Introduce Yourself and Your Goals!

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I try to put the knights out first, so I guess 2 knights defense / berlin defense.

Interesting! How do you respond to the Fried Liver attack? I personally like the Traxler Counterattack, but I've heard that ...Na5 is the best move in response to exd5. Do you play that, and if not, what other lines do you play. I've also played the Giuoco Piano Game many, many times, and I've had a fair amount of success playing ...Qe7 and going for a kingside pawn storm if White castles kingside and plays h3 in that opening.

I just started e5 again like yesterday, so I haven't faced the knight attack yet. I would probably try Na5, if I can resist the Fritz line. I wouldn't play the Traxler, in my experience people know to play Bxf7+, and then it's not that nice to play anymore. Do you know the Fritz line? If the Traxler stops working for you, it's a nice alternative. Goes like this:

@Sebu13 Wow, that looks like a fun line! I'll have to try it sometime! Thanks for the recommendation!

@Sebu 13 that is a transposition to the winning position of this tricky line against the italian, of course your line is not as bad as this line against Italian, but of course white is better in both cases, the line I am talking about is like this, this is if white blunders, the right move is just NxNd4

Yooooooo! I’m close to 400 elo

I checked your account, and it looks like you hit 400 for a bit. Congrats dude! Keep up the good attitude and you'll be at 500 in no time! 💪💪

That's awesome! Congrats! Keep practicing and keep up the good work! Puzzles and preventing blunders will go a long way in your quest for the next level.

Great job @Isaiah636!!! Keep up the hard work! Happy Chess!

Hi, my name is Aryan Ahmed, 17. Local chess player from Malawi. I hit a peak elo of 2147 on chess.com last year, however, I've dropped to 1900 due to school. I'm back to grinding chess now and hope to, firstly, return back to 2100. Hopefully I can hit my 2300 goal by end of year. I do have more goals that I want to achieve this year, unrelated to chess.com. I'd love to beat a titled player in an over the board tournament. I got really close to defeating an FM earlier this year but blundered in the endgame due to time pressure and lost on time, my FM and previous national champion opponent had only 3mins left (IMAGINE FLAGGING IN CLASSICAL). Currently 1713 FIDE, hope to hit 1900 in December.

Good luck @DividingCart27!!!

Good luck, mate!

Hello, my name is William, and I'm from the USA. I joined Chess.com in early December. I haven't been playing chess that long, but am improving decently well and feel that I should be able to reach my goals now. I would like to reach 550 blitz, but the way things are going, I'm going to focus more on rapid chess, and my new goal of 700 rapid ELO. 
I have a more aggressive playstyle, and I like openings like the Scotch game and the Sicilian Dragon, but I can adopt a more positional playstyle, and have recently picked up the Queen's Indian Defense as a response to 1.d4.

Good luck, man! At this level, you shouldn't focus on the openings too much, learn a few moves of theory, but no need to learn entire lines. Focus on noticing tactics and not blundering, I know that this is a popular and not helpful advice, but you should always double or even triple check if a move is good or not. I recommend doing puzzles and watching a few videos on how to improve in the early stages, you can try GM Igor Smirnov's videos on improvement, you should also check out GothamChess and Chessbrah.

Hello everyone,

My name is Ben, and I'm currently 412 rapid (don't hold that against me; I can beat almost everyone in my chess club). I've been playing chess for about 4 years, but I started PLAYING in 2023*. I currently play a variety of openings, but my main forte is either the dragon sicilian, the english, or the queen's gambit (the show was amazing). My goal is to get a lot better at chess than I currently am, and to increase my rating to 800 by the end of the year.

(My dream goal is to play Magnus Carlsen :0)

*Basically, my dad used to beat everyone in my house at chess. In 2023, I decided I finally wanted to beat him. So I studied. And studied. And studied. Now, I beat him within the first 20-30 moves and he can't find a way to beat me (he doesn't care enough to study like I do lol)

Hi! I already mentioned it in a higher message, but you shouldn't focus on the openings so early, I started really focusing on my opening theory when I was 1000 elo, because you don't really need it prior to that point.

Also, good luck, mate!

Hi everyone,
My name is Mawita, and I'm 1728 FIDE classical, even though my chess.com rating is 200 points lower. I've been playing chess for 11 years, since I was 3, even though I started training and studying in early September 2024, and I have improved a lot. I play e4 and the Spanish or Italian (depending on what I'm in the mood to play) My goal is to reach the level of a 2000 FIDE by the end of summer, when I'll have a lot of time to dedicate to chess, and in two years time, be a 2200 and try to be a titled player. I am thriving to learn and I don't mind spending a lot of time for chess

Welcome Ben! I hope you are able to achieve your goals! Like @Esliwga said, the easiest way to improve at your level is to not spend as much time on openings so much as tactics (puzzles should help). If you want to play games and see I'm online feel free to challenge me! I'd be glad to discuss and review games we play later with you!