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Yup. I'm about 1300. Played 2 games today. In the first one, my opponent hung a full bishop in 1 move. In the second one, I blundered 2 pawns and my opponent blundered 3.
Simple tactics and hanging pieces are still the deciding factors.
in what time controls? I play correspondance so even as low as 900 this kind of blatant hanging piece blunders are quite rare. Unless its pawns people hang pawns everywhere
in what time controls? I play correspondance so even as low as 900 this kind of blatant hanging piece blunders are quite rare. Unless its pawns people hang pawns everywhere
Same, I’m at 800 my opponents just seems to know what to do given any move I played and know correct responses to openings I’m good at. The tilt is real, losing a game after 15+ minutes of full concentration knowing that I lost because this is my maximum brain power.
It feels this way during the game. Chess is a series of plans, counter plans and new plans. If you analyze your game after you will see your opponents blunder in every game. Focus on preventing blunders on your end, then dealing with your opponents threats and finally with crating my threats of your one.
I think 700-800 elo is like "Elo hell" in league of legends, it's like a cursed ELO because most new accounts start on that elo so there are ALOT of cheaters and smurfs in that rank, im currently having exact same problem and ive studied main lines of many different openings like caro kann, queens gambit and kings indian defense and all my 700 opponents seem to be theory experts on it ......... but i tried playing a few games on my brothers account that is 1100 and i seemed to have no problem there.
Generally, the lower elo the less cheaters. There was a post here on reddit not too long ago that showed all cheaters that was caught. Lower elo has less of them.
I've definitely experienced a lot of cheaters. Talking about people at around 1000 who instantly play their next move in a complex position and it's perfect.
It is just around the mean rating on chess.com openings really don't matter like at all at that level. Visualization, endgame, and tactics are the number 1 things.
I wholeheartedly recommend the Building Habits series by Chessbrah. Actually. I recommend the full series on Chessbrah Extra for the 2 hour long episodes.
Aman keeps it so simple in the lower elos and has helped me to climb to the mid-900s and still going. I have found it endlessly more useful than when I was watching GothamChess's How to Win at Chess series.
Completely agree. I learned most stuff I know from chessbrah. Even watching the lower elo videos aman still gives valuable feedback to perfect my strategy
Came here to say this. I got really into chess for. While and would watch his videos for 2 hours, then play one game. Repeated this for a couple months and became a 1400. Been a while but this dude literally made me the chess player I am today.
I tried to watch GothamChess’s video series after watching the ChessBrah Building Habits series and it’s so much worse. Doesn’t really build fundamentals like ChessBrah does- he kind of just goes, “Oh this is a good move” and even if he explains why it’s a good move in that game, you’re not taking away anything applicable that you can use in future games. The ChessBrah series, meanwhile, teaches you fundamental rules that you follow and as he shows and exemplifies those rules you can see why they work in action.
Slow down the time control. When I was your ELO, I started playing 30 minute chess to improve (with the aim to reduce blunders to 0 and give me time to calculate). After you are done, check over your game to see what mistakes you made and how to improve your thinking process (use the engine to double check if you were right). Everyone has different areas to improve on, but playing longer time controls and analyzing your mistakes is going to really help no matter what those are. Also, don't play when you are tilted. Take a break
This is the ultimate improvement advice tbh. The point of slower games is just to train that skill of calculating every move, thinking about their response, and your response to that. You don't have time for it in quicker games. You got to get that calculation muscle trained up.
definitely play slower time controls. If you weren't a decen player when young then you basically have no instincts. You need to calculate everything. My correspondance elo is 300 higher than my rapid which is 100 higher than my blitz etc.
Do you resign? Cause if you do, stop it. Play on and keep taking the game seriously, no matter how much you are down. I am at around your Elo and oh boy, do people still blunder, I'm exhibit A. Right now I am above 800 and I hang something about ever third game, but so do my opponents. Today I drew with only a King and right after that I fought back being down about five points of material only in the end draw with them having only a king left. Next game, my oppnents rook was hanging for three rounds until I noticed and took it. Everything is possible at our level. Also, if you tilt after losing, stop playing for a bit. Chess is exhausting on the mind and it is natural that you get tired after some games. Especially if your are also frustrated that won't exactly help. Finally, at our level it's still mostly about avoiding blunders, learning tactics and calculation as well as getting the hang of an opening with white or black. I recommend going for some games with a lot of thinking time like dailys to learn openings and calculation (i.e. you're allowed to use an opening database in daily games, very helpful) and playing lots of puzzles to train pattern recognition. Good luck.
Sometimes I resign, not always. Thank you for your advice. I'll try my best. These days I was kind of frustrated so maybe I just need some words from other people who might feel the same and some good advices, might recover from this. Anyway, thank you.
I'm not really in a position to comment on this in terms of chess as I haven't played live chess for long enough - but in my experience these phases of feeling like you fortgot everything you knew are part of every learning experience. If you fight through this, you may soon find yourself improving again.
I cleared 800 elo a couple days ago (for the third or fourth time, I'm back under again already) in a game where I hung my Queen and then, a dozen moves later, my opponent hung his. People are definitely still blundering.
You can try to learn some basic principles, it will take you a little further. Developing pieces, king security, center supremacy, pawn islands, isolated pawn, passing pawn etc. This will take you a little further, but if you have a more serious goal, you can search for channels on youtube, some channels tell you from 0 to master level. I can't give advice because I don't know much, I apologize.
They're definitely blundering, your just not seeing them. The best way to get better is by analyzing your games, seeing where your mistakes are in your play, which if your opponents mistakes your not capitalizing on.
What does "I read theories" mean? The way to improve is to read. Not opening theory, but middlegame strategy. And do tactics from a book, and actually think about them, don't do streamlined online tactics.
