How Can I Break Into 1200 ?

Hello everybody, hope you're doingwell.

Well I wanted to know how did any of you guys, especially those in my level, improve after being stuck at a certain level. I have been stuck between 1100-1200 since around last August and can't seem to improve really. Is there any advice on how to improve and how to do that fast?

Thanks.

Play more and study more. That's enough, at 1900 you can be more specific

For me it was switching over to 15/10 from 10/0. The extra time and increments gave me the opportunity to convert a won position or hold a draw as I was being flagged quite a bit at 10/0.

I utilized the extra time to CCT for both sides and blunder check.

Everyone is different but the biggest thing for me to break 1200 was training myself to take *more* time and care in a winning position or when up material. If you convert 100% of your wins (not that I do just saying) that will have a big impact.

I'm a good example following points 2, 3, 4 and 5!

(I lost to many players in the rating range 1000 to 2000 in bullet as a result)

You can't expect a fast improvement on this. Do you have other commitments (school, work, taking care of kids, gardening of plants etc) which could possibly limit the amount of time you can allocate to chess?

Normally as a lower rated player I would try to find opponents whose ratings are about 100 or 200 points higher than mine to see what ideas they have in mind.

Though ratings are not 100% accurate on their own, they can be used as a gauge to see what type of opponents they themselves have encountered previously. In your case, you can do something similar, or maybe play with some friends over-the-board and analyse positions as a group.

I can see that you are very disciplined with the proportion of games you have allocated to rapid, blitz and bullet each. Why not embark on new, longer rapid controls like 25|0 or 30|30 for your rapid games? Or are those time controls tournament-based?

I'm sure you can win higher rated players too!

I looked at a few games. It seems you like to give up material on purpose so that you can attack. You either sacrifice it directly, or don't bother defending against your opponent's threat... stop doing that and your rating will go up. Try not to lose anything for free, not even a single pawn. If your opponent makes a threat, either retreat or defend. You can still attack later, just take it a little slower and don't be so reckless.

I also saw a few games where you're putting all your pawns on the same color square... that usually leads to passive positions... having your main pawn chain be on the same color, or all the pawns on one side on the same color, that's ok because it's fairly solid, but doing it with all your pawns is usually not good.

You also still play for cheap threats (making a threat and hoping your opponent doesn't see it). That's fine because it probably still wins games for you, but it's at least useful to understand the first step of moving beyond that which is... pretend your opponent sees your threat and will defend against it, do you think your piece will be good on that square anyway? Good reasons to like a piece's placement are:
 - It's mobile (can move to many squares)
 - It's at least somewhat centralized (so it can more easily attack or defend in each quadrant)
 - It's defended
 - It can't be easily chased away

You can still make 1 move threats, but keep some of those listed elements in the back of your mind. When you can make threats with mobile, well defended pieces, your attacks will be much harder to deal with. When you're unsure where to move, find a piece that isn't doing much for you and improve its position.

Thank-you for the encouragement.

I am training for classical time controls but also respect that 15/10 is FIDE official rapid time control so I play that to gauge an accurate standard because I don’t agree with chess.com stamping 10/0 as rapid which is considered blitz under many chess federations and FIDE.

I’ve learned speed chess shallowed out my calculation and decision making skills, so I retired from bullet but not blitz fully because I am scoring a respectable 80-85% accuracy rate. I do limit blitz so that the shallow skills don’t creep back in.

With respects to playing stronger players, I am competitive at the club level 1500-1800 bracket players which  is good enough for me.

Ok, I saw this in two different games and it's really bugging me so I'll mention this too...

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The "good" bishop is the one that is on the opposite color of your main pawn chain.
The "bad" bishop is the one that is on the same color.

When all your pawns are on light squares, your dark squares are necessarily weaker, and your dark square bishop helps fill that void. Also, when all your pawns are on light squares, you dark square bishops tends to be more mobile since it's not blocked by friendly pawns. The "bad" bishop can be improved by maneuvering it outside of the pawn chain (or by trading it off or moving your pawns).

In the two games above you set your main pawn formation on one color, then immediately rush to trade off your "good" bishop. This is extremely anti-positional. It's not as if the "good" bishop should be preserved at all costs, but opening your game like this is ridiculous . Stop doing that.

Lama, no YouTube video analysis and lesson?

I am disappointed.

Hmm, yeah it'd be fun to do again sometime. I'll keep it in mind

You can message me a topic that might be good for it if you want.

anybody have tips for me? my strength seems to be about 2200 but just can't break 1150. here is a beautiful game i dominated in typical fashion, most losses come when opponents play 30+ straight engine moves. i think i inspire my opponents to find impossible resources. open to tips! 

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2023.01.23"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Despacho69"]
[Black "andreeajunca-guzu"]
[Result "1-0"]
[CurrentPosition "7r/ppp5/k4P2/2B1R3/3P4/6P1/b4P1P/R5K1 b - -"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "D02"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Queens-Pawn-Opening-Zukertort-Variation"]
[UTCDate "2023.01.23"]
[UTCTime "00:07:54"]
[WhiteElo "1039"]
[BlackElo "1022"]
[TimeControl "180"]
[Termination "Despacho69 won by resignation"]
[StartTime "00:07:54"]
[EndDate "2023.01.23"]
[EndTime "00:12:28"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/live/68171541435"]

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Bf5 3. c4 Nf6 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nc3 Nxc3 6. bxc3 e6 7. e3 Nc6 8.
Bb5 Qd6 9. O-O Be4 10. Ne5 f6 11. Qh5+ g6 12. Bxc6+ Bxc6 13. Nxg6 hxg6 14. Qxh8
O-O-O 15. Qxf6 Be7 16. Qxg6 Rh8 17. g3 Qd5 18. e4 Qd7 19. Bg5 e5 20. Bxe7 Qh3
21. Qf5+ Qxf5 22. exf5 Kd7 23. f6 exd4 24. cxd4 Re8 25. Bb4 Bd5 26. Rae1 Rh8 27.
Re7+ Kc6 28. Re5 Bxa2 29. Rc1+ Kb6 30. Bc5+ Ka6 31. Ra1 1-0

About months total to break 1200. months to break 1300. A total of 5 months to break 1400. MYiClubOnline Login

so it's been 2 years and my stats are similar to a gm (objectively, lol, not saying i am one) so be better?

I’ll keep that in mind, thanks!