2025 Chess Improvement, here we come !
Happy new year 2025 to every chess lover on Chess.com !
This year, Chess.com encourages the community to reach greater heights in their chess journey by disclosing to the world their goals and journey for improvement. I will share with you today what is my current situation, what are my goals for the year, and how I plan on improving up to those goals (and beyond!)
The situation as of January 1st, 2025
For the last year, I played Daily games more regularly on Chess.com, I did a lot of puzzles, and I played Rapid OTB games at a local club. The local club uses its own rating, outside the national chess federation, in part to reduce fees at the club's tournament. Also, during the last quarter of 2024, I've played TOO MUCH Bullet, and I feel like it hampered my improvement (oops...). I review all Daily Games, most of the games played at the club, but never the Bullet games (oh yeah, I missed that easy tactic? Of course). Lastly, you can note I am a 30-year-old finance professional, so I might not have as much time as kids or teenagers to improve at chess. My ratings at the beginning of the year are as follows, but bear in mind I have not played much Blitz or Rapid on Chess.com in 2024 :
- Bullet : 1010
- Blitz : 831
- Rapid : 1180
- Daily : 1587
- Puzzles : 2657
- Local club : 1416
Goals for 2025
When I reflect on 2024 and the improvement I have made during that year, I believe it is possible to increase my Rapid ranking on Chess.com up to 1500. My Daily rating is above it, suggesting I know how to blunder check and use basic strategy to secure a game. The challenge will most likely be to move fast enough. I have all the time in the world when playing Daily Games, but Rapid is live, no time to waste.
I also want to stop playing Bullet games. It goes too fast to really learn from mistakes, as a second or two of thinking would be enough to not blunder a game. So, if I REALLY want to play a quick game, it will only be Blitz. I won't set any rating goals however, as I do not intend to play Blitz too often. I will say, however, that I would like my Blitz rating to follow the same trend of Rapid.
Finally, I have heard and read a lot of talk about how slower time control makes for better quality game and improvement. Therefore, I would like to enter an OTB Classical tournament, and have a rating from the Chess Federation of Canada. Not only would I finally know how I compare nationally amongst chess player, it will be a great opportunity to get a feel for those hours-long games, recapped in 10 minutes on YouTube and Chess.com. How far could I calculate in a critical position ? Will time management be an issue with so much time available ? All questions to be answered by Fall 2025, when I plan to join an Open tournament and a new club offering nationally rated weekly tournaments.
How will I get there ?
Obviously, setting goals is only the first step. To achieve it, there needs a plan. A study plan, to be more specific. I have read the different guides published around January 1st on Chess.com, and did a little mix and match to get something that suits me and my goals. The plan is split into different categories, and should be similar to what is expected of an intermediate player seeking improvement.
Tactics
This one is straightforward, as recognizing patterns is essential at all levels. To train my tactical vision, I will do the following daily: Daily Puzzle, Puzzle Rush (3 min and 5 min), and at least 5 Puzzles.
I might do more than this, but it will be the very minimum I do every day. This ensures I get at least 15 minutes a day working on general tactics. However, weekly (most likely on a weekend's morning), I will go a little further and will solve puzzles of a specific theme, mostly one I struggled with in my recent games. I will also solve Puzzle Rush Survival, to try and set a new PR every week. I expect this to take me about half an hour. All this tactical puzzle solving will bring us to about 2 hours of tactical puzzle solving per week. That's not insignificant !
Play games (and review)
This will be the bulk of the time allotted to chess, who would've thought ? I play every Tuesday evening at my local club for about 3 hours, where we play 3 to 4 Rapid OTB games. Usually, I try to memorize the game and write it down later. Unfortunately, my memory is not as good as GMs, so I sometime struggle to remember all of them, but I usually remember 2 games at least. I seldom play while writing down the moves: it makes me feel like I am losing more time to my opponent who does not. For the sake of improvement, I might have to sacrifice some game time in order to get an accurate review of my games...
I will also be playing 1-2 online Rapid Games weekly, when I can spare an hour or half an hour to it. Also, I do not have to stress about remembering the moves when playing on Chess.com, so that's a bonus ! All this game time should bring us to 4 hours of play weekly. Not too much, not too little. And I will most likely take an hour to review all games played weekly to reassess where I need improvement and learn concrete lessons.
Opening
For now, this portion will be brief. I know some opening lines, trap to avoids, theme to follow for specific openings, but I mostly rely on basic opening principles. I usually pick up a few moves of theory every game, after reviewing the games. The only thing I will do, is to look at a video lesson about openings played during the week while reviewing the games. This will add more understanding to the review, as well as increase my knowledge of the opening. I'm an e4-e5 player, but I don't intend to read deep theories at the moment (even if I have to admit I love the Italian game and its variants). All this could add about an hour of study throughout the week.
Strategy/Middlegame
Ah! The bane of intermediate player, but a key to improving : middlegame strategy.
I had 2 books sitting on my shelf in 2024 that I barely read : The Amateur's Mind by IM Jeremy Silman and Chess Strategy for Club players by IM Herman Grooten. I will read throughout the year, and incorporate the concepts I learn from them in my games. I plan to get at least an hour of reading during the week. Honestly, this might be the hardest concepts to improve on, I think.
Endgame
"Bring the kid to the endgame". In 2025, the goal is to not be the kid in this quote, but the master who brings them and shows how to convert a position. I have lost, like many others, positions I thought were won because I lacked the proper knowledge to convert certain type of positions. To avoid this, every week I will tackle a Chess.com lesson on a specific endgame position, and do drills on that position. As I gain more knowledge, I will vary the type of drills I do, making sure I still know the theory for any specific endgame. Not only does it allow me to convert won positions, it also opens up the possibility of seeing winning endgame during the middlegame, instead of arriving to it by chance. On the other hand, it will help avoid situations that could lead to lost endgame. With drills taking 15-20 minutes per day, and a lesson well understood every week about half an hour, this sums up to about 2.5 hours per week.
In summary
My main goal for 2025 is to increase my Chess.com Rapid rating to 1500.
Another important goal is to participate at a Classical OTB rated tournament.
I will achieve my goal by allotting around 11.5 hours per week to chess: 4 hours playing, 1 hour reviewing games, 2.5 hours studying endgames, 2 hours solving puzzles, 1 hour studying opening, and 1 hour studying strategy. It might not be much, but after a year, that is 600 hours invested towards chess improvement !
I should manage to improve on all aspects of chess, while having fun. Let's see in the next few months if I can adhere to a schedule resembling the one described.
Let me know your comments on this study plan for intermediate players, and if you have something similar planned for 2025.
Good luck to everyone improving this year, and have fun while at it !
