It certainly sounds like your board vision is still strong, and tactics are a strongpoint. Maybe you should do a general review of chess to make sure there aren't any obvious gaps in your education? Chess.com has a nicely done series of Lessons (based loosely on the old Chess Mentor program) that review up to a solid intermediate level, including intros to the most common openings. You watch a short (5 minutes or so) video and then answer a number of challenges based on the material presented. Since you mention that you're a strong learner, it might be worthwhile for you to get a Diamond membership that allows you to take as many lessons a day as you can handle. I've done the course completely 3 or 4 times now and while the beginning lessons are extremely easy (as they should be), you quickly come across more challenging material. Yeah, it's a $100 for diamond but that also opens up unlimited access to the puzzles (tactics) and videos, which are a cut above the usual YouTube.
The other thing you might consider is the well known Dutch "Steppenmethode" which has been popular for years, especially in scholastic settings. Admit I've never tried it, but I've rarely heard anything but good things. Pretty sure they have some sort of an online presence as well. Best of luck!
Hello everyone!
I played chess when I was very young and peaked at age 10 where I regularly ended up in top 3-10 in local county tournaments (population around 200k). However, my local chess club had too few members and moved far away, so I drifted away from this amazing game. There was no Elo ratings involved, at least not on my level.
Over the years, I have played a few games, watched some YouTube videos and I really enjoy the daily puzzle, but looking into coming back, but would like to have some specific suggestions on how to make the most out of it.
Currently, here is where I am at the moment:
- As white, I have only ever played Ruy Lopez, but don't know any lines beyond 3. Bb5.
- As black, I do not really play an opening, but focusing on flexibly developing minor pieces and taking over the center with pawns. I usually do poorly as black.
- I am quite strong midgame by playing on intuition, getting an early lead, trading down pieces to endgame. I am worse if I am just reacting and not thinking about moves, but I mostly play non-theoretical pragmatic games based on intuition that mainly exploit the blunders of the opponent.
- I know all the basic endgames.
- I usually beat the chess engine at 1500 about 50% of the time.
- After making an account on another chess website, I got to 1700 rating on puzzles in an afternoon and over the years I have done many, many puzzles compared with, let's say, 10 min games.
- Despite being a pragmatic player, I am a very strong learner from reading theory in other non-chess subjects and can absorb a lot of material in a relatively short time.
What are some areas where I can improve and what are some specific steps that I can take beyond general things like playing more games?
What are my major weaknesses and what can I do about them?