Hello there,
I am Anarchyopteryx, I learned chess when I was young but only really started taking it seriously this year. My goal for this year is to make it to 1000 ELO, and set a good foundation for getting into the game more competitively and begin playing tournaments. Good luck to everyone on their journeys and I look forward to seeing you on the board.
Hello,my name is Ryan Shen.I'm from China and I was born in America.I learned chess at about 7 or 8 and now I'm 10.My rating online is 1385(peak 1418).And I got that rating in just 1 month,from 1000 to 1400.When I was 9,I paid too much attention to the clubs,social,and just the forums.And,that just messed up everything.That took alot of time to fix,and I got a new coach.And then I started rising.But I went from 600 to 1000,and from 1000 to 1400,so if I keep making that 400 rating jump.I can go crazy with my rating.But it takes me a while.It just takes me one 5-game winning streak to let out the monster that allows me to leap from 1000 to 1400 in 1 month.My goal is to get that 1 winning streak and exceed 1400.In otb,I haven't played many tournaments,but my goal is to get from 762(my current rating) to 950 in 1 year.Good luck all!Remember,we are all human,so if you can't win all your games or always win more than you lose in every single day,it's normal,and you just move on.
This is the 3rd time having to edit this.
Hiya, I'm a young girl who has a special talent for chess, I love the game so much and sometimes I'd have dreams of chess, my goal is to become the youngest female grand master, I also love cats.
I've played chess for about 2 years.
I develop very fast, and I am hoping to become the youngest female grand master, this year I hope I could score the rating of 1500 rapid, though in the past I had some abusive issues, whenever I'd lose a chess game I'd rage, which my parents soon realised how I was treating myself over a game, so they helped me with my problem and explained to me that I'd always lose if I'm playing by force, and that I should just accept the game for what it is.
Anyway let's get to how I was introduced to chess, it was in Africa where the schools shut down due to COVID, where my mother taught me, my brother, and my sister to play chess, afterwards I came out to like it the most, so I was hoping to beat my father, after losing to him 3 times in a row, I developed and finally managed to beat him, and that's when I joined this community to grow.
That's about it.
Hey that's very similar to me.Finally someone who understands me lol.
Hello, I’m from Atlanta,Georgia and i just started playing chess this year, I’m trying to get alteast 1500
Hi all, I'm John. I started playing chess again about 1-2 years ago, after not playing casually for so many years. My passion for the game has exponentially increased! Created a chess.com account last February. I started out at 800 Rapid, my peak a little while back was 1106 for Rapid. My current rating is for Rapid is 1067. And for Blitz, currently 733. My goal is to achieve a rating of 1800-2000 OTB USCF for at least Rapid.
Hello, I’m from Atlanta,Georgia and i just started playing chess this year, I’m trying to get alteast 1500
If you need any help, feel free to reach out.
Hi. I am prashant. And my goal is to get to 3k blitz. In 2025 my goal is to reach 2600 blitz.
Hi ! I am Yunik Gautam from Nepal. I want to become national champion. I’ve set a big goal for myself—I’m aiming to reach 2400 in Rapid by the end of this year. It’s going to take a lot of work, but I’m fully committed and grinding every day. Let’s see how far I can go 🔥
Hi ! I am Yunik Gautam from Nepal. I want to become national champion. I’ve set a big goal for myself—I’m aiming to reach 2400 in Rapid by the end of this year. It’s going to take a lot of work, but I’m fully committed and grinding every day. Let’s see how far I can go 🔥
Welcome! Glad to have you in the club! With practice, perseverance, diligence, determination, and hard work, you'll definitely be able to accomplish your goal! You got this!
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.
"Please Sire, I have a family to support!" - if I'm thinking about the correct Stronghold game. 
Hi! I’m Apex! I’m from the United States and at the time of posting this rated 604 on chess.com. My goal I have set for the 2025 improvement challenge is getting to 770 elo! I’m getting close.
Hello everyone!
I didn't realize this was here until a couple days after starting to regularly and actively participate in the club, but now that I found it I thought I'd introduce myself.
