Journey to 2300 rapid: The Beginning (Reaching 1500)

Introduction

My account on this site has been here since March 2020. To be totally honest, I had been playing chess a few years before I started this account, so I am not actually a prodigy or any of that. One thing that is probably the main reason I got here so quickly was probably because I had great coaches.

It has been a long journey, with some very good games, and some devastating tilts, but my enjoyment of the game has definitely risen!

1200 - 1400

This is of course only starting from when I created the account. Back then, chess was just a "hobby" to me, something I happened to be decent at. I had no real planning in my games, and just waited and waited until my opponent blundered.

I started at roughly 1200 - 1400, tossing my rating around like crazy!

The game below sort of shows how I generally played:

Yes, I am already up a piece! You would think I would go onto win this game, but I make things a lot more trickier than needed.

It's a pity that I didn't even know how to develop properly, but it is still very much part of this journey. The reason I probably had such bad games is because I didn't spend enough time at all for 30 mins.

When I was leaving this rating range, I had finally managed to play some sorts of plans. These were not exactly huge, but they were still something

My technique was still not polished as you will see, but at least I was capable of holding the game:

While yes, I couldn't play the endgame properly, I don't expect the >1400 me to know how to play complex endgames!

Becoming a 1400

I was slightly more refined I guess when I became a 1400, but I played quite poorly against sharper openings, especially when I had to defend

The problem was that I still was very greedy for material. Rather than grabbing every single pawn I saw, I should've focused on defending my King.

But I was clearly getting better, now with more logical moves in some games:

For those of you reading this below 1600, I really don't expect you to know all the plans in IQP positions. Honestly, I probably played into this because it didn't blunder anything!

Black is slightly better here because they have developed more pieces. Because of this pawn, they enjoy more central space than white, and may have greater attacking chances and dynamic play. 

Don't get me wrong: if I were to generally choose a side to play in these kinds of positions, I would often choose the side playing against it, so don't be afraid to play against it. It just so happens that the way white played gave black a better version of this.

These positions tend to be close to equal, or even equal to engines, so you shouldn't be afraid of either side (unless one side has made it better for the other).

Anyways, back to the game:

While I made a few strange decisions, there were a few logical moves I made, so this game was actually a good one for me. I think I may not have converted it well, but I may still have won. At the time, I would not have appreciated these simple and logical moves, but these are what many people miss.

To play a good game of chess, your moves need to have reasons behind them. If you don't understand why you played certain moves, then how do you expect to find great moves if you can't even understand the basic ones (and I am NOT talking about the lazy tactics which chess.com will freely give brilliants for, but ones which are absolutely needed or make life much easier).

Crossing 1500

1500 in my view is like a checkpoint. At this stage, many will have heightened tactical vision thanks to the endless puzzles done. To 1500s, tactics are everything, and the small but good moves are still not appreciated. For me, I feel that this is the rating at which my tactical vision was perhaps the strongest (well, also including 1900)!

Confused by the last statement? Well, the thing is that we eventually just start becoming lazy (unless you are super strong with tactics), and we often assume that our opponents have not blundered anything, so we just stop looking for them.

Below is one of the first few games I played as a 1500:

This game had quite a lot of tactics compared to normal, showing just how essential good tactical vision was. I finally also managed to convert properly too, something I couldn't do for a very long time. This game was quite a good game for a 1500.

KEY INGREDIENTS

1500 is still quite a high rating which may take a long time to reach. Upon reaching it, being able to play simple but logical moves is not needed so much, but it is still important to play these once in a while. To reach it, I feel you need to be able to:

• Spot tactics fairly easily
• Know your opening more (and where to develop pieces to)
• Convert material into wins (at least a 2 pawn advantage if not 1 pawn and a strong position)
• Manage your time properly

Sure, many consider 1500 to be intermediate, but it is still quite a good rating. It is only really the positional understanding which separates 1500 from higher ratings which we will get onto next time.