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Here is what I came up with for the year

Overall its been a very good year. I have developed some good chess study habits by honing in on areas that I need to improve. These have been getting better at basic tactics, capturing opponents free pieces, and having less pieces than last year. I still have a long way to go but compared to last I’m making gains by filtering out the amount of chess material out there. I have found some good game collection books to go through a few times a week as find seeing what others play helps me visually see what options I might be missing. Continued my daily study streak with Chessable currently at 2205 days. I haven’t played nearly enough OTB games this year but a goal was to play more online than the previous years to shift my balance from playing more and studying less and that has been a success. I need the game reps and why I picked up the game was to play and not fill my feee time with studying. I love to still learn as much as I can with chess but feel good playing more games. On that note I just completed a 30 day blitz challenge to play 100 games. I learned a lot including how much fun blitz can be when I set a specific limit of 5 games per day with a review of each game before starting the next one. It helped me to reduce the stress I felt prior to playing games but exposing myself to more games. I did overall well by increasing my rating by 72 points. I look forward to the fun and challenge each game can bring. I also hit my all time high rating for rapid at 930 earlier this year and although it dropped I’m making my way back as learning and trying out new ideas led to an initial drop.

A high note for this year was being selected as an improver of the month and participating in coach champs. I was so lucky for this opportunity, received training from someone I’ve known of and have studied his Chessable courses and enjoyed his YouTube videos since starting my chess journey 6 years ago, IM Andras Toth . Truly an amazing experience! I didn’t play nearly as I hoped I would in the event but I met some great members by participating who shared what they learned that helped them improve so a win for sure. I also had a very nice lesson with Dane which was wonderful and gave me some good insights to help my play.

I was able to help lead a couple chess clubs for elementary school students over last years school term here in town until this past summer. Such a great experience and although I couldn’t continue for this school year, I got a lot out of helping kids learn chess from the very beginning and hope I made an impact on their chess start. I learned alot myself as something to be said for learning to teach someone even if I have a lot to learn myself. 

A goal was to keep things simple and I will carry that plan heading into next year. My initial years learning I got overwhelmed with all that is available for learning chess and this year I’ve cut things out to simplify the process. So overall I’m pleased with this year progress as I’m still very much enjoying my chess journey both learning and playing. I’ve really enjoyed the improvers community as everyone shares ideas, training tips, successes and losses which can only help me improve along the way. Its a great group and look forward to next year. 

I like how you're completely honest about the fact that you also experience negative thoughts after your losses, @Fischwitsch. I didn't share my own insights with @Flan on this topic for the precise reason that I haven't found an answer to it, nor do I think I will. I believe it extends to every chess player, and it gets worse the more competitive they are (Carlsen's famous table slam, and Niemann breaking a remote come to mind).

That being said, this is a good starting point for relating you my own 2025 journey.

Problem

🧠💢 The psychological aspect, as I have mentioned many times, is the main factor that's holding me back from improving faster.

Accomplishments

🏅CoachChamps was the biggest one, of course, and I talked about that experience in length before, so I won't repeat myself here. I will just say, once again, that I'm very thankful for having been a part of this event.

♟️I played my first OTB tournaments, three rapid, and one classical, and enjoyed the experience very much.

📈Increased my rapid rating by over fifty points, and my blitz by almost two hundred.

🧑‍🏫Helped as many beginners as I could, since I personally enjoy coaching as much as being coached.

Advice to Improvers

🧩Like I mentioned in a previous post, every training plan with IM David Pruess includes regular puzzle solving to sharpen tactics. When preparing for the tournament, I was following this advice to the letter, and I still believe in its effectiveness, but have been slacking now that I'm back to my more casual self 🤣

🥵While training for CoachChamps, Pruess also recommended me to get at least some practice against players within two hundred rating points of me. He believes that when the disparity is too big players aren't able to learn much from the games. I've heard this argument before, and to this I would add that, in my personal experience, playing against someone much stronger is also helpful, even when you're losing almost every game. Apart from my own, I've seen other examples of people reaping great benefits from this approach.

⌚Play with increment if your goal is to improve at the game. I keep hearing about improvers who dislike increment. Being forgiven for your tactical oversights because you can win a completely drawn, or even worse, lost position, builds bad habits, in my opinion.