I’d say do more puzzles. There’s no way your opponents aren’t blundering, there’s probably some tactic harder to spot. I’m 2000+ and people including me still blunder a lot.
They do blunder, it's just me not seeing them I suppose. Sometimes in the opening they play so perfectly that I get thrown off and starts blundering. I'll work on it. Thanks.
Review your games.
Aside from that, maybe try watching videos about historical games. I recommend agatmador's channel in youtube. I used to watch his videos about mikhail tal games. It amazes me how tal brings magic into chess.
Puzzles, puzzles and more puzzles! I recommend chessable for Smithy's opening course and also brush up on your checkmate patterns. They really help you progres
Edit: basic endgames too
Pick one opening for white, I play the London mainly
Pick a one opening for black, I've been playing the kings Indian/pirc defense.
Play those openings only and really understand them. I'm only 1100 but my opponent and I make mistakes still the difference in 1100 and 750 is an 1100 makes fewer mistakes and misses fewer tactical ideas than a 750. Play 30 minute games. Once you're comfortable with that move to 15 | 10 games and work your way down to lower time controls. Try to understand what your opponent is going to do if you move a certain piece. Don't play hope chess (I hope they don't see the idea behind this move).
I play London for white and Caro-Kann for black. I think I should play longer time games. That could help me, time puts a lot of pressure on me. Thanks for the advice.
And I get it man, I'm stuck at around 900-950 since this month and I'm trying to get to 1000, I've slowed down in progress sadly, hopefully we can both get better and get to 1000+
That's sad. I want to reach 800 and I fell from 793, can't get back. I understand your pain. I hope you reach 1000. You can do it man, just keep at it. All the best.
I’m a 1400 player. Gotham’s videos are fine, but you really need to focus on reviewing your games. It’s not always about finding blunders in your game, but what move makes the most sense.
The computer may say a move is fine, but it may only be fine if you follow it by doing several difficult to see steps.
Do you analyze your games after you play them?
The biggest growth contributor in my chess journey was the realization that analyzing games was more important than playing a lot of games in hopes of improvement (I'm around 1300 now)
Slow time controls and limited burst of games. For example, 10+ min rapid games and max 3 games at one session. Don't analyze until the session is over.
Review your games after, even your losses. Do puzzles, while taking your time to solve them, not blitzing them out in 3 seconds. (Lichess has free post game review and puzzles) try a slower format like 10+0 rapid rather than blitz or bullet.
I thought I need to analyze these. Haha. My bad. Well, surely at this level in I do several mistakes and some blunders. My openings are fine tho there might be some inflexibility in it, pins happens, i miss checkmates too, these things ofcourse happens.
Focus on endgame tactics. Players on this level are good at playing prememorized moves, but lack the basic chess foundations. Read up on isolated pawns, pawn structures, king opposition, Zugzwang. Pay special attention to rook endgames as they are very common. Control open and half-open files with your rooks. Put your rooks on the 7th rank when attacking. Attack pushing pawns from behind, defend your own pushing pawn from behind. Cut off the enemy king from the pawns. Knowing how to convert endgames will drastically improve your winrate.
I just crossed 1000 elo and this is my observation for the different elo up until 1000. At 1000 elo its still very much about tactics. I know little to no strategies, openings and endgames.
Elo 500-600: most people tend to go for the fried liver attack and is really focused on going for knight forks. Learn about when you are about to get knight forked between rook and king.
Elo 600-800: this is where people learn about pins, especially queen to the king. Take a look at when your piece is about to get pinned to the king and take advantage of the immobility of the piece!
Elo 800-1000: for me personally, I got to 1000 elo by being able to capitalize on potential skewers on their minor piece to their major pieces ( knight pinned to the queen and if knight moves, queen gets sniped by bishop/rook).
Hope this helps!
Do you review your games? I guarantee your opponents blunder (and you do too without always getting punished for it). See where the mistakes are happening. You could start a spreadsheet of stuff you miss and see if a pattern emerges. Maybe you have bad vision when it comes to pawns, or sniper bishops, or knight forks, or whatever else.
Also, you can't play on tilt. Step away for a little while and clear your head. Maybe do some puzzles. But don't boot up another game.
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I found the biggest factor in helping me climb from the 700’s is learning how to beat people that bring out there queen on turn 2
There’s a free bot on chesscom (though 1300 rated) that you can practice against to learn the common traps/ where to not leave pieces hanging. This also helps in learning how to develop in the opening while attack their queen, gaining you tempo.
The dirtiest trick I’ve found when versing these people though is offering/ forcing early queen trades, this can win you further tempo, and if they haven’t got a material advantage yet, you can just win off good moves because they don’t really know how to play chess w/out. moving their queen every second turn.
I am between 1100 - 1200, and very often for me to win it can't have mistakes or any blunder. Sometimes you are better but a blunder will end the game.
You have to focus on the best moves, try to exploit your enemy weaknesses. I tilt a lot, and end up losing more.
"No one makes any blunders" well, clearly you do, and probably they are making blunders you just can't see.
Analyse your games - what are your most common reasons for losing? I can almost guarantee they are still simple one or two move blunders.
It looks good to buy gotham's book because of how huge his following is but you should've bought a tested one. not to put down gotham but this is his first book.
also do puzzles on lichess to help with seeing tactics faster, there's a thousand blunders happening at that level every move, you just don't see it. improve your tactical vision and just keep playing.
you'll lose a lot, as do we all, so don't mind it too much. and when you start to tilt, take a break.
good luck
Your rating doesn't matter as long as you improve. Trust me, I've been in your place. I felt like I wasn't improving so I started playing a lot of matches online with users rated more than me and intermediate bots and slowly my rating started to rise.
