Advice for 850 Rapid Player?

Do you have any advice for me? I am an 850 in rapid rating.

Here you go, all the tips I have for you:

https://www.chess.com/blog/nklristic/the-beginners-tale-first-steps-to-chess-improvement

Thanks!

No problem. You're welcome. 

I happened to see this and I was free for two hours straight so I was able to see your three games. The comments and analysis to your games are great. I can fondly remember reading a newspaper a few decades ago where I will set up the board and follow the game as it progresses and then do the "side quests". With the technology right now, I find it easy to do the alternate moves and then later go back to the main game.

I have yet to see the other link in your blog.

I hope you can also answer my questions in the thread I started. I still don't know how to post links here or rather, I find it difficult to navigate through the forum. Perhaps I am just used to the Mazda 6 forum's layout.

Is there a bookmark function here? Please answer this question in my thread as not to deviate from the original post.

Thank you.

Dear ShootHoops,

I am a certified, full-time chess coach, so I hope I can help you. Everybody is different, so that's why there isn't only one general way to learn. First of all, you have to discover your biggest weaknesses in the game and start working on them. The most effective way for that is analysing your own games. Of course, if you are a beginner, you can't do it efficiently because you don't know too much about the game yet. There is a built-in engine on chess.com which can show you if a move is good or bad but the only problem that it can't explain you the plans, ideas behind the moves, so you won't know why is it so good or bad.

You can learn from books or Youtube channels as well, and maybe you can find a lot of useful information there but these sources are mostly general things and not personalized at all. That's why you need a good coach sooner or later if you really want to be better at chess. A good coach can help you with identifying your biggest weaknesses and explain everything, so you can leave your mistakes behind you. Of course, you won't apply everything immediately, this is a learning process (like learning languages), but if you are persistent and enthusiastic, you will achieve your goals.

In my opinion, chess has 4 main territories (openings, strategies, tactics/combinations and endgames). If you want to improve efficiently, you should improve all of these skills almost at the same time. That's what my training program is based on. My students really like it because the lessons are not boring (because we talk about more than one areas within one lesson) and they feel the improvement on the longer run. Of course, there are always ups and downs but this is completely normal in everyone's career.

I hope this is helpful for you.   Good luck for your chess games!

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’m a chess coach based in California. 

I have tips to help you improve your chess skills so you can win more games.  

I recommend playing with a slow time control, such as game in 30 minutes.  You need time to think.  Beginners tend to make a lot of silly moves with very little time.  This makes sense since there’s a lot of pieces on the board.  
 

I also offer a  free beginner’s free eBook on my website, www.ChessByLauren.com in case you are interested. The book is about asking questions before each move.  
   Before each move, I highly encourage you ask questions before every move such as, “If I move here, is it safe?”, “Can I safely capture a piece?”, and more.  

Also consider all checks and captures on your side and also your opponent’s side. 

Learn basic tactics such as the fork, discovered attack, pin, and more.  I offer interactive puzzles on my website: https://www.chessbylauren.com/two-choice-puzzles.php  
If you are serious about chess, I highly recommend you hiring a chess coach to help you.  
I hope that this helps.  

lol just about everybody on Chess.com tearing themselves down like this