Introduce Yourself and Your Goals!

i'm 15. i started 1 year ago. last year i was 300 rapid. i want to join mssd this year

Hi. 👋 My name is Eloïse. I'm 13. I come from France. I've played chess since I was 6. I've played for about 4-5 years on chess.com and I play at my school's chess club. I am not very good and still get beaten often but I am hoping to improve. I participated in a regional tournament and came in second out of 4 girls and 39 out of around 55 people. For 2025, I would like to do more puzzles, improve my daily rating and play more rapid online.

As long as you keep that attitude, you will certainly improve! 39 out of 55 is pretty decent! 💪

Hello I am Redwan, Age-18, Playing chess actively for about an year last November i reached rapid Elo 1200 and This January I reached 1300. I want to pursue chess as more then just a side hobby. I am Improving to play at local tournament's. I hope I reach my desired goals for this year to reach 1800 Rapid Elo.

Hello everyone! I'm Yichen, a graduate student in China. I started playing chess this year and fell in love with it instantly. My goal is to reach 1200 in rapid by the end of 2025. Hope this is not too ambitious.

My profile photo is a bear called Benben, meaning stupid in Chinese.

Keep going, Yichen! Aim for 110%. Literally, if you want to reach 1200, then, make it your goal to reach 1300. If you really put your mind to it, you can reach 1300, but, even if you don't, it's almost guaranteed that you'll have surpassed 1200. 😉👍🏻

Keep Chessing & Stay Brainy!

you will!!

Hello, I am Masky, 28-year-old Gamer & CS teacher, started chess in Jan 2025. Deep thinker who loves understanding the game. Goal: 2000 Elo by Jan 2026. GM Naroditsky is my online sensei. His ability to break down his thought process is exceptional. I love analyzing his low elo games more than playing and prefer solving puzzles on paper (Learning Chess Step 1). Hate losing, so I focus on analyzing & correcting my thinking process. I only play rapid for now—prefer 15|10 but adapting to 10|0. 
GL & HF

Hi all, I'm Sebu, just a 40-year old guy from Finland, trying to be an adult chess improver.

A short story about my chess journey. A few years ago, I used to play a lot of Pokemon Go and watch some related content on Youtube. Then, at the end of 2022, for inexplicable reasons, the Youtube algorithm started suggesting chess related videos to me, like Anna Cramling or Eric Rosen playing blitz in a park, that type of thing. At the time, I didn't really understand what was going on in the games, but found them intriguing nevertheless. Then, the year changed to 2023, and I had developed the urge to try online chess. Prior to 2022, I didn't even know such a thing as online chess existed. The first site that popped up in the google search was obviously chess.com. I instantly made an account, but hesitated to play against humans right away. I used my free week of premium to play the beginner level bots and I got into puzzles too right from the start. During the free week I was able to beat the entry level bots up to 1300 elo. Then I was finally brave enough to play people: on the first day I played 25 games of 10 min rapid, and after initially plunging from 400 to 254, I finished the day on a high note with 667 elo. The next day I crossed 700, and started to play blitz and bullet too, which was a lot of fun as the games are a ludacrisy at that level. I remember vividly having 5 queens and 2 rooks vs a king and some pawns. Needless to say, that game ended in a stalemate.

Long story into a longer story, I got a bit addicted to chess, played a lot of rapid and blitz, sometimes a bit of bullet too. I got to 1400 rapid, 1100 blitz, and 1000 bullet in about a year and a half. Then I had a bit of a break from actual games, until late last year got involved with daily chess more, signing up for tournaments and such. Lately, my biggest improvements have been at daily chess and puzzles, hitting 1878 at daily early this year and 3100 at puzzles last week. My main goal for this year is a 2000 rating in daily chess. If that becomes reality, I might go back to the faster games. I'm also entertaining the idea of starting otb, but that might still be a few years in the future. I need to get the basics down first.

Hello, I’m Michael and started chess 6 years ago (almost to the day) at the age of 50 when I created an account on this site. My son taught me how the pieces moved and I joined that day. Have always wanted to learn chess but never felt able or found the time until then. I found out the Charlotte Chess Center was teaching adult lessons and started going weekly. I’ve been hooked and enjoying learning chess as well as playing since then. A long term goal is to be able to play a solid game by the ocean when I retire 😎. A shorter goal would be to reach 1000 rapid rating on the site and 800 USCF. I try to not focus and stress about elo instead focus on improving my gameplay overall. I utilize the insights on the site as markers monthly to show progress and areas for improvement. Enjoy doing puzzles, using chessable (1944 daily streak currently), lessons on the site and working through the Steps method. Feel that by focusing on these areas along with playing regular games my rating will adjust as I get better. Enjoy playing OTB as well as online blitz and rapid and have enjoyed meeting many others who share a passion for the game.

