This Website Sucks For Beginners

Still trying to argue with a piece of concrete and change its mind here I see...

Again the average rating here is only 800 and most players are 600-700,  many players have been playing for years,  just like the NFL players in the tournament last night,   who are lucky to be 1200 rapid.  And those guys are so competitive they have done the lessons and daily puzzles, some even read some books etc...    Thats really all anyone can expect.  IF they go beyond that,  then great,  but noone should burn themselves out over it thinking they are somehow below average for not.  Because that is a lie.

Every professional athlete and Olympic champion got there simply because they were naturally gifted.  

Well, yeah, obviously. I know you're trying to be sarcastic, but this is correct. 1,000,000 people train for their whole lives and 1 guy (or girl) is much better than the rest... it's not because of work (although work was necessary) it's because they were naturally gifted.

For example Michael Phelps was gifted with an abnormal torso to leg ratio, the kind that benefits swimmers (shorter leg, longer torso). 1 mile champions are gifted in the same way but in a way that benefits runners (longer leg, shorter torso).

Of course work is required, but every idiot can (and does) work hard... only one can be the best, and that person was gifted with the genetics to do so.

The key word there is "simply".  Everyone has some measure of natural talent.  The difference between someone who achieves their natural ability and someone who does not is determined by their work and work ethic.  Jordan did not even make his high school team, but he worked his butt off.  Brady was selected in the 6th round, and was known to study and practice more than anyone on the team.  Gable lost his last college match and worked his butt off to become arguably the best Olympic wrestler in history.  If any of them said, "You know what, perhaps I am just not as gifted as I thought" and gave up, how different would each of those sports be?

Coming back to chess, if you watch the Magnus documentary, he did not show any real promise for the game early on.  His dad even said that when he learned the game at age 5, he was not especially good.  But at age 7 he became almost obsessed with it and was studying and practicing it constantly.

Work beats talent when talent does not work. - My high school wrestling coach (who was an Olympic alternate behind Gable)

Carlsen showed talent at an early age, as I'm sure all champions did... I mean he was a freaking GM after 5 years of playing.

The truth is that hard work will usually make you better than you can imagine, and for that reason it's important to teach people (particularly kids) to work hard... so yes, of course your coach would say something like that... all coaches and teachers and parents do. When you get older you realize there's some BS to that... but it's practical advice, so you pass it on to kids the same way it was passed on to you.

I've been playing for a bit and following all the opening principles, reading the guides, doing lessons and puzzles, and even analyzing my games when I get a chance to use a free analysis. Even still I couldn't break 500. It really doesn't help when so much of the community then turns around and says "well if you're under 1000 you're clearly blundering all the time." Like that doesn't help me at all.

I also have pretty even and well done games with people of higher scores and also tend to get knocked down by people of lower score as well. It's like I literally can't progress. And when I ask for help all I get is the same responses with a link to some blog or the opening principles or the "Analyze every game and see where you missed." 

For One thing, I can't afford the analysis after every game. I don't have the money to pay for premium and I'm playing to enjoy myself and not be reminded of my financial situation. Second off It'd be nice to actually have somebody to at least guide me or try to give me some advice for where i'm falling and not just be brushed off as a "blunderfest" just because my rank is so low. And when you do get advice it always boils down to "stop Blundering" and "think 2 moves ahead of your opponent".

Like how? If I knew how to stop blundering, I wouldn't be asking you how to stop blundering. And I wish I had the psychic power to know what my opponent is going to do 2 moves ahead. I guess that's just something Chess players can do that I haven't picked up yet or something. 

And the worst response is "Keep playing, you'll learn from playing." That's what I've been trying to do but the more I play, the more I lose. I find I'll go on, have a good couple games, then start dropping in quality and getting my butt kicked shortly after out of nowhere. The only thing I've learned from this is that people like to taunt you into resigning when you start losing, and nobody is actually willing to help you unless you pay them or subscribe to their youtube channel.

His father noted in the documentary that when Magnus first learned to play (at age 5) he was terrible and actually gave it up for a couple years.  He picked it back up around age 7 and became almost obsessed.  They show home video clips of the family playing board games or watching TV and Magnus has a chess magazine or book in his face the whole time.  His father alludes to his natural talent is his work ethic (Kasparov has said something similar as well).  So yes, once he put his mind to it, he progressed quickly.  Was that nature or nurture?

Well, take the example of the Polgar sisters.  They were too young to have shown any talent in anything yet when their parents started training them specifically in chess.  The whole point of their parents' experiment was to show that genius is not born but made.

Does that mean that anyone picking up the game today could be a world champion or even break the top 100?  Not at all.  There are a lot of other things that have to fall into place for that.  However, with the right work and work ethic, almost anyone can improve to be a reasonably strong player.  The notion that if you played online for a couple years and your peak rating is 800, so you should just accept that you are just not naturally gifted and should not even try to improve is a self-fulfilling prophecy.  If you always do what you have always done, you will see the same results you have always seen.  To improve at anything in life, you have to take a step back and assess what you are doing wrong and correct it.  The vast majority of players sub-1500 on any online platform are weak in tactics and do not practice tactics in an effective manner, and continue to not improve as a result.  If you go to an OTB club focused on teaching kids, you see that they focus almost exclusively on practicing tactics in a deliberate manner (i.e. by theme) and the kids that take it seriously tend to progress rapidly.  Yet many adults think they can get better by doing everything except what we teach the kids.

