Are you below 1000? Golden advice from a 2000

Hi there, perhaps ur reading this and wondering to urself "Why are 800s so strong and why are they finding impossible moves?" or "Why am I stuck at 900 and never improve?" "I have spent months trying to reach 1200 but in vain"

I will tell you the truth, 800s are not strong, and you are NOT bad. Its just that you are doing it all wrong. You overcomplicate what you need to do. You learn different openings from different sources and then you try to apply everything in game without any solid plan. THATS WRONG. NONONO STOP. 

The best tip I can give you is, learn only ONE opening for white and black. Just one. and play the games. You will slowly learn how to pin and fork , middle and late games as you play until you reach 1200-1400, then you can expand your opening theory. For example, learn the London system for white, and kings indian for black. and just play the games. You will make alot of mistakes and lose games at the start, but slowly you will find your playstyle and climb in no time. 

This is the truth, stop learning multiple openings at once. Just ONE is more than enough. Choose one that suits ur playstyle and flow with the wind. Activate all pieces, and castle. If you manage to keep all your pawns without blundering anything in the first 6 moves, you are already better than 80% of 800s.

Remember that, all the 1500s+ were 800s once, dont let them put you down. 

Good luck!  

You cant just play one opening, the other guy also makes moves and gets an equal say about what is going to be played.

One opening is more than enough to go through 800s until you reach 1200. Only those who tried will understand

Then, the stonewall attack is exactly what you need to climb, its a simple opening that focuses on kingside attack

I would argue that it's not even important to learn an opening - just the opening principles. Why would you ever suggest that a relative beginner plays the King's Indian, a highly complex opening with deep and long-term strategic ideas that are wholly unsuitable for an 800 player?

Instead, just learn the opening principles - occuy/control the centre, develop your pieces and castle. Just do that. And with all that time you have saved trying to study millions of lines of one opening, do tactics puzzles and learn pawn endgames and a few basic pawn and rook endgames.

Finally, but crucially, ALWAYS apply the "sanity check": decide what you are going to move, but before each time you make that move, ask yourself the following: "is the move I'm about to make totally insane?" ie. am I about to move a pawn when my queen is being threatened? Am I about to move a piece to a threatened square? Am I about to move my bishop when I am about to get mated on the back rank?

If you do all of those things, and you're about 800 today, your rating should climb to 1100 within a month. Good luck (and don't bother with openings).

@Scrumpymanjack

I reached 2000 in less than a year using my golden tip. You dont have to agree with it. I chose one opening and played it 1000 times until I mastered it, and I swept through the low elos. The kings indian was just an option, the main idea is that you should choose a SINGLE opening and master it. It could be italian, london, anything rly.

You are telling people that its not important to learn an opening, thats actually absurd.

Ratings are confusing. There are 500s that don’t make any 1 move-blunders and there are some 1000s that DO make one-move blunders. I can proudly say that I am stronger than most U1000s but sometimes I have very bad days where nothing works. I followed your opening advice for a long time now and I know my White’s opening very well. When playing with black, it gets more difficult - Too many variations and no clear opening for black that suits my playing style.

@Ein-Schachspieler

try the stonewall defense. Its simple and pretty decent at the 800s

I will try, thanks!

I personally doubt you should spend too much time learning openings at all. Instead it should be focused on the general game and logic. Almost all moves that are reasonable and logical end up being theory or a decent move anyways.

I totally agree. I used to know a good amount of opening theory then I quit chess for years and started playing again last summer. I remember almost nothing when it comes to opening lines yet after several months of shaking the rust off, my ratings are pretty close to what they used to be. I get tricked by dubious gambits in blitz and bullet occasionally that I've forgotten how to refute but overall I don't feel hindered by not knowing theory.

You have a good point. I am not saying learning theory is by any means necessary, but the stonewall is good enough to easily reach 1200. And its a good starting point to learn more about chess and the overall theories

Are you recommending the Stonewall Attack for white and the Stonewall Defence for black? Or is "stonewall defense" just a slip-up here.

The Stonewall Attack for white makes perfect sense (it's also the opening recommended for white in Will Stewart's The Will to Win), but the Stonewall Defence is a variation of the Dutch Defence that you can't play against 1. e4.

Of course, I agree with the recommendation against hopping from opening to opening as a beginner instead of choosing one with an easy-to-understand plan.

I am NOT looking for a white-opening and I definitely don’t change my main opening like this. But back then I played the Bird, which was quite similar.

Yes I am with 400+ in rapid and blitz, good that you wrote below 1000 because I had a few 1000 elo opponents and they were scary and a bit fearsome, they made short work of me. *blushes* 😳

I don't think your advices will work for me as the medication I have to take for my mental health clouds my mind.

I bet you won't reply to me because you see I just have too little talent. 😁

Clouding your mind in order to keep you happy??? Sounds like a terrible medication. Not to be meant offensive please.

I mean it's extremely hard to calculate and concentrate in a chess game. But I can live with it just fine. For example I have 1300 music albums and can leave reality for hours with them, that I still can do. Or being creative and using my imagination. It just is not good for chess, but I still enjoy playing.

My medication is against anxiety, anger and other things

But why is it specifically bad for chess? As someone who has ADHD I can relate to that: It IS very difficult to calculate sometimes. But I think we also don’t have the strength to calculate very far. The question is did you played chess before you took medication and did you already had these concentration problems?

No I only started playing chess last December, after watching and learning from GothamChess videos.

I tried learning openings but I am unable to implement them in my games. Also when I try to calculate and concentrate in chess I get exhausted and tired quickly.

Medication is causing concentration problems

That’s interesting. Would you mind if we play some games together and determine these concentration problems you are describing?