How to Know You’re Getting Better at Chess Even When Your Rating Doesn’t Show It
A few days ago, I listened to a podcast about League of Legends. It’s actually a game I used to play a lot but haven’t picked it up in a while. During the podcast, one segment caught my attention though. It was a discussion on how to measure improvement. Around the 18-minute mark, the hosts argued that most players have no idea if they’re actually getting better. They only look at their rank, which is like checking your weight every day and calling that “fitness.”
Naturally, I thought about chess.
We love numbers: ratings, performance scores, accuracy percentages. But if we use only those to gauge progress, we’ll often conclude we’re stuck or failing, even though we might be improving in ways the rating system can’t immediately capture. The same way a League player shouldn’t judge themselves only by their win rate, a chess player shouldn’t live and die by their rating chart.
Let’s reframe how to measure improvement in chess by focusing less on outcomes and more on inputs and process.
Track Inputs, Not Just Outcomes
If you only look at your rating, you’re measuring something you can’t fully control. You might play brilliantly and still lose to a stronger opponent. You might even gain rating from a bad game if your opponent blunders. Ratings are lagging indicators that reflect past habits, not current growth.
What you can measure are the things that lead to improvement. For instance:
- How many games did you review this week?
- How many tactical puzzles did you solve?
- How often did you review your openings before playing?
- How many of your losses did you annotate and reflect on?
These are things you can control. Improvement comes from stacking those inputs consistently over time, not from hoping the rating gods bless you after a lucky tournament.
Define Metrics You Can Influence
In the podcast, the hosts talked about measuring behaviors you can actually change, such as positioning or decision-making, instead of only focusing on the result of the game. The chess equivalent might look like:
- Average number of blunders per game.
- How long you think in critical positions.
- Whether you’re using your time evenly or panicking in time trouble.
- How often you spot your opponent’s tactical ideas before moving.
Pick two or three metrics that matter for your next phase of growth. For example, if your biggest weakness is moving too quick and blundering, track how many times you blunder after having used less than 10 seconds on the clock. Over time, aim to reduce that number. That’s measurable progress.
If you're enjoying this blog post, you can find many more articles and subscriber to my "Chess Chatter" substack here: https://chesschatter.substack.com/
The Learning Phase vs. the Execution Phase
One idea I’ve found helpful is separating the learning phase from the execution phase. These two periods feel very different and if you don’t understand the distinction, it’s easy to get discouraged.
The learning phase is when you’re exposing yourself to new ideas: maybe you’re studying a new opening, trying to understand pawn structures or reworking how you think about endgames. It’s exciting but also messy. You’re trying to apply new concepts while unlearning old habits. That friction usually makes your play worse for a little while and that’s completely normal. Your rating might even drop because you’re consciously trying to implement something unfamiliar. That’s still progress. You’re building a foundation.
Then comes the execution phase, the point when you’ve internalized those ideas. You’re no longer thinking, “Remember to activate the rook” but instead you just do it. Your mind is freer to focus on other aspects of the position. This is when improvement becomes visible. Your rating, accuracy scores and performance results finally catch up to the work you’ve put in.
If you’ve been studying hard but not seeing rating growth, ask yourself: Am I in a learning phase or an execution phase? It’s often the difference between short-term frustration and long-term perspective.
Reflection Creates Feedback Loops
Playing more games doesn’t guarantee improvement. What matters is whether you reflect on them. One website that can help you with analyzing your games is Chessalyz.ai which I talked about in this post here: https://chesschatter.substack.com/i/173623719/chessalyzai-learning-to-annotate-through-questions
The feedback loop and analyzing your games, which includes what went wrong, why it went wrong and what you’ll do differently next time, is where most of the learning happens.
After every game, take five minutes to ask:
- What was the critical moment of the game?
- Was my mistake tactical, strategic or psychological?
- Have I made this mistake before?
Then, write a short sentence about how you’ll prevent it next time. For example: “In even positions, I’ll check for pawn breaks before making a slow move.” That’s how you turn vague insight into specific improvement.
Look for Trends, Not Individual Results
Instead of overanalyzing every loss, zoom out. Look at your last 20–30 games. Are you making fewer blunders? Are you reaching more playable positions out of the opening? Are you converting more winning endgames? Even small directional changes, such as losing fewer games due to time trouble, mean you’re getting better.
Progress is about direction, not perfection.
A Simple Tracker You Can Try
Here’s a minimal “improvement tracker” you can steal:
- Games played this week: ___
- Games reviewed within 24 hours: ___
- Blunders per game (average): ___
- Minutes per day spent studying: ___
- Mistakes I repeated this week: ___
- One new insight I learned: ___
If you want a much more in-depth (and nicer looking!) version of this improvement tracker, become a paid subscriber to my "Chess Chatter" substack and download it at the bottom of the post here: https://chesschatter.substack.com/p/how-to-know-youre-getting-better
There are five pages to the tracker including “Weekly Tracker”, “Performance Metrics”, “Learning Log”, “Reflection Journal” and “Instructions”.
