Forum

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. 🙂

Hi everyone, I am starting this thread to post the winners of our weekly Sunday Rapid tournaments.Read more about the event here and perhaps join your fellow Improvers on one of the upcoming Sundays!

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

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!

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.

Hi Improvers! Each month we celebrate and reward members who share their chess improvement journey. Here's everything you need to know.What can I win?Each month we pick three winners, one per category. Every winner receives a $100 cash prize, 90 days of Chess.com Diamond membership, and a 1-on-1 coaching session.What are the three categories?Video of the Month - a video or livestream documenting your improvement journey.Post of the Month - a forum post, blog, or written piece that tells a compelling improvement story.Annotated Game of the Month - a thoughtfully annotated game posted in the Game Analysis forum, showing your learning and self-reflection.How do I enter?Fill out the submission form (linked in the club sidebar under "Useful Links," and in the club description). Pick your category and paste the link to your content.Anything special for the Annotated Game category?Yes - your game must be posted as a comment in the Game Analysis forum https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/game-analysis, and you paste the link to your specific comment (the permalink contains #comment-). An analysis-board link on its own does not qualify.Who can win?Any member of the Improvers Club. Not a member yet? Join the club, then submit.When is the deadline?Submit by the last day of the month, 23:59 PT. Winners are announced in the first two weeks of the following month.Can I stay anonymous if I win?Yes. The form has an option to use your username only instead of your real name.A note on fair playAll submissions and winners are reviewed for fair play before prizes are awarded.Questions? Reply here or email community@chess.com. Good luck, and keep improving!

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.  

Suggested by:  @Cartoon46 A place to share your 2026 goals and connect with others through your improvement journey.  

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!  

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!  

Suggested by: @Cartoon46Post games that you’d like to get analyzed by our helpful community, get/give detailed opinions on games played, ideas, and such.

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! 😊 

This forum is for connecting with your opponent, especially if you are having trouble sending DMs or chatting with them. I will NOT monitor this forum for questions or results. Please use the Google form for that!

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!

Suggested by:  @zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz44 A place for coaches to offer, and students to ask for coaching.

The best piece of advice I could give to people under 2000 who want to improve is that you shouldn't be playing the Sicilian or E4 E5 as black. White has many options that make it difficult to play as black at that level. Instead play the Caro-Kann defense which is much simpler. I'm not trying to say the Caro is the best opening (I play e5 mainly and the classical Sicilian occasionally) but the plans are simpler and you won't have to waste what at that level is valuable time on learning what to do against all the various gambits and options White has available. 

Sometimes we need to laugh so we don't cry. This is a great place to post a silly blunder or something funny that happened in one of your games. Please be supportive! Here's one from a game of mine against a GM. I just played a bad move and my GM opponent resigned. Can you spot what we both missed about the position?

I need to improve, even my friends that dont know chess can beat me. Please i want to improve.

Hello, I have been trying to get to 1000 Elo rapid for a while now but I just can’t. Btw I am around 650 Elo. I know openings, know basic tactics and positional concepts. I just can’t improve pls help.

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.