Hi, Everyone, I'm Anusua, I'm a 34 year old Housewife, I took into chess after thousands of warcries from my Husband, and now I wanna beat him, I just started a couple days ago and now I feel like I hv just improved a little!

I want to use any advice or any tips and tricks to get into his level and beat him, but on the way I wanna have fun haha, that's it!! 👍🏻👍🏻

Hello everyone, my name is Advaith Sandeep. I'm a 15 year old boy who loves chess more than his life and wishes to be a titled player someday. I started playing chess 2 years ago. I knew the rules of chess from a young age but did not particularly love it. I started playing chess seriously 2 years ago after I accidentally won my school championship ever since then I have been addicted to chess. I dream about chess, write about chess, speak about it and even think in chess terms. Chess is a really big part of my life it is the only thing which gave me a reason to live during my darkest times in short chess kept me alive when everything else left me .When I started I was 151 rated on chess.com

Now about my improvement challenge. I am working on to get a chess.com rapid rating of 2000 this year maybe even improve my blitz to 1400 and get a fide rating. These are my improvement goals for the year and it's going pretty good upuntil now. Hope I finish my challenge soon. Also I train on my own and don't have a coach if any titled player or 1900+ fide rated player is reading this please consider helping me to achieve my goal. Hope to win the improvement challenge and get a spot in the coach champs. Thank you evryone.

That's a cool background story! If you need any help with your goal, feel free to reach out. What's your husband's ELO?

kiriyamakazuo, Hes Somewhere Near 1300, Im merely 550

Hi! I also play the Sveshnikov (#Sveshnikov!). For White, a replacement for the Vienna may be as follows…

I could go in depth if you would like. I will do it in the Ask coach, the community forum, if you want me to do so.

Hi

Name’s Flan, I’m 15. I have a very special bond with chess, even though I started relatively late (at 12 years old). I play the Bird’s Opening every chance I get to the point it’s muscle memory, they may as well call me the Bird’s Opening ambassador.

This year, I decided to lock in for chess. I reached 2000 elo October last year after about two years of playing, and my goals for this year is to reach a peak of 2200 across all three time controls, which is fairly ambitious, but I think it is achievable. In a decade, if it’s even achievable, I aspire to become a titled player without going through any coaching, to make an example that you don’t need to be a prodigy or any fancy training to get good at chess.

Hi improver family,

I am sad to have just NOW discovered this group. I am a singer/musician turned chess player. I quit my corporate job during covid to find myself and make art.. little did I know I'd find chess! The story goes like this..

One day after a long day out skateboarding with my best friend I felt a twinge in my back so we decided to call it a night. We headed back to my friends place to take a rest and out of his room he brings out a chess board. He explained he'd been watching a show called "Queen's Gambit" and that we should play a chess game. We play.. and I have no idea what i'm doing, I sit there lost in thought.. lost in chess.. minutes go by.. hours goes by somehow before the game is over and i lose! Never again I decided.

I go home and plop down on the couch, realizing my back injury is worse than I thought. I'm sat on that couch for a week straight, often til 6am at night, or the morning? I would play. I was in so much physical pain I could barely walk or put on socks without cringing. But I found chess, and that distracted me. A few weeks later I challenge my buddy who defeated me after that night of skateboarding.. HE BEAT ME AGAIN!! WHAT? HOW??

It turns out he had been practicing too. So I go home again, practice more, we meet up again.. this time I win.. I go home.. practice.. we meet up again.. but, what? this time HE wins.. and now here we are, still buddies 3 years later, still rivals. he's gotten better and i've gotten better too. He is the bullet specialist and me more rapid. Chess has taken over my life in the past few years.. Oh yeah, didn't I start this story talking about being a musician? What have I done.. How did I end up on this forum..

Keny Grey

connect w/me:

1. music streaming on all platforms

2. new twitch stream: kenygrey

3. Kenygreychess are my *chess* socials

4. Challenge me to a training game any time, I want to hit 2000 this year.

Hi @KenyGrey, welcome to the club!

You go girl! You know what, I'm confident you can earn your CM in just 1 year 🤠 (or 2 if life gets busy... are you still in school?). You know, Flan, my favorite dessert is flan 😋 - so, I'm rooting for you all the way! 😉 Keep us posted on your chess journey. 🤓 And I love that your so strong despite being so young and having started 'late'. 😅

Keep Chessing & Stay Brilliant!

That is awesome, Keny! 🤩 I'm so glad you were able to overcome your first impression of chess to come to love it. 😉👍🏻 How's your back doing? And I love thar you 2 are still rival buddies even now, 3 years later!

That's so cool that your a musician! 🙌🏻 What do you play? I'm going to start learning the piano sometime soon.

I'll be happy yo challenge you sometime, though, I can't promise you a good fight given that I'm rated significantly lower than you... 😅😏

Keep grinding, and you'll definitely reach your goals! Keep us posted on your journey as you grow on and off the board, pal. Keep Chessing & Stay Brilliant!