How to get from 1400 to 2000?

Hi all,

So, I've always been in love with chess. After a hiatus, I'm back into it stronger than ever and really really want to reach my goal that I set way back in the days when I was 500 (yes 500 don't judge me!) - That is, to reach 2000 elo on chess.com

I would love to have some feedback from experienced chess players (1800+ for example). What should I be studying? What should I be doing? What time limits should I play?  Should I do tons of tactics? Should I play players way above my level? What should I do to realize my goal in the most efficient way possible?

Thanks in advance for your time in reading this!

Peace,

GT

First off, I'd say you should collect a repertoire to begin studying. This will take some time, as many lines in particular openings suit very particular styles of play, I'd give it a few months before you've set down the openings you want to play.

As you do this, study tactics and strategic play. The strategic play can be found by studying master games, it'll give you insight on how the opening should be played at its best. 

Now as you come across more and more openings, you'll start picking "pet lines", variations of the opening you prefer and try to steer the opening towards in certain games. 

Then of course endgames, chess.com has lots of good videos about endgame technique. It also might be in your interest to purchase an endgame book. I suggest "Silman's Complete Endgame Course" as your first book. 

Now the biggest pitfal(or at least I think is), studying too much opening theory. Opening theory is a seductive woman indeed, but it's only 1/3 the game. You should balance middlegame, and endgame knowledge for a well-rounded player. 

Lots of reading (My System and a few endgame books like Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual and Shereshevsky's Endgame Strategy are critical) and going over your own games so you can correct them.  A smart person learns from their mistakes but a wise person learns from others' mistakes.  Tarrasch recommended for beginners to really study before getting into tournament practice and I couldn't agree more especially in today's day and age with rating numbers looming over people's heads.  However, 1400 FIDE or USCF is the gate to the intermediate level, so at 1400 one may still have some novice kinks to work out, so work those out first.  Now is the time to take positional imbalances such as pawn islands, backward pawns, isolated pawns, isolated pawn pair, weak squares and color complexes, good knight vs. bad bishop or good bishop vs. bad knight, bishop without a counterpart, bishop pair, and open files more seriously.  Focus on one imbalance at a time, then shift to a specific endgame type.  

I'd recommend three weeks of studying pawns (or however long it takes to finish Understanding Pawn Play in Chess) then basic pawn endings (do some novice stuff as a refresher then work on level appropriate stuff) and Nunn's Understanding Chess Endgames and Fundamental Chess Endgames should be a good starting point (Dvoretsky is too advanced at this stage.) 

As for time limits an hour per side is the best one, but you'll need to play lots of classical too.  That's 90 minutes for the first 40 moves then 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.  

Yes, do tons of tactics, not only to memorize patterns but to practice calculation too.   CT-ART 5.0 (do CT-ART Beginner first, it's included) is a great program for that.  The problem with the Chess.com puzzles is you get penalized for taking "too long" to solve a problem, thus reinforcing bad habits such as rushing or not double checking.  You want to refute your chosen move and if you can't find one then play it.  

GT,

Try to improve in all three phases.

Endings: I would echo Forever's recommendation of Silman's endgame book.  It is neatly divided into sections based on the knowledge he thinks players of a particular rating should know (it goes up to master level).  You can get additional books that are more complete (and complex), but they are only necessary if you plan to be a IM or better.

Openings: Don't worry about memorizing tons of opening lines.  Find opening systems that make sense to you so that you can make reasonable moves over the board even if you forget lines. Even 2000 level players routinely make opening errors.  If you get books on openings don't feel like you need to memorize everything (that usually is an overwhelming amount of material), but hopefully the book with explain WHY the moves given are made.

Middlegames:  Best learned by playing, and by looking at games of good players that are well annotated.  After you play a game, even if its only online blitz, analyze it carefully afterward (use an engine to help, but best you try by yourself first).  What was your plan in the middlegame?  Did it work?  If not, did it fail b/c it was the wrong plan, or did you execute incorrectly? 

Best of luck!

Have a look at my study plan here: http://becomingachessmaster.com/study-plan/