I’m stuck at 1400…

So I have been stuck at around 1350-1400 blitz/rapid for what feels like eternity. It’s my dream to achieve the GM title one day, but I feel like I am doing things wrong. I am very good at puzzles, and I find most tactics in games. I feel though, that my middle game/engame need some work. What should I be studying to get to 1600?. Any tips and/or advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

@1

"1350-1400 blitz/rapid" ++ Do not play blitz, play 15|10 rapid.

"It’s my dream to achieve the GM title one day" ++ 7 years of hard work

"I am doing things wrong" ++ Yes

"I am very good at puzzles" ++ Puzzles are not chess, like penalty kicks are not soccer.

"I find most tactics in games" ++ Really? Tactics for you and for your opponent?

"my middle game" ++ Analyse your lost games thoroughly.

"engame" ++ Study a book on endgames.

"What should I be studying to get to 1600?" ++ Mainly your own lost games.

Have an opening repertoire and basic tactic radar before anything else. In my experience at least. I was also stuck at 1400 chess.com at some point. I did not believe in people who say do not study openings. And I also did not follow people who say you got to study endgames first.

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 this simple algorithm:

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. I provide my students with more advanced algorithms that incorporate these fundamental principles. 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.

You gained 100 elo in the last month so you can't expect just 100% linear progression

just continue playing and studying chess...for the GM title, well...good luck.

I was stuck at 1400 for like 9 months. That ish sucked dude. All I can say is keep grinding. Study your lost games thoroughly. Start really learning about the ideas of the openings you use and face more often. People try to memorize lines, but this is a flawed approach. Trying to remember certain ideas has helped me move further in my humble opinion. Also, I would set more realistic goals if I were you. I'm not going to say it's impossible, especially since I don't know you, your age, your educational background, or your overall experience with chess, I just know that it is hard for most people to comprehend just how difficult it is to reach the GM level. I would set your goals high but with likelier probabilities. Like when I started playing chess almost 2 years ago, my first goal was 1500 Rapid and I've finally achieved that. Now I've set my next big goal to 2000 Rapid. I don't really think of trying to reach master level because there's so much in between that has to be learned and I just don't think i'm prime enough for that type of work. That's A LOT OF WORK.

Good luck. Best vibes!

Chess tempo and lichess have unlimited puzzles.

Join the club

Good Positional Chess, Planning & Strategy Books for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/introduction-to-positional-chess-planning-strategy

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

"People try to memorize lines, but this is a flawed approach." +++I memorize lines. And it is not a wrong approach for me. I memorize and play it a lot full games that how I start to understand the ideas to the middle game. And even up to endgame.

@anonymous_training1

At your level, yes that is probably more necessary than for someone at 1400. Any coach or higher rated player I've talked to expresses the same thought. At that level, it's pretty much useless to try and memorize lines because nobody at that level plays much into the theory anyway. But it also probably depends on the person. My coach rages against memorizing lines and instead implores me to remember ideas. He's 2300+ rapid as well so I definitely take him at his word as far as that goes. I definitely would not give the same advice to someone int the 2000+ range. At that level I imagine it's more necessary than ever.

Waiit... I think I know who #16 is. She is the infamous playing_online_secrestly1. Am I right? She was also from Philippines and around the same rating. I think I found you.

1. Always analyse every single game, including ones you win. When you analyse look for the first mistake you made (no matter how small)

2. Dont play blitz. Play slower time like 10-0 or 15-10.

3. Take the lessons here on chess.com.

4. Build an opening repertoire so you are not surprised by openings. This takes a LONG time.

5. Watch Youtube teachers like Gotham, Daniel Narodisky, The Butcher (Miodrag) and this will help a lot

6. Dont mean to be mean, but you wont become a GM. If you were that good, you wouldn't be asking on here for help

@BigFoxy90 +++ I memorized lines when I was a beginner. And my improvement was very fast. So, time to time, I memorize openings because it is pretty effective to stay sharp in the openings. Opening patterns are just like tactical and strateguc themes. Good moves come automatic. In my opinion only. It may not work for others.

Where I got the tip. I once opened Reassess Your Chess 4th edition when I was a beginner. I could not understand anything. I followed Jeremy Silman's tip in there in the Introduction if I am not mistaken; To have an opening repertoire and basic tactical radar first. But I did it for 3 years before doing anything else. He was correct, I tend to understand strategy now if I read. I did not know what to do so okay I made a repertoire and I memorized opening lines.

The truth is the there's no way to get unstuck. You have to keep following your training schedule and hope that someday you break the wall. I have come to understand this and that's why I don't ask anybody for any advice because there's none.

You could instead memorize reasoning behind certain lines, which will let you find those lines without needing to memorize them.

It's often just more efficient to understand than memorize, unless it's very sharp tactical theory that needs to be navigated well, or solved endgames you need to know how to convert (although even for those, you can often convert them on principle alone, and memorize only a few key positions)

unfortunately for aspiring grandmasters, this tends to be true (like, always.)