how to reach Rating levels:)

I think that not just myself but the other lower rated players would also like to know the following...

1.what do you need to know to reach the following levels

2.what should players at these levels be studying(tactics is a given)

1200

1400

1600

1800

2000:)(hopefully someday ill get here)

I would find this very interesting from higher rated players(1600+) how did you guys become the respectable players you are now

To get to 1400 all you really need to do is be aware of tactics and not play horrendously. I haven't gotten to 1600 yet so I am still trying to get there :)

Hi I am in the over 2000 Elo club. And it really was hard to achieve this rating. I started my training 3 years ago to a time where I wasnt respected by other youth players and not even known because of my low rating. Up to this moment I had the goal to get better as them all. After 3 years of hard work I am now youth master there. I have beaten them all.

So the first thing you need is good motivation because you wont reach 2000 when you dont believe in yourself and without hard work. What I studied: 1. Openings: Its not important to know those openings perfect at your level but you should have some ideas about your openings to reach a playable middlegame. Try to play openings you can play your whole life.A good book: Secrets of modern openings by John Watson.

2. Tactics: A must do. Do at least 10 tactics a day to improve your skills. Try to calculate all lines in your head and change the difficulty of the tactics when they get to easy. Good book: 1001 chess exercises

3. Strategy: Surprisingly this was the main factor for reaching 2000 for me. I Studied the book Modern chess strategy of John Watson very hard and learned a lot there. It teaches you the logical and intuitive side of chess.

Cheers, Till

what ive noticed is strategy seems to be the biggest problem amongst almost all lower rated players...even now I dont know what the position really calls for...the board doesnt really tell me what it needs haha

how do i develope a clear way of planning my game?:)

There are a lot of principles you need to know about chess strategy. Here are they:

1.The Center

2.pawn majority/minority

3.passed pawns

4.doubled pawns and isolated pawns

5. typical pawn structures

6.rooks on the 7. and 8. row

7. bad bishops/ different colored bishops

8.regrouping of pieces

9.weaknesses

10. the kings position/ kings walk

11.modern concepts ( fianchetto, positional pawn sacrifices, center versus kingside/queenside )

12. exchange sacrifice

13. bishop versus knight

14. prevention

15.time

16.initative

It should also be helpful for you to read my blog post about candidate moves and plans. Thanks.

Cheers, Till:)

the key point of all this is "DONT FALL IN LOVE WITH ANYONE ELSE WHILE U ALREADY IN LOVE WITH CHESS"

hahaha OMG im married...what now?:)

Till_98: very important post. En dankie aan MJFOWLER vir die vraag - not trying to hijack your thread but to add some questions to this good post.

I am also struggling player as I come back to chess every few years after a break (work issues). Which is sad because I actually love the game. For me the most difficult thing is to understand the openings themselves. Sure, I can memorise the first few moves of openings, but I would rather play from principles than from textbooks.

The issue for most players without "natural skill" (like Fischer, I guess) is the "what next".

Can you, or someone else, recommend a book that will educate learning players on the objectives of the opening?

Here I mean, this opening (whatever, as both W & B) means you will seek this strategic objective (explained in layman terms - you will try to open/block center, play on wings, attack on c-file, etc).

I am probably not explaining this superbly. I am not seeking a short-cut to chess greatness (doesn't exist) or a book that will throw thousands of middle games at me and expect me to distill and understand some esoteric strategic meaning from utterly complex and incomprehensible (to us beginners) positions. I guess many learners struggle with this...

I am looking for a reference book that will show us that if you play the QGA you should be aiming to do the following... I mean where do we go positionally and strategically after move 6 (for eg.).

You may reach 1200 mainly if you have pretty good understanding of tactical motives, follow base opening principles often, have little opening knowledge, and know some basic endgame patterns, theoritical positions, etc, know base positional principles(especially controlling the centre), make less blunders.

What openings do you want to learn or improve? I know really lots of openings and ideas behind them. Some of the openings I know:

-white: all gambit lines after e4( morra gambit, scotch gambit...), Trompovsky (D4 Nf6, Bg5), Queensgambit main lines, D4 Nf6, C4 classical lines

black: Against e4: Sicilian Najdorf, E4 E5 open games, Caro-Kann defence( e4 c6),

Against d4: Kingsindian defence, Dutch Stonewall, Slav defence with a6

You can check out my blog posts. I did some about openings and also some about the middlegame :)

Best book I know about openings: John Watson- Secrets of modern openings 1-4

All 4 books are brilliant. Its not about opening theory, its about middlegame plans and for every opening many GM games are shown. Also nice is the introduction of the book. The introduction in part 1is about all possible pawn structures of all possible openings.Really brilliant book. I wouldnt be as good as I am now without these book(s).

Cheers, Till

Thank you Till_98. I will try buy the books (Amazon here I come!). I will also check out your blogs. It's people like you that make this an enjoyable and educational site.

Troggie...you from South Africa?even Afrikaans?

thanks

Howzit Fowler, yeah, from Mossel Bay, expatting in Monrovia, Liberia.

Till, is the book called "Mastering the Chess Openings" because thats the only one I can find?

Thanks.

ah yeah it is. i only have the german version of the book so I translated the name to english. But in english it is called Mastering the chess openings I found out now. Really a brilliant book( all 4 parts).

alright,, in my openion,

u must learn few openings.. and when i said few i mean few only,, cuz i see ppl try lot of openings,, in that way they aways confused whihc one to play..

and so they cant see many key lines which can occur while playing same opening patterns for many games ..

next one is,,, whichever opening u chose, u must watch few GM games and annotations,, so u can understand why "this" move was bettr than ur "that" move at "bla bla" postion...i personally play ruy mostly as white,, n watched few good games played by Anand on ruy, n it helped,, though my rating suck :D but as i started chess in sept 2013,, i m happy with my rating here :) cuz i play more than 30 games here,, n my rating suck..

while i played less than 10 on chessTime n i m there at 1750+

third n most important thing,, if u r begginer,, play standard chess,, dont try blitz/bullets,, cuz they can seize ur ability to think deep for a good move,, n even when u will play a standard game,, u will move faster,, n blunder,, its natural for low rated.. i m victim,, n i dont play at all,,

PS. i m not very good in chess,, so dont take my advice very deeply.. ^^

Thi =s is the reason i dont give my advices :P

no one cares.. 

haha sorry budz:)

saw it this morning but had to go out to do shopping...forgot that i wanted to reply when i got back

anyway...you said learn a few openings...ive got my pet openings...do i need to know more?:)

I agree with playing slow time controls only...:)bullet messes with your thinking process

Thats the main thing isnt it Mr Troll:)