Still trying to argue with a piece of concrete and change its mind here I see...

Sure everyone should work to improve.  But you can't set unrealistic goal posts.  2000 rating?  Ya,  most people are not going to get there.   If i'm 800 right now.  I should strive for 100 or 200 points higher.   People lose motivation when they give themselves unrealistic expectations.

He is not going to see you as attacking me, he is going to rightfully see you as agreeing with me bud.  Glad to see you've come around. Sure everyone should work to improve.  But you can't set unrealistic goal posts.  2000 rating?  Ya,  most people are not going to get there.   If i'm 800 right now.  I should strive for 100 or 200 points higher.   People lose motivation when they give themselves unrealistic expectations.  And its worse to put those on other people to feed  egos and mental complexes. 

 I truly meant what I said as to why society is in the state it is in.  Its because of the internet and social media.   Too many people online say crazy things online that people believe, and the normal people out there do not counter them,  and its having dire repercussions.  Teen Suicides,  Drug overdoses and mass shootings. Literally.   Here we just want as many people to play chess as popular,  but it seems its tradition in the chess community to drive people away to feel superior over them.

OTB classical rating is irrelevant here.  This is the state of the  world you are ignoring my friend.

Me as an 800 rated average player on the site setting a goal of 1000 and not 2000 is called being practical.   Again setting a goal too high might be giving myself false expectations and I will be frustrated when I don't reach it or progress fast enough.    I should also learn to accept that fact that I can get competitive matches at 800 rating thanks to chess.com so it doesn't matter if I never reach 1000.  What people like you think dont' mean anything.     You setting an impractical goal for others,  is pure ego and a superiority complex.  I believe you truly want to drive people away from the game,  so you can feel special about yourself for playing it.   Maybe you don't realize that about yourself,  so I'm here to teach you.

I already did,  try addressing the answers.

Me as an 800 rated average player on the site setting a goal of 1000 and not 2000 is called being practical.   Again setting a goal too high might be giving myself false expectations and I will be frustrated when I don't reach it or progress fast enough.    I should also learn to accept that fact that I can get competitive matches at 800 rating thanks to chess.com so it doesn't matter if I never reach 1000.  What people like you think dont' mean anything.

 Keep your red herring.  The difference in skill set is irrelevant.   Stop deflecting and trying to test my chess knowledge as a desperate attempt discredit my argument.  You are only fooling yourself with such flamboyant and pathetic concessions. Leave your ego at the door, it's the root of your problem.

Listen to this interview.  This guy just beat Aronian then proceeded to beat Radjabov in a tourney this week FTX road to Miami.  I think he mentally broke both of them. haha.    He's been taking the chess world by storm this past year.   Interviewer asks what books he recommends and he said he's never read any books,  he just does puzzles.     Am I surprised? nope  Thats all these young players do.    I guess you probably are though...lmao   

And it seems this Indian School of chess is coaching their players to always play for the win.  I first noticed it with Nihal Sarin just being a magician end game scrambler and coming back from dead lost positions on the board. I think Srinath is him and Arjun's coach.  And seeing these women players in the recent SCC going for flags and winning matches  it is becoming apparent the Indian players are really different.  And Kramnik should know there is no group of players more "gentlemanlike"  lmao...

  I was laughing during the Arjun vs levon match when David Howell kept saying it is a drawn position, then out of nowhere "what you mean why is the bar +100!!!"   Draw you say?   Who draws nowadays? Well he did draw with levon to win the Tata Steel Rapid.  lol

My chess knowledge is irrelevant to the topic, just like my low rating.  Just like your references to OTB classical chess.     But  another Super Gm saying he never read a chess book and just does puzzles,  is another example proving you wrong.  LIke most of them he is simply another natural talent.  In fact if you look at round 5 standings of that road to miami tournament.  the top 5 is all the youngest players in it.     You are stuck on outdated tradition and in total denial.  This is chess.com a speedchess website.   Telling people to read books and play OTB classical and they will easily be 2000 blitz rating,  is simply insane, illogical and unreasonable.

I've said 1000 is a more realistic goal for now, and people should set realistic goals for themselves when it comes to chess ratings.   As far as getting to 2000?  Yes very unlikely.  I'm not the type to lie to myself.

Yes I believe OTB chess is completely irrelevant.  Most people on this website have never played OTB. And many titled players who solely play OTB,  get destroyed when playing online tournaments for the first time.   

You still have not answered what it is you think you would have to do to reach 2000 that is so unrealistic if you actually spent time to learn and practice.

And the last paragraph is sheer ignorance, but you won't realize that until you actually try playing OTB.

But for me to reach 2000?  I probably need natural born ability i most likely don't have.