I'm Josiah from the US and as of right now I'm about 1500. My goal is to reach 1800 rapid on chess.com and 1500 classical USCF by the end of the year. (My other goal is also to play in CoachChamps but I can't really do anything to make that happen, but it is one of my chess goals for the year, so I thought I'd put it here).
So far I have really enjoyed this community and everyone has been very helpful, and I have enjoyed helping others learn about the game and playing games with other members.
If anyone notices me online or wants to play daily, feel free to send me a challenge! (Those further from my elo please make sure that the game is unrated so I don't get into trouble with chess.com).
Happy Chess!
Josiah
@JJ0268 You don't get into trouble for playing rated games against lower-rated players. The reason most people wouldn't want to play rated games against lower-rated players is that sometimes they can't even win any rating points from the game, but can lose a bunch if things go wrong.
In that case, I'm not really worried about that because I'm of the mind that you should be able to defend your elo, so everyone feel free to play rated if you want 
Hello everyone. I just joined this club. I want to improve my game, but I don't have a real rating goal. There are a few things I am in doubt about and curious about, namely last couple of months I almost exclusively play blitz, rarely rapid and I started a daily game not long ago. Should it be better to play more rapid games (and should these be 10 minutes or even 15 + 10)? Also, against 1.e4, I have been playing the french defense with which I have decent results. Recently, after getting many french exchange games, I got a bit bored of the french and decided to mix things up and also learn the sicilian defense. On one hand I think this might long term be a good decision as I get exposed to more positions and this keeps chess for me more fresh and fun, on the other hand shouldn't I just focus exclusively on the french defense, because I have decent results with it and spend the time I am learning the sicilian on learning endgames, positional play, tactics, attack, calculation etc, which I already do, but slightly less now as I also spend some time now learning the sicilian.
Hello everyone. I just joined this club. I want to improve my game, but I don't have a real rating goal. There are a few things I am in doubt about and curious about, namely last couple of months I almost exclusively play blitz, rarely rapid and I started a daily game not long ago. Should it be better to play more rapid games (and should these be 10 minutes or even 15 + 10)? Also, against 1.e4, I have been playing the french defense with which I have decent results. Recently, after getting many french exchange games, I got a bit bored of the french and decided to mix things up and also learn the sicilian defense. On one hand I think this might long term be a good decision as I get exposed to more positions and this keeps chess for me more fresh and fun, on the other hand shouldn't I just focus exclusively on the french defense, because I have decent results with it and spend the time I am learning the sicilian on learning endgames, positional play, tactics, attack, calculation etc, which I already do, but slightly less now as I also spend some time now learning the sicilian.
Hi, welcome to the club! I had a similar experience with the french. Last summer I decided to learn the basics of french defense, but after a while I too got bored with the exchange variation. About 75% of my games were the exchange, some advance, some weird stuff, but I don't think I faced either of the knight moves Nc3 or Nd2 even once. Then I went to the sicilian, but recently I came to the realization, that at my level the sicilian is completely unnecessary, almost nobody plays any of the normal sicilians, except the alapin. Now I'm back to playing e5, I get better positions with it, as it's easier to develop the pieces.
Hello everyone. I just joined this club. I want to improve my game, but I don't have a real rating goal. There are a few things I am in doubt about and curious about, namely last couple of months I almost exclusively play blitz, rarely rapid and I started a daily game not long ago. Should it be better to play more rapid games (and should these be 10 minutes or even 15 + 10)? Also, against 1.e4, I have been playing the french defense with which I have decent results. Recently, after getting many french exchange games, I got a bit bored of the french and decided to mix things up and also learn the sicilian defense. On one hand I think this might long term be a good decision as I get exposed to more positions and this keeps chess for me more fresh and fun, on the other hand shouldn't I just focus exclusively on the french defense, because I have decent results with it and spend the time I am learning the sicilian on learning endgames, positional play, tactics, attack, calculation etc, which I already do, but slightly less now as I also spend some time now learning the sicilian.
