A beginner's journey in chess: How I went from 100 to 1700.

A lot has been said about what do you need to improve in chess, which can be both a blessing and a curse, since most people can get overwhelmed by the ocean of information available and will not know what to prioritize. There is a chance they could change swiftly from one "school of thought" to the other when two conflicting pieces of advice collide, "tactics are the only thing that matters under x elo", "this opening will gain you x rating points", "you don't need openings", "you need to spam puzzle rush to get better at tactics, not play complicated puzzles", "you need to work in your blunder checking and calculation to progress past x rating". It is truly a lot to handle at once and thus get stuck, lose focus and progress more slowly than they should. Considering this issue, in this post, I want to share what I have had to do so far to improve and the main differences I have found in my play and my opponent's play through the different rating milestones I have hit.

Step 1: Learning how to play (100-600 online rating)

What I saw in me and my opponents:

Here, I did not know castling was a thing, I did not know opening principles and where the pieces belonged to. I just barely knew how the pieces moved and most of my opponents were stuck with the same issues, or just winning games with cheap traps and then losing when people played anything other than the line they knew by heart. 

What got me past 600:

There were some clear and easy steps that got me out of this rating bracket:

• Starting to watch chess related content: The opening videos for beginners on Youtube, the guides and lessons here and in other chess sites, a basic opening setup and watching better players play chess started influencing my game and I started winning games just by grabbing free pieces and not leaving anything undefended.
• Playing a lot: The more I got hit by a knight fork, the more I'd look for them in my games, the more I fell for the scholar's mate, the more I searched for guides and scanned in the analysis what I did wrong. You can't learn chess without playing chess.
• Not playing blitz for actual chess improvement: I have nothing against blitz, but when you barely know how the pieces move, you're just negating yourself the chance of actually coming up with a plan and thinking through your moves. Blitz is nice to pass time, for fun, not for actually improving at this stage. 10+0 is still very fast, I'd stick to 15+10 at this rating range.
• Doing basic checkmate patterns: Do not focus yet in harder tactics, sacrifices or what not. Learn how to checkmate. Many beginners here will struggle to convert up a queen, you need to be able to spot and execute basic checkmating patterns such as: Checkmating with a queen, checkmating with a rook, checkmating with 2 bishops, backrank checkmate, ladder checkmate.

Common mistakes that keep you stuck:

Here is a list of the most common mistakes that I saw people fall into and that got them stuck in this rating bracket:

• Playing only cheap tricks and traps: “Win in 7 moves with this trap!!” “GM resigned after this move!?!?!” “Destroy your opponents with this gambit!!!”. Truth is, all you need to do is take your pieces out and play with them, even if you score some wins with the scholar’s mate, you are not learning anything by playing a memorized set of moves. Learn how to develop, keep everything defended, know a few traps for fun but do not make it your only skill. Do not become a 1 trick pony.

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• Not reviewing your mistakes: How do you expect things to change if you keep doing the same things over and over again? If you are checkmated by an opening trap, watch a video on it, if you got crushed, check the analysis where things went wrong and what moves are suggested, don’t always go for the top stockfish recommendation, play your own candidate moves and see one that works in the analysis.
• Not developing your pieces: If you just move your queen around, expect to lose by blundering your queen a lot.

Step 2: Getting the hang of it (600-1000 online rating)

What I saw in me and my opponents:

Here opening traps were still common, blunders still happened every game, but the mistakes were a bit less frequent and less obvious. Basic tactics and checkmate patterns were needed to win games, you could need to play longer games, resistance started getting a bit steeper, some opening knowledge became apparent in most opponents, however, there was no strategic understanding, people were prone to exchanging everything even if the trades were unfavorable to them and they would overlook threats in order to pursue their own plans, so making a checkmate in 1 threat that could be defended in 1 move, or threatening a fork that was easy to dismantle, still won many many games.

