What does it take to progress beyond 1500?

I feel like I’ve plateaued in my chess development in the 1500s and am not sure how to keep getting better. When I first started playing a few years ago my elo was 600 and I improved mainly by doing all the lessons on the chess.com app. After I finished those I would watch the occasional YouTube video on chess topics that interested me and analyze most of my games which got me to the level I’m at now. Currently I feel like I can’t get any better unless I put forth some sort of concentrated effort or find a chess coach. What does a real chess training program look like and what does it entail? People always say to spend more time “studying chess”, but I’m not really sure what this means. My intermittent goal is to get to 1750 elo and then eventually 2000. What would it take to accomplish this?

I like to give this advice... when you're stuck somewhere around your rating, pick one of the main areas (openings, tactics, strategy, endgames) and study it. Pick the area you've ignored until now, or the one you probably don't like (because it will be the one you've worked on the least). Probably not openings, because people tend to spend too much time there. It could be tactics, but for most people around your level it's strategy or endgames.

Once you pick an area, read book reviews and buy a well regarded book on the topic. For example Pachman's Modern Chess Strategy. I also really liked Soltis' book Pawn Structure Chess for pawns but some swear by Kmoch's Pawn Power in Chess.

For Endgames I've heard good things about Silman's book, and also the the book Endgame Strategy by Shereshevesky is excellent.

Multiple trainers have recommended that when you study a book it's best to set up pieces on a real board when playing out the variations. This slows you down, involves more of the brain (the kinesthetic sense) and lets you think about each position more. You can also keep a notebook by you when you study the chess book. Write down anything you think is particularly instructive and review your notes from time to time.

It also helps to look at a few GM games each day at a quick pace... the goal is NOT to understand every move or do an in depth analysis. The goal is to find one idea you like (it could be an opening, a tactic, and endgame... anything). At your level it's also useful to pause right after the opening ends, and think for yourself, which area will white primarily play on (kingside, center, or queenside). Same question for black. And what will be the main mechanism (what is the main pawn break, or will they use mainly pieces). Then you keep playing over the game to see what the players did.

When you analyze your games, when you read out of chess books, and when you look at GM games, any position you find particularly instructive, save it. You can save it as a picture, or literally draw it on a notecard if you want. But save them with a few notes and review them from time to time. Since they're instructive ideas you find interesting it's a fun way to improve faster.

@llama47 +1. Study what you like the least. It is probably your weakest area. Do you play sport? Study is just like training. You isolate and practice skills and knowledge. The first thing is to identify the different areas, e.g. openings, endgame techniques, calculation, visualisation, evaluation of a position etc. Next work our which is your worst, then focus say 50% of your study time on that. The other 50% is on general improvement in the other areas, or just not going backwards. Analyse your games thematically, e.g. if you lost your last three because you miscalculated then this is a calculation weakness. Spend the next 4 weeks focusing on strengthening your calculation skills.

Dear Sam,

I am a certified, full-time chess coach, so I hope I can help you. Everybody is different, so that's why there isn't only one general way learn. First of all, you have to discover your biggest weaknesses in the game and start working on them. The most effective way for that is analysing your own games. Of course, if you are a beginner, you can't do it efficiently because you don't know too much about the game yet. There is a built-in engine on chess.com which can show you if a move is good or bad but the only problem that it can't explain you the plans, ideas behind the moves, so you won't know why is it so good or bad.

You can learn from books or Youtube channels as well, and maybe you can find a lot of useful information there but these sources are mostly general things and not personalized at all. That's why you need a good coach sooner or later if you really want to be better at chess. A good coach can help you with identifying your biggest weaknesses and explain everything, so you can leave your mistakes behind you. Of course, you won't apply everything immediately, this is a learning process (like learning languages), but if you are persistent and enthusiastic, you will achieve your goals.

In my opinion, chess has 4 main territories (openings, strategies, tactics/combinations and endgames). If you want to improve efficiently, you should improve all of these skills almost at the same time. That's what my training program is based on. My students really like it because the lessons are not boring (because we talk about more than one areas within one lesson) and they feel the improvement on the longer run. Of course, there are always ups and downs but this is completely normal in everyone's career.

I recommend you to solve around 4-5 puzzles before playing games. It's not the best if you solve too many puzzles (e.g. 20-30 pcs) because you'll be too tired for the game.

On the other hand, solving too many puzzles in a row can be dangerous because you can lose your patience quickly and you won't think on the right way. The quality is more important than the quantity! It's much more useful for you to solve only 10 puzzles per day with at least 80% accuracy than solving 50 puzzles per day with 60% accuracy.

You have to think ahead without moving the pieces and make your move when you see the solution from the start till the end. This is very important! That's how you can improve your visualisation and calculation skills on the most effective way!

And that's why I would never recommend you to play too many Puzzle Rush or Puzzle Battle games because they are time-limited, so you have to make fast and superficial decisions. And this is very harmful if you really want to improve at chess.

Of course, you can try this '4-5 puzzles before the game' method and if you feel that you are able to solve more without being too exhausted for the game, you can increase the number of the puzzles. But again...quality over quantity!!

I hope this is helpful for you. Good luck for your chess games!

I'm just a beginner and I have no idea what my rating is. (Probably about 100.) I only started playing a week ago, but one trick I found that made an instant vast improvement in my play against the bots was before actually making a move I pause and ask myself "Why is this move that I'm about to make the stupidest blunder ever?" Quite often I find the answer to that question and think a little harder before I pick a different move and ask that question again.

 

@fiziwig +1. Is it safe? is the same question but I prefer yours 😁. Another one I like is to think about the square you leave behind. It's easy to overlook all the things a piece is doing in it's current position when planning a move. Dan Heisman has a good you tube channel. A question he suggests when your opponent moves is What are ALL the things that move does for my opponent? His point is that people find one obvious thing then stop looking and miss other threats.

i dont know why i even bother to try

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

Your definitely committed enough for playing over 10 thousand games.

One website I found helpful was Aimchess.com, while still using chess.com.

Welcome to the club...

I’ll play a game sometime and we can analyze it to see if we can improve somewhere

For me, it just took determination, lots of training in openings and tactics, and experience.

It's an important question to ask. We all suffer from Confirmation Bias, which is the tendency to look for the reasons we are right instead of the reasons we are wrong. I have made many blunders while being convinced I was making an awesome move because I spent my time looking for all the replies that made my move good. I should have been looking for all the replies that made my move bad. It's more than a quick blunder check. It's getting into the head of your opponent and asking "If I make this move, what's the strongest reply they can make?". Of course, this alone isn't enough to become a stronger player, it still depends on the strength of your evaluations. But I think it's still a good question to ask.