How are people rated like 500-600?

I'm more interested in what the difference is between these classes? 600-800 and 800-1000. What are some things players learn or improve when moving from one to the other?

I don't remember how I played when I started chess. This is probably a question only a coach could really answer.

It depends with people. Some have a decent tactical skill but lack in say openings or endgame, others are good with openings but can't seem to handle tactics, others have no idea about endgame so they lose to often there..

Are we talking about 1500-1600 players or 500-600 players

For all levels, it's all relative: )

That's true! :)

Sadly i have noticed this too.  Beginners, and low rated players all seem to think its more important to be able to say they know a certain opening 20 moves deep, even though they have no idea what they are doing.

Also, beginners think they are Mikhail Tal.  Giving up a bishop or knight on f2/f7 because its "tactical"

People have low ratings due to low chess skill. Simple as that. When I was unrated, probably rated ~900 Elo, I entered an NSCF tournament. I got 3 wins and a draw. My rating came out to be a 739. This was innacurate, but I hd only partaken in one tournament. Perhaps this is a reason for some low-rated players. I had a friend who entered the same tournament, same section, won 2/4 games, should have been rated about 600, got a 324 rating.

Sorry, but no. I've been a dweller of these (500-1000) lands for a fair amount of time now, and I can assure you that 1.e4 2.Qh5 3.Bc4 (4.Qf3) is still all the rage down here. Simply, we have no idea about what's going on in pretty much 95% of positions, so we just shuffle randomly the pieces hoping not to hang one... but, in the end, we still do. Often.

Someone asked 'what's the difference between a 600 and a 800?'. That's easy, on average, a 600 hangs a piece every 5 moves, and an 800 hangs a piece every 7 moves.

Still a pleasant way to distract your mind during a break. Better than a cigarette, anyway.

No matter how good you are, most games reach a position where you don't know what you're doing (and you have to make educated guesses).  That's what makes it fun.

Interesting, thanks.

And at 1000-1200 you hang pieces because you miss combinations, not overlook individual moves.

Looks about right now! Good job owltuna.

ya die

crash-course wrote:

Why am I such a plonkers ?

It's just natural I guess.

Yep, it is

Lol!

No

Oh, and terrible youtube show

I was answering to someone who suggested that 800 players are too obsessed with the openings, when actually openings are the last of our concerns.

The point here is not about refuting the fool's mate; you can have us starting from any tabiya of your liking, and it wouldn't matter.

The biggest problem for such a low rated player is that he's not able to process all the information present on the board. How can you formulate any meaningful plan or set/see any threats when you're barely able to see (and remember) where the pieces are?

If you analyze (well, "analyze"... better "look at") any games between 600 players, you'll see that the biggest threat to their pieces is a bishop or a queen far away from where the action has been in the last few moves; that's a threat that they are usually unable to see, hence my username. "Yeah, a6 looks like a safe square for my queen... (Bf1xh6) oh no! The bishop!". (Fortunately, half the time the player with the bishop won't see it either)

The first and foremost skill in chess is to always look at the whole board. Everything else comes later.

0-1000 Player has just learned the game, they constantly leave pieces en prise, and make many blunders. Player has no tactical, endgame, or positional knowledge. Absolutely No evaluation or analytical skills.

1000-1100 Beginning player now has several games under their belt. They have very basic tactical knowledge and they continue to make blunders and to leave pieces en prise. Plays without plan.

1100-1200 Beginning player continues to make many blunders. At this level they have learned basic tactics. Occasionally leaves pieces en prise, but this is not a common occurrence. Sometimes plays with a plan, but the plan is usually incorrect. At this point the player sees many offensive tactics but they miss most defensive tactics.

1200-1300 Player begins to understand that chess is a two player game, and begins to ask what the opponent’s last move is threatening. Blunders still occur but less frequently. One major reason for their rating increase, is that player stops leaving pieces en prise. Player has intermediate tactical skills but still misses many defensive tactical shots. Starts to build an opening repertoire, which gets them into the middlegame with a better position. Very limited endgame and positional skills. Starts making better plans due to limited endgame and positional knowledge.

1300-1400 Advanced beginner. Players at this level have reached an intermediate thought process. player Looks for Checks, Captures and threats after opponents moves. Does not leave pieces en prise. Very good with offensive tactics and improving on the defensive tactics side, but still misses some. Still building opening repertoire. Starts learning basic endgame and middlegame strategy, but knowledge is still very basic. This level is an important milestone for the beginning chess player because they are on the verge of being an intermediate player.

1400-1500 Intermediate level player. Good thought process, does not leave pieces en prise. Advanced tactically, both on offense and defense (might occasionally miss a defensive tactic). Has an opening repertoire and plays pet openings. Has intermediate endgame, positional and analysis skills. One of the reasons for low rating is players poor positional evaluation abilities. Will probably need a chess coach to improve further.

1500-1700 Advanced intermediate player. Advanced tactical skills and thought process. Player has Intermediate endgame and positional skills at this stage. Intermediate positional evaluation and analysis skills. Should have a chess trainer, and play against strong opposition in order to improve as well as a strong focus on the endgame, positional and evaluation skills.

1700-1900 Near expert level player. Advanced tactical skills and thought process. Very strong endgame and positional skills. Intermediate evaluation skills. Very good analyst. Player needs to continue focusing on evaluation and analysis skills. Opening theory knowledge becomes an important component for further improvement. Player has a good database of structures that that can help them when they reach unfamiliar positions in OTB play. Player should reach expert level in approximately 2 more years, which falls in line with expert theory which claims that it takes 10 years to become an expert in any field.

I've been playing chess for over 40 years.......and I still suck. My brother is rated around 2000 though.

I have a more mechanical mind, and his is more analytical......we are just geared differently.