I learned at the age of 6 but only got to play sporadically with my dad and at elementary school chess club. I didn't start playing chess consistently online until I was 15-16. I didn't know anything about chess at that time in regards to the fact that openings have names,theoretical endings,etc. But I played chess almost every day online from age 16-21. Then the place where I used to play got shut down so I got into tournament chess.
Inspirational Adult Improvers
Age 30, started studying chess seriously at 25 (around 1000 strength). Hope to be 2100 OTB by end of the year. 15+hours a week on avg past 5 years studying/playing. Having an OTB stronger player for guidance/coaching was important, Tactics puzzles are important, slow games are important, constantly analyzing your games is important, keeping the joy/motivation is important (I watch lots of chess videos, banter blitzes and such, chessnetwork, johnbartholomew, chessbrahs, simon williams, jan gustaffson)
Age 30, started studying chess seriously at 25 (around 1000 strength). Hope to be 2100 OTB by end of the year. 15+hours a week on avg past 5 years studying/playing. Having an OTB stronger player for guidance/coaching was important, Tactics puzzles are important, slow games are important, constantly analyzing your games is important, keeping the joy/motivation is important (I watch lots of chess videos, banter blitzes and such, chessnetwork, johnbartholomew, chessbrahs, simon williams, jan gustaffson)
You are doing the right things--on the right path.
Don't know if you are studying endgames but you should study those--especially pawn endgames.
I was 27 when I attended my first OTB tournament 2/12 years ago. I had a 1200 rating. I'm now 30, and I just broke 1870. Hoping to make master some day.
http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlMain.php?16010030
Let's add Paul Swaney to our short list of over 18 year olds, who made Expert. Looks like his first chess tournament was at 25 years old and he peaked at the mid 2000's.
Very interesting post under the chesssummit-link. But I'm not sure whether or not I understand it correctly. Everything one has to do to reach the 2000+ mark is studying the mentioned books by Bain and Gillam over and over again?
I started playing chess in 2014 here on chess.com at the age of 20. My rating was around 600. From 2014 to 2019 I went from 600 blitz to 2200 blitz. I played my first tournament game in 2019 at the age of 25 and reached a rating of 2006 in early 2020. I resumed playing again in late 2021 (after COVID closed down my chess club) and have gained almost 100 points to reach 2092 at age 28. My goal is 2200 before 30.
I started playing chess in 2014 here on chess.com at the age of 20. My rating was around 600. From 2014 to 2019 I went from 600 blitz to 2200 blitz. I played my first tournament game in 2019 at the age of 25 and reached a rating of 2006 in early 2020. I resumed playing again in late 2021 (after COVID closed down my chess club) and have gained almost 100 points to reach 2092 at age 28. My goal is 2200 before 30.
Congrats - very impressive. What, would you say, helped you most to achieve this?
I started playing chess in 2014 here on chess.com at the age of 20. My rating was around 600. From 2014 to 2019 I went from 600 blitz to 2200 blitz. I played my first tournament game in 2019 at the age of 25 and reached a rating of 2006 in early 2020. I resumed playing again in late 2021 (after COVID closed down my chess club) and have gained almost 100 points to reach 2092 at age 28. My goal is 2200 before 30.
Thanks for sharing. That's very impressive. What were your chess experiences before joining chess.com?
Congrats!
Tell us more. When did you learn to play chess, what training and games (online and offline) did you play before starting tournament play?