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Hello there My name is Matteo Demicheli, I've started playing chess more seriously last year around August. I've used many tools like Chessable and chess.com + lichess Puzzles to improve and they've helped a lot. Since I'm very ambitious I hope that this chess plan can help me improve long term and I'm looking forward to discussing my improvement on the Discord and on here 18. April 2021 Daily 1090 Blitz 1204 Rapid 1181 What do I expect? A structured regimen that's focused on building up a stronger foundation and disciplines me to continue on my chess journey, day by day. Climbing the rating ladder would be great but seeing my chess improve in general is even better as I want to participate in OTB tournaments this or next year. Questions If Matt or someone else can answer these that'd be awesome Is training against higher level bots (1800+) a good idea? E.g. after the maximizing portion I have Yusupov's Course on Chessable, is that good enough or is the physical book preferred? Opening training hasn't been a real topic in the PDF, do you think it's a good idea to focus on that daily (Chessable repetition) or is it something for the maximize portion of the plan? Do you have a less time consuming alternative to maximizing my opening skills? Is strategy something to focus on at my level or can it be left to the absolute fundamentals (that most people at our level already know: central control, fast development, etc.)? After 2 hours what would you suggest to focus on, tactics or something based on the plan itself? Do you have any inspiring posts of improvement of other players? As a motivation Based on my games (if you have time to check em out) What should I focus on additionally when I have the time for it? (chess.com lessons? etc.) https://lichess.org/study/H5P4j2El https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/12427614927 https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/12427006387 That's all! I'll post in here after a few days / weeks and keep you guys updated. Looking forward to the journey!

Day 1 Complete!

Beginning Chess Goals 12 week Intermediate Rapid & Classical Plan today! Planning to accomplish both efficient and maximize tasks each day. Beginning metrics: Chess.com Blitz: -NR- Chess.com Daily: 1233 Chess.com Rapid: 918 Chess.com Puzzles: 1004 Chess.com Puzzle Rush (3min): 9 Lichess Puzzles: 1650

Week 1. Current Stats: Blitz Rating not yet Rapid Rating 1530 (out of 455 games) Daily Rating not yet Puzzle Rating 2311 (out of 103 attempts) Hello, I started chess this year. I have both Silman's Endgame Course (Paperback) and Yusupov's Build Your Chess 1 (Chessable version).

Hello Matt, hello folks, I'm Laurent, 48yo from France. I have 3 kids (boys), so undertaking a study plan isn't an easy task but I'm currently working only part-time and I love chess so I'm giving it a try. I've been playing OTB chess for ~30 years. Starting point : FIDE 1920 chess.com rapid 1962 chess.com blitz 1848 Rating hopes : OTB is unlikely to move with Covid :-) I think I'm a bit underrated in rapid because I don't play much on chess.com, so I will shoot for an ambitious +100pts ...while I'm hopeless with blitz so no real hope here :-) (we'll see) Adaptations to the plan / resources : I'll use Silman's endgame book, sections "expert" and above I'll use Yusupov green book 'Build up' rather than 'evolution' (because that's the one I have) ; I expect this part to be very challenging ! I'll use Woodpecker on chessable (I have already started it - 367 puzzles done) and put the rest of my chessable courses on hold for the moment to save time ; for woodpecker I'll use Move Trainer default repetition rather than cyclical review I'm currently playing 1 slow online game/week, which I intend to keep ; we'll see how it fits in the plan I'll play 5+0 rather than 3+0 because as I said above, I'm hopeless with blitz... Question for Matt : Do you recommend to play the daily game with or without opening resources ? If without, do you think chess960 would be a valid substitute to focus on calculation/planning rather than opening prep ?

