YES! 5 Signs you've improved at chess this year!

Friends, what a chess ride 2025 has been! From Magnus knocking a table to our own personal journeys, this year has been something!

As we usually use the last month of the year to reflect on the past year, let’s take a moment to congratulate ourselves on all our achievements over the last 12 months.

Chess is not an easy game by any means, not to throw shade at any other games (but I’m looking at you, checkers).

Measuring improvement can be hard. That’s why today I’m suggesting five ways to see how much progress you made this year:

1- The daily puzzles became easier

The daily puzzle is now part of my morning routine, along with Wordle and then going through my daily games and blundering my pieces.

If you’re not using that feature, I highly recommend it (the daily puzzles, not blundering your pieces in daily games)

The idea is that the puzzles get harder every day of the week, starting on Monday, when they are the easiest. As an added bonus, the explanations are available in video format and cover all the subtleties of the puzzle.

The way you go through those seven puzzles in a week can be an indicator of your understanding of the game.

Once upon a time (that time being last year), Monday puzzles were fairly easy, but it took all of my mental power to solve a Tuesday puzzle. By Friday, I didn’t understand anything and was bleeding from the eyes just from looking at the positions.

Nowadays, the Monday and Tuesday puzzles are trivial. Half of the time, I manage to find the solution to the Wednesday puzzle on the first try. Sometimes, I even get the idea behind the Saturday puzzle!

For me, seeing that progression through the week is motivating. The only puzzle left for me is finding a way to play more chess in my adult schedule!

2- Your Elo has gone up

I said it and I will repeat it again for the people in the back: your Elo isn’t a representation of who you are, or even of how strong a chess player you are.

However, it can be an indicator of your last 12 months. Although it’s not an absolute measure of progress, you can feel the highs and the lows of the year… and see that the lows were not as long as they felt.

Seeing our curve over 365 days puts everything in perspective. We see the months when we didn’t have time to play, the ones when we did, and how that impacted our results.

If your rating has decreased, please forget everything I said and focus on the next point. I said nothing. *whistles as nothing happened*

3- Your knowledge increased

My last win with d4-d5 with black. I have more losses than wins with that opening (FOR NOW!)

So, my Elo has dropped a bit in the last month. That doesn’t mean I necessarily regressed. I just changed my opening with Black against d4. For the last year and a half, I played the Dutch, following a suggestion from Levy Rozman. I had some wins and some losses, but in the end, it wasn’t an opening that fit my style.

While iit was fun to launch kingside attacks, I felt like I was often playing the same games because I kept the center closed. I also often found myself wondering what my short-term plans were. It just wasn’t for me. I caught myself thinking, “Ah shoot,” every time my opponent opened with d4.

I lied, I was thinking something more vulgar than “Ah shoot”.

In the last month, I decided to meet d4 with d5. I’m now learning how to react in the opening against players experienced with d4. It feels like arm wrestling with my non-dominant hand.

However, I know experience will kick in and I’ll catch up. It will just take time.

Also, I’m super tired. I’ve had a lot on my plate since July. It makes sense that I’m losing more games under these conditions, but I know I’ve still improved.

I STILL IMPROVED? RIGHT?!?! TELL ME I STILL IMPROVED!!!!

4- Your instincts are sharper

My biggest win in Blitz was this game against a 1549 when I was 983.

As a year has passed, you now feel it in yourself when something is afoot. (Why do I sound like an 1820 detective all of a sudden?)

My dear fellow, you have cultivated that most indispensable faculty: an instinctive discernment of the board before you, knowing precisely when the game bends in your favor, and when you are, alas, fighting against the inevitable. (Not helping my “writing like Sherlock Holmes” situation.)

Just a little higher is a game of yours truly, showing a 500-higher-rated player not to blunder in my presence. (Back to being myself! Phew!)

Pattern recognition, combined with time management and, most importantly, emotional management, makes you a more capable player.

Here’s my one of my last wins while learning to play d5, where I blundered a piece on move 13. 

A year-younger me would have said, “SHOOT!” (again, not that word) and resigned. But I made a plan based on what I knew: my passed pawn was my only hope.

And it was.

Hurray!

5- You have more fun

YES! OUI! SÍ! (Just showcasing that I know at least one word in three languages)

When we talk about improvement, we tend to think only in terms of skills on the 64 squares. However, the ones inside us matter much more. Those are the things we can carry with us for the rest of our lives.

I mean, the “learn to think before acting” mindset I’ve acquired in chess will be useful in many situations in everyday life. I’m not sure when I’ll ever use my 8-move refutation of the Englund Gambit outside of the board.

However, learning to have fun through the waves of emotions that chess brings has instilled grit and perseverance in me. This year, particularly since July, I’ve learned to put my ego aside while playing. I’ve learned that I play better when I’m having fun.

Because I’m better and happier when I’m having fun.

And the goal of playing a game is to have fun.  ❤️

Your recap

If you want to see some cool stats on your chess journey, someone created this Spotify-Wrapped-like website. It’s pretty cool:  https://chess-wrapped-three.vercel.app/

If you speak French, you can follow me on Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube or you can revisit my chess articles archive here.

For now, I don’t know if the Chess Improvers Challenge will be back next year or what shape it will take if it does. So I want to take a moment to wish you all the best for the coming year. ❤️

Pierre-Luc