Haeskre's Beginner Study Plan

Day 0:

My ratings:

• Chess.com Blitz: 817
• Chess.com Rapid: 1075
• Chess.com Daily: 1330
• Chess.com Puzzles: 2101

Resources:

• Study Plan: here
• Game Analysis Notes (Rapid): here

I will check in after each completed week!

Week 1 Summary:

My ratings:

• Chess.com Blitz: 817 (+0 WoW, +0 PtD)
• Chess.com Rapid: 1098* (+23 WoW, +23 PtD)
• Chess.com Daily: 1330 (+0 WoW, +0 PtD)
• Chess.com Puzzles: 2148 (+47 WoW, +47 PtD)

*My peak was 1116. In my last game, I played very tiredly and lost to an opponent significantly lower in rating than me, causing me to lose 18 points. The loss was completely deserved, as I (1) blundered a piece in an equal position, (2) missed a M1 in a winning position, and (3) blundered my last piece in a winning endgame.

Overall, a good week of progress and consistency!

Good luck! Looks like you are already jumping up quite a bit in just 2 weeks!

I'm about the same Rapid rating but my Blitz is terrible. I stick to Rapid these days. I've seen really nice progress following the Beginner template. I also have taken a few lessons which helped me see some things I couldn't on my own. 

Hi @PapaShepered, thanks for the engagement.

It's nice to see your consistent improvement in Rapid in the past month. Are you playing 15+10? Your Rapid:Blitz discrepancy is unexpectedly large for me. Maybe try Blitz again, given how much you've improved in the last month?

I find that the largest help of the Beginner's Study Plan is simply in the reinforcement of consistency. Otherwise, I get anxious about playing rated games on Chess.com. I do a lot of training on Chessable, but everything I learn there can't be reflected in my rank unless I...play.

Week 3 Summary:

My ratings:

• Chess.com Blitz: 890 (+0 WoW, +73 PtD)
• Chess.com Rapid: 1151 (+35 WoW, +76 PtD)
• Chess.com Daily: 1368 (+0 WoW, +38 PtD)
• Chess.com Puzzles: 2170* (-62 WoW, +69 PtD)

*Note to self: Don't get tilted on Puzzles!

I took one week off on a vacation. I don't feel very motivated about chess right now, but let's see how things go!

Week 5 Summary:

My ratings:

• Chess.com Blitz: 898 (+36 WoW, +79 PtD)
• Chess.com Rapid: 1268 (+30 WoW, +185 PtD)
• Chess.com Daily: 1355 (+0 WoW, +25 PtD)
• Chess.com Puzzles: 2402 (-11 WoW, +401 PtD)

Great results! I just realized the discrepancy from your first post to this one. Still, excellent progress.

Somehow I missed your question to me months ago. My Blitz rating is terrible. I am playing a few right now and I simply struggle to not blunder in that time control. The longer the game, the better I do. I am 1850-1900 on Lichess Classical playing longer time controls. While it's hard to compare the rating ranges between the sites, looking at Matt's rating comparison page shows that is significantly better than my blitz/rapid ratings here.

I'm going to make one more post just to close out this thread for good, as I've moved on to a custom plan. 29 weeks of inconsistent play later~

FINAL RATINGS:

• Chess.com Blitz: 817 -> 898 (+81)
• Chess.com Rapid: 1075 -> 1310 (+235)
• Chess.com Daily: 1330 -> 1361 (+31)
• Chess.com Puzzles: 2101 -> 2402 (+301)