Hey all, like many of you I started playing chess again after watching that Netflix show. The hype around Pogchamps drew me further into the chess stratosphere. I found the Pogchamps coaching videos on youtube especially helpful. To date, I've had no tournament experience or formal chess education and only played a few games occasionally in grade school. I decided this time to treat chess seriously and make it a lifelong hobby. Between the Queen's Gambit show and finding this study plan, I was watching tons of chess youtube videos and practicing tactics everyday. I'm 7 weeks into the study plan now with weekly stats and commentary as follows. This is sort of 8 posts fitted in 1. I will try to update on a weekly basis for the remainder of the 12 weeks. Week 1 (starting base) Games: 105 Puzzles: 2089 Puzzle Rush: 25 Rapid: 1413 Blitz: 1042 Before the 12-week study plan, I'd started off having spammed a lot of puzzles. Rapid rating was inflated from playing my friend three times in a row as my first ever games. Week 2 Games: 120 Puzzles: 2075 Puzzle Rush: 25 Rapid: 1381 Blitz: 1132 Rapid rating is dropping to actual playing strength. My biggest issue in games were blunders and time. - Blundering one-move knight forks and back-ranks - Flagging in both 5+5 and 15+10 games (!) Week 3 Games: 199 Puzzles: 2067 Puzzle Rush: 25 Rapid: 1384 Blitz: 1159 Rapid has stabilized at playing strength. I continue to blunder one and two-move mistakes, miss chances to mate, and lose on time in 15+10 and 5+5 games. On plus side, got a 99.1 accuracy game in the Caro in week 2. Blitz continues to increase to actual playing strength (regardless of whether I am actually getting stronger). Week 4 Games: 228 Puzzles: 2144 Puzzle Rush: 25 Rapid: 1382 Blitz: 1235 Nice jump in puzzle rating. For the next several weeks, I cannot break 25 in puzzle rush. Too hard. However, I did start getting 25 or close to 25 more often. Did well in rapid during week 3, even though the ratings didn't change. The games I won, I had good attacks going. The games I lost, I had developed big advantages before blundering (better than blundering in drawn or losing positions I'd say). Week 5 Games: 312 Puzzles: 2213 Puzzle Rush: 25 Rapid: 1454 Blitz: 1322 Huge jump in rapid and blitz. I played solidly and did not feel in trouble at any time in the rapid games that I won. The rapid games I lost were due to unsound sac and blundering a knight fork. Week 6 Games: 411 Puzzles: 2208 Puzzle Rush: 25 Rapid: 1461 Blitz: 1348 Same story as week 5: won games were were solidly played, though several games this week were won with opening traps or mistakes of the other side. My lost games were me blundering tactics. Hmm - check the opponent's threats! Starting this next week, I started working with a coach. Learned about concept of weak squares and how that can inform your game plan. Week 7 Games: 481 Puzzles: 2246 Puzzle Rush: 28 Rapid: 1458 Blitz: 1364 Finally broke 25 in puzzle rush! I had started out experimenting with King's Gambit in weeks 1 and 2. Got myself in difficult positions where white had to find precise attacking plays and sacrifices, while black could play "normal" defensive and developing moves. Felt like as White I was rushed and pressured to "do something." In weeks 3-5, I picked up the London which gave me better results than the King's Gambit. However, in week 6, I started learning and playing the Scotch game here; unsurprisingly, lost both Scotch games in week 6. Although the London was comfy, I did not want to pair that with the Caro as my opening package and turn into a one-dimensional player. Not fearing rating losses, I opted to open up my game and focus on player growth. In week 6, as a "new" e4 player, I realized I do not have a good response to the Sicilian or the French. But, I resisted going back to London. Week 8 Games: 499 Puzzles: 2244 Puzzle Rush: 30 Rapid: 1466 Blitz: 1418 Puzzle rush to 30! I tried hard to repeat 30 or break it, but could not. Think this is my new puzzle rush plateau for a while. Crushed it in blitz this week (+54). Won some e4 games as white and some Caro games as black. Funny enough, did not get to use Scotch so that remains a very shaky and new opening for me. I lost two rapid games due to blunders: one was a pinned pawn that I thought was protecting my bishop, the other was losing rook to a bishop from downtown. For both of these, I needed to visualize my opponent's likely captures and threats. This week and last week, my coach had me work on bishop vs. knight endings (and vice versa). Up until this point, I can pinpoint very few games which were lost strategically. Everything's being lost due to blunders or time. I am feeling lost as White (using e4) and Black (versus d4). Compared to those, I feel much more comfortable playing the Caro, in no small part thanks to ChessGoals' free Caro videos on youtube! March 8 update: Week 9 Games: 526 Puzzles: 2239 Puzzle Rush: 30 Rapid: 1446 Blitz: 1452 Went 2-4 in rapid. Losses were a mix of tactics and strategy. In e4 game, opposite castling (me queenside), I tried to advance my queenside knight to the center and left my king with insufficient defense; later dropped piece to a tactic. In another game (winning), hung a mate in one to his lone queen when auto-moving my king in response to check. In a King's Indian Defense game, did not know how to proceed with my winning kingside attack; instead, lost wind and lost to a tactic in even endgame. Finally, in a Caro game, got excited to win a piece with tactic, but did not consider that his ensuing attack would be brutal and winning.