📝Analyze your games, especially the losses. There's no way around it: if you want to get better, you need to analyze your games, and especially those where you made big mistakes (if you got punished for them, that means they were big enough for your opponent to notice). If you're being lazy about analyzing the games, perhaps you're being too much of a perfectionist. This happens to me. A simple solution is to reduce the number of takeaways from each game to a minimum. Learning one thing from every loss will do marvels to your chess improvement.

Potential Goals

I still have a month to think about such chess new year resolutions, but potential candidates are the following:

📙Doing the intermediate section of The Woodpecker Method.

📘Finishing The Amateur's Mind.

🔍Holding myself accountable to analyze every game I play (with the method I mentioned of one key takeaway).

🧘‍♂️Being more lenient on myself for performing badly.

📈Reaching 1800 rapid and 1600 blitz.

I guess I’ll also do a little review of how my year went.

2025 Year in Review

So it started out pretty simple- I had come back to chess after a very long break in late November (for context, I hadn’t played since May because I rage quit chess after losing over 100 elo in one go). I came back and decided to start trying out rapid more, as it would allow me to think and actually improve.

I went from about 720 to 1120 by the time the New Year began, and since my birthday is also around then, I waited until my birthday to give myself some goals for the upcoming year. Anyhow, I was just shy of 1200, but I just called it 1650 and that’s where I would judge my goals. 1400 it was, but a few days later I added 1600 as an “upper bound”, if I don’t get there, it’s fine, I’ve made good progress, but it’d be super nice to get there.

By March, I had already reached 1400, but I was also experiencing a lot of days where I would lose like 20 elo, even close to 70 one day in February. But I was still growing insanely fast, and having the chess time of my life. It only took me 3 months to reach my original goal! 1600 would be a breeze!

April was a struggle though, and as soon as I would get close to 1500, I would drop. Eventually I did get there in mid-May, but it just didn’t feel as joyous as my previous gains. In half the time I gained 300 elo, I only gained 100. But alas, summer was coming! I could spend all day working on my chess and make big improvements for sure!

Well, made me really disappointed when that didn’t happen. I was putting in the work but with 0 signs of improvement. By the end of June, I took a little pitfall to land exactly where I started, and so I took a break for a week. Maybe I was just overworking myself and I needed time for the information so soak in.

But this week changed things. I picked up Xiangqi (Chinese chess), and wow, it’s really hard. It reminds me of first playing chess- how far I’ve come. When I came back, I instantly got up to 1550 and 1570. Took another little fall, but then surged up to 1600 at the end of July. At last, Half of the year taken up and had already improved around 450 elo!

Now with school coming, I was confident I could makes strides of improvement. I had been slacking off a lot of the summer, so some structure could definitely help. Except, it didn’t.

August started out good, and I decided it was time to change my goals. 1850 by the end of the year. Doable? Sure. But I should have given myself a layup goal instead and let my skill take me much farther. 1850 meant 50 each month, so when I was 1640 with 1 week to go in August, I was feeling great. Until I crashed down to 1615 practically ending my chances.

I was invited to CoachChamps, but a had to decline the offer. Early September was a drag. No big gains or big drops. Just kinda playing chess again. But the sad way.

I didn’t play at all in late September, and October was just a climb and a crash, nothing major. Every once of momentum was drained, and honestly, I just had no confidence. It was really terrible. November rolls around and after another crash, I just pick myself up.

Somehow, after a bad losing streak ends with two very winnable draws, I decide to change my piece & board theme. I know it sounds random, but usually changing it makes me either climb or fall, so I tried to do one that’s comfortable. Well, I’ve now won 6 of my last 7 (a 19 move loss where I headed straight into another game and crushed them), and finally reached 1650. I’ve set my new goal at 1700 because I know that I could probably get much higher, but I’m not stressing about it.

Overall, I think my main advice is to go easy on yourself. If you don’t reach a goal, that’s fine. I’d also suggest (although a lot of people might argue with me) undershooting when making your goals. I think making something so close it’s impossible to miss is how you actually get guaranteed gains. Additionally, set long term goals only, and don’t let yourself divide it up into “progress checks”. I think these stress you out way too much and you should ideally just be playing freely on the chessboard without worrying if you’re on pace to meet your goal. And if you are, don’t feel bad to readjust. It probably means you were just being overly optimistic when you started.

