Stuck for years

I have been stuck for years at 1200. I can't get better. I just blunder every 2 moves and can't progress. I'm doing the chess lessons and see no progression whatsoever and I also annalyse everygames and replay my bad moves. Still stuck on the begginer level since I joined like 5 years ago

Hmm sorry to hear. Sounds as though you are trying to improve the right way!

Playing blitz will not help you improve much (if you do that) but rather instill bad habits. Slow games, with review.

At 1200 most games are decided by fairly "simple" tactics. I would highly recommend chesstempo.com for tactic training  

But almost sounds like you could use a tutor, mentor, couch or something to get ya past that plateau. 

I don't play blitz, I play rapid. I do tactics, I do lessons, I am diamond wich means I have the "coach" in the game annalyse, wich I think is useless. It's commentary doesn't help understand the mistake often. Some game are good and some games I have like 5 blunders. I don't know what to do anymore. I don't have money for a coach or anything like that.

Hi Ashenay- I understand your blight, I am exactly the same way. But I have only been playing for a year. I learned in college. Not sure where you learned but most likely not when you were single digits in age. The best players all learned when they were young. And they have played 10,000's of games, done live tounaments and have mentors. Players like us are amateurs and we do it for fun. There is the rush when playing, the thrill of victory after each win and the agony of defeat after each loss. I too analyze every game, even download to analyze on Stockfish, recommend this. But here is the thing, after just the first ten moves, there are more than one million game variations. So all the review isn't going to help much. I am at peace because my chess motto is I am winning or learning!

its time to give up on chess

i am joking of course, reality is that this is very hard to improve at and it took me a whole year despite playing chess for 7+ years to get past 2000? you have to find motivation in what you want to do and try to see a upside for it. many times i felt like it was useless to even try anymore and thought i would never improve but i did and you can too. i am not a coach by any means or something like that but try to find your own way and you will make it there

there are many videos you can look at and i simply have learned to take my time and use resources from sites like lichess or here, joining clubs and interacting with other members. as long as you have people who are there to help you then thats what makes it worth while. i remembered i would always watch a lot of antonio videos and they were fun always making me smiling even tho i was really bad. watch channels that are fun like maybe eric rosen, antonio, hikaru, chessbrah and lots of others which try to make videos educational but give an idea of what you need to try and improve at but making it easy to understand. you are in a zone where you just have to try and understand your limitations and how you can make yourself stronger as i said before its just motivation. you can do anything as long as you set your mind to it even if it does seem a bit tough at times you can do it like everyone

#1
"I just blunder every 2 moves"
Always check your intended move is no blunder before you play it.

Play me in a match, you’ll get better instantly

Thanks for the advices everyone but it's just too mentally draining. All I see is innacuracy, errors and blunders and I don't even understand why it's a mistake. The analysis option is garbage, I pay every month and I can't even know why I made a mistake. I am thinking about quitting chess.

I could tell you how I improved, but I’m not sure what I did was good. Instead I will refer you to Daniel naroditsky on YouTube- I think he is able to break down chess into very simple, easy, and understandable parts. Even as a 2000+ rated player I can learn things from his videos. 

You've only done 22 attempts at puzzle rush. It is an excellent tool for improving at spotting simple tactics which litter rapid games. You' re diamond, you have no excuse not to get 20 rushes done every day.

Chess is mentally draining ya. Up to you if you'd like to continue  

Sounds to me like you rely on the computer too much. You'd improve more if you didn't look at an engine... Use only your brain. 

 

Exactly what I thought.

Think ahead, check all reasonable countermoves before you play.

Then extend the prophylaxism to 3 moves - 4 - 5 - etc.
It sounds like that's the problem - the 'mind game' part of chess (read: chess)
So you might just want to work on training your memory - without visual reference.

And catch intellectual laziness before it strikes! Just move on and you'll progress.
Puzzles are good too as suggested, but take enough time to really contemplate the candidate moves.

I DO puzzles. Just not the puzzle rush, but do lots of puzzles. And I don't get how I can improve without looking at what the computer tells me to do. Otherwise, I'll start doing things that I think are good but aren't.

if you look at the computer moves, but you can't think of a reason they're good... then you aren't learning anything.

Ugh. I can completely relate to this. Sometimes I don't think I'll ever see a day over 1300, but I just keep studying and trying. Dreams come true...occasionally. 

Don't get discouraged! When I first started playing, I stagnated for years. I finally started to improve after getting serious about some openings that I liked and by getting serious about studying tactics. A good tactics book that really helped me is "Learn Chess Tactics", by John Nunn. The tactics trainer here online is fine, but I prefer actual books. I never do anything with PuzzleRush. 

I hope you don't mind, but I took a look at your most recent game. I really liked your playing! You were completely in charge for the first 14 moves. It was very fun to watch you outplay your opponent through the opening. Don't be too hard on yourself! You missed some tactics, that's all. But that's an easy diagnosis! Keep working on your tactics, and improvement will come. 

I was also stuck at 1100-1200 for a while
What helped me is the obvious : Puzzles (you need to do at least 10 hard ones a day in which you suffer a bit and really don’t know and look for the wrong ideas and feel stupid. This is what’s helpful imo) also don’t just “solve them” move by move but try to really understand them before the first move, analyze them later. Magnus makes a difference between “solving puzzles” and “studying tactics”. Be sure you completely understand the tactic before solving.

 

30+0 games and 15+10.  10+0 is basically blitz , it’s not helpful for improvement. 

some nice very readable books : “simple chess” and “mastering endgame strategy”. pdfs free online 

 

And a general idea: Chess is fun right? Well - it’s also not fun. The not fun part will make you better. This feeling of suffering when you are winning because the opponent is still defending so well, this feeling of being challenged by every move of the opponent, needing to think deeply and overwhelmed by a position but keeping your compsure still… this is what actually makes you better. Just looking for easy fun will not… and of course when you will manage to out play someone 400 or more higher than you in 30+0 or 15+10 … it will be more fun than any random 10+0 or blitz victory…

 

bottom line : embrace the hard part , it’s truely hard, but it’s a different type of satisfaction. push yourself and improvement is inevitable.. if you think you are just entitled to improve you won’t … in fact just maintaining a certain level in a plateau and not regressing is hard enough 

good luck 

check out my blog.  It goes into some possible reasons.

https://www.chess.com/blog/foobarred1

hope it helps.