Chess.com ratings: Bullet 1159 Blitz 1203 Rapid 1377 Daily 2063 Puzzles 2204 Looking to improve to 1700 Rapid and Blitz by cutting out blunders, playing moves less impulsively when pressure is significantly off or on, and improving positional understanding - here goes !

* starting a new post. Old one disapeared trying to remove one entry... :-( Blitz 896 Rapid 1275 Daily 1318 Puzzles 1760

Day 1: Beginning Stats Blitz - 862 Rapid - 1153 Daily - 1013 Puzzles - 1436 I'm looking forward to seeing where I end up! I've always enjoyed playing chess since I was a kid. I took a break and rarely played at all for a bit, but I've recently started up again on both lichess and chess.com. I'm a premium member on chess.com and I've liked looking at all the things offered like lessons, drills, and videos. There's so much educational chess content online, I thought a plan would be a great way to improve systematically as opposed to just watching tons of videos and picking up tips here and there. Some quick thoughts about where I am going into this plan: I typically play 5-minute blitz games. I like this style of play and I find that playing these quick games doesn't allow me to think of a great strategy. I feel like I just try to play smart moves until my opponent makes a mistake, and when my opponents play well, I end up making dumb mistakes. I like that I'm going to be playing slower games with this plan. I want to understand openings better. When I analyze games, I find that I'm missing early checkmate opportunities In puzzles, I understand how to trade pieces effectively so that I at end up solving the puzzle; in games, I fixate on not losing my pieces (except I know when to sac pieces to get the mate in obvious situations) I'm setting up my daily games for be 1 day time control. I have Silman's Endgame Course book

40 years old, 2 kids (1.5 & 4 years old) Came back to chess in 2015 after 10 year layoff at 1778 USCF, now 2016 USCF. Haven't played a tournament since April 2019. Chess.com stats: Rapid: 2148/2148 Blitz: 1901/1925 (peak a few days ago) Puzzles: 2828/2841 (peak a few days ago) Daily: 2011/2011 (from several years ago) 12 week goals: NOT play extra blitz (I have a habit of going on "benders" which I do not enjoy and I do not review) Break 2850 in chess.com puzzles (if this happens I may switch to other tactics) Openings on Chessable only after all main tasks are done 6 extra Yusupov chapters (1/week) Finish learning 4 Knights repertoire on Chessable NOT change these goals! (unless approved/suggested by Matt )

Hi everyone, I'm an adult chess addict trying to improve my game and willing to spend some time on it (just as long as I have enough energy after work!). I'm going to be working through the 12 week intermediate study plan. Week 1 (Starting Point) Blitz; 1003 (peak: 1096) Rapid: 1300 (peak: 1311) Daily: 1254 (peak: 1353) Puzzles: 1943 (peak: 1978) Some extra comments: Earlier this year I bought "1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners" on Chessable. Working through it has greatly improved my pattern recognition and let to a massive boost in my Puzzles rating, so I'm going to continue with that too. Recently I've been having issues getting on a losing streak and playing more and more games to try and claw back my rating. This had led to some really bad moments! So I'm going to commit to only playing the number of games listed in the daily tasks. Any extra chess time/energy I have will be spent in other ways (Youtube vids, Chessable, Chess.com lessons, etc.) I've also been flagging a lot in my Blitz (3+2 games). Even though they take a bit more time, I'm going to try to play most of my Blitz at 5+5 to give myself the best chance.