Hi, @ChesscalatedQuickly! Welcome to the club! It's wonderful to have you here! In my opinion, I think switching to the Sicilian Defense was a good choice, as you get exposed to several different positional and tactical ideas, and oftentimes the play can get pretty aggressive. I just started using the SIclian not too long ago as well, and I've had some pretty good results so far. As for the time control, I recommend playing Rapid 15 | 10, as you have plenty of time for calculation and formulating plans. I switched to 15 | 10 from 10 min and I've had amazing results so far. I've been able to slow down and calculate my moves, as well as my opponent's. I've had a pretty high winrate lately, so I would definitely recommend giving it a shot! After you get good at those, you can definitely play blitz and try to use those skills in quicker fashion. Feel free to let us know if you have any more questions and we'd be happy to answer them for you! Welcome!
@Sebu13 Just curious, I switched to the Sicilian after playing 1..e5 for the longest time. What openings do you play currently with 1...e5?
Hello everyone. I just joined this club. I want to improve my game, but I don't have a real rating goal. There are a few things I am in doubt about and curious about, namely last couple of months I almost exclusively play blitz, rarely rapid and I started a daily game not long ago. Should it be better to play more rapid games (and should these be 10 minutes or even 15 + 10)? Also, against 1.e4, I have been playing the french defense with which I have decent results. Recently, after getting many french exchange games, I got a bit bored of the french and decided to mix things up and also learn the sicilian defense. On one hand I think this might long term be a good decision as I get exposed to more positions and this keeps chess for me more fresh and fun, on the other hand shouldn't I just focus exclusively on the french defense, because I have decent results with it and spend the time I am learning the sicilian on learning endgames, positional play, tactics, attack, calculation etc, which I already do, but slightly less now as I also spend some time now learning the sicilian.
I personally have made it a goal to never learn the sicilian (If you check game history I have played it before as black but that was a while ago... I'm not exactly sure why I decided this but it's kind of a joke between my friends and I... I honestly think that the french is really quite sound at higher levels, so there really isn't much need to learn something else if you're doing well with it unless you're a GM that has to catch their opponents off guard or just learning it to keep yourself from being bored (I actually do this from time to time because I start losing with an opening more frequently and have realized that playing something else helps me be more tactically aware for some reason). Of course, the french and sicilian also can pair quite nicely and transpose into each other on occasion, so that could be another benefit to learning both... But as you're an intermediate player like myself, the easiest way to improve at our level is to improve tactics, endgames, calculations, and positional concepts. I think that spending the time you've put into the sicilian would be much better spent on those, but you can decide for yourself. And of course, welcome to the club! Happy Chess!
@ChesscalatedQuickly I agree with @JJ0268 Too much time devoted to openings is a common beginner/intermediate mistake. On the other hand, this is a game, and if you're not having fun with the French, might as well try something else. The main purpose of any game is entertainment, after all.
As for the time control, the recommendation if you want to improve is usually to play longer ones. The longer the game, the better, so 15+10 would be more beneficial than 10+0, and if you have time for classical instead of rapid, that'd be more helpful. Note that this isn't my own recommendation, but that of masters such as GM Arturs Neiksans and CM Can Kabadayi (you can check out their study guides for more details). Shorter time controls can be fun, but they aren't best for improvement.
Hello everyone,
I'm Bassem but you can call me Sam,im a passionate chess enthusiast and a primary school teacher. Since returning to chess, I've gained 200 Elo, and I owe much of this progress to the resources and support from the Improver Chess Club. Over the past month, I've focused on improving my [specific area, e.g., tactical awareness, opening repertoire], and I've seen some noticeable results.
As a teacher, I believe that learning is a continuous process, and I'm always looking to improve, both in the classroom and in my chess skills i share the love to the game with my kids in school even though we dont have any resources but i want them to know this wonderful game . I enjoy sharing my lmited experiences and learning from others, and I'm excited to continue this journey with all of you.
send a request i love chatting with all of you see u guys