2026 Improvement Goals!

Suggested by:  @Cartoon46

A place to share your 2026 goals and connect with others through your improvement journey.  

i want to be 1600

My goal is to reach 2000 FIDE by the end of 2026. I'm currently 1460 FIDE.

i want to reach 1800 rapid by december 2026

I am not discouraging you but I do not think that will happen in a year. Fide is hard to increase. You can aim for 300-400 pts though. What you are aiming for is one of the biggest historical cliimb.
I want to reach 1700 in classical fide

best way to improve as a thousand?

Realistically what can I achieve and can commit to? So:

1. Play 150 rapid games in the year

2. Maybe reach 1000 rating in rapid on this site? Maybe 🤔🤷‍♂️

3. Review 90% of all the games I play

4. Complete my 'Aimchess' workout 4 times a week.

5. Play two OTB competitions (first one booked for 4th Jan)

6. Read Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess (wrapped up and under the tree waiting for me)

7. Cycle up Wass bank without stopping (a local, long 17% hill which is so far defeating my pensioner legs 😂)

I want to improve my visual skills in the game. Usually I miss a great move because I am looking somewhere else on the board.

My 2025:

I entered 2025 with chess rating 650 but now finishing 1058 highest achieved rating

*Played almost 1050 games

*Gained rapid rating 400

*Read two books

1) Bobby Fischer teaches chess by Bobby Fischer

2) Logical move by move by Irving chernev

Welcoming 2026

My targets for 2026:

*Read at least two books one is Reassess your chess by Jeremy Silman and other is not decided

*Play 1000 rapid game

*At least 100+ games reviews

*Self analysis of games as much as I will be able

*Will try to finish 2026 with RAPID RATING 1450

I'd love to ger better at predicting possibile moves' combinations as well as assessing worth/ value of each such move, so I can play in a more purposeful way. I enjoy analysing and I'd like to get better at it. Scoring higher would be a nice and additionally motivating bonus 🙂.

I really enjoy reading such highly self- motivated posts like Yours 🤗 💛. There is nothing more inspiring than a positevely and highly driven person who knows what she wants and goes for it. I don' t have to keep my fingers crossed for your success ' cause with your level of determination luck and desired outcome is guarnteed ✨.

I'd like to become 1800.

I feel you ! The same sometimes happens to me and it is usually a lack of time and/ patience im my case, but not always. It happens at times that I see but don't notice the good move. Thank you then for sharing here your goal 💛 as your inspiring idea for improvement is now my goal as well 🙂.

So something of approx. 300 pointa yearly is realistic for an avarage person assuming this person plays how many hours weekly?

I really face this problem I just calculate the outcome upto 2-3 moves as a result sometime if I go for it I lose the material in the end as it go up to 4-6 moves and if I don't go for it and later analyse. I get choked that I missed the chance to mate in few moves or at least win material 😂😂😂. That's why I decided to read some book pages of my level to solve the problem to some extent 😂

My goals for 2026:

Rating:

• 1800 rapid chess.com
• 1600 blitz chess.com

Puzzles:

• 60 in puzzle rush survival
• Solve puzzles every day (it can be with books, and for any duration of time)

Chessable:

• Keep my streak (currently at 355 days)

Openings:

• Open Sicilian as White
• Nimzo-Indian and Queen's Indian defenses as Black

I hope to get back to my previous rating of 903 in bullet and hit 900 in blitz

I want to be 1800 I'm 1450 rn. This year I gained 1350 elo and played 1800 rapid games.

Well, I didn't reach my 2025 goals although I did make progress. So I think I'll just reset along those same lines... 1700 Daily, 1600 Rapid, 1300 Blitz.

I thank you for your opinion. And, yes, I understand the difficulty in my goal. I'll try my best to get the farthest I can (in terms of elo). Good luck on achieving your goal! (I see you are 1557 FIDE. So, 1700 is very realistic.)