Day 0: I started chess about 1 year ago after watching pogchamps from knowing how the pieces moved. Stats: 1400 blitz 1500 rapid 2100-2200 puzzles Short term: Get blitz rating closer to rapid rating. 1600 rapid rating. Long term: 2000 blitz or rapid Update: crushed that shit

Matt recommends e6, but I was thinking it might be interesting to play Bf5 (borrowing from a London idea)  My idea is that white cannot capture the bishop because of Qxb2, but I suppose White can get away with Qc1 when we still cannot win pawn on d4 because of Qxc6. I suppose .... Bf5 Qc1 e6 Nf3 Bd3 is very similar to Matt's recommendation.  The question then is having our bishop on d3 and white queen on c1 better than c3 and a6?  Also possible would be  .... Bf5 Qb3 c4 QxQ axb6 with a lead in development due to rook on open file and easy play of playing c5.  Anyhow, I think spending time looking at these ideas will generally help me better understand the position.  NOTE: I didn't check any of this with engine. I assume Matt did and rejected for some reason. 

I played this G20 vs Fatima the 2000 lvl Bot here on Chess.com:          

Day 0 Chess.com Blitz - 2301Chess.com Rapid - 2040Chess.com Bullet - 2360USCF - 2228 The first goal is to reach 2400 blitz!

Day 0: Hey guys, I am Corey, aka Okiemurse. I'm 38 years old and just getting back into the game. I have a very casual history with chess - most of my prior experience was playing BattleChess as a kiddo in the early 90s. I was never very serious, but I did learn the basic rules. I got in just like many others in the recent chess boom with the Queen's Gambit which got me playing again casually with my wife. This led me to watching the Blockchamps & Pogchamps which led me to Hikaru, Levy, Danya, the Botez sisters, and the rest of the online chess community. Now I am following GM level events as well and I'm hooked! I'm not a very competitive person but I really enjoy the journey of self-improvement and I would love to see how far I can push myself with a more structured plan designed by a professional coach. I see games less as a chance to beat another person and more as a chance to explore my own strengths and weaknesses in my knowledge of the game. That being said, I would love to participate in a local OTB community once I gain more confidence and build a routine. I've previously focused on relaxed unrated games with my wife, bots, and puzzles - thus I'm not entirely sure what my "true" rating is. Elometer.net rated me at 1545, but that is based on single-position scenarios and I've never seen that sort of success in a full game. Since my performance is really unstable and I am so new back to the game, I am starting with the Novice course first to go all the way back to basics and build some really strong fundamentals. Stats: Joined chess.com: 1/13/2021 Daily: unrated Rapid: 1053* (not accurate, i have only played my wife) Blitz: 676 (10 games, lowest after a bad 3|0 losing streak) Bullet: 304 (6 games, I'm terrible at fast chess) Puzzles: 840 (369 puzzles done, peak 1005 rating) Bots: I have 3 crowns on the 1200 adaptive (Tomas) and the 1100s (Azeez, Sven) Short-Term Goal: Obtain a stable 800+ blitz and 1000+ puzzle rating by the end of the Novice course. Long-Term Goal: Successfully complete the Novice, Beginner, and Intermediate courses. The pipe dream is a stable rating of 1800-2000 - but this will be incredibly hard with my "aging brain", a full time job, full time school, and a wife and child keeping me busy! Commitment: I will update progress here once weekly per the Novice plan for 12 weeks.

Blitz - 1022 Rapid - 1311 Daily - 1438 Puzzles - 1522 So this is another one of my attempts to get more serious into playing the game. I adore chess, love to watch games, have watched hundreds of videos on game analysis but I get way to anxious when I play it myself. I have tried working with coaches, but felt that they didn't really support me. A training plan did wonders for me with running, so I want to see what it does with chess. I hope that this will allow me to have some structure and some extra eyes over my shoulder might be the trick to just get to playing and getting my nerves calmer. Looking forward to the next 12 weeks!! Day 1: Daily games 5 Puzzles Play 2 rapid games (15+10 time control) Analyze rapid games

Today is the last day to submit your questions for the ChessGoals Q & A. https://youtu.be/LkwpiIzQuKU

Starting Ratings USCF: 1904 Chesscom Blitz: 2065 Rapid: 1878 Fide: N/a

Starting ratings: Rapid 942Blitz 799Puzzles 1307 Overall Goals: Break the 1000 rating and keep the rating above it. Improve with black side opening Play slower Cut down on 1 move blunders Stay consistant Week 1 ideas: Potentially add an extra rapid game. Try to get the first few moves of the daily game out of the way on day 1 and 2. Puzzles will be done rated Instead of chess.com lessons(already gone through the majority of them) will ready a tactics book for 45minutes. Book will be "Chess Tactics from Scratch" starting at chapter 2 "The Pin".