Maybe everyone gets better in different ways but I’ll explain exactly what I’ve done. I’m at an older age (17) so I’m sure your son in third grade could improve his rating even faster than me. I’ve seen people go from beginners to national masters in two years which I was I am trying to achieve. Most of what I do is opening study, maybe three or four hours a day. Learn your openings and understand the ideas. I know everyone says you only need opening study when your 2000+ but that is what brought me to nearly 2000 uscf in the first place. After I got a good enough opening repertoire I started with tactics. If you see my graphs it wasn’t too long ago that I was low rated, iv done roughly 10,500 tactics on here in a bit more than a year. Make sure your tactical rating is a few hundred above your USCF or else tactics should be your aim. Many 1800 ish players in my area have tactical ratings 2500+ yet my tactical rating is lower and my USCF is above theirs, strong tactical players need openings too and that’s what sets many of us apart. It seems like a lot of lower rated players start to think too early in their game because they don’t know the lines. Players also tend to plateau, I haven’t experienced mine yet but I’m sure it will come. I don’t know if minimal uscf rating improvement necessarily says the player isn’t getting better. People plateau because they are still learning what it takes to get to the next level. However the times my uscf rating went up the fastest during my 1250 to 1986 jump was when I’d take a few week brake from tournaments and just slow down and study. I did this many times and it surely helps. Here would be my study plan if I where still in your sons rating range.
1. Understand your openings, reach a good middle game position so you can put your skills to the test. Maybe get some opening books and a database to see what grandmasters play in certain positions. I recommend the book “Attacking with E4 and D4” by John Emms and Angus Dunnington.
2. Tactics everyday. Use this website to reach a tactical rating above your USCF (by a few hundred points).
3. Stay consistent.
4. Don’t confuse studying with playing. Playing chess can help but it’s just a penny in the bucket. You’ll learn far more by strictly studying.
5. After openings and tactics doing better start on the Endgame, (at least this was my order). Ready Silmans Complete Endgame Course all the way to Class A. You can draw losing games and win others with the information in this book.
6. Go out of your comfort zone. If you find yourself consistently losing in some opening or as some side don’t be afraid to entirely change your openings or go for something else. Just be sure you only use what you know and never mess around in a game.
7. Play for the win. When my rating was about 1600 USCF I drew a 2194 and I was up four points in the game. I only took the draw because I was scared I would mess up. I know it’s hard but the best thing to do is ignore rating, play to learn. I drew far too many masters as a lower rated player and all it did was take away valuable information.
8. Rating improves with what you learn. Don’t rush rating, just start studying. Rating is only a reflector and it’s often wrong. If rating is your goal aim for 2000 in a year! Make some goals people would see as unrealistic and prove them wrong or get as close as you can. Chess can’t reflect our intelligence because it takes lots of studying to improve our rating. We need information we don’t already have. Chess won’t come naturally it has to be learned!
Hopefully you find some of this helpful 😃
My son is in 3rd grade. He has been stuck between 1430 and 1550 USCF for about 6 months now. It's clear he is getting better (I can almost never beat him anymore in slow games; and when he plays rated blitz, he usually beats an 1800 - 2000 player or two each tourney now). But he also misses opponents ideas / threats on some pretty basic situations, and loses all-too-often games to kids who are lower rated - but more careful.
As a result, he's gotten rather discouraged. His coach (a GM) is very optimistic and is focused on his overall chess maturation process, and says this will carelessness will fade as he gets a little older. But I wanted to see if any parents / coaches here have helped their kids through this sort of situation so they don't lose interest and hope. I've gotten conflicting advice, which seems to fall into 2 camps:
1. Do a variety of things: Chess.com lessons, drills, tactics, watch some videos, review master games in his opening lines.
2. Simplify - do nothing other than review slow games with his coach, and do chess.com tactics until his rating moves up. Revisit at that point.
Sorry for the long post, but any advice appreciated.
Thanks.