What got me past 1000:

Here the steps people follow start to be a bit different, some might say you only need tactics training, some would recommend blunder checking every move and ‘just not hanging pieces’, others start suggesting opening videos, I will try to suggest a reasonable and general approach to it:

• Start doing puzzles focused on tactical motifs and longer combinations: Either on chess.com, chesstempo and lichess, you can choose to train certain tactical motifs, differentiate puzzles by openings or choose the rating bracket for each puzzle. I would suggest you try to navigate the ones you seem to miss the most but also solving mixed puzzles where you don’t know what to expect. You should dedicate double the amount of time to tactical training than to openings.
• Choose a solid opening for white, create a repertoire for black and stick to it: Choose an opening that at least grants you an equal position for white, and a fighting position for black (0.0 for white, +0.5 for black according to the engine). Do not choose an unsound opening just because it is “tricky” or there is 1 line with which you can win in 7 moves (if you started playing the Englund for example, please search for a normal opening against d4 and leave as side weapon). Try to play open and simple positions, what I mean by this is that you are not going to have an easy time identifying weaknesses and advanced strategic plans on complex positions, stick to something that appears natural to you. Don’t memorize deep sequences, but rather watch people play it and the most common mistakes (do’s and don’ts). A good selection would be Italian game, 2 knight’s (goated opening for beginners, cannot stress it enough), scotch game, scotch gambit, Vienna game, Vienna gambit, English opening, Colle-Zukerfort system, London opening, Queen’s gambit. For black: 1…e5 and 1…d5 (symmetrical), but here you have to learn a lot of responses for everything white can do, Caro Kann helps you avoid some of that, a Sicilian defense line (yes, I’d advice playing Sicilian to beginners, before anyone complains about the theory, no one will know the theory as white regardless and if they do you’ll want to learn some sicilian theory later regardless, better start early). Openings I’d advice against: Hippo/Cow and other hypermodern openings, grob, polish, Scandinavian, Owen’s defense, Queen’s Indian, st. George’s defense.

I like the french but I agree on it being an awful opening to learn chess, 100% check Andras' video

• Watch videos on basic principles, piece activity and speedrun videos: Try to not passively watch but actually engage with the play and guessing what moves would be good. If you do not understand why a move would be good or bad, scan the board with a browser extension such as ‘chessvision.ai’ and play your move to see its refutation.

Possibly the most underrated chess channel for actual chess improvement on YouTube

Common mistakes that keep you stuck:

Here there is a bit more variety on why people can’t climb over 1000, but in my experience:

• Not developing your pieces: They leave some of their pieces buried, they don’t take their rooks to the center, they push too many pawns in the opening before actually playing with the rest of their forces.

White's already worse because their lack of development and weak backwards c3 pawn in an open file

• Only playing cheap tricks: Again, there are players that if you do not fall for their trick, will not know what to do and then they will probably lose. Play principled chess.
• Tunnel vision: Some players are very good at creating plans of their own, but fail to recognize their opponent’s threats. Always scan for your opponent’s threats and intentions to prevent blundering checkmate in 1, hanging pieces and forks.

There's a clear checkmate threat

But black's too focused on their own plans and grabs the "free" pawn

• Not having a decently structured routine: If you only play chess once every 3 weeks, or you spam 30 games a day, you will probably not improve as much as if you spent some time of the day to tactics training and to reviewing resources such as chess courses, chess books and chess videos.

Step 3: Including some deeper ideas (1000-1300 online rating)

What I saw in me and my opponents:

People already have some opening knowledge, it gets a bit less common to win in the first 10 moves, but it can still happen. Everyone is still a mess in endgames, people still miss a lot of tactics. The improvement showed compared to the previous brackets leads to a false sense of security, many people will go for unsound sacrifices because they want to play like their heroes, you will get a lot of ‘fake Mikhail Tals’ that will just gift you pieces for no reason because they got one of those moves labelled as ‘brilliant’ once. People will get massive winning advantages and not capitalize on them, blundering the advantage away. Tactical awareness is better compared to 1,000 elo players, they will probably take your free pieces and punish basic mistakes such as leaving a pin unattended, having very bad weak pawns or irresponsibly leaving your king in the center.