And thanks to everybody that’s helped me in my journey. There are a lot of amazing people here I haven’t really gotten to interact with and you deserve a shoutout to, but I’d like to personally thank @Stron6h0LD, @ChanMan4, @KiriyamaKazuo, @WizzardA1, @Mawita11, @Jeol05, @weirdgerman, @QueenSlider, @ELRiehl, @Fallano, and @MagicalNesquik. You’ve all been a big help in my journey this year, and I thank you all so much for that!

And good luck to everybody for a wonderful finish to this year!

Thanks for sharing your year in review, @southernrun ! It's wonderful to hear how involved you are in the chess community - you never know how far your positive impact will reach with your scholastic / community endeavors.

I'm noticing a common theme that a number of us have experienced as adult improvers - specifically information overload and the tendency to overcomplicate our lives and chess experience! As you found a way to simplify your approach, like others, I have heard positive feedback regarding chess experience and improvement - this is something I hope to lean in on more going into the new year!

Thanks again for sharing your chess journey with us as well as your kind and encouraging support of others, helping strengthen our community!

Thank you for sharing your incredible year with us, @KiriyamaKazuo !

Your improvement journey has been incredibly inspiring, including your Coach Champs success, and it was wonderful to see your initial steps into the OTB arena with some promising results!

In addition to your great success on the 64 squares, I am especially impressed by your dedication to this community, sharing your insights, mutual struggles, and just being available and kind to others. This is the exact type of community participation we hope to see that will help us continue to grow the improvers community and help inspire more people engage with chess.

"Being more lenient on myself for performing badly" is quite a challenging and important concept to reflect upon and explore. Let's stay connected and explore this topic together! I haven't finalized my 2026 plans, but I also want to put myself in a situation where my own games / struggles are more visible to the public so we can very much appreciate and gain more insights from the student within me that has much to learn and experience.

It's been an incredible year and I look forward to more adventures in 2026!

Thanks for sharing your year in review @outwitted you!

Your rating gains have been quite impressive, and it's nice to see you layered your expectations to also include a "stretch" goal as it were, which you also surpassed!

I loved your following commentary:

"But this week changed things. I picked up Xiangqi (Chinese chess), and wow, it’s really hard. It reminds me of first playing chess- how far I’ve come. When I came back, I instantly got up to 1550 and 1570. Took another little fall, but then surged up to 1600 at the end of July. At last, Half of the year taken up and had already improved around 450 elo!"

Embracing the "beginner's mind" has tremendous value not least of which in providing an opportunity to reflect upon the struggles you yourself encountered as a beginner, thus appreciating what you have already achieved and not take it for granted, as well as gain new perspectives and connections that you wouldn't otherwise have encountered.

Here's to a great remainder of the year and I look forward to seeing where your chess adventure takes you in 2026!

Cheers!

So nice to see everyone's shared reflections of the year also really helped me to structure my own thoughts in terms of how I've seen my past year, which started with me thinking how on earth do I write this!

Quick reflection first though on the year prior to this, I had really started taking chess as a more serious hobby. This resulted in a lot of firsts in 2024:

1. Attending my first ever tournament in April
2. Running my first social chess event in May
3. Playing my first ever classical match playing in the local chess leagues in September

This resulted in the playing of 3 rapid tournaments and 9 league matches in 2024 with the following results:

Classical: 9 games, 4 wins, 3 draws 2 losses. Performance rating for the year 1524. (No official rating but around 1500 provisional rating awaiting 1 more game)

Rapid: 19 games, 8 wins, 4 draws, 7 loses (2 wins against 0-rated players so not included in performance ratings). Performance rating 1356 with final rating being similar.

My final rapid tournament was a joint 3rd place finish for a best ever result.

This was my baseline for the year and what I wanted to consider my performance from for the year ahead. (On a side note I generally think on the basis of the chess league seasons so this assessment is a little bit off my usual centre working on a calendar year rather than a season (Sept-Sept).

I thought I'd share my results through 4 main topics.

