Stuck at 400 ELO and I've been playing for a year.

Hi there,

I followed this conversation and just want to say that I really have the same problem.

I'm playing here for 2 years but there's no chance for me to win against somebody over level 700.  I'm really frustrated and my motivation is gone...

I know that it is stupid and there's no sence to use assists on this level but I also got that feeling like Ben.

My last question, what do you think about the Bots and their ratings?

bye, Antje

Just stick with it and don't blunder. Don't play games faster than 10 minutes...give yourself time (bot games are great for this). After every single move, look at every single enemy piece and ask yourself if they are actively attacking a piece. After every single move, ask yourself is there a piece hanging. Start here.

I mainly play bots to practice and improve my foundational skills (rated around 1000-1200 give or take), and I have to say, if you are stuck at 400, you must not be following the basics, blundering constantly, and hanging pieces all the time. I suggest you get a gold membership and review your games. Notice just how many obvious blunders you're making. Notice how many pieces you hang. Not at all insulting you, but it shouldn't take long to get above a rating of 500 if you're just following the basics, not blundering, and not hanging pieces you don't want to hang. 

Good luck. 

This is not that difficult of a game.

Read something which gives you the basics.

It's basically a legacy game, that has gone on for a couple hundred years. So a lot to know.

Hey ben, if i had to give you some advices, it will be those one (if you want to grind the elo) :

- Watch or read chess content (ex: "chess steps" or "how to win at chess" by gothamchess or videos of hanging pawns, it's a guy trying to hit gm, he reviews his games in detail)

- Dont play rapid chess if you feel tired, if you really want to get elo points playing chess while tired is not a great idea, i recommend some other modes like fog of war or chess 960, lot of fun and you dont care about elo there. (you also can try bots, but personally never gave me a lot of fun)

- Review your games even when you feel like you dominated a game, the computer may show a lot of blunders neither you or your opponent saw. + it can teach you some interesting ideas for tactics.

- Last but not least, do chess puzzles, on chess com you get 5 or 6 free puzzles each day and puzzle rush plus some extra modes with free tries everyday like for finals or things like that. Puzzles makes you recognize patterns and are pretty satisfying sometimes, though I highly recommend you to focus when you dont see the move (only like that you'll get better)

Hope it was useful ! I'm also trying to apply those tips on myself :3 and gl in your games !

I looked at your games and your number 1 problem by far is that you hang pieces a ton. I honestly don't know how to help with that, but I looked through like 10 of your losses and about 7 were to hanging a piece / your queen.

Your problems have nothing to do with your opening choices, so forget all that. You lose over and over again because you play much to fast and don't pay attention to your opponent's threats or your own opportunities. You finish your games with as much time as you started with. Your results will not improve until you change that

Hang no pieces, hang no pawns, and you are a solid 1050 overnight

Similar story here. There should be a club, haha! 

Hi,

Games are lost through mistakes that your opponent's capitalize on and if you have a lower rating then you're making more mistakes than you may want to think you are in your games that are being capitalized on by your opponents. If you want a higher rating, then you have to reduce your mistakes. There are no other reasons for this. Have fun learning chess!

-Jordan

I started playing chess in may of last year. I started at 1200, then lost in a spiral. I ended up at 200, eventually reached 700, and took a break from chess for 2 months. 

In less than a year, (May 2021 - February 2022) I have improved from 200 to 1400. When I was stuck at sub-one thousand level for 6 months before I made my breakthrough 4 days before Christmas. During that time, I watched a hell of a lot of gothamchess, guides for below 1000 players, and exclusively played 10|0 rapid. I felt like everyone was crazy for thinking that 1000 elo was the norm, but really, I stopped making simple one move blunders and slowly learned to evaluate the position before I made a move. It helps tremendously.

Ima be blunt, if you feel like giving up, that’s solely your choice. If you don’t wanna improve and think carefully before you make a move, have fun at 400. But put in a little work, and I assure you, you’ll break 1000 easily.

Sometimes I felt like I was just running straight into a cement wall, and wasting my time on chess, but we all have our motivation. For me, it was that my friend plays chess, and I wanted a game that we could share and play together. If it helps, just try and think why you want to get better at chess, and remember that.

