Introduce Yourself and Your Goals!

Hi guys, I'm half Greek half Spanish and I started playing chess when I was 8 (I'm 14 now). I played during a little bit more than a year but at a really low level because I didn't know things like chess.com and online courses existed. Recently (like 6 months ago) one of my friends challenged me to a chess game match and I rediscovered my passion for the game. He introduced me to chess.com and I've been playing every day since then. I started as a small fry player (400 or so elo) but I invested a huge amount of my time watching videos on YouTube and I'm now 930 elo (my peak was 998). I've bought an account on chessly (gothamchess s learning site) and I'm trying to learn as much openings as possible for black and white. My goal is reaching 1200 elo (rapid) teaching 2500 elo in puzzles (I'm 2000 something right now) and learning as much openings in depth as I can. My endgames are also a goal for improvement later on.

Those are good goals. Which courses did you buy?

Hlo , I am a chess player and I haven't played any fide tournament but maybe my classical rating would be around 1800 and I want to cross the rating barrier of 2100 and become a candidate master and cross 2500 in lichess puzzle 🧩 section . Good luck ta all of you 👍🏼

Hi everyone, my name is Adriano. I have been playing chess for about 25 years. At first I played OTB but in the last 15 years I have played almost exclusively online. I started on chess.com in 2015 with 1600 points and my peak Elo blitz is 2257 reached last year. My goal for 2025 is to reach 2500 Elo points.

Hello everyone, my name is Oscar and I've been playing pretty much daily for the last two years. I'm currently pendling between 900-1000 rating in rapid but my aim is to take a steady climb upwards towards 1200 this year. I have no interest in Blitz or Bullet currently as I feel my thinking process is still too slow although if the climb goes steady in rapid, I might have a side goal of starting with Blitz and aim towards 1000. Good luck everyone in reaching your goals!

Thank you,

Courses on (the old) Chessly:
1. D4 Dynamite (Opening with White using d4)
2. Queens Gambit Declined (because despite playing d4 as White, I was struggling to play against it as Black 😳😂)
3. Tactics Masterclass (advertised as utilising one's puzzle strength in-game)

Hey guys! I'm Jack✌🏼

One day, in September of 2023, 13 year old me got bored and decided to go check out this chess website called chess.com. I made an account and played some games. Even though I sucked, I soon fell in love with the game. I played and played and stayed around 500-600 Elo. At the time I thought this was pretty good lol. 
Later, I decided to start improving at the game, so I made a new account, played 5 games against my dad who sucked and got to 900 Elo in Rapid. I started learning and playing more and now here I am, at around 1,350 Rapid. My goal is to hit 1,600 by 2026, which I think I can do!
I'm working on consistently learning, playing, solving puzzles, and not getting nervous during my games.

My name is Jared. I have gotten back into chess because of my kids. I used to play in school, but none of those games were ever rated. Today my rapid rating is 365. I have been learning a lot of things that I never knew. This has convinced me that I have always been nothing more than a beginner. There's nothing wrong with that, but now that I can quantify my ability I can work to improve it. My goal is to reach 500.

Hello, I'm Nathan from South Africa and a new matriculants out of school. My family has known how the pieces move all their lives, and, when they decided it was time to enlighten me their secrets, I immediately Honed my skills against them, becoming their equal (and sometimes better). When we moved, I used chess to build new friendships and escape loneliness. I was 10 at the time.

Years later (Jan 2024), on a visit to America, my godfather bet me $50 should I beat my brother (For me, that was effectively a small fortune). I sat down at the chess board with confidence, sure that I would once again thrash him as when we were children. I had done it then, surely I could do it now. Yet try and try again, I could not do it. Little to my knowledge, he had discovered the world of online chess and (with somewhat of a grind) acquired a rating of 1300 Elo. This of course was unbeatable for me.

So, prior the trip, safe back home, I sat down at my laptop, opened chess.com and began to grind. Beginning at a measly 800 Elo (at least some of my childhood skills had progressed through the years), I played and played, learned and learned, studied and studied until finally, just before the new year of 2025, I reached 1600 Elo. Now, finally I can say I can comfortably best my brother OTB.

Being at a decent level now and fresh from a classical OTB tournament, I realise just how little I truly know. I want to improve my thinking strategies and calculations in longer time intervals and my positional thinking. Perhaps, despite the busy new year ahead, I can hit the aspiring 2000 mark.

With hard work and study I believe that this will be possible. I pray you have a happy and prosperous year ahead!

Hello, my name is Bob. I first learned how to play chess from my uncle when he got me a chess set for my birthday. I really only learned the basics and never really did much with it.

Fast forward MANY years later and I started getting YouTube recommendations for GothamChess videos and watched a few. After watching tournaments and recaps I've decided that I want to play in my free time to start and learn some more about the game.

My goals for 2025 are to start playing online, raise my ELO out of the beginner 400, and to go through some of the courses I've purchased to learn strategies for beginners.

Hello everyone! I started playing chess several years ago, and when I finally got a chess.com account, I started playing more seriously. One of my life goals is to become a chess grandmaster. My other hobbies include karate, hunting, farming, baking, minecraft, reading, and math (I know it's weird. Don't judge me).

Hi all! My name is Daniel. My goal is to grow from ELO 400 to 1000 by the end of the year. (I have no idea if that is even realistic.)

It's very realistic, and if you need any help, I'm here for you

Hello guys! I am Atharva and I am a 13-year-old boy in high school and I started playing chess around 3-4 years ago. I want to be a titled player in chess soon so My goals are 2000 rapid, 1500 blitz and 1500 bullet along with that I have a 2900 rating goal for puzzles. These are all of my goals from this year and I hope to achieve most of them. Adios

Hi guys i'm an italian guy, i play regional tournaments 1h 30m | 30 in Italy. You can think i'm so strong but the true thing is that online you can't even play 1h 30m so i start playing rapid online. Now i'm rated 1144 but the thing is in quite all revisions Stockfish rate me 1600-1900 so mi goal for this year is reach 1800 elo on rapid and first national live. I'm so young, i'm only 13-year-old. Don't forget that i have a coach, he is about 2000 points elo so i can improve very fast

Hi, I'm Armina, 24 year old, my goal is to get to 2000 in rapid and blitz. I'm currently only 1000 in rapid, hopefully I will improve . I love the najdorf opening and I'm improving my repertoire against d4. I also do a few puzzles per day to improve my tactics, analyse and study a few of my rapid games every week.

Hi,

I'm Shanmathi. I'm 7 years old. Im from Bangalore, India. I started playing chess when I was 5 years. I enjoy playing with my chess sir at my school. I frequently go to otb chess tournaments in my city and I enjoy that very much.

My goal for 2025 is reaching1400 rapid chess rating.

Welcome, Shanmathi.

Hello, my name is Gamasi and I want to be a strong player of chess in my country 
I've played chess for years, but I have not become as strong as I would like , so I joined in this challenge. I want to see a clear route to achieve my goal of 1500 in blitz an rapid, today I have 1000 in blitz and 1100 in rapid.

Bro started playing chess less than a year ago and is already at 2400 Blitz? What are you, an East Indian kid? 😂
Also "I got 6 pack but no girlfriend" is just the funniest thing ever 🤣