What got me past 1300:

• Intense tactics training: Not just online puzzles, I did a lot of tactics, including advanced tactics from books, took some free tactics courses online, started doing some basic king and pawn and king and rook endgame puzzles.
• Chess strategy: I started reading books about chess strategy, switched from beginner focused chess content to a broader kind of content. A good example is the natural switch from watching Levy Rozman’s Guess the Elo series to watching Naroditsky’s speedruns and going through analysis’ of master’s games.
• I did a thorough and deep review of my mistakes: I met some strong friends that helped me go through my games and identify missed chances and mistakes, started playing constantly against stronger opposition instead of just playing people from the pool.
• I started to be more methodical about each move: As my thought process got more efficient, I started reviewing more candidate moves for each turn, searching obsessively for tactics on every move and trying to identify if my move gave my opponent direct chances (blunder-checking). I tried to not get stuck on 1 move or playing something because ‘it looked good’.

Common mistakes that keep you stuck:

At this level usually there can be a bit of overconfidence from the knowledge gained, and a reluctance to acknowledge one’s own weaknesses. Most players think they know more than what they do over having a lucky win against a higher rated player or some random ‘brilliant’ in one of their games. Here is a list of the most common pitfalls I experienced:

• Unsound sacrifices and careless aggression: You are not Tal, if you do not see a concrete way a sacrifice will work, do not play it. Do not play moves to ‘get brilliant moves’, play moves because they work and make sense.

• Too much opening preparation: Do not change openings if they’re sound, do not learn 5 openings for each color, instead of that, deepen your current knowledge on what you play. Changing too much will probably leave your knowledge shallow and make you waste time.
• Not using your time: Some people play 15+10 like it was blitz, that will only make you blunder pieces. Use your time.
• Strategic blunders: Some people rush through the analysis and do not understand why something is a mistake, sometimes the reason is a bit more subtle and strategic, such as giving control over a key square or weakening a certain color complex, if you are not sure about why is something a mistake, ask a stronger friend or in a community.
• Not analyzing your mistakes: There is a common trap in the Philidor defense, I once checked how many times someone I had played had fallen for it so I searched for his username on Openingtree. Aside from being stuck at 1300 for years, he had fallen for the same trap around 30 times. Keep track of your mistakes. It is not necessary to have a big document or to annotate every game, but you have to recognize which kind of mistakes you are making repeatedly over time and work on them.
• Not knowing how to convert won pawn endgames: Many times you will end up ahead by a piece or by several pawns from a successful middlegame, however, at this rating range, it is very common to draw o lose won endgames. Try to get the hang of it and that will win you a lot of games and draw games you would otherwise lose.

Step 4: Filling in the gaps in knowledge (1300-1500 online rating)

What I saw in me and my opponents:

Here I started feeling confident, even if my rating was not high, I was gaining rating rapidly, wins against higher rated opponents were not rare at all. I had a great win rate and steady growth, and it did not seem like I was going to hit a wall anytime soon, however, I had serious disparities in some areas of my play. My endgame technique was that of a 1,000 rated player, I could beat 1800+ rated players on the Italian mainline but had a 30% win rate against d4 openings. I could find a long tactical combination but found myself flagging or blundering under time pressure. In my opponents I saw fear inspired play: Lots of ‘anti fried liver’ setups, extremely passive Philidor and Hippo setups. People played moves whose only function was to avoid the parts of chess they had not studied yet.

What got me past 1500:

1. Intense tactical training: I did the entire woodpecker method and thousands of puzzles rated over 2,000 on all platforms.
2. Intense positional training: Got coaching for coach champs, got into my university’s chess team practice sessions, got Jeremy Silman’s book ‘How to reassess your chess’ and followed it trying to apply each concept to my games.
3. Deep opening overhaul: I purchased several courses (you can do it for free too, not saying you absolutely have to pay for it), scanned for weaknesses on my openings and fixed them: Jumped from a 30% win rate against d4 to over 55%, fixed my awful win rate against the Sicilian defense, switched from the 2 knight’s defense against the Caro-Kann and French to the advanced Caro-Kann and Tarrasch French, practiced deeper lines than before. Kept playing higher rated people that would put my openings to the test, while also playing with a strong friend that would play off beat openings to improve my strategic decision making.
4. Structuring and refining my calculation: I used to find myself in time trouble by calculating too deeply into lines while neglecting other possibilities. I found that by broadening the selection of candidate moves at my disposal on critical moments of the game, I found defensive and attacking resources I would have missed before. I tried to identify weaknesses in the position, calculating moves directed at those in 3 ply depth (my move, my opponent’s best response and my response to that). That allowed me to save time and evaluate more moves. The deep calculation practice came in the form of advanced puzzles from books and classical matches.

