Introduce Yourself and Your Goals!

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Hello, I'm Rohman 23. i started playing chess when i was 13 my interest in chess started when i was 3 watching my grandpa play chess with his friend, i started to play chess again after graduating from college

My Goal this year is to reach 2000 online rating across all time controls
my problem when playing chess right now probably i haven't deep study/memorize chess opening, when i first join the daily improver tournament i got destroyed in the opening  

Hey Rohman ! Hope you get to 2000 in all time controls, I'm hoping to get there next year! This year focused on hitting 2000 in rapid . good luck!

Hi! My name is Bianca and I'm from Brazil. I started playing chess in 2018 but stopped for 2 years before starting again. My current rate is 1400 in rapid and my goal is to get to 1800 at first. I also just love learning about chess so I try not to get too frustrated when losing games. So one of my goals is also to learn more from my mistakes. I also hope to one day get the courage to participate in an online tournament. And also make some friends!

Hi everyone, my name is Alex and I'm an adult improver.

My primary goal for 2025 is to increase my over-the-board (USCF) rating from 1622 to 1675. After my first tournament in April it's increased to 1652 already. Hopefully I'll cross the 1675 threshold in the next tournament or two. I follow the ChessDojo training program and 1675 would graduate me to the next cohort.

My secondary goal is to increase my chess.com rapid rating to match my USCF rating. I understand it's usually uncommon for one's online rating to be lower than OTB, but in my case I perform much better at very slow time controls like 90+30, so that's what allows my USCF to improve more steadily. I'm going to start joining the Sunday rapid tournaments and maybe those rapid games will help more with intuition in both online and OTB play.

I began playing tournament chess at age 5 in 1993 and have come back to it in fits and spurts of the years. Most notably in the span of one year in college I went from mid 800s (UCF) to 1400. I came back to the game seriously in 2023 and started up tournaments again in 2024, moving from 1400 up to 1622.

fascinating that your online is lower than otb! I'm the opposite, but I play online more (100 fold more). Good luck on your journey!

Hi everyone! My name is Logan. I am 24 years old, and I have been playing chess on-again, off-again since I was 18. My immediate goals are to reach 1700 rapid and finish reading The Art of Attack in Chess by Vladimir Vuković, but my real goal is to become the "final boss" at my local chess club. I have absolutely loved chess as a social outlet, and I hope that, over time, I will be able to compete with even the most seasoned players in Texas! 💪🤠

I'm sure you'll be a very scary final boss someday! I'm yet to join a club or read a chess book, although I've read parts of some books. How do you find the Vuković book, is it worth a read?

GM John Nunn has converted the book to standard notation and double checked the entire book with an engine. So, even though it was written in 1965, it's quite a pleasant read. I personally really struggle to keep up with the tactics in certain parts of the book, but I think that's okay. You would probably really enjoy it! Btw, I really recommend joining a chess club if there's one where you live. If you like this forum, you would probably enjoy an OTB meetup at a bar or library even more!

you might be able to get it on Amazon, that's what I did.

Great goals! Some of my friends joke that reading a chess book cover to cover is doing the impossible, but the final bosses of the world can do it!!

Hi everyone I've gotten back into chess around 5 years ago today used to play in elementary school but was never really good but I have improved a lot since then my goal at the moment is to get to maybe 1200 rapid at this moment and I want to achieve this goal by the end of September and I will make a library of all of my games starting today and see were i can improve

Hlo,everyone I'm chess player so in 2025 session I want to cross 2500 in blitz , 2400 bullet ,2000 in rapid chess.com and also cross 2100 in fide and become candidate master , always dream bigger because nothing is impossible MAN !!!!!

Hi everyone!

Been playing for almost 3 and a half years now, currently sitting at around 2400 bullet, 2300 blitz and 2150 rapid. Looking to get to 2500 bullet, 2400 blitz and 2250 rapid by the end of the year!

Hello everyone!

Although I've been in this club from the beginning, I decided to finally formally introduce myself here. I'm a senior in high school and chose this username because it's from a PC game I really like, and it's hinting at a chess stronghold that's formidable and hard to break through. Although I guess my play hasn't really lived up to that notion funnily enough. I first started playing chess when I was about 5 or 6 years old when my dad taught me how to move the pieces. I should note, however, that I wasn't really interested in chess at that age and didn't play it for more than ten years, because as a young child, I was more interested in playing with toys. I guess I didn't play chess as I got older because I forgot about the game, which in retrospect is one regret I have. I wish I had more respect for the game. I first started getting serious about chess about 4 years ago, in my freshman year of high school. I watched the Chess.com lessons on how to move the pieces in combination with Daniel Naroditsky's YouTube videos. This was how I was able to surpass 1K ELO.

As I'm currently peaked at 1345 Rapid, my goals for this year are to be 1500+ in rapid and 1200+ in blitz. I also have the goal of getting to at least 1400 by the end of this month in rapid. Hopefully, with continued watching of Danya's videos and with the help of all the wonderful, amazing, and kind Improvers, I can accomplish these goals and improve my skill as a player. One of my main goals for improvement is to get a Chess.com Diamond Membership, although I currently don't have the means to do it (doing 3 puzzles, 1 puzzle rush, 1 daily puzzle, and 1 puzzle battle every day has been immensely helpful in developing my skill, but the ability to do as much of these as I want sounds very appealing). I'd also like to dedicate more time to chess after I graduate from high school and college.

