Hello, I too am stuck at around the 1300's (In fact its literally at 1350 now) and something thats been helping me to try and break the barrier is analyzing the games you lose (even just 1 per day ia good enough if your a non-member) and see what kind of blunders you make and the reasoning behind such blunders. Lets say you hang a piece, a simple yet very common blunder. Try to figure out why you made such blunder. Were you playing too fast and not taking a bit of time to realize your piece was under attack? Were you much lower on time than your opponent which forces you to just move and forget about said hanging piece? Or did you miscalculate a capture chain thinking you'd win material but didn't realize your opponent has more attackers/defenders? If you know the major reason/s why you typically blunder and work on trying to fix or at the very least minimalize your weaknesses, you'll make much less blunders which gives you a better chance of winning games. After all, its very hard beating an opponent who only made 1 or none blunders in a game unless your a Master or something.
How to break out of 1350 ELO? Stuck
MegaGamer, thanks for your kind reply. Awesome, we are at a very similar level, so I'm sure you understand what I'm saying. I do analyze most of my games, but I still just can't seem to break out of this pattern. I feel like I commit very few one move blunders anymore, but need to get better at tactics, as some opponents play with 90+% accuracy and I just can't break them down, and I lose far more often with black.
MegaGamer, thanks for your kind reply. Awesome, we are at a very similar level, so I'm sure you understand what I'm saying. I do analyze most of my games, but I still just can't seem to break out of this pattern. I feel like I commit very few one move blunders anymore, but need to get better at tactics, as some opponents play with 90+% accuracy and I just can't break them down, and I lose far more often with black.
90+% accuracy on 1300 level? If your not making that much one move blunders or hanging mates then I'm not sure how they're getting such outrageous percentages.
Maybe your playing at a time where your opponents are just feeling way too pumped and playing above their rating or your not feeling so well. If so, maybe you should just play at another time when circumstances seem to change for the better.
I don't think it's that wild, I often play with that accuracy in winning positions, but I have trouble playing as black against those kinds of quality opponents.
Well if your having trouble with black then I suggest learning the King's Indian Defense, a sharp opening for black which can pretty much be used against almost any opening from white. It develops pieces fast and gets your king in a comfortable spot fast. While it does allow white to take more space, if you can find ways to compensate for that you should do really well in your games as black.
Here's a video about the King's Indian from GothamChess to help you get started
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK0cq6UBt1Y
Maybe try to practice middlegame positional chess and placement of pieces? it sounds like you have pretty good tactics but maybe your pieces aren't that well placed or something. I don't know, i'm only around 1k so this might be nonsense
Openings are definitely not the only thing you need to pay attention to if you want to get over 1350 (I made the mistake of learning every opening like you did). I guarantee you that if you practice your tactics (Plenty of puzzles) and put emphasis on learning how to navigate endgames, as well as honing that one or two openings that you have success with (For me it's the Catalan and my Anti-London system with black) you'll get far past 1350
Break it with an ice blocks, hammer and grenade
Openings are definitely not the only thing you need to pay attention to if you want to get over 1350 (I made the mistake of learning every opening like you did). I guarantee you that if you practice your tactics (Plenty of puzzles) and put emphasis on learning how to navigate endgames, as well as honing that one or two openings that you have success with (For me it's the Catalan and my Anti-London system with black) you'll get far past 1350
TACTICS TACTICS TACTICS the one reason I'm still a 1600+ player... oh yeah and a little prep...
It’s a psychological barrier (trust me, this happened to me before). You should just forget that you’re stuck and play normally.
Hey all, hope anyone reading this is having a tremendous day or night, wherever you may be in the world.
I'm stuck.
Can't seem to move out of the ~1350 ELO zone. I crush 1200s for the most part, and am 50-50 against mid 1300s, and then always lose to 1400+ players. Obviously at this ELO, I understand general chess principles, and am average in about everything, endgames, tactics, etc.
I try to learn as many openings as I can, how to play each one and defend each one, but I still just am stuck. Any advice for how to progress?
Much love,
Chungus