1. Performance 

This year has been rather successful in this regard. Starting with OTB results.

Classical: 20 games, 13 wins, 2 draws 5 losses. Performance rating for the year: 1707. Currently just the wrong side of 1600 (was up to around 1620 live rating at one point) with at least 2 games left before the Christmas break. Definitely going in the right direction.

Rapid: 22 games, 11 wins, 7 draws, 4 loses (2 wins against 0-rated players so not included in performance ratings, although I gained +10 rating points for one of them so they must be considered around my rating). Performance rating 1504 with final rating a little short of 1450.

Unfortunately I've had to miss the last two rapid events I wanted to attend due to work and life events but certainly a positive set of results.

Included in this though was a joint first place finish in a U1500 rapid event. A second place missing out on first by tiebreakers in another (open but highest player was around 1600 I think).

At the club level I won the club championship with a score of 3.5/4 with a nice trophy to enjoy for the year (dating back to the 1960s!).

This is beyond my expectations and alot of the techniques I've been applying to my process I've gained from discussions on here alongside reading from everyone else's experience.

Online ratings also trending up nicely (+121 Rapid and +319 Blitz), although these will always be secondary in my mind to my OTB.

2. Study

I set myself some ambitious study goals and achieved I feel two of them well enough and got distracted with other things from achieving the third.

Goal 1 : Study of responses to 1.d4 massive success, managed to work on this all year and kept it going well. This was a relearn but changing in Chessable to all moves. Chessable current status:

Status % Total
Paused: 6% 31
Learning: 57% 280
Mature: 35% 171
Difficult: 2% 12

Feeling very confident in these lines, even if I'm making occasional mistakes in the studying.

Goal 2 : Learn response to French, partial success. Made some progress on this but keep slipping from time to time, keeps going from around 75-100% complete with a self reflection that I need to backtrack and re-do a little.

Goal 3 : Learn response to Spanish, failure. Will have to focus this next year. Made some progress but time has been a struggle.

Additional Goal : King's Gambit Response, the has been the most enjoyable failure to achieve goals. The goal was ridiculous to finish my own personal study of my offbeat line and it was brought me much joy over the past year. There has also a realisation that it might never finish but also an acceptance that this is okay.

Overall I'm happy with my study achievements but perhaps I wouldn't have been happy at the start of the year if this is all I would achieve. So my lesson to myself is to either set some slightly more open ended goals or not expect quite so much of myself!

3. Organising

Another big part of my chess improvement is away from the board by organising events for a more social local chess scene of which there wasn't anything outside of the local chess clubs (which are naturally quite intimidating).

This year I've seen some significant growth in people attending and starting up a Pub Chess Night which has gone from strength to strength.

The benefits of this has been extremely far and wide but have really brought out a lot of friendly moments. Including at last night's one presenting the position shared in the endgames thread (of which no one managed to solve! Many thanks to @KiriyamaKazuo 's response on this as it really helped the discussions we had ).

Had some wonderful discussions about chess ideas with people I wouldn't normally get to meet. The ideas and lessons learnt from these OTB encounters become more and more apparent in my games. An added benefit is my confidence is significantly higher than last year so the personal benefits of this effort have been felt this has been a real bonus to my life both on and off the chess board.

4. Thoughts going forwards

This year I always saw as a year for maximising the possibility of two things going into next year:

1. Set myself up to play the most enjoyable chess possible.

2. Place myself in position to hit 2000 rapid online next year and 1700 OTB.

These have been a massively successful, especially playing enjoyable chess (!!), and a big part of it has been down to this community. I will be aggressively targeting these rating goals next year . Anyone that has a look at my activity on this forum will probably see that opening theory is very much my preferred area of interest and I've enjoyed so much the conversations and shared ideas on the thread. If I've got time I'm always more than happy to delve into the minor nuances of an opening and the creative ideas that follow, so I'd always encourage people to share questions, thoughts and ideas on the thread.

Thank you to everyone who contributes to these forums, especially those who bring about the most positive mindset within the community and good luck to everyone on their goals for the years' that follow.

