I broke 1300 not that long ago and still feel like I'm playing as an 1100 so take my comments with a grain of salt. From the few games I saw it seems you lack tactical awareness so you usually end up losing a piece or game to a blunder, so do tactics puzzles and try and always check that none of your pieces are hanging. Other than that you seem lost in the middlegame like you have no idea what to do once the pieces are out of their original position, which is fairly normal from what I've experienced, so maybe look for some middlegame ideas that you can focus on during your games. This, I think, would also be a good time to pick-up an opening and learn the themes and ideas behind it. Anyway, that's my two cents hopefully it'll help a bit.
Help! Have been stuck in the 1200’s for four months and can’t seem to breakthrough 1300 and beyond.
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Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond
Be sure to check out the section Play Longer Time Controls near the end of the article.
Always check your intended move is no blunder before you play it.
That little mental discipline alone is enough to reach 1500.
watch GOTHEMCHESS's courses on youtube.
he has very specific solutions for your problem.
I have played chess for 29 years...at one point I was expert level rated, so please ignore my current rating, I do not take chess at all seriously anymore...
If we take your last game as white against JohnBMiddleton where you lost, we can see a basic tactical blunder almost immediately with Nh4? allowing black a discovered attack after he plays Nxe4 (which he missed at first), this would perhaps suggest a tactical vision problem which can be remedied by trying to see how everything on the board is connected (what is defending what and what lines are open and closed) and keep training to do this until your 'vision' of the board grows in your imagination until you will eventually see all the tactics, and at that point you can move on to work on advancing your skill as a positional player.
I suggest working on beginner tactical puzzles but do NOT analyse...just try to see how everything is connected and what is defending what...closed and open lines..., and get the 'whole' in your imagination, get all this into your vision and the solution should become apparent. I think more advanced tactical puzzles DO require analysis and some point though.
Lastly I suggest a more dynamic approach when you are white...maybe its old fashioned now with the 'London system' etc...maybe e4 Bc4 and d3 is the modern approach...its boring as hell though it has to be said
Hello, I am close to one year into chess, started playing on here in March and have played over 2,100 games at 15/10 time control. I first hit 1200 in Sept. 2021 and have stayed in the 1150-1299 range ever since. I cannot seem to cross the 1300 threshold. I’ve gotten into the 1290’s and only need to win one game to get to 1300 and could never do it. It’s not enough for me to just cross it though, I want to be firmly entrenched there (and beyond).
I am finding that I have a tough time consistently beating people in the 1200’s which I guess makes sense. From time-to-time, I will beat someone in the 1300’s. I have a 38% win percentage in the last 7 days vs. 1300’s. Additionally, I find myself not able to stop bad losing streaks. Just a week or so, I had my worst losing streak of 11 games. I will quite often lose 3 in a row if not more.
I am trying to understand how I can improve and get to 1300 and beyond. Can someone perhaps review some of my games and see if there is a commonality that’s preventing me from winning? Do I have any bad habits? Thank you in advance!