Forum

Did you hit a rating goal? Did you finally beat that troublesome opponent? Did you manage to keep a puzzle streak going for a whole month? This is the place to tell the world about your latest achievement!

Hey Improvers! I’m NM Dane Mattson, Coach Dane. This forum is dedicated to chess improvement questions you have, either about general improvement or about specific questions you have about positions or games. I’ll be monitoring this forum along with NM Jeremy Kane and others, and we’ll do our best to help out! We also highly encourage the community to share their perspectives and thoughts - I’m sure in many cases, the community will have even better insight than we do

Hello everyone! We are so happy to be here for the Chess Improvement Challenge! It’s such a great chance to be part of this amazing community full of Improvers at all levels. We would love to invite you to tell us a little about yourself and your improvement goals here. We can’t wait to get to know you better and to support you on your chess journey! 😊 

Hey everyone! This forum is all about resources to help you improve. We’ll be posting content here throughout the year, and we encourage you to share resources or practices that have helped you, and we are eager to hear requests for different types of resources. If it doesn’t exist already, maybe we can publish it as part of the Improvement Challenge!

The "Accomplishments and Celebrations" forum is a great way to celebrate and share your own chess achievements / progress. Are there other members of the Improvers Club that have supported your chess journey that you'd like to recognize / give a personal shoutout? Perhaps you have found someone else's journey particularly inspiring and would like to recognize them. This forum is intended to share our appreciation of other members/contributors in the Improvers Club.  I'll start by giving all of you who are reading this a warm shoutout! It's wonderful to see how supportive and encouraging this community is, and it's an honor supporting you along your chess journey.  

Have an interesting problem - either from your own game or from elsewhere - that you want to share? Post it here and challenge the community! Be sure to state which side is to move, and we encourage you to post the game information if you have it and consider a note about which rating level the problem may be good for.

Hey Improvers! We invite you to share your games and analysis here - whether you want to share your thoughts and insights on your play or if you want to get insight from others. 🙂

Post here if you're looking for training partners within a certain rating range.Let's try to keep it topical and use the thread specifically for that purpose.Wish you success in your improvement journey!  

Hi everyone! We will use this forum to post updates on the Sunday Rapid tournaments, such as when the fair play review was completed, when the prizes were awarded, or any other updates we make. As always, if you have any questions or comments, we are always very interested in hearing from you!

Hello everyone! In case you'd like to suggest a thread to be posted in the club, you are welcome to draft it and then post it in a comment below. Relevant threads will be selected and posted on a regular basis. To suggest a thread, start your comment with the title and then add the thread content. If you like a thread that is being suggested, consider upvoting it and using reactions to show your love and support. Please let's use the comments section specifically for the purpose of suggesting threads, and making sure to follow our Posting Policy when in the club. Comments that are not thread suggestions will be removed. Looking forward to your contribution!  

Here is a forum where players can connect if they are unable to add their opponent as friends or send DMs. Thanks, @Flan, for suggesting it!

Thread by:  @Sebu13Similar to Game Analysis but primarily focused on showcasing games rather than specific analysis. Share your best, worst, funniest, most boring, most unusual etc. games here! Whatever you feel is worth sharing, feel free to post it. Comments on the game, analysis, backstory etc. is optional, do it however you want to do it!

Thread by:  @imraghav2013 • @SPK1729 • @EnCroissantIsBrilliant See also:  Chess Openings • Chess Middlegames A place to share, ask for advice on, or learn together about chess endgames.

Thread by:  @TheLearnerofGames • @Cartoon46 • @Sebu13 • @Sans1600 See also:  Chess Middlegames • Chess Endgames A place to share, ask for advice on, or learn together about chess openings.

Suggestion by:  @outwittedyou Thread dedicated to discussing different music people like to listen to while playing - different genres, artists, whether it be sad, motivating, energetic, and also suggesting good songs that make you play more "focused" or "hyper"!