It's hard for me to write a review, but mainly, I'll summarize it because I feel like i have to do something now lol also pls forgive me i kinda used some help from chatgpt because well, im not good at writing a review but all of this is not exagerrated or biased

2025 was kinda crazy. I started the year stuck at 1200, playing games 5 hrs a day with no progress.. I was stuck, I kept blundering randomly and that was preventing me from raising my ceiling.

Then I switched schools, and this was pretty life changing. That unexpected change gave me about four months of free time because I switched the boardi study in (from April to July). With more time to study, review games, and play seriously, my rating went flying. It went from that to 1400 fast and then 1700. I’m sort of stuck around 1700 right now, but I know I play way better than 1700 and I always come back so I'm not really worried.

I also got my FIDE rating. I’m currently at 1417, and it is kinda crazy. I also discovered that if I focus a LOT, I can consistently beat rated players with ease. I even played an immortal, (kind of tho it is about equal to one) two knight sacrifices, a rook sacrifice, and a knight promotion. I could NOT have done while I was 1200 which means I have improved a lot.
I know this is not as good as the other reviews, but this is my journey and I like it so dont judge.

After reflecting on my year-in-review post, I realize I had unintentionally omitted a very important aspect of this year for me in chess: what I learned. I thought I would share some additional thoughts here:

Chess Learning

In the latter half of the year, I've dedicated more time to learning openings and expanding my opening repertoire, because I found that the openings that I was previously playing weren't yielding results with which I was satisfied. In my efforts to get better at openings, I started watching a wide variety of Daniel Naroditsky's YouTube speedruns on openings that I was interested in learning, like the Caro-Kann: Fantasy Variation, the Alapin Sicilian, and the French Defense: Tarrasch Variation. I also wanted to improve my White repertoire against 1...e5, as I was playing the Ponziani pretty regularly at the time; I wasn't all that pleased with the positions I was getting, although my opponents did fall for some of the traps in the opening. Therefore, I decided to start learning a more solid opening: the Vienna Game.

In order to study the Vienna at the depth and quality that I desired, I decided to purchase a month's worth of Chessly membership, @Gothamchess's educational platform, since I had heard about it from several Improvers in the Notes section. Since learning this opening, I have never played another opening against 1...e5; this is the opening that I was looking for and I'm pleased with the results I've had in this opening against the majority of my opponents. During the duration of that membership month, I also decided to learn the Caro-Kann on Chessly, as my Black opening repertoire against 1. e4 (the Sicilian Accelerated Dragon) wasn't yielding the results I had thought it would. I felt that I was able to understand the basic principles behind the opening, but I wanted more theoretical knowledge; Levy's Caro-Kann course provided me with a significant amount of theory, and my performance against 1. e4 rapidly improved.

In order to better perform against 1. d4, something that I have always struggled with, I also decided to go through Levy's Grünfeld course, as I wasn't satisfied with the positions I was getting with the King's Indian or Queen's Gambit Declined. With the Grünfeld, I really started to enjoy the positions I was getting, and I've found my success rate against 1. d4 to be higher than before.

These were the main things that I learned this year, but I also spent a lot of time working on puzzles, and managed to set a new record for myself at 48 in Puzzle Rush Survival. I feel that I have really grown as a player (even if my rating gains may not always show it), and have learned a ton about chess openings, something that I have really enjoyed doing.

Some very good insights and updates. Thanks for sharing that

Hey, hey, Dane,

Just following up re: your request for feedback on progress for your article. This is probably going to be a bit "stream of consciousness," "first draft," so sorry if any communication isn't super clear. . . .and you know me, ignore typos, pretty please.

Here was my original introduction post on January 2nd:

So, I guess I had one broad off-the-board goal (use chess as metaphor for life), a couple on-the-board, results-based goals (improve elo and puzzles), and two process goals (keep chess healthy and reigned in and identify my "chess style."

CHESS AS METAPHOR:

So, back in January, I was suffering in a big way, off the board. I was dealing with significant health issues, health issues of aging parents, and just completely burned out in my role as a community mental health counselor. Speaking from my direct experience, changes to Medicaid in the US were having devastating effects on the financial viability of my organization, on my role and the demands of the job, and most tragically, my clients. I think stress, off the board, definitely made it difficult to improve in any meaningful way in early 2025. Chess was basically functioning as an escape hatch from my off-the-board life. But as someone has recently said (can't find quote). . . (paraphrased). . . "you don't play chess to reduce stress but you reduce your stress to play chess." From my point of view, chess is just too darn hard to function as a primary stress reliever. . . . I honestly would have been better off binge watching "Breaking Bad," haha. . .

