Can't reach 2000 elo. Suggest training plan !

Sort:
Avatar of rishabhkothary

For quite a few months, I have been trying to reach 2000 elo in rapid. I have been stuck in the 1800-1900 range for a long time. I regularly score points against 2000+ elo, so I am not very far skill-wise. My main weaknesses are the

(1) Playing highly imbalanced positions.

(2) Slow playing the advantage to victory. I have missed a lot of chances in the endgames where I lost my patience and lost/drawn winning position.

(3) I have been playing a dubious opening. Although I have built up a somewhat good strategic understanding of the opening via regular analysis,

Do you have any suggestions on working on these weaknesses? Are there any good books to work on these weaknesses? Thanks in advance

Avatar of kaitalele

For me, I was also stuck in the 1800- low 1900 range for awhile. Recently, someone loaned me the book, "winning chess exercises for kids" and I was able to boost not only my chess.com rapid rating but also my lichess rapid rating very shortly after I started solving the problems in the book. My peak lichess rapid rating now being 2159. Don't be fooled by the term "for kids." The puzzles in the book aren't that simple. I'm also going through the books "modern chess strategy: advances since Nimzowitch" and "100 endgames you must know." I have trouble taking my time, I have a bad habit of playing the first move I see- and the "Winning chess exercises for kids" book has definitely forced me to work through chess problems with more thought behind my moves and plans. If you struggle with the endgames "100 endgames you just know" is definitely a good book to study.

Avatar of medelpad
There’s a website called “chessgoals” who has free traning plans, maybe you could check them out.
Avatar of tygxc

@1

"(1) Playing highly imbalanced positions."
++ Analyse your lost games to learn from your mistakes.
That will give you a feeling of how to play imbalanced positions. Study some Fischer games.

"(2) Slow playing the advantage to victory. I have missed a lot of chances in the endgames where I lost my patience and lost/drawn winning position."
++ Study endgames to hone your technique. Never get impatient.
Study some Capablanca games.

"(3) I have been playing a dubious opening. Although I have built up a somewhat good strategic understanding of the opening via regular analysis,"
++ Playing a dubious opening is not bad in rapid.
Your opponent will make mistakes and will not be able to refute your dubious opening.

"Are there any good books to work on these weaknesses?"
++ Not really, it is a matter of skill, not of knowledge. Analyse your own lost games.
Study annotated grandmaster games. Study endgames especially rook endings.
One book suggestion: Fundamental Chess Endings - Müller & Lamprecht

Avatar of BigChessplayer665

Pretty good plan just make sure your openings are better (1900s play really badly in the opening ) you can play dubious /weird but play it well/correcty

Other than that get better at positional play

Avatar of ChessMasteryOfficial

Study Grandmaster games where imbalanced positions arise frequently. Pay attention to how they handle such situations and the strategic ideas behind their moves.

Avatar of MaetsNori

Looking at some of your recent losses - I'd say your problem is tactics.

This is, of course, usually not the advice that players want - they want specifics and other areas that they can work on.

But really, the moves that I've seen of yours that have led to worse positions have been because they were tactically wrong.

It's hard to rise in rating if you're making moves that are losing you material.

I understand that nobody really wants to hear "Just work on your tactics more!". But sometimes, that's the best advice for a player ...

I recommend looking through your lost games and identifying the moves where you went tactically wrong (without an engine). Then, once you feel you've figured it out the best you can, turn on the engine to see what you missed.

Over time, your tactical vision should improve, just from constantly working on identifying your tactical mistakes.

Avatar of LordHunkyhair3

Looks like rapid

Avatar of BigChessplayer665

No blitz is harder I reached 2000 rapid in 10 months blitz was about 14+

Avatar of Tactical

Same

Avatar of BigChessplayer665
BigChessplayer665 wrote:

No blitz is harder I reached 2000 rapid in 10 months blitz was about 14+

Actually nm I reached 2000 in 8 months (rapid was easier tho)

Avatar of Guest5430952856
Please Sign Up to comment.

If you need help, please contact our Help and Support team.