Complete Courses Leading up to 1200

I've been hunting for a course, or a complete selection of videos, designed for players at ≈ 1000. My goal is to consistently rate in the 1200s. It seems all the main, widely reviewed courses are for 1200+, and even the new Kasparov Masterclass is openly for 1300+ players.

I pick 1200 because from what I read, it seems this is where most casual players top out at, without immense, daily training. I'm not saying this is true, I've just read that. I'd really like to seriously spend significant time on these 1200+ courses, but it I don't want to waste my time hearing or reading about the nuances of ideas I really don't have a shot of comprehending. In no way do I think these courses won't benefit my understanding, I just want to be effective in my self-study.

Apparently, Empire Chess claims to have a set of videos for players under 1200, but it is extremely expensive. I don't mind investing in that product, but I can't find a review of the course which I trust. Anybody have any thoughts on this product, or alternatively, is there something y'all would recommend? I love the Ginger GM videos, and find him entertaining while instructive. I've tried Chess University, but it seems those videos are "lets look at a position and see the really cool thing I did in a game one time." 

 

 

I will recommend Majestic Chess (a PC chess video game).  After my son and I played it, we both reached 1200 from 0 (from not knowing how to play).

 

I like it because it offers a simple sequence of steps to play though (just finish the adventure chapters).  After each concept, the program puts you into a game to practice it.  (whereas ,with books/DVDs, you must find a way to practice the concept yourself).

 

Now that I'm finished with Majestic Chess, my chess skills has been stuck : (   (or maybe it is just much harder to go above 1200, IDK).  anyway, I highly recommend it.

 

For such low level, you don't need complete courses. The higher your level, the harder it is to improve. Below 1200, it's not difficult at all to improve, since you don't know very much, so almost anything is an improvement.

When I started playing, back in the early days of the internet as we now know it, there were no online lessons or videos. There were a couple of books that were almost always recommended for beginners, and they're still your best bet:

1. Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev. Read it once, playing out the moves over a board. Don't worry about memorizing the details. You'll absorb the big picture ideas from just one reading.

2. Get the book "Back to Basics: Tactics" by Dan Heisman or "Chess Tactics for Students" by John Bain. Go through either one over and over until you can spot the solutions to every puzzle instantly. This should take about 5-7 times through the book. When I did this, I used Bain's book (at Heisman's recommendation, but it was before he wrote his own book), and that got me from 1250 to 1430 USCF in less than 6 months.

3. Just play a lot, at slow time controls. A few blitz games mixed in isn't terrible, but they shouldn't be the majority of your games. Try to review your games afterwards, especially the losses, and especially with the help of stronger players and/or your opponent. At that low level, you'll learn more from actually playing than from any book or video.

4. Edited to add: Silman's Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman. Don't be intimidated by the book's huge size. You only need to read the first 2 or 3 chapters to get the most important stuff immediately. The rest can come later. 

 

 

I'm committed to coach a school chess team for the next few months; and I plan to use Majestic Chess exclusively.  My goal is to take kids who don't know how to play chess and have them score well in a national scholastic USCF tournament in a few months.

 

Based on my Majestic Chess experience, I have enough confidence that if they just finish half of Majestic chess (which should only take 25% of the entire game time, the game's difficultly level is not linear), they will do pretty well at the tournament (def. enough to trophy)!

 

I really can't recommend it enough for new players.  The game only costs < $20; offers a clear path; and ---- easier to sell to kids as a "video game" too!

 

I don't want to be a jerk but... you have played 2000+ blitz games so far and your rating in less than a 1000. This is not normal. At this point your rating should be higher, honestly. My guess is that you don't study chess at all, and just keep playing games, which is really bad. There's no need for special courses. Just read the classical chess books out there, follow youtube chess channels (ChessNetwork for instance) and review your games.

I disagree. I haven't looked at his record or his games, but if all he's doing is playing blitz, then it's perfectly normal. Playing slow games is necessary for improvement. Blitz will help a little with getting used to dealing with time pressure at the end of a long, slow game, but that's all. Playing 2000 blitz games won't help anyone improve their chess, if that's all they're doing.

I got some bad advice I think when I first started, or I misinterpreted it. I thought if I picked a white opening, and learned a black response to d4 and e4, I needed to just play 1 or 2,000 games and kind of deposit some things I learned, and then real study started. I agree the way I've been going at it is not correct, but just playing the game is so fun! I'm more interested in really gaining knowledge now. Thanks for all the advice! it seems like I should start with Majestic Chess a.d take it seriously, wile halting my blitz games (even though that will be hard).

That's not bad advice. The problem is that all those games you're playing should be at slow enough speeds to stop and look around. If you're just reacting at full speed, then you don't have time to think about the positions, which is the main thing you need to do to learn anything.

