I got to 1200 rapid in (roughly) 1 year

Alright gents?!

Just wanted to celebrate finally getting to ~1200 ELO in 30 min rapid games. It took me just about a year to get here. I started playing at 32 years old and it's been damn hard to learn, I'm not a natural at chess and it's been a frustrating experience. I know 1200 is still beginner territory BUT I am at least satisfied that I have come this far. I know there's plenty of others who have struggled like me... so if anyone wants me to blog a guide on EXACTLY what I did to get to this point, please reply below. If there's enough interest, I'll write it up.

And a big thanks to everyone here who has given advice and helped along the way!!!

As a random side point... I have nearly reached 2000 in correspondence on Lichess 

I relate to this. I learned to play when I was 6yr, my stepfather taught me how to play one afternoon - he, of course, beat me. He also taught me losing was bad, and not to do it. I learned how to avoid things I wasn't good at to avoid losing. I am also 32 now, and unlearning those behaviors - I started chess again just a few months ago, and I aspire to push my ranking and grow as a player. I for one, would like to see a blog. Cheers

Congrats!

Good job. Can't wait to see you at 1300

Congratulations! A milestone worth celebrating. Keep it up!

-Jordan

Amazing, well done! Keep grinding!

Thanks a lot guys!! I'll keep grinding away and see how far I can get  my next goal is to simply try and enjoy the process more instead of getting too fixated on winning / ELO gains...

Thanks @CheekWeld ! Yes as you may be able to see from my stats, I also got stuck around the sub-1000 mark for several months. A couple of pieces of advice I would give...

When you hit a plateau that you need to work through: play LESS. I know that seems counterintuitive, but for me, it means I get less frustrated from my games (so I play with a better mindset and focus), and it also frees up more time to understand exactly why you are losing. What I've been doing is, say on a Monday, I will play my 30 minute rapid game. Immediately after that, I'll have a quick look at where I went wrong but not go too deep. Then the day after (on the Tuesday), I will do a very thorough analysis of the entire game and then work on puzzles to address where I went wrong.

The other thing, which was a revelation to me, is to watch John Bartholomew's "Climbing the rating ladder" series. I heard it mentioned here several times and didn't watch it because it seemed quite long. Eventually, I did get round to watching it and jeeeeeeez did it have an impact on my understanding of the game!

Finally, have you noticed that most puzzles only ever relate to attacking? I realised from analysis of my games that my defence tactics were absolutely abysmal. As soon as I started doing puzzles relating to defence tactics on a daily basis, I started winning more games.

Great job! 

I *started* at 1200 (because I misunderstood the sign-up process, I guess), and suffered some devastating losses while I learned the game (I'm nearly 50). But now I'm back up to the 1190s and hoping to cross 1200 soon.

John Bartholomew's vids helped me greatly too. If you like those you should check out Daniel Naroditsky's speedrun series. He explains the ideas at least as well as JB and the vids are generally of a more digestible length too which is handy. Plus there are many more of them! 

im more impressed that you can play 30min games online consistently 😁

I'm of the same generation as OP - although I am a couple years older - and also pretty much on the same track in progress. I have been playing for around half a year and I am just under 1100 now. I hope to reach 1200 or higher within the next half a year. Gongrats to the OP.

I also play longer time controls, I usually go for 45/45 games. See our generation did not yet grow up with smartphones in our hands since we were little kids so we have an attention span longer than a couple minutes. Things used to take time to get done and not everything was about snap this and snap that and ultra fast internet and instant replies and listening to music like the kids do these days where they change the song after ten seconds.

There is nothing weird about playing longer time controls online. It is the same game as OTB after all.

that's great. i started at 32 as well. 2 years ago.. it was a grind..

looking at your win loss ratio I'm sure you can climb higher than that easily

Hey @SAMIAMP thanks a lot for the heads up about this. Honestly, I benefit so much from these types of videos and I was looking for more resources. I've seen Naroditsky commentating different events and I like how he talks through things, I'll definitely watch his series!

It's what everyone recommends so I just thought I would stick with it... It's not easy but it has been worth it! 

Yeah in the moments where I have tried playing a few blitz games to see what it's all about... I have noticed a major drop in the quality of my play. I noticed on these forums there were tons of people who just basically play blitz and bullet for years and never really make any improvement. I just didn't want to be one of them. Maybe my view on this will change as I become a better player but for now all I can say is that speed chess is not for me. I just want to understand the game better and enjoy it for the rest of my life... so for now I will stick with a slow and patient approach. Maybe I am wrong but let's see....

@Danny_Kaye Great to hear from other players in the same situation as me! It definitely has been a grind for me. Really cool to see you progress too, mind if I shoot you a DM from time to time if I have a question about improvement?

Well done! That's amazing, I wish I had that kind of talent  What age did you start learning?

Congratulations. I'm available for a challenge

sure thing.