Black repertoire advice

First of all, everyone makes mistakes. Even titled players do it. Bear in mind that many of those blunders happen in short time controls, and it only appears shocking because you compare that to your longer games.

And even in longer games, people will make those type of mistakes, only much less frequent.  But you can find a mistake 1 800 rating player does and think that you might compete with that based on that blunder. What you don't see is that perhaps that person made that blunder once in 20 games or even rarer than that. On top of that, he made that blunder because perhaps he didn't feel comfortable in that particular position. Against someone much lower rated he would get a comfortable position and win the majority of games. There is most likely a reason why that person is at that particular rating in the first place.

In short, when you look at a game from international master like Levy, it all seems easy, when that is not the case in reality.

All of that being said, it is good to play stronger opponents. Why? Because you are challenging yourself to play better. But don't overdo it, because you might feel disappointed otherwise. For instance, set your search criteria from -200 to +400, or something like that and see what happens, but in any case view it as a learning experience. 

By the way, if you just manage to lessen the amount of 1 move blunders to minimum, and follow opening principles, you will gradually double your rating. Everyone below 1 000 will frequently make mistakes.

Fair comment. I never imagined there would be so many ways to approach this game & the difficulty finding what is most enjoyable is so different for everyone. I suppose I'm still finding what I want from chess. At the moment I just try and enjoy the journey of learning the game. I think that is the best mindset for me to stay humble and continue to enjoy the journey.

My point is I feel stuck with 30 min games & the pressure of wanting to win such a time investment.

But, if your goal is to get better, then what does it matter if you are learning sound principles and you lose?

I do understand where you're coming from.  I am halfway decent at openings for the first few moves, and, as such, I have posted a number of questions asking "why play abc on move 4 instead of xyz".

And then somebody pointed out to me: it doesn't matter if you play abc or xyz on move 4 when you hang a knight on move 11.

For example, in this game (https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/6565904594) you had a great move, 9...Qf6 which would have won you a knight.

Look at the games you have lost.  Run them through the analyzer.  See where the innaccuracies or mistakes or blunders start.  If they are in the first few moves, you need to learn opening theory better.  If the mistakes start at move 6 or later -- like in my games -- then it'd be better to spend some time with lessons on tactics, strategy, etc.

I also recommend trying some longer games.  When I play friends OTB I rarely just hang a piece or make huge blunders.  But when I play rapid chess here -- they are blunder-fests.

But you seem to have a good attitude, that you want to stay humble and enjoy the journey.  That's not only a great attitude in chess, but in life in general.  Good for you.  Enjoy!  Learn! Practice!

Thank you for that and I go through my games obsessively (Idk if there is such thing as too much analyzing). Playing OTB is a huge problem for me, because all the chess clubs are closed (pandemic) & the only person I have to play OTB with is my wife and every time I mention chess her eyes glaze over  . I do think playing OTB is not necessary but adds hugely to the chess journey. I had a 1400 chess partner but I was already close to beating him after a few meets and his sore loser attitude turned me off. Even when I would give him trouble after playing only 3 months, he would get salty. Back to the topic, I am really liking Kings Indian on either side tbh. Sometimes I don't understand why a move is a blunder is part of the problem. This isn't a huge deal but the app analysis vs. the chess.com analysis is different sometimes. I've had a game with 2 brilliants on the website and it called it a mistake on the phone?

I have stopped playing on the app. I'll do puzzles but nothing else. I can't find the best moves on the phone anymore.

It depends on the depth as well. You are a diamond member so you can analyze the game at a greater depth than 18 (which can be sometimes inaccurate).

Man!!! Some fantastic advice for a chess player.  Try these: Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner to Master. Not these: Modern Chess Openings: MC0-15

Okay I've encountered Silman's but I don't recall what it is exactly. Is it an online course or a book? Affordable?

Here is everything I have: Chess.com diamond, Visualwise course 1, Gotham chess E4 NY style, D4 Dynamite, Beginner boot camp, and recently 5 hours with chess coach Vadshim. So all in all about $500 worth of study materials. Considering all that I feel like I have plenty to work with currently but is there something especially nice about Silman's?

The nice thing about owning Silman's books is that they are divided by rating, so as you grow as a chess player, you can re-read the book to work on your fundamentals, then read the next chapters that correspond to your new rating.

It makes it unique among other chess books, which are usually more one and done deals. 

That said, you seem to have a lot on your plate already, so I probably would just grind on everything you have now.  

Okay thanks. That one has been recommended to me a few times. I think my library has it as well. I'm a library paraprofessional so we have 7 to 10 chess books. Most of them I didn't find useful, but that could be a me problem.