(I beat my friend since, although he’s learned how to refute my scotch, steinitz while playing white )

I was rated 400 a few months ago I think

You start the game with 10 minutes on your clock. 45 moves later you resign with 10 minutes on your clock. And you wonder why your rating stays at 400

man in the last two years you played 70 games, how do you expect to improve if you're not playing at all?

i don't love chess.com bots, the often play totally random moves and they are probably a bit overrated. if you want a human-like bot to play against i suggest the lichess maia bot 1, it is supposed to be 1100 elo, but you know, lichess ratings lol

just like you last game =) 

I can relate to how you feel, but that's not an attitude that will lead to improvement.  Instead, you should be saying "My performance is that of a 400-rated player.  How do I improve that?"

And yes, you blunder a lot.  One serious blunder is enough to lose you a game, if your opponent notices and takes advantage of it.  And, honestly, looking at your games, the mistakes you're making that lose you games tend to be either self-inflicted single-move errors (actual example: moving your queen into a line of attack where it can be taken at little cost) or ignoring the obvious consequence of your opponent's last move (actual example: opponent's pawn forks a knight and bishop, but instead of taking the pawn, you make a move somewhere else on the board.)

At my rating, I blunder a lot too, but the blunders tend to be more complicated, like failing to see and stop an opponent's fork or pin, or missing a threat of mate in, say, two.  If either I or my opponent were to hang our queen, which, very rarely, happens, odds are about 99% the other player would capture it and go on to win.

I'm not here to trash your level of play.  450 is 450 and 1000 is 1000, we know they're different.  But, saying "I don't blunder enough" is just self-deception.  You do blunder enough, and if you can figure out how to stop, your rating will go way, way up.

If you like, I'm happy to play some games.  Let me know.  

Apart from the basics, that you said you already know, there are three general tips that should help improve your chess, if you keep them in mind:

1) don't trade pieces/pawns just because

A lot of beginner players go for the trade because otherwise the position gets complicated and they would like to "simplify so that they can blunder less". The thing is... Trading pieces is only good either if you are already winning or if you have a good reason to it; say, to improve your position, to give your opponent double pawns, stuff like that. I'm sure you have heard about those small advantages before. However, if you are not going to get anything for trading, then more often than not it might be better not to trade. Think like this: if you don't have a good reason to trade, then that probably means there is a better move on the board you can make with your turn. Try to find such move instead. I'm not saying you should never trade, but just keep in mind that automatically trading more often than not may not be the best option.

2) You are not playing alone

A lot of times you are too focused on what you want to do that you forget about your opponent's plan. And that is the main reason you blunder. It would be good to give yourself time to think (playing slower time controls) so that you had the time to not only think about your overall strategy but also understand your opponent strategy after each move. You said it yourself: players your rating are not learning how the pieces move, so that means they most probably have a reason behind their moves when they play, they are not moving at random! You should always try to find the reasoning behind your opponent's moves so that you can find the better response in your turn.

3)  You need to attack your opponent

Unless you are playing against a computer, human chess is most probably going to favor the side of who has the initiative. The one with the initiative will pressure the opponent and force them to mess their position or even give up material so that they can free the tension. Notice how on experts videos/streams they comment badly about "passive" moves like "oh, this move is too passive". That is just another word for bad. In chess if you are playing passively you are playing for the loss. This even applies to positional and closed openings. You don't play positional to be passive, you play positional to improve your position so that you can attack better when the time comes. Before deciding on a passive move, for example, a pawn move that prevents an upcoming threat, always try to see if there is a more attacking move that does the same job, for instance improving a piece with the idea of attacking yourself before your opponent instead. Of course, there are times where the defense is the only option, but you should keep that in the back of your mind. If you play too passively you are going to find yourself in bad situations pretty often

I hope that helps =)

But are you applying those to your games?

I am now looking at one of your recent losses to a 300+ rated player in rapid which ended in 13 moves.

I am confused by the purpose of 7. d4 exd4 8. h3 dxc3 9. b3. It seems like you gave away a piece which is not much better than hanging it freely.

Also, in that same game, 12. Rxd8+ is a check.