Stuck around 1700

Hi,

Obviously you should start playing almost only rapid or standard games and you will improve it is sure. It might be a bit long but it's worth a try.

https://www.chess.com/c/2ReGJPMRQ

You can learn from playing 1000s of games of 5 mins blitz but only if you choose at least two games per day and extensively analyse them to work out where you could improve. Probably doing puzzles doesn't help you improve, for various reasons. Waste of effort. Playing 30 minute per player rapid is a good way to learn because you get to think but I don't think many play that here. Most are content not to learn.

To improve, you have to learn better to concentrate, to have a real will to play as well as you can, to learn openings and endings and how they are connected together. Most of all you have to be prepared to work extremely hard, both while playing and while learning. Playing chess should really hurt at times. If it doesn't, you aren't trying.

I took up competitive chess is the Summer of 1987, just after my 36th birthday. It was hard going because we had a new baby, I was very busy and also did a degree starting 1992, which effectively killed my progress in chess. Nevertheless, I was playing at around 2050 FIDE in slowplay consistently for around a year at the peak of my progress and I won a lot of tournaments at a lower level as I was improving. But I pretty well put everything into it that I had, similarly to climbing a mountain when you're tired.

I'm totally confused by the ratings given by the system. My rating entirely depends upon the level of player that I choose to play. If I play one of the Master and lose, which I do, it will give me a rating of up to 1700 at the end of the game. But if I beat a mid level player my rating is much lower. What do the ratings after a game even mean?

I think its because you try harder against better players and make less inaccuracies. i think they need to improve the analysis part. But i guess they have no idea yet how to do it. Even Hikaru and top players sometimes laugh at the suggestions the computer makes.

Dear TomekPrzemek16,
Abhi (ph0en1x391105) who wrote the original post (2 years ago!) reached out to me because of my comment. I was able to help him (and many of my other students too. Some of them already made a review that you can check out here: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/for-beginners/reviews-from-my-students-of-my-coaching) and he was able to gain ratings and his chess understanding got significantly better.
I actually checked some of your games too and it seems like you need some guidance as well so let me know if I can help you with your chess.
Wishing you all the best,
Ben

i cant get over 1850 i am usually around 1750 my highest rating was 1831 and now i am 1725 a little tilt but i like lichess more i am always 1700 to 1800

I'm stuck at 1100 and when I look at my profile, it says my percentile is 84% which is the amount of players on chess.com below my rating. Suddenly I feel good

:tup

Learn some strategy.

GM Larry Evans' method of static analysis - Chess Forums - Chess.com

Thread started May of 2021

Op was a 1700(ish) player

Now at 1999.

Well done.

Yes, good job! Congrats.

i Just got to 1700 a few minutes ago actually. Started playing again 3 years ago... played 20+ years ago as a kid. Probably could have done it a little faster but I wasted a bunch of months playing non-stop bullet and 3 minute.

One thing that shot me up in rating from 1400 - 1700 was playing up in unrated games. I set my lower end to -25 and open on the high end. I was getting crushed at first by 1600's, 1700s, etc. But something clicked last year and shot right up. Now in my past 90 days im 35% against 2100s, 40% against 1900s, 45% against 1800s (in many games). Now im excited because I will only get 1675+ players when I do this. No more playing 1500's who I am about 80% against.

Chess book wise just the first parts of silmans endgames, and maybe like 2 chapters of reassess your chess. I own like 20 chess books and I just want to play chess while Im reading them and never read more than like 3 pages.

Lots of hard puzzles, analyzing games, daily games, and just playing lots and lots of unrated games where I wasn't stressing about the rating. I believe I could probably get to 1800 blitz in a week or so but I will switch to rapid and get that up to 1700 first. One thing that gets me is that i play extremely fast because I have played a ton of blitz. Need to take my time and calculate in critical moments.