Common mistakes that keep you stuck:

At this rating range I saw people that were stuck for years and I struggled a lot with not falling back down from the 1500 milestone, mainly because I switched from 15+10 to 10+0 and my calculation process was inefficient and slow which put me under time pressure.

What I would think happens the most is:

• Lack of positional understanding: People commit positional crimes a lot in this rating bracket, weak squares, weak pawns, reading the positions wrongly, not having correct middlegame plans, all contribute to players being dead stuck.

• Faulty opening repertoire: If you do not know the middlegame plans for the things you play, if you play extremely passive and unambitious setups, you are bound to progress slower than someone that has clear plans for each game they play.

• Poor conversion technique: I lost way too many games up a piece, up 3 pawns or messed up winning endgames, here you have to incorporate the concept of imbalances, will probably need to review bishop vs knight, 2 pieces vs rook, knight or bishop vs pawns and other kinds of imbalanced positions. Practicing practical endgames, reviewing when did you lose the advantage in games, will go a long way in improving the accuracy of the last part of your games.
• Bad time management: The best way to not blunder under time pressure is to not be under time pressure, which means making some compromises. You cannot expect to play a 10+0 game with the same accuracy as a 15+10 game, you have to choose simple and effective plans, sometimes ‘good enough’ moves will beat the absolute engine move if it saves 30 seconds of time.

Step 5: Refining the technique (1500-1700 online rating)

What I saw in me and my opponents:

In this rating bracket I find people start getting a bit more resourceful, they will try to defend more fiercely, they will not take a sacrifice, they start to play less like if it was checkers, but they still blunder a lot.

What got me to 1700:

1. A structured and well thought out training routine: I always do puzzles, I always analyze my games, and I always follow a strategy course on a daily basis. I try to target my weaknesses actively.
2. Books and more advanced resources: I rarely watch YouTube opening traps videos anymore, I am following a bit more advanced resources on chess strategy, following a book on pawn structures, I have insights from stronger players over what to work on.
3. Playing always against stronger opposition: That way, your mistakes are punished effectively, and you will improve your game more even though you might win rating points slower than by playing people as strong as yourself. I got to 1700 by consistently beating 1800+ players.
4. Always have a ‘side quest’: While solving tactics and playing/analyzing games is always the core of my chess routine, I always dig into new topics, either an attacking patterns book, chess structures or solving positional puzzles. You must broaden your knowledge, it will come in handy to be a versatile player.

Common mistakes that keep you stuck:

1. Lack of positional understanding: You must be able to grasp more subtle ideas, while games are decided by tactics, tactics are bound to happen in rich positions and need to be set up, if you do not play for a plan, you will not get consistent chances to win games.
2. Tilt: It’s easy to lose many rating points then struggle to gain them back, take care of your physical and mental health and do not spend too much time playing to the point it starts disrupting your daily life, this applies to the lower ratings too, but it started to be a factor to me here.
3. Lack of training focus: You cannot train the same way every day and expect to naturally get better, you have to target the weakest part of your game. Otherwise, you will be another of those players with a 4,000 puzzle rating but a 1500 rapid rating.
4. Rating anxiety: More than focusing on grinding points, you should focus on learning more chess, do not go into “the stream does not end until I hit 1600” mode, play a reasonable amount of games every day but play them focused and seriously. Try playing classical, try to not lose enjoyment of the game over not getting over a rating bracket quickly enough.

I am still a beginner, but I trust my experience will help my fellow lower-rated chess friends, and hopefully, I will be able to make the 1,800-2,000 guide in the future too. Looking forward to it. I want to be a guide to other people starting in chess and I also want to refute the idea you cannot get to a serious level of competitive chess when starting at an older age.