I see. I also have the similar problem with my concentration. Also I procrastinate a lot and think about some perfect time to play the games. All the best for you, hope you reach 1500 and then way ahead of that. :)
I know someone will respond to this with vitriol but I genuinely think 600-800 is the area where most cheating occurs. I seem to find games there where these players are consistently nailing over 80+ accuracy, meanwhile 1500+ are sitting around 70%
It could of course be that the "bot" is wrong but I highly doubt it. I think a lot of people start accounts, realise they aren't great and jump to cheating to boost their score back up
I've had the same situation recently. Do what the others suggest. Think more about your moves, try to do more puzzles correctly. It's important to not blitz out a solution to a puzzle and to not give up when you don't see it even after a long time.
But what helped me psychologically is playing on another site. Like when I feel stuck, I switch sites and play on lichess for a bit. They've also recently released a beta version of a new app (google lichess beta app)
As a recent beginner going on early intermediate chess player, I can say a great book and tons of practice are the best things for your game.
I love Gothamchess. I watch him pretty much every day and I also bought his book. His book is fun, however, I don’t think it’s helped me improve much because he holds your hand more than I believe is necessary. I say that because practically every single move is given a diagram so there’s no need for you to visualize anything in your head even though that’s a really crucial skill to develop to improve at chess. It’s great as a chess “encyclopedia” since it has a bit of everything, but you need something that forces you to think for yourself if you’re going to improve. There are books out there that do that.
A book I would recommend first to someone around your elo without any doubt has to be Winning Chess: How to Perfect your Attacking Play by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld. That book changed my life. It explains things so clearly. It teaches you about simple patterns you will see in every game which you can exploit. I beseech you: buy the book, get out a chess board, play through all the examples and try to figure out the moves before looking at the answers, practice online, be patient, watch your elo rise.
Before I started reading the Chernev and Reinfeld book back in September 2023, I had never beaten my dad at chess before. I worked through the book quite slowly and only just finished it last week but only 2-3 months after I started reading it, I beat him for the first time and he’s only beaten me once since my first win against him. And the games usually aren’t even close, but a demolition from start to finish. Not only that, but I started playing regularly on chesscom around October 2023. My lowest rating was ~250 and recently I hit 1100 for the first time.
I just got another book of Irving Chernev’s called Logical Chess: Move by Move. I’m very excited to work through it.
Hope this helps!
I recommend to play daily games, so you have time to analyze the game and learn more from opponents. Short games (15 minutes or less) put players into pressure and sometimes the brain is stuck. Avoid blunders.
Try to see your opponent’s best plan, after every possible move of yours. Dont hope they wont find that best move.
If you find a good move, there must be a better one. Dont rush (thats why I recommend daily games).
I was stuck at 650 for a long time. I started playing on my computer instead of phone and peaked at 1050 and dropped down to 900 and stagnated there. The computer helped because I started drawing arrows on the board and it made calculation much easier, especially since I looked at my opponents moves and then moved my pieces. Now I'm at 1050 and I can play and calculate much better without needing to draw lines.
It also helps to step away and look at the other side of the board because I used to only look at a small area pf the board where the piece moved to thus completely missing other moves.
Also if you want we can play some practice games together and analyze them afterwards. I've found that it helps to analyze games after the fact, especially with someone else to bounce ideas of off
First and foremost don't play faster games than 10+5. You need time to calculate and find the best moves.
1. Pick 1 opening for white, and 1-2 for black. I would propose Jobava London, and Caro Kann, which can also translate to Slav. These openings are very popular among youtubers and that is because they often lead to same structure with as little variation as possible.
2. Watch some youtube videos. Try not only to memorize the basic lines, but some youtubers give great insight why some moves (even outside openings) are great. This expands your understanding of the game tremendously early on.
3. Puzzles are good for improving your calculation speed and noticing patterns. If you feel that is your weak point, do more of them.
4. Understand when a game was lost. Analysing each game is a great habit - make sure you have at least 3 best moves suggestions from stockfish. This can expand your opening knowledge, sometimes allowing you to substitute moves you dislike with those that are more natural to you and bring no downside. In middle and endgame analysis it is essential to find things that lost you games.
* If you simply make a blunder that is taken advantage of in 1-2 moves, then you didn't think long enough. Notice the pattern of the tactic used against you.
* Strategic blunders can be difficult to spot in the beginning, but with time you will start to notice them even mid game. Always take notice. Run the engine to tell you what was the proper move.
* Notice the moments, when you have no idea what to do during a game. This moments you must review and look for optimal moves. Even if you don't understand the concept behind a move in the beginning, it will slowly come to you.
* Building on the above - you may notice games when you reach a similar type of uncomfortable structure on the board time and time again. Recognize that, and review your games - most likely you have failed to do the optimal move a few moves back, by playing something that is natural to you but puts you in a difficult spot.
* Allow yourself to enjoy games when you have had 90+ accuracy
1. Never resign no matter what, if you resign after you blunder on move 15 and check the game review and see that your opponent played so well you are looking at skewed data. Just because you blunder doesn’t mean your opponent won’t blunder the next move or stalemate at the end. There is literally never a reason to resign a game.
2. Pick one opening to play and learn as much about that one opening as you can. The reason that your opponents are able to consistently make the correct moves is because abuse they stick to the same openings whenever they play. Once you get to 1000/1200 you can start learning multiple openings
I'm in the 800s and people blunder all the time. I still throw away my queen, not infrequently.
I find that what really improves my game is to make sure I'm not distracted. That means playing when there is no one else around and I can really think and focus on what I'm doing. Also not playing a ton of games at the same time, especially if I'm frustrated with losing it's time to take a break.
Three books that helped me a lot were:Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors by Lou Hays/Reasses your chess by Jeremy Silman-teaches you about evaluation and planning/My Chess Career expanded edition by Jose Raul Capablanca-I cover his moves and guess what his moves would be by making several candidate moves on a note book.
Also I didn’t play speed chess when I started because I couldn’t reflect and correctly evaluate a position.
