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I am starting the Expert Study Plan Starting Ratings: Chess.com Blitz: 2119 Chess.com Rapid: 2163 USCF: 2023 FIDE: 1741

Hi folks - I completed the Novice Plan the week before last. On the advice of Matt I am starting the Intermediate Rapid and Classical plan today. Current RatingsMy current ratings as of 1/31/2022:Chess.com Blitz: 359Chess.com Rapid: 746Chess.com Daily: 1114USCF Correspondence: 1359 My GoalMy goal is to improve my rating in rapid/classical chess. For now establishing a habit of playing more chess and analyzing those games is my immediate goal. Like many folks, I hope to have the opportunity to play more OTB chess as time goes on. Changes to the PlanThe only change to the plan I'm thinking about is substituting "Chess:the art of logical thinking" by McDonald for the Artur Yusupov book called for in the plan. I'll post my progress weekly as per plan. Comments and/or constructive criticism are always welcome.

Hey guys, my name is Kyle, and I am starting the novice study plan! My current ratings are: Daily: 197 Rapid: 1027 Blitz: 643 Puzzles: 1566 I chose the novice study plan due to my blitz rating, and my daily rating is because I have never finished a game that I started. I've been playing chess for a while, but I've never truly studied or stuck with a dedicated plan. I hope to see some progress through this!

Hi lads, gonna try out the Master Plan hoping it'll give me the motivation I need. Gonna play on an alternate Account on Lichess in Hidden ratings mode. Only looking at my rating once a week for the update. Ratings 03/25/22 Lichess Blitz: 2200 Lichess Rapid: 2100 DWZ (German): 1860 Fide: 1825 Goal Finally follow a solid study plan consistently, instead of just dicking around hoping to get better. Changes to the Plan Playing on Lichess instead of Chess.com, using this site only for updates. Also some changes to the time controls and increased level of opening study as I also wanna get through my chessable courses at some point. Wish me luck, see ya next week!

I've just finished Intermediate Rapid & Classical Plan with good results. My ratings as of the end of that program: Rapid: 1321 Blitz: 1139 My new plan: Play a game, Quickly retry tactics / key moments, Explore the opening, GOTO 1. Everything else is extra credit (study, puzzles, daily games, deep game analysis, etc.). That doesn't mean that I'll skip them entirely but I want to bias towards: playing and quickly analyzing games, and keeping most days consistent I'll probably play 5|5 and 15|10 because currently those are my favorite time controls.

This is Day 0 of my study plan.

I’m starting the novice study plan this week, and the road back to playing chess at 60. I’ll update this post weekly for accountability with the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’ve been studying, and I’ve played a few games since October of last year. While it’s been enjoyable, my rating is low, and it’s not a lot of fun to get get beat all the time. So my initial goal is to get to 500, then to 800 from there, then hopefully keep going. We’ll see where this all leads. Rating aside, I truly just enjoy playing chess and just want to get better at the game. My Starting Ratings: Rapid: 280 Puzzles: 1252

I have been playing Chess daily for a while now and managed to get +126 rating since I started taking this seriously. But I have been floating around 900-1000 range for a while now. Studying on my own was hard because of the sheer amount of information available today but I hope with this plan I can focus on improving my chess without switching over chess books and different chess Tactics apps every other day. Here's my current rating. Blitz 500 Rapid 955 Daily 770 Puzzles (Chess.com) 1359

Hi all, Been playing chess and studying chess for a good four years now, but very sporadically. Have sprained my ankle and will be spending a lot of the coming weeks sat down... so I decided to jump on a chess study plan. Starting stats as follows; FIDE Rapid:1354 chesscom Rapid: 1671 chesscom Blitz: 1439 chesscom Puzzles: 2091 Puzzle Survival High Score: 36 Here's hoping for adherence and progress.

Greetings All, I am excited to announce our second blitz arena of the year. The event will last one hour and will be 3+2 blitz. We'd love to see this become a consistent event for our club. Come and enjoy some blitz! Time -Saturday Feb. 26 at 11 AM CDT/ 4PM UTC Register here up to one hour before the tournament starts. https://www.chess.com/play/arena/1707351?action=undefined&clubId=67260

I am beginning the ChessGoals Beginner Plan. Here are my starting ratings for this course: Blitz : 655 Rapid : 853 Daily : 1087 Puzzles : 910

Greetings All, I am excited to announce our first Blitz Arena of the year. The event last one hour and will be 3+2 blitz. This is a great way for us all to apply for Dr. Matt's prescription to improve at chess, by playing more blitz. I look forward to seeing many there. Time - Saturday Feb. 5 at 10 AM CDT/ 3PM UTC Register for the event on our club page. https://www.chess.com/play/arena/1660805

Hello all, Today is the day. I am beginning the ChessGoals Beginner Plan. Here are my starting ratings for this course: Blitz : 978 Rapid : 1425 Daily : 978 Puzzles : 1300

Great Slav course. I am loving the noteboom variation and the lines against the London. Only variations I am having some trouble with is some of the Dutch variations. I find it hard to develop that c8 bishop. Sometimes I find myself playing the whole game not moving that bishop. When you don't take the pawn.

