Cracking the 1200 Code: Strategies for Chess Rating Progression

IMPROVE IN CHESS

Hello guys, Allen here! Hope you are in your high spirits. Feel free to check out my email newsletter asdmagazine.substack.com where I cover the latest chess content and courses. If you haven't subscribed yet, consider subscribing and you won't regret doing it.

This blog is all about improving your overall chess understanding, honing your skills and building your arsenal at disposal. This blog will be of most use to people who are struggling to cross the 1200 barrier (Beginner —> Low intermediate). It took me roughly 4 months to cross the 1200 barrier. In this blog, I will be giving you my tips and key points that I learned in those 4 months and how to actually employ those into your games. Hope you enjoy this article and find it useful.

1. Avoid Blunders

This is the single most important point in the entire article, “AVOID BLUNDERS”. I cannot stress on this enough. Now, you might ask “isn’t how everyone loose in chess?”. And if you asked this question, you are right, let me clarify it. The type of blunder GMs usually make are either strategical errors or miscalculations in high depths (like 20 moves). The type of blunders I am talking about is like hanging a queen in one move.
To avoid these, start by spotting the range of squares that your opponents pieces cover. Then, think about the relative value of your pieces in that particular position (if your piece can be captured) and the reinforcements that you have. This should cover most of the blunders made in this level.

In the above position, it’s very tempting to play Rd1 followed by Nb5 and Bf4 to have a strong control over the d6 square. But unfortunately, the bishop on h5 doesn’t seem to approve of it. These are the type of blunders you should really avoid.

2. Anticipation

This is one step above point one. Once point one is clear, most of the players play the move without considering what their opponents can play. A good example for this is running into a fork, pin etc. This is were calculation comes into play. Once point one is clear, think what your opponent can play. Look for forks, pins, skewers etc. Points one and two should go hand-in-hand. If you can successfully employ these two points into your games, you are already half-way through to cracking the 1200 barrier.

In the above position, if black decides to go for Nxc3, then white will have to sacrifice his pawn structure. Why, because if you recapture it with the queen, you get pinned with Bb4. Master the above two and you are already half-way there.

3. Openings

This is where your transition from a beginner to low-intermediate level starts. I will suggest you to know a lot of opening traps. Don’t go for highly theoretical openings, stay with simple ones which require less memory and can be played intuitively. Many people make the mistake of playing high-level openings like Ruy-Lopez. Never do that. First identify your playing style. Then choose an opening according to your style and most importantly, stick to one opening only!!! Don’t switch openings till you have advanced enough (like 1600) to opt for a better one.
Always have a secret weapon. My secret weapon in those days used to be Max-lange attack for 1..e5 and Alapin Sicilian for 1..c5 . I had a win rate of above 85% every time I got to play these. Frankly speaking, if you are quite thorough with the secret weapon that you are using, at that level you are almost always guaranteed to win within the first 20 moves. Knowing in a whole bunch of these will mount you wins.

4. Basic Endgames

Now, this is very important. Learn how to checkmate with a queen, rook and two bishops. Then, learn basic king and pawn endgame concepts like opposition, triangulation etc. I will recommend you to study these from Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual. One of the best chess books out there, personally my favorite book. Knowing the stuff that I’ve mentioned above is more than enough to get the job done.

A little puzzle for you guys. If you can solve this, your endgame knowledge is sound. Leave your answers down in the comments section.

5. Tactics

Tactics, Tactics, Tactics!!! At this level, people miss a ton of tactics. It’s hard to find a 1200-rated game without tactics being involved. Practice a lot of tactics and identify the patterns in it. Once you start identifying the patterns, it becomes very easy to spot it over the board. This is a game-changer. Practice it well enough, you will be amazed to see it’s impact.

Could you solve all the puzzles? Let me know the answers down in the comments section.

6. Exchanging Pieces

This is the final tip I would like to give you guys. “Know when to trade/exchange pieces”. This is a bit advanced compared to the other points. Most of the time, people at this level trade pieces blindly and get into an endgame by move 20 or they get finished off in some opening traps.
The reason why people trade pieces unnecessarily is because they simply don’t know what to do. They lag the fundamental ideas and strategies associated with the opening. I strongly recommend you to understand the fundamental ideas and plans/strategies involved in the opening. Because when you know the strategies involved, you know the role of each piece in the game. This gives you a better idea of when and what pieces to trade.

In this position, if black plays Bxc3, technically he is lost. Though it’s not loosing right away, it is a big strategical error. The reason this point is considered a bit high-level is because players at this level fail to realize the advantage. But to really improve your level, you will have to improve your positional play. This differentiates you from the other players.

Conclusion

The first five points are very crucial. You are guaranteed to cross 1200 once you master the first five points. The last point lays the foundation for your transition from low intermediate to an intermediate player (1200—> 1450). Your rating will skyrocket once you master all the above points and start implementing them in your game. Go ahead, try it out yourself and thank me later. If you liked this post, check out my email newsletter asdmagazine.substack.com. Consider liking this post if you really did.

Signing off— Allen.