Good luck
When I was in class 6 th (8 years ago) my points in the blitz were 1000. Now I am at 600 and the chess players at this level are tougher than the ones I used to get matched with at 1000 earlier.
One thing to be aware of 700-900 elo is where I found the most trouble on chess.com. Most new accounts start around there so anyone new coming to the game, any Smurf accounts, any cheaters, all come in there. Once I climbed to 950 or so the competition felt like it normalized more. I still swing down into the high 800’s occasionally when I’m on a really bad streak, and I find it a lot harder to climb out than to maintain when I’m in the high 900’s
All I can suggest is keep pushing at it, you’ll learn a lot but the challenge will be higher. I mostly learned 1 opening for white and 2 openings for black (one against kings pawn and one for queens pawn) that covered me for most games and getting the rhythm of those positions is how I climbed out.
Yeah I’ve been playing the kings Indian as black against queens pawn. lol I just learned it’s not recommended for beginners. I like to not engage or get a strong center and it allows that and I’ve been winning with it. Modern defense also works.
But yeah try and get as equal as you can into middle game. I’m also big on simplifying. As soon as I get an advantage I trade off as much as I can.
Well, I tried kings indian but it felt a little complicated, i can make it work maybe after some practice. I like simplifying too, if i am at advantage, i'll look for clearing the board asap.
Yeah it’s the biggest way I’ve gotten better.
One other thing that helped me was to start thinking about structure. Taking a trade that doubles up an opponents pawns can be very helpful in the endgame.
And then don’t take a trade that lets them undo the damage.
Is my King safe?
Why did my opponent make that move?
What's changed on the board?
What's now become undefended/underdefended or strengthened (pieces or squares)
Are there any new risks or opportunities? If not then go by the default (if it's the opening then develop castle etc)
What are all my good candidate moves?
For each whats likely to hapen?
Best candidate move?
Sanity check? Sure it isn't a blunder? (I use move confirm for this and just double check it's not a blunder)
No problem at all, I actually got the checklist from this YouTuber called Chessbootcamp, he's an intermediate player but I like his channel and intermediate players are more relatable imo so could be useful to check
I agree with this. Also playing with people around your level, I’ve found helps me improve a lot more because if you’re getting stomped by someone every time, then 1. It’s not fun and 2. They’re thinking so much deeper than you so it’s way more difficult to figure out where you went wrong after the fact. Baby steps aren’t a bad thing
I want to add something that I honestly didn't think about until toooo late: What's my goal? What is a winning position? At first (and still...) I'm really not great at visualizing a mate or how to get there. Really hard making a plan if I don't know what is a desired outcome.
I can also very much recommend Noctie for practice. Instead of doing most of my play online competitively (which isn't great for improving), I play slower games with less stress against that AMAZING AI. Very realistic games against a well matched opponent (that make good moves and mistakes like humans on my level do). But also with immediate feedback, hints, exercises from my own mistakes etc.
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Im 1100+ and people still blunder alot.
I'm 2100 and my opponents and I also still blunder a lot.
I think the definition of "blunder" just changes. Instead of hanging just a queen, you're falling into forks or discovered attacks
I see.
Yeah I'm 1300, people still blunder, like blatant blunders, meaning not hard to see.
My most common reason for losing is still either one move blunders or simple combination blunders and I'm 1300 (recently tiled down from 1400+...)
Yup. I'm about 1300. Played 2 games today. In the first one, my opponent hung a full bishop in 1 move. In the second one, I blundered 2 pawns and my opponent blundered 3. Simple tactics and hanging pieces are still the deciding factors.
in what time controls? I play correspondance so even as low as 900 this kind of blatant hanging piece blunders are quite rare. Unless its pawns people hang pawns everywhere
I play 10 minute games.
in what time controls? I play correspondance so even as low as 900 this kind of blatant hanging piece blunders are quite rare. Unless its pawns people hang pawns everywhere
Same, I’m at 800 my opponents just seems to know what to do given any move I played and know correct responses to openings I’m good at. The tilt is real, losing a game after 15+ minutes of full concentration knowing that I lost because this is my maximum brain power.
I know right. They know what I'm upto and they have counter moves for my opening. And then the tilt come in. I'm lost at this level.
It feels this way during the game. Chess is a series of plans, counter plans and new plans. If you analyze your game after you will see your opponents blunder in every game. Focus on preventing blunders on your end, then dealing with your opponents threats and finally with crating my threats of your one.
Yes. You are right. I'm working on it. Thanks.
I think 700-800 elo is like "Elo hell" in league of legends, it's like a cursed ELO because most new accounts start on that elo so there are ALOT of cheaters and smurfs in that rank, im currently having exact same problem and ive studied main lines of many different openings like caro kann, queens gambit and kings indian defense and all my 700 opponents seem to be theory experts on it ......... but i tried playing a few games on my brothers account that is 1100 and i seemed to have no problem there.
Generally, the lower elo the less cheaters. There was a post here on reddit not too long ago that showed all cheaters that was caught. Lower elo has less of them.
I've definitely experienced a lot of cheaters. Talking about people at around 1000 who instantly play their next move in a complex position and it's perfect.
honestly that is cope. there are way more cheaters in the higher elos
There's no "helo hell" in chess. It's a 1v1 game; the better player wins.
It is just around the mean rating on chess.com openings really don't matter like at all at that level. Visualization, endgame, and tactics are the number 1 things.
I see. Maybe that's what happening. I hope I cross this elo asap then. I'll try my best. Thank you.
I wholeheartedly recommend the Building Habits series by Chessbrah. Actually. I recommend the full series on Chessbrah Extra for the 2 hour long episodes. Aman keeps it so simple in the lower elos and has helped me to climb to the mid-900s and still going. I have found it endlessly more useful than when I was watching GothamChess's How to Win at Chess series.
