to 2200 ELO if I'm stuck at this level.

Can anyone practice, train, or tell me what I'm doing wrong?

You aren't struggling yet. You have just started playing. Chess is not an easy game to master, but the following should help you.

The most common challenges at your level are:

• Failing to do a blunder check
• Not following Opening Principles
• Playing too fast and not using your time as a resource effectively

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Blunder check - The easiest way to improve is by not making simple, yet unnecessary, blunders. If you can make an effort each move to make sure you aren’t blundering your Queen will be enough to drastically improve your winrate.

Opening principles - Learn the basic opening principles:

• Control the center
• Develop your pieces early
• Castle early
• Don’t move the same pieces twice, get all your prices out
• Don’t bring out your Queen too early
• Don’t forget to develop your Rooks as well
• Don’t open up the center while your King is not yet castled (or safe).

There are plenty of resources available to learn more about them (like this one). After looking at several of your games I noticed a) you play too many pawn moves in the opening, b) you play with too much forward momentum, neglecting the rest of your development.

Time management - Take more time for each move. Don't just play random moves. You don't have the experience and insights yet to play moves in just a couple of seconds. Follow a basic decision making process. Take a moment to look at what your opponent is doing, check what moves you can play, consider the options. and pick the best one.

Time is resource you should use it as such. You shouldn’t lose games with more than 7 or 8 minutes left on the clock, especially not in the first 10 moves.

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You can literally pick any of your games and you'll see that you didn't pay enough attention to these 3 aspects. But I can assure you, once you do, you'll get better rapidly.

Good luck!

I'm new too.. it took me a long time to get to 620. I felt like I was playing intense matches even at like 400. But not that my advice is worth much but..

I was playing moves too fast and not thinking about the immediate move or response after. I also was playing 10 min games and almost always ran out of time on good games. Switching to 15+ my rank went up much faster. But yea its a bit of a grind down here on the bottom lol... I will say every +100 elo so far the game gets more fun and I understand more. Keep at it dude maybe we'll be up there one day

Play longer games... Rapid games... don't move instantly... think at least 5 seconds...

We can play unrated live chess sometime if you like, but you are probably just lacking some fundamentals if you are struggling to cross 300 on chess.com; one of these fundamentals is chess "opening principles" for the opening stage of the game: https://www.chess.com/blog/KeSetoKaiba/opening-principles-again

As for the endgame, it is mostly practicing the common (theoretical) endgames and checkmate patterns and for the middlegame, I mostly recommend just solving tactics puzzles at first. The middlegame is one of the most complicated parts of chess, but tactics will help you find ways to win material at this level and is probably time well invested for learning.

Also, who says anything about grinding to 2200 rating? I wouldn't limit yourself by thinking of rating goals. Just enjoy the chess journey and keep learning and improving. The rating numbers will figure themselves out.

First of all, 2200 rating on this site in rapid is a good goal. I would like you to get to 1000 then 1500 then 2000 then 2200 rating. Smaller goals at a time first then one another step at step as climbing a mountain. A chess training routine or a training buddy in chess can help you improve a lot in chess. Coaching is another option but if you don't have any money to afford a coach, I am sure there are also free coaches around on discord. At your chess level 300 elo in rapid on chess.com, I think you should focus tatics and middlegame and tiny bit of basic endgame knowledge. You should also follow the chess principles and no need to study openings right now. Some instructive Content on YouTube like Danya, chess vibes, John bartho, gm ben finegold lectures, and others. Cool tip is you can also ask Chatgypt for help on chess materials.

hi

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond

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

Bruh i cant even get 200 elo 😭

hey i would like to get to 200 also being stuck at the bottom day after day is very ---welll-- depressing -so 300 to me would be ilike icing on the cake - keep it up more puzzles more reading and maybe try that web site that other player mentioned -- iam going to look into it

Hi there,

I am rated over 2400 online (https://www.chess.com/member/ppandachess). I created a free course that will teach you a training plan to improve. Feel free to check it out: https://www.panda-chess.com/daily-improvement-plan

Last year of November I was 200 ELO. now im 1000 plus

It took me almost a year to get to 400 ELO. Be patient with yourself and don’t quit. I’ve easily played thousands of games. You’ll get there. Good luck!

🫠

You say that you try to do all these things but your games say otherwise.

https://www.chess.com/game/live/122400245267?username=vertemes

This is a 54-move game that you finished with more time that than you started with. You just play semi-random moves in 2-5 seconds no matter what happens.

Instead, try to use your time and think. Try to find good moves. Before you play a move, double-check it to make sure that it isn't some silly one-move blunder.

Learn and apply the most important principles of chess. - (core of my teaching)
Always blunder-check your moves.
Solve tactics in the right way.
Analyze your games.
Study games of strong players.
Learn how to be more psychologically resilient.
Work on your time management skills.
Get a coach if you can.

When you move, try to see if it’s a blunder or not. Also try to analyze your moves

Always always always consider what your opponent could do. Before you make a move, think what would you do if you were your opponent

In my opinion a checklist and general principles don’t improve your rating on their own if you are skipping these more important things:

When playing, play 10 percent of your games with people 100-200 points lower rated than you to learn how to win won positions.

Play 2/3rds of your games with people 100-200 higher rating points than you to strengthen your play and ask your opponents for a post Mortum afterwards.

Play the rest of your games with similar rated opponents.

These games should all be OTB classical games to be played with a chess clock and at your local chess club on a weekly basis.

To supplement these games, play some daily games at least 3 days per move, and really think about your moves and take notes.

You can play 20% of time spend on 10 minute rapid to practice openings either with a sparring partner or a random game.

Also review all your games you lost against lower rated opponents and equally rated players with a stronger chess buddy you met at the club or a chess coach.

Never use a computer to analyze your chess games at this level.

Do daily tactics, and try to visualize at least 3 or 4 moves ahead or until you see a tactic before making moves.

A certain number of your tactics should be custom problems in the theme of motifs you want to practice at various rating ranges. Start with low rated problems. These will go fast, so do a lot.

Another portion of your problems should be done from a tactics book to familiarize yourself with basic motifs or common themes. There are many chessable courses with this in mind.

Also go through a theory book. Treat it like a school book. One chapter per week.

You should aim to play 100 slow games in a year at your local club, along with everything else.

Lastly, get a book with annotated master games, and study 1 game from the book a day.

You can start off by doing 1 or two items from this list and build from that. So many on month 1 you do 1 or 2 items, then next month you do 3, etc, etc.

Also get an endgame book, and do the drills from the book and drills from chess.com on endgames.

I see a lot of people post stuff like “Learn general principles,” and “here is a move checklist to use…” but what they all fail to realize is if the stuff I said isn’t done, if you are like most people, you won’t improve.

The fact of the matter is no one can will themselves not to blunder. To ask a beginner to blunder check you must also teach them their multiplication tables while doing it, else you won’t make good moves regardless. What I am talking about is that in order to blunder check you must first familiarize yourself with basic tactics so you are able to see them in a chess game. Here is where the tactics books come in handy.

I hope this stirrs you in the right direction. Good luck.