want to improve?

Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed watching the videos and am looking forward for the other ones.

Yeah that  series is informative and good.

nice

Agreed. It's a real gem.

As far as the first levels are concerned, the series shows you
- how simple chess can still be winning (provided you take hanging pieces and simple tactics)
- and it helps (me at least) to focus on playing good chess (for my level), in stead of focusing on the outcome of your game.

Youtube only has a few short video's, but all the content is there to watch on Twitch; roughly 20 video's, four hours each. Not sure if it works without a twitch account, but here is a link.

https://www.twitch.tv/search?term=chessbrah%20habits&type=videos

Building habits is a good series... I agree. I prefer to do my learning offline. I find it much better, but YMMV.

I see on your account you have improved your rapid rating by a good bit since your first post, not so much blitz. Would you mind to elaborate, have the habit series helped you? I still stubbornly play at level 1, cca 2500 games of 5-0 blitz😂 trying to get to higher rating and eliminate blunders, missing free pieces and losing on time, which hold me back

If you wish to improve, play longer games. There are some people that can improve by playing speed chess, but they are an exception to the rule.

You need to take your time and think about your moves. It will help you to severely decrease the number of blunders and later on to get even better.

Generally, you probably shouldn't play anything shorter than 15|10 for improvement. You don't have to play too many games. For improvement It is more important to play higher quality games than to just blitz out moves in 10 short games in a row.


I see that you say in your status that you don't have the time. That is fine. 1 15|10 game will take less time than all those blitz games you play. And one per day is enough, if you don't have the time, you can even play less than 1 per day. After you are finished, try to look at the game you've played. See where did you make mistakes and try to understand why. Even if you don't , you will understand at least something about the game and that itself is an improvement.

Thank you for your comment and the time you took to reply. I understand and appreciate the sentiment and reasoning and mostly agree. Certain things take time and finding moves and understanding position requires more than just a typical 10-20 seconds per move at most in a blitz game. However I think it's still possible to improve some skills playing 5-0 games, and after playing those 2500 I can tell you I improved immensely. Would I have improved the same or more if I played longer formats? I don't know, maybe, but it doesn't matter that much, I still enjoy playing this way, and I stubbornly decided I will do this until I reach as high and as stable ELO as is in my power. 

From observing Aman playing in his Building Habits series it's quite clear that as high as 700, maybe even more, is perfectly possible. What I want, is to be able to play the best within the constraints of the rules.  It might not be the most optimal way, and there isn't much point in doing so except my stubbornness, it's just what I'd like to do and I'm still enjoying it, so I will just keep going. It's the beauty of the game, you can make it yours the way you like😂 

As for my lack of time sentiment, contrary to it, it's quite clear I'm spending a lot of it, and you are right, I could easily play one or two 15/10 or 20-30 minutes games a day. At some point, I will have to play longer games for sure. Aman himself is not prescribing any arbitrary time format either, he chose 5-0 for practical purposes. 

I was specifically interested in OP's opinion in retrospect on how and if playing the habits helped him to improve, but thanks for your input. 

Just have one thing in mind. OP is far from an average chess.com user. Her progress is excellent, as she started less than a year ago and is around 1 800 (and was around 700-800 last December if I read her rating history right). On top of it all, she is playing 10 minute games which is pretty fast.

An average user playing blitz here will play for years, be below 1 000 after a lot of time spent, and then ask what they did wrong as they are playing chess all the time, solving puzzles and more. 

As for how much can you progress playing blitz, it depends. Some people will not go beyond 600 for years, and some will hit 2 300 just by playing blitz, perhaps even more than that. Most of the people struggle to improve with speed chess, but not all.

I will let the OP answer your question then.

Good points, of course. And the fact she's not an average user interested me all the more because, in her original post, she was very appreciative of the Building Habits series, and she improved by a lot since. Maybe she will pop in here and share🤞

I have to agree with the OP.  The advice given is appropriate for each rating level.  GM Aman Hambleton shares his views on what people should know at each rating and what can be ignored.

I prefer these videos to any of the chess books I've read.  The only book that I've seen that breaks their advice down to rating levels is Jeremy silmans complete endgame course.  I wish all training materials would do this.