Anyways, in early 2025, I was also just trying to figure out which end was up with chess, and I was basically going through a psychological "shakedown" as chess seemed to expose so many of my struggles with basic focus, attention and concentration while also struggling off the board. As an adult improver, it was difficult to understand why basic chess was so darn hard. Chess definitely disrupts the adult ego, from my point of view, and it invited me into a more honest relationship with myself, one in which I would continue to work on more deeply embracing self-compassion in the face of blunders, using chess as a means of emotional growth. This early disorientation also began a process for me of learning how to learn chess.

LEARNING TO NOT OVERCOMPLICATE

Some of you know I was chosen as "Improver of the Month" for January. After a solid month of avoiding meeting Dane for my lesson because I was so embarrassed by my elo, tbh, I finally reached out to him. So, FINALLY in late March, I met with him, and from March-June, with his help, I was able to find ways to simplify my training. I have to chuckle because, as a former university instructor and counselor, I LITERALLY typed up a syllabus for my training prior to our meeting, haha. The self compassion (and humor) in this is just understanding that chess is BIG and it takes awhile to discern what the most critical things are for improvement when new to chess. Around June, with Dane's help, I was able to simplify my training to 25 minutes of tactics most days, using Everybody's First Chess Workbook, and playing and reviewing games. Also, off the board, I had decided that I was leaving my job(!!).  So the theme of simplification was taking place on the board and off the board in my life!

LEARNING TO LEARN CHESS LIKE A CHILD, ALLOWING FOR ORGANIC GROWTH

Interestingly, over the course of like 3-4 communications, poor Dane had to tell an adult learner that she had to work on hanging pieces, haha (I don't envy him). I was a little slow to hear him, but in that process I learned that knowledge and skill are two different things. I learned that I needed to Karate Kid my chess, "wax on, wax off," and really prioritize learning to do simple things well, like seeing hanging pieces. Around June, I felt pretty good about my approach and really leaned into trusting the process. This would become relevant off the board as well, as I put my resignation notice in at my job in July to go into private practice. A hanging piece for me off the board was that I was putting myself in impossible work situations, and I had gained clarity that it was time for me to be my own boss. Choosing to become my own boss has also involved trusting the process, for sure.

COPING WITH THE UNEXPECTED

So, my plan, off the board, was to leave my job on July 23rd, take six weeks off to recover from work burnout, and then begin building my practice prior to CoachChamps. Well, we had a major family emergency; my father-in-law thought he was dying and had stopped eating and taking care of himself. He wasn't, by the way, but we had to make an emergency trip out to CA (3 day drive) to clean his home, marshal resources, and help him find some hope. So, I came into CoachChamps just spent, and then I was chosen by, arguably, the most well known chess personality, Levy Rozman, haha. I did what I could during our month of training, but I was just spent. And then, my first game in the tournament, in particular, was just a crushing loss from a winning position. It was also just incredibly hard to have my games so public, as Levy's student; one of my blunder reels literally has over a million views. That was just tough, to be honest, but then, on top of that, my games also posted the day after Danya's death.

RESURFACING AFTER ADVERSITY

I did manage to come back to win 3 of my last 4 games. I guess both the situation with my father-in-law and the tournament taught me that I have a lot of grit and can come back from adversity. Both experiences also reinforce in my mind that there is so much more to life than chess. Here is a picture of my father-in-law (below). He's happy. People also said in the comments of Levy's videos of my game that the story arc of my games encouraged them after Danya's death. This is where life is at for me - in a world where people lift people up.

 WHAT'S NEXT?

Well, I wrote mostly about chess as a help for off the board. What about my other goals? I did reach my elo goal, with an 891 peak in my second account, and I improved my puzzles. And regarding my "chess style," actually being coached by Levy, someone with a more aggressive style, taught me that I want to double down on becoming a strong positional player. Levy once said that Pia Cramling's style is his "anti style," haha. And, well, I learned about chess through Anna and Pia, and I really do like more positional play, haha. So, "Sorry, Levy.". . . I guess I want to be my own boss in chess, too, haha.

