How to improve from 800-1300 Part 1
Hello friends, opponents, and viewers!
I have really enjoyed blogging so here's another blog on how 800-1300 can improve their Chess. Many of my friends are under 1300 or just passed 1300 recently and I'm sick of it. They need their Online Chess to improve and either they don't put any work into their rating or they are having a few problems. Now I don't want to shame anyone but I'm going to give an example from my friend Matthew. When I first played him I was rated in Online Chess 859, and Matthew 1046. In our recent Online game I was rated 1546 and Matthew 1088...Now maybe he had issues with time so I'll give him the 1100 rating he deserves but really I believe he should be 1300 or even 1400 by now. Now that's my own mindset and I'm not saying mine is the standard but I want to see improvement over time. So here are some tips to help you go from 800, 900, 1000, 1100, or even if you’re 1200 to 1300! These simple steps will help you rise in your rating and if you find yourself pushing to the limit then you'll hop onto 1400 in no time, but for now let's stick with the easy stuff. In that picture of Calvin and Hobbes they are contemplating, and in the first P that’s what usually happens and that’s what you’ll need to do, what is the first P? Let’s discover the three P’s now!
The first P is “Plan”
When you’re starting out you don’t know what to study or what to memorize. It took me 8-10 long months before I found out what worked for my skill and brain. The question you should know is: Am I an aggressive player or am I a defensive player? If you have no clue as to what to study or what basic Chess principles are check out The Study Plan Directory Now don’t get overwhelmed with the amount of words, links, and memory work. How did I study? Well when I wanted rise I decided to put in lots of effort to memorize Chess lines and that didn’t help me because I had no idea what I was memorizing so what is the cure and where do you start? How about the Ruy Lopez? It’s a common Chess opening and it displays the principles of the opening and basic ideas of what to do. For my Chess club that I’m starting in my school the first opening they learn is the Ruy Lopez because it’s so easy to learn and it follows basic simple Chess principles. If you don’t know these “Principles of the Opening” check out this wonderful article by IM Daniel Rensch. Plan out what you want to learn, how long it’s going to take, how many minutes you spend on the subject per day, week, month, how deep you want to dive into the opening and why it’s important to you. With the first P to plan you’ll give yourself a map to your desired rating. The nice benefit of playing an opening is that you’ll get to learn more when you lose. Now the next P may seem obvious, can you guess it?
After planning you’ll need to Practice what you’ve learned or what you are learning. When you need to practice an opening, trap, plan, etc you can go against the computer and see how it reacts to your plan or line of thinking. Sometimes when I’m going over the Fried Liver Attack (Opening) I would go the game editor on Chess.com, set up the position like move 7 where the most critical move of the opening would occur and play it out ALL the variations as White and black to brush up on my memory. Then after lots of practice against the computer and myself I would go to live Chess and practice my opening and see if any would fall for the trap in the Fried Liver Attack. Now some did and some didn’t when they avoided my trap and I lost I would go over the game and see what I did wrong. This helped because then I could remember what to do next time. It’s a hard spot to be in the three P’s but the next one should give you some major help though as if you follow the plan and practice it’s time for:
Can you guess it? Come on you can do it? Getting angry yet? That’s where this P comes in, it’s called Patience! If Planning and practicing aren’t already difficult and frustrating make sure there’s some time to take a break and to be patient. Your rating will not arrive over night (unless you’re a GM possibly) It takes time and it took me 13 months to get to where I am currently. There were a few times I almost quit because I was “too tired” or “too bored” I didn’t have the patience, but after long and hard hours I told myself that since I spent this time learning I’m using it weather I like it or not! So I had to use patience and motivation to continue and I still need such to continue every now and then. I get my motivation however from my friends and from others that think that I’m “so cool” for playing Chess. I enjoy the game, the challenges, and the thought process that it takes. Give yourself a break and take a “mental vacation”
Now that you know how to plan, practice, and be patient it’s time to use those skills and develop your plan on what you want to learn. The study plans are an excellent amount of information. The practice can be found in the game editor and live chess. Finally the patience can be found in you! Stay tuned for Part 2 coming out in 3-5 days! In Part 2 we’ll discuss the three T’s. What are they? Find out soon. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this blog and if you are an 800-1300 or less please message me and I can help you with openings and such. Please comment below on what part you loved most about this blog and what you expect to be seen next. Thank you, -Kingdom_Hearts
