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Greetings, everyone. I’m a rusty online player, once 2050-ish USCF OTB, now floored at 1800, and only upper 1500s in blitz here. I’d like to recover a little of my former glitter and show those kids on my lawn what’s what. More seriously, even getting back to 1800 in the company of what seems to be a happy and positive community would be great. Good luck.

I am starting the intermediate studying plan, I have been studying chess for the last few months and would like to try how this organized studying plan can lead me.. Some personal stats as of today: Chess.com blitz: ~1300 Chess.com rapid: 1415 (Somewhere underrated, climbing fast at current win rate) lichess blitz: 1600 - 1700 lichess rapid: ~1900. My goal is to reach ~1800 end of year.

I have heard some talk lately about improvement mindsets. The consensus is that it is better to have a “growth” mindset rather than a “fixed” mindset. The growth mindset has the view that you can grow in your understanding and skill while the fixed mindset believes that you have a certain level of talent and that if you fail it is because you just lacked sufficient talent to succeed. How does this affect goal setting for chess improvement? I think that focusing on rating gains (results) often comes from a fixed mindset while focusing on specific processes that will improve the way you play chess focuses more on growth. If important processes are improved, then rating gain will naturally follow. Bobby Fischer wrote that “Tactics flow from a positionally superior game.” This idea can be transformed into “Rating gains flow from superior game-playing processes.” Some Process to Improve: 1. Improve visualization, calculation, and evaluation.2. Improve candidate move selection.3. Improve time management. I’d like to set goals to improve these game-playing processes. While I think it is possible to have a rating improvement focused goal and still have a growth mindset, I also think it is better to set SMART goals that are based on improving processes so that the rating improvement naturally follows. Thoughts? Oh, another question. Proper goals need to follow the SMART principles.S = SpecificM = MeasurableA = AchievableR = RelevantT = Time-based The process goals I mentioned above are obviously relevant. It is not difficult to set specific, achievable, and time-based process-oriented goals. My problem is ... how can these be measured?

Hello Everyone!I hope this post finds you well. I'm excited to have discovered this group and all the resources at ChessGoals! Full transparency: I’ve always struggled with consistency in my chess playing and learning. I find myself coming to the site, playing regularly, reading articles, watching videos, keeping up with the GMs, and seeing my rating slowly increase—only to be distracted by life and have chess fade into the background for a while. Well... I'm back again (hopefully for an extended period of time)! A little more about my background and chess experience: I’m 34 years old, a husband and father, and an assistant principal at a high school. I’m always on the move! Outside of my time on Chess.com, I have zero tournament or OTB experience. My current ratings on Chess.com are: 584 in Rapid, 340 in Blitz, 877 in Daily, 1471 in Puzzles, 374 in Bullet, and 13 in Puzzle Rush (3:00 minute). I’m looking forward to starting ChessGoals' 12-week plan, improving my skills, and hearing about your progress as well!

Greetings to all! I am Steingar17 here on Chess.com and I am here to improve my chess. In 2025 I will turn 70 years old and I feel some of my analytic skills declining. To reverse the decline I am taking up chess again. I have not played a rated game in over 25 years. I was USCF rated 1150 at that time.Now that the children are grown I will have a little more time. Although I am not a beginner, I will take the long route beginner course again and refresh everything I have forgotten. I look forward to learning and playing alongside all of you! 

Currently - FideRapid-1572 Fide standard - 1503 Chess.com Rapid- 2168 Chess.com Blitz- 2140 Chess.com Bullet -2201 Lichess rapid- 2172 Lichess Blitz-2034 Lichess Bullet- 2342

Hello everyone. Back to chess after many years. We will see how it goes.

Hello fellow ChessGoals members, I am sully2112 on chess.com and castlemaniac on lichess. I am planning on starting the beginner # 2 plan to increase my chess abilities. I am striving to achieve a chess.com rapid rating of 1500. I am an adult learner, 61 years old and have been playing chess for a long time as a patzer and never really studied. I am a member of the chess dojo but have not followed the recommendations so my rating has stayed stagnant. I am currently 1024 rapid on chess.com and 1507 rapid and 1240 classical on lichess. But the rapid rating is too high and the classical rating is still provisional. I do not play blitz or bullet but may try them. Generally, I play rapid games at 15/10 or longer on both chess.com and lichess and classical at 30+ min with or without an increment on lichess. I prefer longer time controls (30+ min). I will be updating this study plan post at least bi-weekly. Anyone can contact me to play games. I am usually available on the weekends in the morning from 7 AM - 11 AM US Eastern Time but will need to schedule the game 24 hours in advance. 

Hello guys iam new 

Hi, I sat down to order 'Logical Chess Move by Move' and found several editions. Of course the older editions are less expensive. I was wondering if there was any particular edition that is being used for the ChessGoals Study Plan? I found editions in paperback form from: 1971, 2003, 2022 and a Kindle edition from 2018. Is there a preferred edition that we use? Thanks, Sharon

On 14th of May starting at:Blitz 1686Rapid 1638Puzzles 2531Daily 1156

Hi I am here to improve my chess on chess.com currently 675 rapids and 708 blitzes willing to improve more and use this training program 

Hi all, At 57 I'm returning to chess after a few years away. I've played at a patzer level most of my life, and go through periods of intense study, fail to improve, and quit. This time seems to be a bit different--I've been more focused and structured in my approach.  I'm currently at ~500ish in Rapid (I don't really play Blitz & Bullet--I'm actually working on SLOWing down my play to prevent blunders). My short term goals are to first get to 1000, then 1500... and with time and patience, maybe reach 2000 Rapid. It seems like it's going to be a painfully slow process, but let's see how that goes.

Hi all, I've decided to re-start with beginner training plan. Currently I'm 850 in blitz, but as I have Logical Chess move by move book and I haven't read it cover to cover I will start with the plan for < 800 players. I'm bad at blitz, so I may even drop bellow that 800 during the plan Current rating: Blitz: 851 Rapid: 1301 I'm sure that kids won't let me to follow the plan every day, but I will do my best to do as much as I can. I plan to track the stuff I do.

Hi all, I plateaued at high 900's early 1000 and wish to try something more structured to improve.  

So, what are we doing here? I think I'm missing something as I haven't seen any instruction here.

jpharrah here from the U.S. I just reached 1608 in 3 2 Blitz (felt like a full time job getting over 1600). My rapid rating is 1796, and my USCF OTB rating is floored at 1600; my peak was 1814 back in the day. My goal is to reach 1700 USCF OTB, and 1700 Blitz at chess.com. All comments gladly accepted.

I started this 12 week training plan to try and get to around 1100-1300 by the end of it. I am currently at 950 elo.

HardcoreChess - Chess Club - Chess.com

New members to the group, please introduce yourselves here!