I Never Have Time For Chess

Hey everyone.

I love playing chess. I want to get better, but I don't have the time for matches anymore. Any suggestions on how to improve without playing a game?
Thanks.

play shorter games

Play against me. add me

Play daily chess maybe

do 5 tactics at a time - takes < 10 min if you really work at it - don't guess, work it out. if you do that 3-4 times a day, you WILL get better. then do 10 at a time - use whatever time you have. i'm convinced that almost everyone can get to 1800-1900 just through studying tactics and the most rudimentary opening knowledge.

Very true. You can even play games where you have 7 days to make a move

do the puzzles during free time

Normally I wouldn't waste the time but I respect how much you are playing the bots! I'll come back to that in a minute.

Reset your Puzzles and your Puzzle Rush. Your puzzle accuracy must stay over 80%. Every time you get an incorrect answer they give you too many points for the next correct answer so that you don't get diiscouraged and stop clicking!!

Puzzle Rush Survival has no time limit and is something you can come back to whenever you have time as long as you leave that window open!

Accuracy must become your only concern if you want to turn this toy into a tool. You only have to figure it out a half move at a time. I call it a toy because solving puzzles on line is like looking in the back of the book on every single move to see if you are getting the right answer!?! lol What GM would tell you that you will become great , "fast" doing that? Get some books or write out the entire solution before you even start entering the moves!

Bots also have no time limit and you can finish at your leisure. Stop playing the same bots over and over. You play the bots in order, with random color, and with 3 crowns. No take backs, no hints. Review every game! When you reach a bot that beats you 3 times in a row, then I have something to work with. Send me those 3 games and I'll tell you what to do next!?!

You can get the full details about me at www.scholarshipchessbusinesscenter.com

Good Luck,

Coach Mike C

No time for matches but a love for chess. With that in mind then, and looking at your current ratings, puzzles are going to be incredibly useful.

When you have a break at work or a time away from immediate family members or even while you are destressing watching a show, you should open up the custom puzzles on chess.com and focus on 1-3 puzzle topics.

Some examples of 1-3 puzzle topics you can select would be;

Difficulty scale 100 -1200

1- Basic Checkmates, Fork/Double Attack, Simplification. 
2- Defense, Stalemate
3- Passed Pawns, Pawn Endgame, Opposition

You are not timed on these puzzles, you can do one of these topics for 5 minute bursts, and slowly over time your brain will rewire and begin to understand fundamentals of chess. A lot of these puzzles are purely pattern recognition.

This is going to be your only way of improving and maintaining that love for the game without dedicating/sacrificing more time towards it.

With this regiment in mind, id say after a year of doing this when you are able, you should be able to raise your rapid and blitz rating to 800 each. After that however, you are going to need to give more to chess in order to overcome better players.

You got your whole life ahead of you, take your time and good luck.

I am aware that this has less to do with chess, but manage your time. Structure your time for chess and for other things. If this is possible for you, then try it. Better players can tell you about chess improvement, but I will play my role in this conversation and advocate for time management.

play games in your head.

If you want to get better without actually playing games you should try chess puzzles to improve your skill. I personally think its doubtful that you can really improve without playing actual games, maybe that's just me. but you should try to play at least one game a day and over time you'll get better.

Puzzles.

I'm convinced that you will simply NOT improve your entire game unless you make time to play longer games. If you can, go over your moves later with fresh eyes- preferably with another, stronger player that can offer guidance. You can use the engine for that as well. With my tournament games I do this while making notes in a red ink pen. I circle the move number and then in the notes section I put the better moves, engine evaluations, etc. It really helps me. If chess is any sort of priority then you do have to prioritize actual studying like this.

I see some comments recommending blitz or bullet games but I know most people don't really benefit from that, as you're not given the time to calculate and really focus on the best moves. I DO however, agree that PUZZLES (not puzzle rush with time countdown) are a huge help. Take your time and do not move until you have finished calculating and think you have the answer. It's easy to just give up and look at the solution but you're doing yourself a huge disservice when you do that. The goal is to train your brain and learn, right?

Another tip- if you consume chess content on youtube, etc... you should limit your intake and "diet" to truly educational content. Although I like the more popular, entertaining streamers as well, I really learn alot from Daniel Naroditsky's channel on youtube. I think his teaching style really suits my learning style. Set up a board and follow along, pause and look for the moves, etc. Some people pay a lot of money for lessons like his.

I've gained over 300 pts in the past 6 months by doing this. (only around 1850 at this point) and I think it's because I'm finally using my time wisely and adding some structure to things instead of just playing throwaway blitz games all the time.

Take this as you will! I'm just trying to help and share what has been working for me! Good luck!