My Journey to 3000 ELO: The Seven Lessons I Learnt
This blog is all about my reflections on chess puzzles and the solving of them. I have littered this blog with a number of puzzles (sadly I can only access the last 25...). Feel free to post your scores below and let me know how you got on!
I love solving chess puzzles. In fact, I really really love solving them. I mean it should be obvious from the plethora of blog posts I have about the topic; I just love solving tricky chess puzzles and problems. However, when I try to reflect on what I enjoy about the pursuit, it is honestly quite difficult to rationalise:
Do I enjoy sitting face-glued against whatever screen I am playing chess.com on in a zombified trance-like state? Do I genuinely enjoy painfully slogging away at my precious time on this planet, sometimes utterly bamboozled, by some of the most chaotic positions I have ever seen? Do I actually enjoy the green tick flash on my monitor followed by the excruciating incremental "+5" next to an equally meaningless number? (it definitely does not correlate to my actual chess skill!) Is this my idea of "fun"? Whilst I am not any closer to fully rationalising why I enjoy this hobby, I do have a sense that just the process of completing a puzzle, a bizarre feeling of engagement, has been enough for me to increase this rating to the stratospheric target of 3000 ELO.
Puzzle 1 - The Queen and her steed
The climb to "Puzzle Everest"
April 2024: Whilst training for my upcoming 3rd Chessboxing fight (more on that story another time...) I witnessed one of my biggest gains in my chess career: In a 2-week period, I jumped around 600 ELO in my chess.com puzzles rating! It was in that moment of narrow-minded euphoria that I wanted to set myself a personal goal of getting 3000 ELO in chess.com puzzles. The goal seemed simply enough - 300 more ELO points? This won't take too long, right? Well not exactly... You see for every 3-4 puzzles I would solve correctly, just failing one puzzle would send my rating back down to the original number I had started the day on. "A whole hour wasted," I would sometimes lament to myself. "How frustrating!"
Puzzle 2 How's afraid of the diagonal?
Yet, with each stumble I kept climbing. With each set-back I continued my perseverance, undeterred by a sometimes sudden drop or a silly lapse in concentration on a puzzle that should be simple. With each mistake I made, I meticulously reviewed the "analysis tool" to understand why I got a puzzle wrong. Improvement is never linear and with each step upwards, I knew that I would need to constantly adjust and readjust to get to the top.
Summer came and I finally had some time to devote to chess. With the perfect Sardinian breeze kissing my back, I set to work on reaching the summit. "Chess puzzle oxygen mask" ready in hand and a slice of insanity later, I collapsed just a mire 65 points away from my target; my brain could not compute above the high altitude of the chess puzzle clouds.
Puzzle 3 What's better than one knight? Two knights!
Months in limbo
The next few months were in puzzle limbo. I would simply try to solve puzzles to hit "the daily 3 puzzle" goal before continuing again the next day. Some days were a simple 3/3 and less than 10 minutes would be spent. On other days it was a different story and I could falter to a lackluster 3/6 and a resultant loss in rating. After months of mediocrity, my fortunes finally turned at the end of January. I had a burst in my concentrating and for the first time since summer I was poised to reach the summit in no time. Finally on February 3rd, I had reached my goal: 3000 ELO in chess puzzles; I was ecstatic!
Puzzle 4 Crossing my fingers
Oh how the mighty have fallen...
Hans von Bülow:
"If I stop practice for one day, I notice it in my playing; if I stop two days, my friends notice it; if I stop three days, the public notices it."
I had first heard this quote on a chess lecture I attended online when I was first trying to get my coaching qualification from FIDE: highly acclaimed FIDE Senior Trainer, Artur Yusupov, our lecturer, had heard a humorous misquote from a chess Grandmaster about puzzles:
"If I stop practicing tactics for one day, I notice; if I stop two days, my opponent notices it; if I stop three days, the world notices it."
As I had hit 3000 ELO, it was easy to say to myself to relax and to enjoy the fruits of my labour (whatever those ego-driven fruits were). In spite of this, for the next month, I was able to consistently stay above 3000 and still solve my daily 3 puzzles. However, I was naïve to think I would stay up forever.
Puzzle 5: Always resist temptation!
Flying too close to the sun
Much like the ill-fated Icarus, I flew too close to the sun. On March 17th, my rating dropped under 3000... In my blind rage and frustration upon seeing such an embarrassing number, I continued to try and get my rating up. I of course failed and slumped further down the rating ladder.
