How do I continue improving?

Hi Guys!

I'm still a complete beginner and blunder almost every game (created an account at the start of january and was rated 950). I mainly play the rapid (10 min) games and a bit of daily chess. Last month I improved quite a bit: 950 to almost 1288 right now. An improvement I'm proud of and I'm having a lot of fun figuring out the game. I notice very many mistakes in my game still, so I know I know I am not a good player (yet), please let me have the moment of proudness however .

I'm not on any level yet, but I would like your advice on how to most effectively improve from this point on. 

This is what I have been doing:

- I analyse all games I played to see what I could have done differently or did wrong. It is sometimes hard however: the engine says something is a blunder, and what do I do if I don't get why it is a blunder?

- I watch youtube videos of Daniel Naroditsky, they are of very good use!

- I read Bobby Fisher teaches chess. It was a fun book and I learned a couple of new things. I was however a bit dissappointed, I felt like the book was a bit below my current level. 

- I ordered 'simple checkmates' by Gilliam, it hasn't arrived yet however. 

- I do the tactics puzzles every day (rated +- 1300).

What would you advice me to start studying? How should I continue? I have quite some time on my hands at the moment so that is not the issue. Would you recommend any books/youtube video's? 

Any help is highly appreciated!

Max

Thanks! I looked at the book and will definitely buy it, seems great. 

Any recommendation on studying/not studying openings at my level? And how?

I will, thanks!

learn basic pawn endgames 

Read books. I've started to play chess 1.5 years ago. I went from 800 to 2100 reading a lot of chess books.

I read:

-My 60 memorable games

-Play like a grandmaster

-My great predecessors part I (I have the other parts as well, but I prefer to analyse the book really deeply and so I've spent over 150h just on this one book.

-Secrets of modern chess strategy

-Silman's complete endgame course

-Fire on board

-Pump up your rating

I'm currently reading:

-My great Predecessors part 2

-Dvoretsky's endgame manual

-the woodpecker method

-forcing chess moves

-life and games of Mikhail Tal

-new art of defense in chess

-Mastering chess strategy

Let me know if you have any questions about these books

Dear Max,

I am a certified, full-time chess coach, so I hope I can help you. Everybody is different, so that's why there isn't only one general way learn. First of all, you have to discover your biggest weaknesses in the game and start working on them. The most effective way for that is analysing your own games. Of course, if you are a beginner, you can't do it efficiently because you don't know too much about the game yet. There is a built-in engine on chess.com which can show you if a move is good or bad but the only problem that it can't explain you the plans, ideas behind the moves, so you won't know why is it so good or bad.

You can learn from books or Youtube channels as well, and maybe you can find a lot of useful information there but these sources are mostly general things and not personalized at all. That's why you need a good coach sooner or later if you really want to be better at chess. A good coach can help you with identifying your biggest weaknesses and explain everything, so you can leave your mistakes behind you. Of course, you won't apply everything immediately, this is a learning process (like learning languages), but if you are persistent and enthusiastic, you will achieve your goals.

In my opinion, chess has 4 main territories (openings, strategies, tactics/combinations and endgames). If you want to improve efficiently, you should improve all of these skills almost at the same time. That's what my training program is based on. My students really like it because the lessons are not boring (because we talk about more than one areas within one lesson) and they feel the improvement on the longer run. Of course, there are always ups and downs but this is completely normal in everyone's career.

I recommend you to solve around 4-5 puzzles before playing games. It's not the best if you solve too many puzzles (e.g. 20-30 pcs) because you'll be too tired for the game.

On the other hand, solving too many puzzles in a row can be dangerous because you can lose your patience quickly and you won't think on the right way. The quality is more important than the quantity! It's much more useful for you to solve only 10 puzzles per day with at least 80% accuracy than solving 50 puzzles per day with 60% accuracy.

You have to think ahead without moving the pieces and make your move when you see the solution from the start till the end. This is very important! That's how you can improve your visualisation and calculation skills on the most effective way!

And that's why I would never recommend you to play too many Puzzle Rush or Puzzle Battle games because they are time-limited, so you have to make fast and superficial decisions. And this is very harmful if you really want to improve at chess.

Of course, you can try this '4-5 puzzles before the game' method and if you feel that you are able to solve more without being too exhausted for the game, you can increase the number of the puzzles. But again...quality over quantity!!

I hope this is helpful for you. Good luck for your chess games!

Holy crap that's impressive!! Do you mind explaining a bit more? Like did you also play a lot? How much time did you spend (for chess) per day/week. Was/is chess your only hobby?

That's a huge list, thanks a lot! Now if you could only pick one book - knowing that I bought Silman's endgame course and the 2 books previously mentioned -, which one would you recommend?

Thanks for your response, what do you think is the best way of doing it? Will Silman's endgame course help? I ordered it?

Hi, 

Thanks for your response. I will first try to improve by teaching myself, but thanks anyway!

Max