Thanks for the suggestion! I've been playing the Vienna for a while now, and i have been looking to play another e4-opening as white. What would you suggest?
My goal is to reach 1800 rapid on chess.com and be able to maintain it.
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you must be a D4 player then. What do you play? Haven't had a D4 opening ever since i started playing
Thanks for sharing sir! What do you play against D4 yourself if i may ask? I've been playing the Dutch, with varying results. But it's been a struggle at best against D4 no matter what I play.
Feb 2, 2025
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#5
The same happened to me a while ago! I finally managed to climb to 1800, but just got paralyzed and nearly stopped playing. The little that I did play caused my rating to fall dramatically. More recently, however, I broke the 2000 barrier on all three modes, with my bullet rating being >2200 now.
There are three things that made breaking this barrier possible for me.
1) Tactics. Even at this level, most of your games will probably be decided by a simple tactical oversight by either player. You don't have to master every tactic or see everything going on in a game all of the time, but just building your awareness during a game give you an edge over your opponents.
2) Trying to have more fun. If you become to obsessed with your rating, as I did, learning from your mistakes is far more difficult. I learned the Nimzo-Larsen opening after having played the Queen's Gambit my entire career. Objectively, it's worse than the QG and I'll probably have to give it up eventually, but for now, it allows me to enjoy playing the game more. Just that small change probably gained me 100 points of rating.
3) Try to diagnose your mistakes. Up until my breakthrough, I had been learning in a patchwork style. Made a mistake in an endgame, I'll go learn that endgame. Forget a line in the opening, I'll go memorize more of my opening. However, at this point in your chess career, I find it to be more helpful to think deeply about *why* you made the mistake. Did you get nervous? Careless? Tunnel vision? Then, learn to recognize when you are likely to make another mistake.
Good luck on your journey.
Been playing chess for 5 years now. I feel like i've hit a plateu. I have reached 1800 in rapid on chess.com. But right after that it plummeted down. Haven’t been able to break through to the 1800 level. Do you have any advice for me?