I'm seeing a lot of requests for help and improvement advice from beginner-intermediate players, and many of them fall into one of these broad categories: What openings should I play to improve? / What should I do against this opening? How should I get to X Elo? / Road to X ELO / How can I improve? (general) "Looking for a free chess coach" / How do I stop my losing streak? / I want stuff/results fast! As a fairly strong player who has put in enough work to know more than most people, and who isn't paid to be a figure of toxic positivity, I'm just going to tell you how it is: 1. Openings don't matter at your level. They are just a matter of preference, unless you're playing some really dubious trap. Obsessing about openings is like dreaming about your fighting style before you've thrown your first punch. It doesn't matter. Just pick an opening you "vibe with" as Black, and then play the same opening a tempo up as White. Spend the rest of your time getting better at finding good moves. For example, taking free pieces. 2. The "Road to X ELO" isn't a real thing. A road implies a straight (or straight-ish) path to a destination which you will eventually reach if you keep walking along it for long enough. This is not the case. Everyone has a maximum potential which is constantly decreasing due to age, and at some point you will plateau and then decline. If you're asking "is it too late for me to become a Grandmaster?" Yes. It's too late.Nevertheless, most people in this forum are still capable of some amount of improvement. If you are <1200 Rapid, just about the only thing you need to worry about is taking your opponent's pieces and not letting your opponent take your pieces. If your rating isn't 1200 Rapid and you wonder why you're not getting better, it's because you aren't getting better at taking more pieces than your opponent. If you're rated between 1200 and 1800, you need to worry a little about theoretical endgames and openings, but mostly you need to get better at taking pieces. If you're over 1800, then you can worry about complicated stuff... like forcing your opponent to give away his pieces. 3. Stop asking for free stuff. It's frankly degrading to the game for people to be asking for a 2000 ELO player to do private coaching FOR FREE. Strong players are glad to help with some pointers, but they weren't given a handout... They worked for their ranking! Unless you're my friend, I'm not giving you a free lesson, and neither will an actually strong player!And if you're in a slump, you can't just expect to get your elo back without hard work. Well, not unless you che@t. In any case, you won't get better unless you put in the work. And going on a blitz binge or exploring obscure lines of the Kalashnikov because the name sounds cool aren't going to help. You need to get good at taking your opponent's pieces, and that means playing long games (15|10 is not ideal, but bare minimum) and then analyzing afterward.The only way to get anything for free... Is to go to lichess. Not only is that degenerated place totally free with no ads, your elo will go up (well, their ratings are inflated)! But we don't talk about that sort of hippie communism on chess.com forums! This, in my opinion, is all the general advice most people need to know when starting out on their chess journey. Your next questions should be oriented around filling in the details of how exactly you will improve at taking free pieces. If you don't mind the facts and the challenges I laid out before you, I wish you good fortune in the wars to come.

Hi wonderful community, I'm looking for a chess coach to help me improve and achieve my goal of reaching 2000 ELO in Rapid. Currently, I'm at 1650, and I’m eager to deepen my understanding of mid-game and endgame strategies. I would greatly appreciate finding a free coach who can play games with me, provide constructive feedback, and recommend books or other learning resources to enhance my progress. Your guidance and support would mean the world to me. Please feel free to reach out if you're interested in mentoring or know someone who might be. Many thanks in advance! Cheers,

Thread by:  @zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz44 • @ChessBeteigeuze • @imraghav2013 A place to share OTB tournament results, chess experiences, top players tournaments, and anything else relating to OTB chess.

Suggested by:  @SPK1729 • @hhart10k What are your favorite chess quotes? Share it below and a reason for why you love it then let's discuss so that we don't end up in a deep, dark forest where 2+2=5 and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.

Suggested by:  @Cartoon46 To discuss all things 2025 CoachChamps related! Share your thoughts and experiences as a player.Or which players and coaches you're rooting for as a spectator.Game analysis, favorite moments, your predictions for the event, you name it!