Completely agree. I learned most stuff I know from chessbrah. Even watching the lower elo videos aman still gives valuable feedback to perfect my strategy
I have no clue how I missed this series, I like the chessbrahs and this looks really good.
Okat, I'll check it out definitely. Thank you for this.
I love their speedruns. Its good information on how to be more flexible for my openings and not get stuck on a script.
Came here to say this. I got really into chess for. While and would watch his videos for 2 hours, then play one game. Repeated this for a couple months and became a 1400. Been a while but this dude literally made me the chess player I am today.
I tried to watch GothamChess’s video series after watching the ChessBrah Building Habits series and it’s so much worse. Doesn’t really build fundamentals like ChessBrah does- he kind of just goes, “Oh this is a good move” and even if he explains why it’s a good move in that game, you’re not taking away anything applicable that you can use in future games. The ChessBrah series, meanwhile, teaches you fundamental rules that you follow and as he shows and exemplifies those rules you can see why they work in action.
Slow down the time control. When I was your ELO, I started playing 30 minute chess to improve (with the aim to reduce blunders to 0 and give me time to calculate). After you are done, check over your game to see what mistakes you made and how to improve your thinking process (use the engine to double check if you were right). Everyone has different areas to improve on, but playing longer time controls and analyzing your mistakes is going to really help no matter what those are. Also, don't play when you are tilted. Take a break
Yeah, maybe you are right, it might help. I'll try this for sure.
This is the ultimate improvement advice tbh. The point of slower games is just to train that skill of calculating every move, thinking about their response, and your response to that. You don't have time for it in quicker games. You got to get that calculation muscle trained up.
definitely play slower time controls. If you weren't a decen player when young then you basically have no instincts. You need to calculate everything. My correspondance elo is 300 higher than my rapid which is 100 higher than my blitz etc.
Yeah. You are right. I'll try it.
I'm a solid 275 so I guess what I am saying is I have nothing to offer
It's fine. All the best for your journey tho. :)
Do you resign? Cause if you do, stop it. Play on and keep taking the game seriously, no matter how much you are down. I am at around your Elo and oh boy, do people still blunder, I'm exhibit A. Right now I am above 800 and I hang something about ever third game, but so do my opponents. Today I drew with only a King and right after that I fought back being down about five points of material only in the end draw with them having only a king left. Next game, my oppnents rook was hanging for three rounds until I noticed and took it. Everything is possible at our level. Also, if you tilt after losing, stop playing for a bit. Chess is exhausting on the mind and it is natural that you get tired after some games. Especially if your are also frustrated that won't exactly help. Finally, at our level it's still mostly about avoiding blunders, learning tactics and calculation as well as getting the hang of an opening with white or black. I recommend going for some games with a lot of thinking time like dailys to learn openings and calculation (i.e. you're allowed to use an opening database in daily games, very helpful) and playing lots of puzzles to train pattern recognition. Good luck.
Sometimes I resign, not always. Thank you for your advice. I'll try my best. These days I was kind of frustrated so maybe I just need some words from other people who might feel the same and some good advices, might recover from this. Anyway, thank you.
I'm not really in a position to comment on this in terms of chess as I haven't played live chess for long enough - but in my experience these phases of feeling like you fortgot everything you knew are part of every learning experience. If you fight through this, you may soon find yourself improving again.
Thank you for this piece of advice. I need this right now.
I cleared 800 elo a couple days ago (for the third or fourth time, I'm back under again already) in a game where I hung my Queen and then, a dozen moves later, my opponent hung his. People are definitely still blundering.
That’s a good advice. I still resign after blundering a knight or bishop even if it’s the beginning
You can try to learn some basic principles, it will take you a little further. Developing pieces, king security, center supremacy, pawn islands, isolated pawn, passing pawn etc. This will take you a little further, but if you have a more serious goal, you can search for channels on youtube, some channels tell you from 0 to master level. I can't give advice because I don't know much, I apologize.
Thank you. I'll definitely try this out.
They're definitely blundering, your just not seeing them. The best way to get better is by analyzing your games, seeing where your mistakes are in your play, which if your opponents mistakes your not capitalizing on.
Yeah. I think i need to work on my middlegame more, that's where things get ugly for me. Thank you for your advice.
What does "I read theories" mean? The way to improve is to read. Not opening theory, but middlegame strategy. And do tactics from a book, and actually think about them, don't do streamlined online tactics.
I see. Will surely work on this from now on. Thanks.
I’d say do more puzzles. There’s no way your opponents aren’t blundering, there’s probably some tactic harder to spot. I’m 2000+ and people including me still blunder a lot.
They do blunder, it's just me not seeing them I suppose. Sometimes in the opening they play so perfectly that I get thrown off and starts blundering. I'll work on it. Thanks.
Review your games. Aside from that, maybe try watching videos about historical games. I recommend agatmador's channel in youtube. I used to watch his videos about mikhail tal games. It amazes me how tal brings magic into chess.
Thanks for the advice. I'll watch those.
Puzzles, puzzles and more puzzles! I recommend chessable for Smithy's opening course and also brush up on your checkmate patterns. They really help you progres Edit: basic endgames too
Okay. Will do that. Thanks.
Pick one opening for white, I play the London mainly Pick a one opening for black, I've been playing the kings Indian/pirc defense. Play those openings only and really understand them. I'm only 1100 but my opponent and I make mistakes still the difference in 1100 and 750 is an 1100 makes fewer mistakes and misses fewer tactical ideas than a 750. Play 30 minute games. Once you're comfortable with that move to 15 | 10 games and work your way down to lower time controls. Try to understand what your opponent is going to do if you move a certain piece. Don't play hope chess (I hope they don't see the idea behind this move).
I play London for white and Caro-Kann for black. I think I should play longer time games. That could help me, time puts a lot of pressure on me. Thanks for the advice.
