How to get past the 1600-1700 range in rapid and get to 1800 and above?

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VivaannCh

I have been stuck in this rating range for 3-4 months, and I want to get to 2000 rapid by the end of the year. Please share some tips.

VivPlayzX777

Bro same name

VivPlayzX777

Let's find that out together . I have the same problem 😭 . On a serious note tho do puzzles and learn middlegames plus endgames

jangelak

Are you saying your real life ELO rating is over 2000? Above chess.com rating 1150 you have to play consistently at 1650+ and above, as the website is dominated by chess engines. Just upgrade your chess engine.

VivaannCh
VivPlayzX777 wrote:

Let's find that out together . I have the same problem 😭 . On a serious note tho do puzzles and learn middlegames plus endgames

Ok then lets be friends

luke440

I think that everyone learns differently but how I've been able to reach 2000+ Rapid is to: Analyze my games, learn the theory and more importantly the ideas behind the openings I play, and strengthening my tactical skill by practicing lots of puzzles. 
Firstly, for analyzing your games I recommend clicking through the moves and finding the moves you weren't sure about and thought for a while on, or were mistakes. Then I suggest looking at the moves with the computer and not just admitting that the move wasn't the best but to try to understand why you played that incorrect move and find what you should've played and understand why the correct line is better. 
For openings it's important to know the move for the first 5 - 10 moves of the game but after that usually I don't think you need to memorize all the moves especially if you just want to get to 1800 - 2000 Rapid. I think it's more important to understand the ideas in the different positions in the opening you play. Ideas being, where do your pieces usually go? How do you usually attack? And what are the weaknesses on the board and how do you protect your own and exploit on your opponents?
Lastly there is tactics, I recommend doing puzzles in two main formats, one for pattern recognition where you're doing a puzzle rush or battle and you're not really calculating but the moves jump out at you from knowledge of previous positions. Although pattern recognition is helpful and it speeds up calculation, arguably more helpful than pattern recognition is calculation (especially in Rapid and Classical time controls). Calculation is where you're envisioning what will happen to the board after you do this and your opponent does that and so on and so forth. You can tune your calculation skills by looking at a hard puzzle for several minutes (sometimes even 10 or more) and in that time you create a list of candidate moves to consider and then think about how you'll react to your opponent's best responses to each of them.

I casually coach chess and a lot of my students can get stuck at a certain rating and can just feel like they aren't getting better. If you feel like this I would recommend making sure you're learning something from each game of chess you play, because ultimately your rating is an indicator of your skill and you shouldn't expect your rating to increase if you keep playing game after game without stopping to learn from your mistakes or study helpful ideas.

I hope my long-winded rant was somewhat helpful, good luck improving your chess skills, and have fun doing so!

VivaannCh
luke440 wrote:

I think that everyone learns differently but how I've been able to reach 2000+ Rapid is to: Analyze my games, learn the theory and more importantly the ideas behind the openings I play, and strengthening my tactical skill by practicing lots of puzzles. 
Firstly, for analyzing your games I recommend clicking through the moves and finding the moves you weren't sure about and thought for a while on, or were mistakes. Then I suggest looking at the moves with the computer and not just admitting that the move wasn't the best but to try to understand why you played that incorrect move and find what you should've played and understand why the correct line is better. 
For openings it's important to know the move for the first 5 - 10 moves of the game but after that usually I don't think you need to memorize all the moves especially if you just want to get to 1800 - 2000 Rapid. I think it's more important to understand the ideas in the different positions in the opening you play. Ideas being, where do your pieces usually go? How do you usually attack? And what are the weaknesses on the board and how do you protect your own and exploit on your opponents?
Lastly there is tactics, I recommend doing puzzles in two main formats, one for pattern recognition where you're doing a puzzle rush or battle and you're not really calculating but the moves jump out at you from knowledge of previous positions. Although pattern recognition is helpful and it speeds up calculation, arguably more helpful than pattern recognition is calculation (especially in Rapid and Classical time controls). Calculation is where you're envisioning what will happen to the board after you do this and your opponent does that and so on and so forth. You can tune your calculation skills by looking at a hard puzzle for several minutes (sometimes even 10 or more) and in that time you create a list of candidate moves to consider and then think about how you'll react to your opponent's best responses to each of them.

I casually coach chess and a lot of my students can get stuck at a certain rating and can just feel like they aren't getting better. If you feel like this I would recommend making sure you're learning something from each game of chess you play, because ultimately your rating is an indicator of your skill and you shouldn't expect your rating to increase if you keep playing game after game without stopping to learn from your mistakes or study helpful ideas.

I hope my long-winded rant was somewhat helpful, good luck improving your chess skills, and have fun doing so!

Thanks a lot

VivaannCh

i will follow your advice

VivaannCh

Update: i am now 1800 in rapid

Iconic-Ninja
Congrats
Slizzy1
How to create a challenge?
mikewier

Luke440–That was very good advice,

For players who want to advance beyond the average level, I also recommend analyzing one’s games and aiming to understand the ideas behind one’s openings.

I don’t put as much emphasis on puzzles—players approaching the 2000 level should already have basic tactics down. What I would recommend instead is looking at Master games, especially in books that present how the player is forming their plan.

VivaannCh
mikewier wrote:

Luke440–That was very good advice,

For players who want to advance beyond the average level, I also recommend analyzing one’s games and aiming to understand the ideas behind one’s openings.

I don’t put as much emphasis on puzzles—players approaching the 2000 level should already have basic tactics down. What I would recommend instead is looking at Master games, especially in books that present how the player is forming their plan.

What book recommendations do you have for advanced players? I have Simple Chess by Michael Stean, 100 Endgames You Must Know by Jesus De La Villa & How to Beat Your Dad at Chess.

EDGE301

Get stupidly good at tactics imo positional understanding won't get you strong enough focus on your tactical motifs like crazy.

borovicka75

Dońt blunder pieces and basic checkmates.