Struggling to cross rating beyond 1200 !!

Hi,

I just don’t know why I can’t maintain score more than 1200.. Most of the people above 1300 are amazing except rookies.. If I saw my opponent with above 1400 tats it half of my confidence is gone.. coz they are better, faster, smart n so..

Where would I need to concentrate On opening or Need to learn new strategies.. Kindly suggest.

Hi, well first of all I'm not that far from 1200s but I think I could give you some tips to improve your game...

1.- Playing standard games should help you to improve since you have more time to carefully think about next moves, and with practice you soon should be able to prevent most common blunders like let hanging pieces, etc.

2.- Use the tactics trainer and be aware of the different tactics that exist, for example pinning (which is the most common) be aware that are different types of pinning like diagonal pining, other tactics like skewer, deflection, desperado, etc. see what they are about and try to excersiste them so if you get them in a game you can do them that's something very useful.

3.- Try to see some openings, that should help you to improve, try different ones and see what works better for you.

That's all I can think of right now I hope it helps you somehow if I think on something else I'll edit the post.

 Oh and other think I think could help you is not looking at your opponents rating, just do your best and try to think of the best move anytime..

Kind Regards!

Being a free member, your use of Tactics Trainer, etc. is limited.  Even so, you can change your habits; which seem to focus on Blitz. 

My recommendation is to start at least one OnLine game and make your best use of books and databases available to you.  Of course without using an engine to cheat.  I know it's slow but the point is to take ALL the time you need to make your best move.  After a while you may surprised to find that knowledge carry over to Blitz. 

As for Openings, find the ones you like and study them in your spare time. 

Tactics, tactics, tactics.

tactics are very important at your level so if you have a way to learn tactics that should be your first step.

Also you are making many mistakes and these mistakes are repeated over and over again.  You need to find a way to discover your mistakes and then learn how to correct your mistakes.  You will never learn how to do this from blitz.  Need to learn to do slow games and write down your moves so that later you can go over those games and see your mistakes.

You will not be able to do this at your level so you need a coach or a player about 700 points or more above you to show you your mistakes and how you can correct them.  

tactics (use chesstempo, its free and unlimited problems)

have trainer partners (youcan add me ifyou want to regularly play and analyze games after)

play standard (more time to think, get into routine of thinking multiple moves ahead and looking through multiple responses, after awhile this will become faster and faster. if you just play automatically like in bullet, you'll never learn. play blitz once in awhile, play bullet never!)

i would love to have a trainer partners 

we all start there at some points, don't worry, from my experience what i can recommend is:

Play a lot, but long games, no blitz for now

Tactics Tactics Tactics, solve them everyday and you will notice an increase

Get a hold of EVERY chess book you can and devour them, there is so much information out there it is unbeliavable

Try to have a chess partner or a chess coach, that will help you improve tremendously.

And last but not definitely not the least, have confidence, trust me, if you think I AM gonna win, then that will help you a lot, i have beaten very high rated players by thinking "pff i am so much better than this guy"... even if it sounds cocky it actually helps you mantain calm and increase confidence

I hope this helped, good luck!

G-Perez gives great advice.

1-Play games, loss a lot of them and learn from it.

2-Study chess and try to put what your learn into practice. (have patience if you study you will get results)

3-Try to understand and improve your own thinking process.

4-Have faith in yourself, you are alone over the board and cant ask for advice from anyone.

try harder

just play and play and play

Thanks very much Everyone..!! I just followed wat you all had said..Now i have improved a lot and offcourse am trying to move ahead of 1300 !!!! :)

good luck 

Thanks G-Perez.   Appreciate your comments....