Thanks for reading!

my chess journey started with my grandfather teaching me chess. I was about 6 or 7 at the time. I enjoyed it but I never played much until a few years ago when my family went on holiday and for three weeks without technology all my younger brother and I did was play OTB chess. I lost again and again and again. At the end of the holiday my brother would not stop teasing me about it, eventually I came to the decision that I would practice and prepare until he couldn’t beat me. I got back from holiday and downloaded chess.com. My life changed. It started slowly I was about 500 ELO when I started, but I asked around about the best way to improve and someone told me to watch Gothamchess. I did, but I didn’t really feel like it was working, so one day I decided to redeem my 1 week diamond trial. I ended up going from about 600 puzzles to over 2000 in one weekend. Although I only really solved them about 50% of the time. About this time I was almost solely playing blitz but I asked a few of my friends ( over 2000 ELO players) and they said to play longer timed games and to learn openings. I reluctantly started playing 10 minute rapid, and slowly I started improving. I remember the thing that got me over 1000 ELO was seeing pawns as valuable, where as previous I didn’t care about losing or winning them. By this time I was playing the centre game and the Scandinavian (although they break a few principles most people couldn’t understand the patterns and so I was winning about 60% of the time using the centre game and 52–56% with the Scandinavian) at this point I was about 1150 ELO (thanks to chess.coms members advice and Gothams videos) and I had been plateaued for about 8 months. I started playing in my towns club and surprisingly my first time I went I was the highest rated on Chess.com player there. A few months later I was given some advice about the “most important piece being the king, then the queen and then the rooks” and if I could attack those my opponent would normally have to react to me. This advice allowed me to shoot up to 1400 ELO in 2 two weeks (from 1170) eventually we went on holiday again and I had to bribe my brother R50 (about $3)for 5 games with an extra incentive of another R50 if he won one. I SMASHED HIM AGAIN AND AGAIN. The final score after the holiday was 6-1 ( he beat me once, back rank mate in 2) I was so happy. My best memory was him throwing the board across the room after I sacrificed my queen with a discovered attack on his. I may not have beaten him 7-0 but I think all the effort was worth it. I can honestly say I’ve played chess on Chess.com every day for the last the three years except when we were on holiday with no internet access. My current daily streak is about to break 200 days. I’m sorry if I rambled a bit but this story has changed the course of my life and my passion for chess will be with me forever.

@Hadez12

An inspiring and relatable story. I, too, learned to play from youtube videos. I would've loved to be in the room when your brother threw the chess board. That's a memory you'll never forget.

Hey hey - how's everyone doing?

I'm 19 years old and I have learned the basic rules of chess when I was around 7. The game never really interested me however and although I've played a few times against friends or my older brother - who is much better at chess than me - I never really learned more than just how the pieces moved.

This changed at the start of this year when I had to do a surgery and had not much to do as I was forced to sit still for some time. Since then I have become somewhat addicted to playing chess and have been gaining rating rather fast.

For now my goal is to reach a rating of 1000 in rapid and maybe 1200+ by the end of the year. But most of all I want to finally win a game against my brother as the best I was able to do so far is to draw against him one time.

I guess that was my introduction it is nice to meet you all!

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to all reading this. I’m certifiediavhmoment, iavh for short.

A short history

To me, chess is a game that I got addicted to after first touching it in late 2022, from there I went from falling for the Wayward Queen to playing in the chess team within two months. 
It’s been an incredible journey for me - chess has brought me out from my darkest times, helped me make friends, made me more observant.
Yet I’ve been unsatisfied.

Due to how bad everyone else is in the school (no offense), I’ve unfortunately ended up playing on board 3. I do lose almost every game due to the sheer rating difference between me and the 2000s (ECF rated), and dropping 1.6 rating points every time I play has started to get to me.

Identifying the problem

I’ve tried a mixture of strategies, learning openings, mostly sidelines, being more aggressive, reading chess books, there seems to be something separating me and the 2000s. Experience is definitely a factor due to how late I approached chess, but I can also think of the attitude. Everyone’s been telling me I have a fixed mindset and I need to change, but I just can’t. Instead of looking at what went wrong, I tend to beat myself up over how I lost as a whole. 
My ambition

The first 1400 points were quite easy to grind, it’s time to improve even further. I aim to reach 1850 in either blitz or rapid and stay around that region by August, not just relying on a good day then tilting back down the day after. 
I’m going to be taking a lot of classes and exams for a bit, so I’ll start grinding chess in around late June and tell you all how it goes.

Peace out, good luck to all.

Hi!

My name's Eric. I've been introduced to chess by a former classmate of mine, I started playing regularly around 8 months ago. My peak rating was 1300, but I fell down to 1150. My goals for this year are: Getting at least 2400 elo in puzzles, 1800 in rapid, 1600 FIDE and 1600 national (3rd polish category). I'll try to share my progress and tips with you, and I hope I reach and even exceed my goals this year.