I am not sure how formal this will be, but, in honor of Danya, I also plan to start an initiative called, "Positive Sum Chess," focusing on inclusion, kindness and mental wellness in chess. I plan to also have my private practice fully up and running by mid January.

Regarding chess specific goals, I want to continue to develop chess as a meditation practice, using chess to help with living a meaningful life. On the board, I will be focusing on turning a weakness exposed in CoachChamps, endgames, into a strength over the next year. And, using endgames as a metaphor, I will really be focusing on living a life well lived off the board.

So, that's that, for now.

Hope you all are well.

Warmly,

hhart10k

Thanks for your post, @ragibites2013 ! Please don't feel the pressure of comparing the summaries in this forum, as, this is your singular and unique journey, so only you can share these insights as a stand alone summary!

I appreciate you being a member of our Improvers Club and look forward to seeing you continue to grow in 2026!

Wow - thanks for your fantastic summary, @hhart10k !

You may have been initially surprised when selected as our first "Improver of the Month" (along with @lib_rl), but your authentic, positive, and encouraging communication and example has been glowing throughout the year in the Improvers Club and beyond, as incredibly summarized in this reflection post.

Chess, to me, is an invitation to shared meaning, on and beyond the 64 squares. Your story very much exemplifies the lived experienced both uniquely, individually experienced and communally shared. You have encouraged as well as inspired so many people with your example and engagement, so thank you for sharing your story and journey with us.

Here's to a wonderful 2026, and I wish you tremendous success and joy with your professional and personal endeavors.

As a note to you and many of those who have already posted their reflections, we want to continue to provide quality improvement content throughout next year, including several improvement articles. I invite all of you to consider possibilities in sharing your improvement insights from your lived experience. As noted, it is one thing to know about hanging pieces, it is another thing to properly identify and captilize upon these opportunities in the lived experience of the "human struggle" in chess!

I think so many of you have unique, incredibly insightful perspectives on what it takes to actually improve. I think hhart10k mentioned something along the lines of "What I wish I knew when I was 400," the type of insights that really resonate with fellow improvers as we wade through the "sea of knowledge" and try to practically navigate the lived chess journey. If you have any ideas / would be interested in contributing to 2026 improvement articles, please let me know.

Please let us know when the article is published! I'm very interested in reading it and further reflecting on this amazing year in the Improver's Club, as I'm sure many other Improvers are!

Amazing journey this year and so much happened on and off the board. Congrats on the start of 2026 and continued success in your game play and enjoyment

@hhart10k sorry to have cut a well written post so short, I knew it would be so I waited till I had some time to properly read it! But i really just wanted to say I hope this initiative of yours goes well and you can keep us updated with how this goes, what works well and what doesn't etc (always after good ideas to borrow 🙂).

Thanks for sharing your reflections @Cartoon46 , I was typing a response and must have been distracted and didn't actually send it - my apologies for the delay in response!

I love to see the integration of online and OTB play, as well as organization (cheers to your "Pub Chess" initiative!). Congratulations on your achievements this year, and I think if you follow the path of enjoying your chess experience (I believe you described "most enjoyable chess" as one of your goals), I think the sky is the limit. You already have an impressive online rapid rating, and I think knocking on the door of 2000 online and 1700 OTB are worthwhile and achievable goals.

Thanks again for sharing your journey with us in the Improvers Club and I look forward to seeing how your adventure unfolds in 2026!

Cheers!

What are y'all's best book recommendations for beginners?

A friend of mine is looking to buy a book for their 9 year old daughter. She knows the basics like castling, forks, and openings principles (300-400 ELO maybe?). I've heard some books get recommended, but I've never read any of them myself and I'm curious to hear what y'all think.

Journey to the Chess Kingdom” by Averbakh and Beilin - is the best per many many GM's and mortals I can try to find ebook and share it with you, if you want

“Everybody’s First Chess Workbook” on Chessable. I don’t think the videos are needed. It’s just a solid, balanced and comprehensive tactics trainer, from my point of view.