I'm starting the intermediate rapid and classical plan to start the new year after dropping from ~1450 blitz to sub-1300. Hoping that better discipline + focused study will help bring that rating north of 1500 in short-ish time. Blitz: 1288 (peak of 1448 last month) Rapid: 1302 Daily/Classical: N/A (haven't played rated classical or any daily) I'm writing this after having played my daily 5+5 and started my daily games. Because chess.com's rules allow you to consult opening books for the daily games, I'm hoping to use them to try to explore a wide variety of openings + get a feel of how to play the resulting middlegames. I imagine I'll probably screw up a lot of the middlegames + endgames because I don't fully understand them, but taking this approach should be a fun learning opportunity. So far, I've gotten a QGA, a Reversed Sicilian English opening, and a Ruy Lopez as white; and a Veresov and Vienna game as black. 5+5 games to start off were a bit mixed. I got into winning positions in most of my games, but wasn't great at converting them. One of my goals through this plan is to become better at converting advantages and saving lost positions, as both are weakpoints in my game (in both cases, I think, because my defensive/prophylactic play needs work). However, I did manage to save a game after blundering a piece + I had two nice wins, one in the Sicilian as white and one in the Italian (again as white)

Day 1: exploring the site and found the club.

Day 0: Orientation Hey everyone, after I was not able to sustainably follow any plan that included more than a game or two, not to mention study, here I am launching a new plan to kickoff my second year of playing chess! My initial ratings: Rapid: 1060 Blitz: 653 The gist of the plan is to maximize gains by playing games and analyzing, with all other component as extra credit or done in the weekends. Anyway I will be sticking to a 7 circles schedule of going through the "Chess Tactics for Beginners" app by ChessKing, which should enhance my intuitive tactics performance. My goals for this plan: Play more games! Follow the process with no regard for rating fluctuations Complete the 7 circles schedule (will take 127 days - 18 weeks) I might extend this plan to 18 weeks to converge with the tactics schedule Learn more about the Caro-Kann Experiment with 1.e4 (it was generally working for me) Have fun playing chess! I will do my best to update this forum on a daily basis, motivating me to analyze my game and post them after I'm done - even though this is posted after Day 1 has already completed, with me having played 4 rapid games in an online tournament and no time to analyze them... Stay tuned!

I start ChessGoal Intermediate Rapid & Classical Plan today. Starting Ratings (before any games today) Rapid: 1093 (I like 15|10+); I'm 7 points short of the recommended 1100 starting point. Blitz: 903 (Usually on 5m but now I'll use 5|5) Daily: 400 (I haven't played Daily games before I started daily games Two games are interesting already: they started in ways that I've never seen before (early queen against my Caro Kann, and an interesting tactical defense against my Vienna) One game started with Vienna Gambit Accepted and I won a knight on move 5. I don't recall this happening in my games before. I purchased the recommended books. Edit: I played 4 5|5 games and looked at the oppenings. I really like my checkmate trap in https://www.chess.com/game/live/29399398277

Hi folks - I am the owner/operator of a 73 year old brain. I realize this will have some affect on my progress, but I'm sure a structured study plan will help. I learned to play chess from my cousin at the age of 12. Did not play much chess until later in life. Since my retirement I'm been spending more time on it, but find I am studying far more than playing, I know I need to flip that around to improve. Current RatingsMy current ratings as of 10/25/2021:Chess.com Blitz: 566Chess.com Rapid: 1174Chess.com Daily: 1051USCF Correspondence: 1359 Why I chose the Novice Premium PlanYou would think that with decades spend on chess to one degree or another I would have chosen a more advanced plan. But I decided to stick with the recommendation based on my blitz rating. I can always add to the plan if needed. What is important is to learn more and improve, not the label given to the plan. My GoalMy goal is to improve my rating in rapid/classical chess. Eventually I would like to break through the 1400 rating in rapid. But for now establishing a habit of playing more chess and analyzing those games is my immediate goal. Changes to the PlanI plan to use some resources I already have. I'm not a fan of blitz. But Matt's blog post "Can Blitz Chess Make You a Better Chess Player?" convinced me that it has value. And I am following the advice to substitute slower games for some of the blitz because of my interest in longer time controls. I plan the following substitutions: In place of Puzzles on Chess.com, I'll use the "1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners" Chessable book. Chessable books use Spaced Repetition and I find that very helpful. I've never tried Puzzle Rush so I may try that as well. In place of Endgames material suggested, I'm using the book "Silman's Complete Endgame Course", Part 1 (with the option to move into part 2) One 15+10 rapid game replacing three 5+5 blitz games in "Bliz weeks" That's it. I'll post my progress weekly as per plan. Comments and/or constructive criticism are always welcome.

I started the study plan last week, my intention is to continue with the study steadily and see the progress at the end of the 12 weeks. Below are my current scores: Rapid: 1249Puzzles: 934Daily: 946Blitz: 722 Bye and good study to everyone!