Back in Limbo again
For another few months, I was back in the unloving, self loathing arms of "2800 no-man's land" - a similar rating I was at, at the start of this journey a year prior. It was during this period that I became somewhat recluse in chess. I was unable show my face at any local chess gatherings: "How could I possibly face them with my mediocre 2800 rating in puzzles!" I thought. "I would become a laughing stock!" However, after months trying, failing, succeeding, falling, on June 21st, I saw that ever satisfying number again: 3000! It was three months of anguish and insanity but I was finally back on top.
Puzzle 6: Know your endings!
Lessons from this experience
Whilst I have tried to paint a humorous picture of my own ascent (or descent) into madness, on a more serious note, this experience has taught me a lot. It has taught me a lot about myself, my own impulsive tendencies in my game and has provided me a with a simple focused goal that I hope to apply to future endeavours. You may be asking yourself: "Has the experience taught you how to solve any puzzle?" I could at this point patronise my readers by instructing them to follow a systematic thinking model of Checks, captures, threats - which to be fair is how you can solve every chess puzzle - instead however, I wanted to provide you with more practical lessons in improvement.
Lesson 1: Motivation and enjoyment can often feel irrational - however, it can be a brilliant driver as well!
I may not truly know what possessed me to get this number up, but the simple linear goal of 3000 ELO has provided me with the focus I needed to perform. Don't ever feel like you need to justify what you are ever doing in chess (or life in general). Lean into your passions and love the process.
2. Improvement isn't linear—especially at high levels.
As my 11-month journey from 2800-3000+ ELO has shown, gaining puzzle rating is exponentially more difficult the higher your rating gets. I can now empathise in Magnus Carlsen's frustration in sometimes losing rating points in spite of winning tournaments. Quite simply, one mistake or misstep can completely derail success for the day. As a result, always expect turbulence in your rating climbs. Moreover, try to measure yourself over long periods and not in short ones as it is often much easily to see results over a long period of time versus a shorter period.
3. Emotional regulation is key.
Throughout my journey, I experienced bad tilting episodes - Some instances led me to lose over 100 rating points in one day! These episodes were often a result of my own frustrations in my play or simply "having a bad day" at times. If gambling adverts in the UK have shown: "When the fun stops, stop." In a similar tone, practice restraint and when you struggling, pause for the day instead of forcing yourself into trying to win rating points back: From my experience, never chase back rating points: It never works! As further advice to this, I have always tried to limit myself to just trying to correctly solve the "3 daily puzzles" to get the daily puzzle bonus. If I was having a bad day, I would still get a sense of accomplishment when I hit three puzzles solved. Only if I felt good about my play would I attempt solving a few more puzzles but I always kept in my mind to stop if my concentration suddenly waned.
4. Review your mistakes!
I can't underestimate this lesson enough! It is vital to review any instances when you made a mistake and immediately go to the analysis tool to see why you were incorrect. It is all too easy when you get a puzzle wrong to simply move onto the next one. Instead always identify why you got it wrong and review the tactical theme: sometimes that theme may pop up again and it is important to memorise it for next time.
5. Consistency is key
As my funny anecdotal misquote from Artur Yuspov proved, consistency is important. I rarely took a day off in puzzle solving. If you treat whatever pursuit you want to improve in like a daily non-negotiable like brushing your teeth, you will, over time, improve.
6. The ego can both a motivator and a hinderance
It is fair to say, I have been somewhat "tongue in cheek" in my ego towards chess puzzle solving. In reality, I am somewhat content with my own inadequate play that a number like puzzle rating ELO hasn't been too significant to me. However, in my pointless quest to get this number up, I did find some intrinsic ego-driven motivation to get this number up to the round figure of 3000. Throughout the journey my ego did make me, at times, discuss my puzzle journey, share ridiculous puzzles and talk about how close I was to my target: I simply did not want to let people down... Whilst it did give me episodes of frustration and tilt, it also served as a motivator to push me to the next level.
7. Success doesn't equal permanence.
As my multiple experiences of being perched on my creaking 3000 ELO throne has shown, maintaining my rating has been just as hard and has required just as much effort than reaching the goal. Chess skills are still perishable and requires constant practice. By the time you read this blog, I may have slumped again but I hope I can continue to perform over 3000 in the next few months.
Puzzle score:
0/6 - Back to tactics school for you!
1/6 - Well done: these puzzles are difficult and you managed to get 1 right!
2/6 - Emerging puzzler
3/6 - On par with me
4/6 - Seasoned pro
5+ - 5000 ELO in puzzles!