There is 10 chess books to every 1 other game book published, and for quality, it's closer to 1 in 1000 books are actual worthwhile.  

I personally feel like pretty much every titled player has no idea how they actually managed to become a titled player. Like, I believe most titled players can do a series of one-on-one sessions and make a player very very strong, but I don't believe anyone can do what a book suggests, make generalized advice that applies to everyone that will make someone very very strong.

There's just an organic thought process that doesn't exactly translate to words and charts in a generalized way. 

I'm not saying books can't make you stronger, because there are tons of peeps who did get stronger on books, but... it isn't you. There is tons of crap chess books, and even the good ones may not necessarily be good for you. 

Yeah I don't know how a book could be superior, at least at this level, to say the interactive video lessons chess.com offers. I just don't internalize the info very well. I haven't found one that is engaging enough. This may sound strange coming from a librarian but we are a very modern progressive library. This is just pride in my place of work talking probably but it is one of the best community libraries for a town of my size, probably in the country as far as technology, community programming for all ages, and understanding that library's aren't so much about books anymore. They have their place for sure but much much more they are about community engagement and being a 3rd place after home and work/school. Before the pandemic I was running a table tennis club through my library just to tell you the kind of place it is compared to what people traditionally think of (a place to be shushed and quiet). No no no, we have live music (in fact I have performed many times for my library). Anyway, yeah I'm book loathing librarian. That is an obvious exaggeration. I read a lot now, they are just digital audio. Didn't touch books before I began my career.  Someone should really make a dedicated audio book for chess. I've tried it and it works to a point but you almost need to be able to play blind chess to make a meant to be read book into an audio book. But if someone were to intend to make a book for listening to, I think it could be possible with the right author.

So sorry that post slipped past me. Yeah I'll give it a try & I just really started getting my feet wet with the kings Indian. I like it a lot. My losses lately have just been failure to convert. I've been getting up 3 to 5 pts and then one move flips the engine from my color to their's   . Yeah I don't know if Levy has any videos I have not watched (usually multiple views). I'm running through Eric Rosen's now. Let me ask you this. Something I've struggled with from the get go. How many games should you attempt in a day? Or how many hours of games a day? Because I study for 1-3 hours depending on the day and maybe play 3-5 games in the morning with 15/10 or 30 min time. My feeling is 10 to 20 games is justified now that I have soooooo much information swirling around in my head. It needs to be put to the test more now. Thoughts?

I'm a bit surprised by that suggestion of blitz and 10min. That is the 1st time anyone has told me to play shorter time controls. Don't think I'm criticizing it is just what I have experienced, which is 15/10 or 30 while at this level. Yeah typically have 20 to 30 move games but I have had a few really nice 60 and even a 99 move game recently that drew.  

Oh yes I am very familiar with those early queen tricks. Every once in a blue moon I get tunnel vision and let someone slip this trick in but I don't fall for this anymore. Interestingly every time I try this they know what to do as I do and I just end up with a bad position. This may be the wrong attitude but I really hate this stuff. Yeah probably if I kept trying it I peeps would fall for it more often than not but this doesn't feel really playing chess. It feels like playing "hope chess" and that's not where the fun is imo. Not to mention I think less and less people are falling for this because of streamers like Levy. His video taught me all about this. So chess is more popular than it's been in a long time right, due to Queen's Gambit (I started just before that came out) and pandemic. The pandemic is why I started. My band could have irresponsibly kept gigging but we did the right thing and took a break while things cooled off. So there goes my #1 passion and so here I sit banging my head against the wall trying to learn this king of games. 

Just so I'm clear you believe I just pull this queen trick out as much as possible to get my rating to 1000? I think you are def correct a year or 2 ago. But even players at my level deal with this just fine but then again like I said I really don't try and pull this stuff often. Maybe I'm looking at it wrong idk? 

I almost feel like it's bad sportsmanship to try and pull this trick off all the time. Is that the wrong way to look at it? It's like in tennis when you have an easy volley and you try and hit the other player. Totally legal and fine, but very frowned upon.

You play it elsewhere?

Those queen tricks are great -- if your goal is to get some cheap wins.  But if you're trying to get better, you should know enough about them as black to make sure you never fall for them.  If you look at the first one, the black response is simple: 2 ... Nf6.  That's basic opening theory: you simply go ahead and develop pieces, and even better if you can chase his queen around at the same time.

Exactly! It just doesn't work like (I assume) it used to. I have fallen for it my share of times but people don't go for it like they did say back in August 2020. I think the streamers got so popular and the game in general recently that you have to almost have never seen this before to fall for it. I mean the queen's gambit series literally shows this scholars mate and the other queen tricks are very similar. Winning the queen vs. winning the game. Basically the same thing.