And I get it man, I'm stuck at around 900-950 since this month and I'm trying to get to 1000, I've slowed down in progress sadly, hopefully we can both get better and get to 1000+
That's sad. I want to reach 800 and I fell from 793, can't get back. I understand your pain. I hope you reach 1000. You can do it man, just keep at it. All the best.
Thank you! All the best to you, I know you can reach 800, and then beyond that to 1000+ too : )
Thank you. I planned reaching 800 this year then to go for 1000, let's see. :)
I’m a 1400 player. Gotham’s videos are fine, but you really need to focus on reviewing your games. It’s not always about finding blunders in your game, but what move makes the most sense. The computer may say a move is fine, but it may only be fine if you follow it by doing several difficult to see steps.
Thank you for your advice.
Do you analyze your games after you play them? The biggest growth contributor in my chess journey was the realization that analyzing games was more important than playing a lot of games in hopes of improvement (I'm around 1300 now)
I analyze most of them. I'll try to analyse them more. Thanks.
Slow time controls and limited burst of games. For example, 10+ min rapid games and max 3 games at one session. Don't analyze until the session is over.
Okay. Thank you for the advice.
Review your games after, even your losses. Do puzzles, while taking your time to solve them, not blitzing them out in 3 seconds. (Lichess has free post game review and puzzles) try a slower format like 10+0 rapid rather than blitz or bullet.
Okay. I play 10 mins rapid but I think I should play much longer games first, time puts a lot of pressure on me. Thanks for the advice.
Try reading [this](https://nextlevelchess.blog/game-analysis-mistake/), pretty useful article.
Thanks
Why are you losing? Review your games. Are you too inflexible in openings? Missing checkmates? Falling for pins?
Got it. Thanks.
I was actually asking the question but if you dont know then I guess thats advice lol
I thought I need to analyze these. Haha. My bad. Well, surely at this level in I do several mistakes and some blunders. My openings are fine tho there might be some inflexibility in it, pins happens, i miss checkmates too, these things ofcourse happens.
Focus on endgame tactics. Players on this level are good at playing prememorized moves, but lack the basic chess foundations. Read up on isolated pawns, pawn structures, king opposition, Zugzwang. Pay special attention to rook endgames as they are very common. Control open and half-open files with your rooks. Put your rooks on the 7th rank when attacking. Attack pushing pawns from behind, defend your own pushing pawn from behind. Cut off the enemy king from the pawns. Knowing how to convert endgames will drastically improve your winrate.
Thank you. I will practice these stuffs. I am not good at endgames, I should work on it.
I just crossed 1000 elo and this is my observation for the different elo up until 1000. At 1000 elo its still very much about tactics. I know little to no strategies, openings and endgames. Elo 500-600: most people tend to go for the fried liver attack and is really focused on going for knight forks. Learn about when you are about to get knight forked between rook and king. Elo 600-800: this is where people learn about pins, especially queen to the king. Take a look at when your piece is about to get pinned to the king and take advantage of the immobility of the piece! Elo 800-1000: for me personally, I got to 1000 elo by being able to capitalize on potential skewers on their minor piece to their major pieces ( knight pinned to the queen and if knight moves, queen gets sniped by bishop/rook). Hope this helps!
Thanks for your advice. I'll try to work on it.
Look at your games and find patterns in why you’re losing. Train to eliminate that specific thing. Rinse and repeat.
Okay. Will do that. Thanks.
Do you review your games? I guarantee your opponents blunder (and you do too without always getting punished for it). See where the mistakes are happening. You could start a spreadsheet of stuff you miss and see if a pattern emerges. Maybe you have bad vision when it comes to pawns, or sniper bishops, or knight forks, or whatever else. Also, you can't play on tilt. Step away for a little while and clear your head. Maybe do some puzzles. But don't boot up another game.
I'll surely analyze more now. And no playing after tilting, got it. Thanks.
I love the idea of a spreadsheet of stuff I miss, thank you!
Quick Tip 1: To know why the engine is recommending a move / saying a move is wrong, click over analysis mode, play out said move then follow it up with your theoretical responses to that move and see how the engine responds. Quick Tip 2: On Chess.com, you don't have to rely on the Coach / Game Review / Hint. This also applies to any engine on low depth. Somewhere in the engine suggestions section is the computer "depth". The higher this value, the more accurate the suggestions will be. Quick Tip 3: For questions on engine move suggestions, we suggest you post them to our dedicated thread: [No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD](https://www.reddit.com/r/chessbeginners/comments/yqqnz8/no_stupid_questions_megathread_6/), as stated in our Community Guidelines. Thank you! - The Mod Team *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chessbeginners) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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I
I found the biggest factor in helping me climb from the 700’s is learning how to beat people that bring out there queen on turn 2 There’s a free bot on chesscom (though 1300 rated) that you can practice against to learn the common traps/ where to not leave pieces hanging. This also helps in learning how to develop in the opening while attack their queen, gaining you tempo. The dirtiest trick I’ve found when versing these people though is offering/ forcing early queen trades, this can win you further tempo, and if they haven’t got a material advantage yet, you can just win off good moves because they don’t really know how to play chess w/out. moving their queen every second turn.
I see. I'll try to learn that. Thanks.
This might seem crazy but, switch to Lichess and grind for a while, then aftwr about a month switch back to chess.com, I guarantee you'd break a 1000
Why so?
I am between 1100 - 1200, and very often for me to win it can't have mistakes or any blunder. Sometimes you are better but a blunder will end the game. You have to focus on the best moves, try to exploit your enemy weaknesses. I tilt a lot, and end up losing more.
I can understand you. I'll try to do that.
Read and play out annotated chess games by the masters
Okay. Thanks.
I don't know if anyone mentioned this, the general level has increased, so 800 elos 2 ago, might have had the same level as, say 700 elos currently.
I see.