The full videos are given on the chessbrah extras channel.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8N8j2e7RpPnpqbISqi1SJ9_wrnNU3rEm

#11 I think everything I ever watched (chess related obv) helped me atleast a bit and building habits is no different. There is no single person or series that I could pin point and say they are the only reason why I improved at chess. It's more like 5-10 content creators combined that helped me improve. I havent finished watching Building habits unfortunately I took a pause somewhere between 1200-1400 rating in the series and I have to get back to it soon. When I first saw it on yt I was near 1300 and I was excited to see what rules are going to be when he gets to my rating. Nevertheless I decided to watch from the start because Aman was entertaining. Not only it was fun to watch, it was also educational and very helpful. Back then I still considered myself a chess beginner (only 3 months of playing chess) and by watching it I figured out what I was missing in my play, what were my common mistakes and stuff like that. By the time it took him to reach 1300 I had already improved to 1400+. Thats when I decided to stop watching it and wait for them to finish uploading so I can watch it later. Aman picked that time format so its long enough to have time for commenting his moves and short enough so series won't be too long and boring. I focused more on ten minute games and after I get stuck I return back to blitz and easily improve my rating there. If you don't have 20 minutes to devote every day for a chess game atleast play with increment - blitz 5 minutes + 5 seconds bonus per move.

Thanks, it makes sense. I suppose I was kind of hoping someone followed the series from the very beginner to 1800, but of course, there's no just one single way of learning chess. Besides no one ever learned anything by watching yt videos only. I agree the series is helpful and entertaining to watch, and Aman is very entertaining and educational at the same time, and down to earth and humble, no big ego or showing off, stark contrast to some other popular personas. I'll stick with his way for the time being, maybe will have to get to 2000 and answer my questions myself. Thanks😊

You are welcome. I'm 100% sure that this series alone can help someone reach 1000 and Aman proves that only by following set of rules he made it is possible to improve. If you want, I can list what I have been doing since December that helped me improve, maybe it helps you too.

It already helped to get to 1100. On lichess😂

Seriously though, I do agree. I'm not sure if I should be proud to be anywhere between 580-680 at any given moment, in 5-0 blitz, after playing 2500 games, but I feel a huge difference between how I see the board and familiar positions and situations now, compared to a few weeks ago. It's like the fog is slowly but surely being lifted and things are becoming clearer. And though that would probably happen while playing any other format or way, I like to credit the simplicity and comprehensiveness of the Habit rules.

I'm probably making the whole thing unnecessary hard for myself, there is a difference between Aman's play, who's aware of every less than optimal move he's making and me trying to emulate and unwittingly committing mistakes he makes on purpose, and also mistakes he never makes, because they're against the rule (I miss free pieces, I blunder mine for free, etc.,  he doesn't). The main hurdle for me is losing on time, at least half, probably more of my losses on time are in a winning position, many times one or two moves away from checkmate. I think I know what you'd say would help, but somehow I became stubborn and want to achieve as high and as stable rating (700-750 at least, 800 maybe) playing this way. I'm sure it's possible, even for me.

If you find the time, I'd most appreciate it if you write up that list. It interests me, especially because, apparently, you're unstoppable in improving. From 0 to 1800, and 1500 respectively, in less than a year is I think stellar👍👌👌

Also, if you don't mind saying, how much time altogether have you spent on learning chess besides playing and watching videos. I mean pure studying, practising tactics, endgame etc.  Since, you know, notime...😂

Its not problem at all. First I will reply to what you wrote. If you are playing just for fun and in your free time, you should never be shamed no matter what your rating is and how many games you have played so far. I play chess because I enjoy to do so and ratings just show how serious someone is about the game IMO. Aman did the series in couple of months and few people will improve at the same speed he did in series. Time management is a problem Im dealing with also and thats why I suggested you to play with increment. Sorry, I know this written in one piece with no space between will be harder to read, but Im writing on my phone and I havent figured out yet how to write properly without sending unfinished posts by accident. Its a bit longer than I expected but I think I covered everything. Its not perfect way of studying chess but it worked for me so far and I hope it helps you to develop your own chess 'routine'. There is no secret right formula that tells you how to improve at chess, we are all different.