 

Never heard of majestic chess.  Sounds good.   Thanks for the heads up. 

Well... I disagree with your disagreement. Playing a bunch of blitz games, even if that's all you do, the rating should be around 1100-1300. And, slow games are not necessary for improvement, at least in my opinion. Not at that level, at least. After 1400, then slow games may be necessary. I played blitz chess for around 1.5 years and after I played in my first tournament, I was given a rating of 1300.

But that's only my opinion, and at the end of the day, everyone has their own ways to improve.

"..., you have to make a decision: have tons of fun playing blitz (without learning much), or be serious and play with longer time controls so you can actually think.
One isn’t better than another. Having fun playing bullet is great stuff, while 3-0 and 5-0 are also ways to get your pulse pounding and blood pressure leaping off the charts. But will you become a good player? Most likely not.
Of course, you can do both (long and fast games), ..." - IM Jeremy Silman (June 9, 2016)
https://www.chess.com/article/view/longer-time-controls-are-more-instructive
"... tournament play offers that rich, 'all-weekend' chess experience where you congregate with other players, eat and talk chess during meals and in-between games, and benefit from the entire ambiance. ..." - Dan Heisman (2013)
Possibly of interest:
Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson (2012)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf
http://dev.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Simple-Attacking-Plans-77p3731.htm
Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev (1957)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf
The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev (1965)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/
Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1948)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf
Back to Basics: Tactics by Dan Heisman (2007)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708233537/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review585.pdf
https://www.chess.com/article/view/book-review-back-to-basics-tactics
Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms (2006)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf
Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014)
http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/openings-for-amateurs/
https://www.mongoosepress.com/catalog/excerpts/openings_amateurs.pdf
Chess Endgames for Kids by Karsten Müller (2015)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/chess-endgames-for-kids/
http://www.gambitbooks.com/pdfs/Chess_Endgames_for_Kids.pdf
A Guide to Chess Improvement by Dan Heisman (2010)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708105628/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review781.pdf
Studying Chess Made Easy by Andrew Soltis
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090448/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review750.pdf
Seirawan stuff:
http://seagaard.dk/review/eng/bo_beginner/ev_winning_chess.asp?KATID=BO&ID=BO-Beginner
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708092617/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review560.pdf
https://www.chess.com/article/view/book-review-winning-chess-endings
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627132508/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen173.pdf
http://www.nystar.com/tamarkin/review1.htm

There is an IM Silman set of videos from the Great Courses people. Never tried it myself.

The best way to improve until 1300 or 1400 is this:

Chose a book on tactics and learn it. I mean, really learn the book cover to cover. I recommend you 1001 Exercises for Beginners. You can buy a digital version of it in Chessable.com. There you will learn these exercises by spaced repetition,miso you will be able to memorise more than 90 percent of the tactics.

Never begin to play a new game without first analysing the last game. First WITHOUT an engine -'this is extremely important, and only afterwards with an engine.

That's it. Forget bullet and blitz, better is daily chess, one game with white and one with black. Spend a lot of time for each move, between 30 minutes and 3 hours, depending how complex the position is.It sounds like a lot of time, but you don't have to hurry if you have 3 days per move.

Again, no blitz,money daily chess.
Good luck!

Not "money", but "only" daily chess.

"Forget bullet and blitz"^. This is too harsh. I managed to achieve 1600 by playing every kind of time control: bullet, blitz and daily. Actually, before 1300 I only played blitz, and I'm quite sure it took me less than 2000 games.

I'm an average learner. I don't learn faster than you do, but maybe you are stuck because you have the wrong mindset during the game.

PS: I used to have another profile.

you might check out Chessable...appears to be good for beginner thru intermediate players...

https://www.chessable.com/

also for your perusal....you might find something helpful here...

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond....

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

finally, playing longer time controls is good advice...

https://www.chess.com/news/view/longer-time-controls-7603

 

 

Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess

Winning Chess by Chernev and Reinfeld

Weapons of Chess by Pandolfini

Logical Chess: Move by Move by Chernev

 

Those 4 books (plus chesstempo.com) will get you to 1600, IMHE

Why do you think I stuck? I would stuck if I would try hard to improve and play enough games, what is not the case. I almost never play OTB, and daily chess I am playing only 1 or two at once. Nothing to compare with what you are doing, right? Your are much stronger than me, but compared with the efforts and time you spend training and playing chess I would expect that a young player like you should be by now over 2000. But yeah, talent is also a factor in chess. If you would play from the beginning on longer TCs you would have reached your actual rating in probably much shorter time. 

 

^ No. I was talking about OP. Sorry for the confusion. 

Sorry