What about the Moller/Neo-Arkangelsk Ruy? Black goes down a pawn in some lines as he has to sac his b-pawn often but he gets a lot of play against white's center in compensation.
I do not know the answer to your question as I avoid plaing the Black side of the Ruy Lopez in my games.
Here I will give one reason why 1. b4 is a poor opening...
I'm 21 and I started playing last july. Here's my ratings.
Standard 1068 but I'm really lazy at standard online chess, last week I was 1180
Tactics 1048 (when I started playing was something about 700)
Chesstempo blitz 1278.5
Chesstempo standard 1186.8
The only thing I have to do is go to the University. I have no intention of having a girlfriend or kids so maybe I get more free time than a regular guy.
Considering that FM is an OTB FIDE title, your online chess.com ratings are largely irrelevant.
To get an OTB title, you need to go and play OTB. My suggestion is you give it a try for 1 year or two, and then come back to ask the question again.
Under 1100 standard after a year likely means you wont reach FM even if Carlsen coached you for 3 decades.
You can become an FM but for that to happen, go out and start playing OTB and studying. Don't waste time!
@Scottrf If you're under 20 it might be possible. I was rated in the 700s-800s for about two years when I was first starting out at 12-13 years old, and broke 1100 at 15 in December 2013.
You can get it if you really want!
You can get it if you really want!
But you must try!
Try and try!
Try and try-yyyyyy-y-y-y-y!
You'll succeed at last!
@Scottrf If you're under 20 it might be possible. I was rated in the 700s-800s for about two years when I was first starting out at 12-13 years old, and broke 1100 at 15 in December 2013.
Let me know when you become FM...
He'll be way too busy!
Maybe. But it is a race against time, because once you get past 25 or so it will probably be much harder to improve.
It takes dedication though. Serious dedication. You have to be willing to make chess one of your life's top priorities, playing in tournaments almost every weekend, practicing and playing for hours every day, and analyzing your games to death. Coaching from at least a master level player will also help and may be a requirement at the higher levels.
The steps above took me from 962 U.S.C.F. to 1839 U.S.C.F. in about 19 months. However, it was easier for me than it will be for you because I am younger (16 years old). There is the possibility that you may have an innate talent for the game which could come out in the next year or two. But it will still take an enormous amount of work to reach FM. At 21 though it may well still be possible. Just extremely hard. The odds are stacked against you.
This is incorrect, the optimum age for brain function is actually around 25-27 and with maturity comes a new level of understanding [the game]. I'm 27 and I feel LIGHTYEARS ahead of where I was when I was a teenager (cognitively speaking) and I was a pretty advanced kid (Attending college at 17), was in gifted classes, started first business at 18, blah blah...
In the past year my rating has jumped from 1400ish to over 1700 just from starting to play the game regularly and changing how I think about the game. (I don't play more than 5 hours a week and didn't start actually studying until a few months ago.)
Does that mean that it's easier or as easy to learn at my age than yours? Maybe not, but there's this well of emotional maturity that comes with learning that makes up for the neuroplasticity lost once past adolescence.
I don't know what 35 feels like, but I can assure you that 25 isn't a cognitive death sentence and there have been numerous studies illustrating that ascertation.
If you're interested in learning more here's a study on the "Brain Imaging of Language Plasticity in Adopted Adults"
http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/13/2/155.full
I'll have to wait 14 years...
Interesting discussion. I'll give a few opinions from a 27 year old who has been steadily improving for the past three years or so. My national rating in Finland is 2226, which is probably comparable to 2200 Fide. Due to my rare possibilities of Fide-rated play, my Fide rating is still only 2048.
Anyways, totally agree with goingforyourqueen with improvement being possible even in adulthood, though requiring a different kind of effort than as a child. Adults have more well established patterns of thought than children, so adult improvement often involves a serious amount of unlearning - seeing which of your thought patterns are faulty and why, as opposed to simply adding information. This is something that is rarely taken into consideration when thinking how to improve in chess, but is quite well known in the field of general education and learning (I study at the School of Education in our local university). A good chess-related book discussing these issues is Jonathan Rowson's Chess for Zebras - a book well worth everybody's time.
All main line openings are playable below 2500, and even beyond. The Open Spanish is certainly not unsound, but the alternatives suggested are also valid. In my opinion trying to fix whatever problems you have in a particular opening is more beneficial to your chess development than switching. That being said, it is good to play openings you enjoy, for the simple reason that enjoyable things are easier to delve deeply into and delving deeply into things is necessary in order to improve in chess.
Conserning endgames my advice is, get yourself a good encyclopedia of technical endgames and some more entertaining endgame book (The new set by John Nunn for example). Read them when you feel like it or when you have had a particular endgame in a game. With time your endgame play will improve.
In general, in order to improve it is necessary to think about positions, not acquire knowledge. Sometimes acquired knowledge helps, but most of the chess work you do should involve thinking. For example, following a gm game online without an engine or commentary while trying to understand the position and why they played a move you thought was bad is very useful imo. So, play and analyze as much as possible,and compare your findings/thoughts to what is out there, and see were that gets you:)
Under 1100 standard after a year likely means you wont reach FM even if Carlsen coached you for 3 decades.
Change your coach and you will feel the difference; Try these: botvinnik, yusupov, dvoretsky :)
Here I will give one reason why 1. b4 is a poor opening...
No, its all a b4 player can hope for, and i dont believe black is better there. But most black players wont give up e-pawn that easy
I'm 21 and I started playing last july. Here's my ratings.
Standard 1068 but I'm really lazy at standard online chess, last week I was 1180
Tactics 1048 (when I started playing was something about 700)
Chesstempo blitz 1278.5
Chesstempo standard 1186.8
The only thing I have to do is go to the University. I have no intention of having a girlfriend or kids so maybe I get more free time than a regular guy.
Hello,
I just wanted to say, Argentinian girls are stunning...for you to not want a girlfriend is a little strange...hopefully when you are older, you will see sense.
Take care
@OP I think your first goal should be to get an established OTB FIDE rating and then after that to reassess your chess goals ....
@goingforyourqueen I wasn't saying improvement is impossible. I was saying that it gets harder, because even at your age, nobody gains 600+ points in one year (unless they're incredibly underrated) like you can when you're a teenager. But there is definitely a point where it starts to become dramatically harder, because again, a lot of the older players I play chess against used to be about a class better than they are today.
@Scottrf Okay, I'll be NM in three years and FM in six. I'm 1839 now, so I'll remember to send you a message once I get there.
I think this is gonna be a lot harder than you think , especially the FM title . Its difficult in the US to play fide rated games , especially in some parts of the country , like the southeast . I know firsthand from playing exclusively in the US southeast from 73-97 and having only a couple of fide rated games during that 25 year period . As for NM it took me 11 years to earn that but I have no talent for the game and lots of people make it in far less time than it took me .
What about the Moller/Neo-Arkangelsk Ruy? Black goes down a pawn in some lines as he has to sac his b-pawn often but he gets a lot of play against white's center in compensation.