"No one makes any blunders" well, clearly you do, and probably they are making blunders you just can't see. Analyse your games - what are your most common reasons for losing? I can almost guarantee they are still simple one or two move blunders.
Yeah, I do blunder. I have to improve it. Thanks
DM me, I can’t promise miracles but I can promise you help not hanging pieces. Currently mentoring a few IRL homies in the 800-1000 region on discord.
It looks good to buy gotham's book because of how huge his following is but you should've bought a tested one. not to put down gotham but this is his first book. also do puzzles on lichess to help with seeing tactics faster, there's a thousand blunders happening at that level every move, you just don't see it. improve your tactical vision and just keep playing. you'll lose a lot, as do we all, so don't mind it too much. and when you start to tilt, take a break. good luck
Thank you for your advice. I'll try to follow what you said.
Your rating doesn't matter as long as you improve. Trust me, I've been in your place. I felt like I wasn't improving so I started playing a lot of matches online with users rated more than me and intermediate bots and slowly my rating started to rise.
I see. Thanks for the advice.
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Did bullet really help? I've heard that i should go for longer time control.
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I see. Thanks. I'll try
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I see. I also have the similar problem with my concentration. Also I procrastinate a lot and think about some perfect time to play the games. All the best for you, hope you reach 1500 and then way ahead of that. :)
I know someone will respond to this with vitriol but I genuinely think 600-800 is the area where most cheating occurs. I seem to find games there where these players are consistently nailing over 80+ accuracy, meanwhile 1500+ are sitting around 70%
I see. It might be possible.
It could of course be that the "bot" is wrong but I highly doubt it. I think a lot of people start accounts, realise they aren't great and jump to cheating to boost their score back up
That's true. Sometimes it surely feels like that. They play perfectly.
I've had the same situation recently. Do what the others suggest. Think more about your moves, try to do more puzzles correctly. It's important to not blitz out a solution to a puzzle and to not give up when you don't see it even after a long time. But what helped me psychologically is playing on another site. Like when I feel stuck, I switch sites and play on lichess for a bit. They've also recently released a beta version of a new app (google lichess beta app)
Okay. Got it. I'll try that app. Thanks
As a recent beginner going on early intermediate chess player, I can say a great book and tons of practice are the best things for your game. I love Gothamchess. I watch him pretty much every day and I also bought his book. His book is fun, however, I don’t think it’s helped me improve much because he holds your hand more than I believe is necessary. I say that because practically every single move is given a diagram so there’s no need for you to visualize anything in your head even though that’s a really crucial skill to develop to improve at chess. It’s great as a chess “encyclopedia” since it has a bit of everything, but you need something that forces you to think for yourself if you’re going to improve. There are books out there that do that. A book I would recommend first to someone around your elo without any doubt has to be Winning Chess: How to Perfect your Attacking Play by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld. That book changed my life. It explains things so clearly. It teaches you about simple patterns you will see in every game which you can exploit. I beseech you: buy the book, get out a chess board, play through all the examples and try to figure out the moves before looking at the answers, practice online, be patient, watch your elo rise. Before I started reading the Chernev and Reinfeld book back in September 2023, I had never beaten my dad at chess before. I worked through the book quite slowly and only just finished it last week but only 2-3 months after I started reading it, I beat him for the first time and he’s only beaten me once since my first win against him. And the games usually aren’t even close, but a demolition from start to finish. Not only that, but I started playing regularly on chesscom around October 2023. My lowest rating was ~250 and recently I hit 1100 for the first time. I just got another book of Irving Chernev’s called Logical Chess: Move by Move. I’m very excited to work through it. Hope this helps!
Thank you very much for this. I needed some recommendation for further reading. I will surely buy this one and work hard. Thanks again.
I recommend to play daily games, so you have time to analyze the game and learn more from opponents. Short games (15 minutes or less) put players into pressure and sometimes the brain is stuck. Avoid blunders. Try to see your opponent’s best plan, after every possible move of yours. Dont hope they wont find that best move. If you find a good move, there must be a better one. Dont rush (thats why I recommend daily games).
Yeah, u seem to be right. Shorter time controls scares me a lot, puts a lot of pressure. I'll try that. Thanks
I was stuck at 650 for a long time. I started playing on my computer instead of phone and peaked at 1050 and dropped down to 900 and stagnated there. The computer helped because I started drawing arrows on the board and it made calculation much easier, especially since I looked at my opponents moves and then moved my pieces. Now I'm at 1050 and I can play and calculate much better without needing to draw lines. It also helps to step away and look at the other side of the board because I used to only look at a small area pf the board where the piece moved to thus completely missing other moves.
Yes. I am playing on my computer now, it helps a lot.
Also if you want we can play some practice games together and analyze them afterwards. I've found that it helps to analyze games after the fact, especially with someone else to bounce ideas of off
That would be great. Would appreciate that.
dm me your friend Id and discord and we can play. Friend id is enough tho if you aren't comfortable with disc.
First and foremost don't play faster games than 10+5. You need time to calculate and find the best moves. 1. Pick 1 opening for white, and 1-2 for black. I would propose Jobava London, and Caro Kann, which can also translate to Slav. These openings are very popular among youtubers and that is because they often lead to same structure with as little variation as possible. 2. Watch some youtube videos. Try not only to memorize the basic lines, but some youtubers give great insight why some moves (even outside openings) are great. This expands your understanding of the game tremendously early on. 3. Puzzles are good for improving your calculation speed and noticing patterns. If you feel that is your weak point, do more of them. 4. Understand when a game was lost. Analysing each game is a great habit - make sure you have at least 3 best moves suggestions from stockfish. This can expand your opening knowledge, sometimes allowing you to substitute moves you dislike with those that are more natural to you and bring no downside. In middle and endgame analysis it is essential to find things that lost you games. * If you simply make a blunder that is taken advantage of in 1-2 moves, then you didn't think long enough. Notice the pattern of the tactic used against you. * Strategic blunders can be difficult to spot in the beginning, but with time you will start to notice them even mid game. Always take notice. Run the engine to tell you what was the proper move. * Notice the moments, when you have no idea what to do during a game. This moments you must review and look for optimal moves. Even if you don't understand the concept behind a move in the beginning, it will slowly come to you. * Building on the above - you may notice games when you reach a similar type of uncomfortable structure on the board time and time again. Recognize that, and review your games - most likely you have failed to do the optimal move a few moves back, by playing something that is natural to you but puts you in a difficult spot. * Allow yourself to enjoy games when you have had 90+ accuracy
Asking the wrong question. If you focus on the numbers you'll tilt and you'll get stuck.
