2000-2200 players advice

Oui. Sounds more like crotch tho ...

Naa, you're fooling yourself

If you want, I'll download 40 games of players 400 to 700 points below your rating. I'm sure you'd be able to tell high and low, but separating them into 4 categories correctly would be fairly impossible. You certainly wouldn't do it "without difficulty."

I guess we'd have to add another 15 games of players not in that category to keep you on your toes. I.e. players only -200 or -300, and also players below 1000.

1600 and 1900 is not that big of a difference. just blunder less and knows a few more patterns at 1900

But seriously though. My number 1 tip is always play someone with a higher rating. Yes you will lose more, but you will also improve much quicker

Patience is the key!

From 1800 to 2000 the only thing I really did was play a lot of games. And, when I encountered the same positions that didn't work for me before, I tried something different. Eventually, I began to find my groove (through trial and error).

Though, honestly, I think that's a much slower route than the one more disciplined players take: they study.

So, if you really want to get to 2000+ in the most efficient manner, my advice is to pick a repertoire, study books on the openings/defenses you chose, and also study books on overall chess improvement, like "Reassess your Chess" by Silman, or "My System" by Nimzo. Also, review every game you play to try to find improvements, both by yourself, and then with an engine to find what you've missed.

By doing all of the above, you should easily reach the 2000+ level. 

Thank you! I'm doing essentially what you said. I am tweaking my game when i notice I'm losing in certain positions over and over. I'm good on the positional play. 

Seems like i'm on the right track. Just have to play more, go through my games, and look through databases on my weaknesses. What my current plan has been. 

thank you

put em up binary!!

I went from 1177 to 1800 in no time.  1800 to 1900 took me about a year.  1900 to 2000 about 2 years.  2000 to 2100 took 12 years.  3 years thus far trying to get from 2100 to 2200.

Progress is harder to come by the higher you get.

1800 is when you need to start knowing openings and knowing them well.  Not only the opening moves, but all the middlegame ideas.

This is the time that you need to make an investment and a commitment to chess if you plan to expand.

I've got over 350 chess books.  I have subscribed at times to chesspublishing.com.  I attend tournaments regularly (I am about to play my 2490th USCF rated game tonight).

As for opening selection, make sure you have multiple options for each color, but don't try to play everything under the sun.  The openings need to be diverse enough to force you to think every time, and not get laxidazical about your play.

For example, I currently play:

W:

1.e4 (Exchange Ruy, Main lines against non-3...a6, Advance French, Fantasy Caro-Kann, Prins Sicilian against 2...d6, Open Sicilian against 2...Nc6, King's Indian Attack against 2...e6, Classical Alekhine, Austrian Attack against Pirc/Modern)

1.d4 (Torre vs Nf6/e6 or Nf6/g6, Colle vs early d5 and e6, Anti-Colle transpositions against d5 with no e6, like the Slow Slav, Closed Benoni and Franco-Benoni which means no c4, etc)

1.Nf3 with transpositions to the above two items, like 1...c5 2.e4 or 1...d5 2.d4)

B:

Vs e4 - Taimanov, Najdorf, Caro-Kann

Vs d4 - Old Indian, King's Indian, QGD

Vs c4 - 1...b6 leading to an English Defense with an early d4 by White or a Hedgehog without an early d4 by White

Vs Nf3 - 1...Nf6 leading usually to either an Old Indian or Hedgehog, depending on early d4 or not.

Notice that the repertoire is diverse, but not overwhelmingly exhaustive.  Notice I never have to play the straight up Dragon as White or Black (Accelerated Dragon, yes, but that's different, allows the Maroczy Bind, which is what the Prins is all about anyway).  No Nimzo-Indian or Grunfeld with either color.  That's a lot of avoided theory, but at the same time diverse enough to force me to be alert and thinking every game I play.

This got me up about 325 to 350 points in about 18 years from 1800 to the 2125-2150 range.  Maybe in another 18 years I'll be 2350!  2800 will never happen in my case, of course!

Thank you! What you said is what I presumed. The advice pre-1800 is don't focus on openings. But I found a lot of my games I would get in a bad position in the opening and would be fighting hard the whole game. 

So I've recently invested in chessbase dvds on openings and am starting to get good results. I feel comfortable with the black pieces, but with white I'm running into problems. I did dive in head first with theory in the najdorf and nimzo :/ haha

I am super confident in the najdorf and score really well with it. The nimzo I'm starting to feel really comfortable in and getting the hang of it. 

I play d4 c4.  The modern benoni is a pain. It seems much easier to screw up as white and more delicate than it is with black. I finally have a solid couple answers to the slav. I'm getting there.

I actually stopped playing the torre. The reason was I was hoping to learn more about the game and didn't think i would be able to push my rating with these. Perhaps I'll revisit the Torre and Colle.  I loved the torre

I'm also replaying all my blitz games to see where I've gone wrong. Slowly fixing the weaknesses in my armor. 

I really appreciate your post Thriller. I've also found your posts throughout the forum helpful as well. 

Hello, 

This is an interesting question. 
I will tell you the conclusions that I made  as a trainer and as a player as well.

At this stage improving is still not too hard, you just need to work seriously at chess. First, make yourself a program and follow it. For example 1 hour every day you work on chess. The most important think is tactic, you should solve puzzles every day, chess is similar than other sports, just you should train not your body, but your brain. Try to solve tactic problems every day around 20-30 minutes, depends on your free time. About the oppening, I think that you should work on them not much than 20% of your time. You should start learning how to play different pawn structures - positions with isolated pawn, KID pawn structure and so on. Then find the openings from which this pawn structure arises. Make yourself a small database of 10 games in each opening and start to commenting them with your own words, try to put memory markers in your brain. Little by little improve the database. This way you will have a good arsenal of different middle game ideas, typical tactical motifs, and strategical ideas. Try to play similar openings. Then it is time for endgames. I believe that much more points you can win in the endgame than in the opening. There is a lot of sources now, so find a good book arrange your chessboards and try little by little to learn basic endgames. There is around 50-100 exact endgame positions that every chess player must know. This program can be a good start. 

So it looks like that.

0-20 min tactics - always start with tactics first, because they help you to enter the chess mood. 

20-40 middle game training, learn plans in different pawn structures, make notes, make question marks when you do not understand completely something. Try to explain them for yourself with your own words.

10-minutes- found 50 games in some opening and then keep only 1-2 of them in your database, write comments, why you found those games more useful than others. 

20 minutes - endgames - move the pieces over and over again on your chessboard until you memorize the concrete evaluation of the endgame and how to play it with both sides. 

For the end, you can found some good classical games with a lot of verbal comments and go through it slowly and again If you like it to put it in your database with favorite games.

This is in general how one chess training should look like. Keep in mind that there is no unique receipt for everybody and some players improve faster than others. Also, it is easier and better to train with the coach or even with some friend than alone. 

I hope that my post was useful for you. 

You can PM me If you need some material or help to start. 

Good luck! GM Petar G. Arnaudov

I usually complete the daily puzzles here on chess.com. I play and then analyze my games. If i see reoccurring issues i check databases and chessbase dvds that i have to see where i went wrong in the openings. 

I have CTART for tactics. Should i just make a commitment to plow through all the puzzles on that? 

I am trying to learn the different pawn structures arising out of the openings that I play.  I look at databases and find a few games as my guide where I feel comfortable in the positions. 

I haven't done much endgame work. I have a few courses on Peshka, but feel I am losing most of my games before the endgame or some decision causing a losing endgame. I'm finding this after I analyze each game.