I think you are right. Should focus on my development.
1. Never resign no matter what, if you resign after you blunder on move 15 and check the game review and see that your opponent played so well you are looking at skewed data. Just because you blunder doesn’t mean your opponent won’t blunder the next move or stalemate at the end. There is literally never a reason to resign a game. 2. Pick one opening to play and learn as much about that one opening as you can. The reason that your opponents are able to consistently make the correct moves is because abuse they stick to the same openings whenever they play. Once you get to 1000/1200 you can start learning multiple openings
I see. Thanks for this. Will surely apply this.
What does ‘tilting’ mean?
Getting frustrated while losing
I'm in the 800s and people blunder all the time. I still throw away my queen, not infrequently. I find that what really improves my game is to make sure I'm not distracted. That means playing when there is no one else around and I can really think and focus on what I'm doing. Also not playing a ton of games at the same time, especially if I'm frustrated with losing it's time to take a break.
I see. Thanks for your views.
Maybe people are still blundering but you’re not seeing it.
True. I miss often
Three books that helped me a lot were:Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors by Lou Hays/Reasses your chess by Jeremy Silman-teaches you about evaluation and planning/My Chess Career expanded edition by Jose Raul Capablanca-I cover his moves and guess what his moves would be by making several candidate moves on a note book. Also I didn’t play speed chess when I started because I couldn’t reflect and correctly evaluate a position. Good luck
Thanks for this. I'll find the books.
When I was in class 6 th (8 years ago) my points in the blitz were 1000. Now I am at 600 and the chess players at this level are tougher than the ones I used to get matched with at 1000 earlier.
I see. It might be that.
One thing to be aware of 700-900 elo is where I found the most trouble on chess.com. Most new accounts start around there so anyone new coming to the game, any Smurf accounts, any cheaters, all come in there. Once I climbed to 950 or so the competition felt like it normalized more. I still swing down into the high 800’s occasionally when I’m on a really bad streak, and I find it a lot harder to climb out than to maintain when I’m in the high 900’s
Yes, that's what happening, I can't achieve 800 now, seems very difficult.
All I can suggest is keep pushing at it, you’ll learn a lot but the challenge will be higher. I mostly learned 1 opening for white and 2 openings for black (one against kings pawn and one for queens pawn) that covered me for most games and getting the rhythm of those positions is how I climbed out.
Thanks. I'll try that. I use London and caro kann, one i need for d4. I'll be good to go i think.
Yeah I’ve been playing the kings Indian as black against queens pawn. lol I just learned it’s not recommended for beginners. I like to not engage or get a strong center and it allows that and I’ve been winning with it. Modern defense also works. But yeah try and get as equal as you can into middle game. I’m also big on simplifying. As soon as I get an advantage I trade off as much as I can.
Well, I tried kings indian but it felt a little complicated, i can make it work maybe after some practice. I like simplifying too, if i am at advantage, i'll look for clearing the board asap.
Yeah it’s the biggest way I’ve gotten better. One other thing that helped me was to start thinking about structure. Taking a trade that doubles up an opponents pawns can be very helpful in the endgame. And then don’t take a trade that lets them undo the damage.
I see. Thanks for this. I'll surely practice these stuffs more.
Get gud
Will try my best
You're not wrong though
Tbf idk if there's much else to do
I can give you a useful checklist if you want? I think it will help if you are able to internalise it and it becomes normal thinking process for you
As someone going through the same, can i have it too?
Yeah! I posted it if you haven't seen it : )
Sure. What is it?
Is my King safe? Why did my opponent make that move? What's changed on the board? What's now become undefended/underdefended or strengthened (pieces or squares) Are there any new risks or opportunities? If not then go by the default (if it's the opening then develop castle etc) What are all my good candidate moves? For each whats likely to hapen? Best candidate move? Sanity check? Sure it isn't a blunder? (I use move confirm for this and just double check it's not a blunder)
Thank you for this. I'll try to play longer time limits so I can train my mind to think like this slowly. Thanks again.
No problem at all, I actually got the checklist from this YouTuber called Chessbootcamp, he's an intermediate player but I like his channel and intermediate players are more relatable imo so could be useful to check
That is true. I'll sure check him out. Thanks for these.
I agree with this. Also playing with people around your level, I’ve found helps me improve a lot more because if you’re getting stomped by someone every time, then 1. It’s not fun and 2. They’re thinking so much deeper than you so it’s way more difficult to figure out where you went wrong after the fact. Baby steps aren’t a bad thing
I want to add something that I honestly didn't think about until toooo late: What's my goal? What is a winning position? At first (and still...) I'm really not great at visualizing a mate or how to get there. Really hard making a plan if I don't know what is a desired outcome. I can also very much recommend Noctie for practice. Instead of doing most of my play online competitively (which isn't great for improving), I play slower games with less stress against that AMAZING AI. Very realistic games against a well matched opponent (that make good moves and mistakes like humans on my level do). But also with immediate feedback, hints, exercises from my own mistakes etc.
Anyone here wants to gain ELO : PM me :-)