If FIDE rated 800 and you have a year off from work, how much improvement is realistic?

Figured I'd ask to get the opinion of a few others. Also, what do you suggest I do to improve. My openings are pretty week imo. Any suggestions on how to improve? Do I just need to memorize lines from the chess.com opening books?

Thanks.

lol

@1

"If FIDE rated 800 and you have a year off from work, how much improvement is realistic?"
++ to 2000, but only with hard and smart work

"what do you suggest I do to improve" ++ Analyse your lost games.

"My openings are pretty week imo" ++ Do not worry about openings.

"Any suggestions on how to improve?" ++ Blunder check before you move, analyse your lost games, study annotated grandmaster games, study endgames.

"Do I just need to memorize lines from the chess.com opening books?" ++ No, not at all.

Thanks for the response. I feel like I end up getting bad positions early on and then I have to fight my way through a bad middle game because my opening was unsound. Any advice on how to work on openings? Thank you.

800 lmao

The startup FIDE rating is currently at 1400, so 800 is as good as nonexistent.

Getting to 1400 if you take it even a tiny bit seriously should be no problem.

I recommend that you work on general opening principles and endgames. If your playing strength is actually 800, I think it would be a waste of time to try to memorize opening lines. For example, suppose you start with a position that Carlsen reached at move 10; it will do you no good if you don’t have an understanding of the middle game plans and endings that can result. 

so, instead of trying to memorize opening sequences, focus on the basics—develop quickly, control the center, castle quickly, coordinate your pieces so that they control squares, create weaknesses in the opponent’s pawn structure, etc.

Read the basics—Reinfeld, Chernev, Horowitz, Pandolfini. Ten hours on these books will be better than 30 hours of video courses on openings. 

an exercise I recommend to players at your level is to play an opening that you never played or studied before. Your results will likely be the same—good or bad. This is a graphic way to see that it is better to spend time on general principles than on opening sequences.

I like to tell the beginners to learn the openings ideas of the lines instead of just memorizing theory learning openings can be helpful if it also teaches you how to move the pieces

If it doesn't then openings are kinda useless that's why I usually say it is useless to learn openings till 2000+ cause everyone hangs pieces by move ten anyway most games

Learn how to spot blunders and convert winning positions first while learning how to move pieces then learn openings

You do have to memorize some lines obviously but at least learn how to take the center ,not make multiple useless moves in openings (each move should be with different piece usually ) ,etc first before memorizing opening theory

None, unless you have a billion dollars you’re losing your house by April 23

Id recommend learning and practicing opening priclnciples

Difficult. Can't say how good anyone will get or what rating they will end up with, but if you work smart you'll improve. Sadly, this is a situation in which there's no "one size fits all" approach.

Generically, I'd agree with comments saying not to worry about memorising openings, but I would suggest learning the ideas behind them and a few theory-light ones well enough to avoid Nasty Shocks (don't pick the flashy trap-laden ones unless you're an ace tactician). I was learning in the 1970s so the books I know are rather old. If Reubrn Fine's "The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings" has been updated or superseded I'd say start with its successor on openings.

But spend no more than a quarter of study time on openings. Split the rest about equally between middlegame strategy (e.g. Keres's "The Art of the Middlegame", Euwe's "Judgement and planning in chess"), tactical learning (the chess.com puzzles are good for that), and above all endgames (I'm not sure what the optimal modern books are, I used Keres's "Practical Chess Endgames" back in the day).

Inform the balance based on where your play seems weakest, focus most on whatever aspect is costing you games.

And play, play, play. There's a sense in which the sort of mental pattern recognition involved in developing Chess instincts is a bit like developing "muscle memory.

Rejoice when you win, analyse when you lose in order to work out why you lost. Then work on that area of weakness.

If you can afford a good coach, they can be worth it. Personalised feedback tends to be valuable. A coach might see things in your game you're not picking up on. If you can't afford or don't want a coach, take every opportunity to have a "post mortem" discussion with your opponent after a game.

Hope at least some of this waffle helps somehow. Good luck, have fun.

Tbh not everyone needs to "study " but just learn some middle games and figure the rest out themselves with maybe watching YouTube or something if t helps you improve then do it though

(dont forget about endgames those are super important if you can't convert up a queen and always stalemate it doesn't matter if you know your middle games)

Analyse both wins and losses most likely your conversion process will be sloppy so unless you played perfectly analyzing wins helps I don't recommend using stockfish necessarily but look at your own moves and try to figure out why you lost or how you blundered

I second the recommendation of Fine’s the Ideas Behind the Chess Openings. I also thought his book, Lessons From my Games, was helpful. I started teaching beginners in about 1971. I have told many students and friends who wanted some book recommendations that the book that likely helped me gain the most points in tournament play was Chernev’s Practical Chess Endings.

Thanks all. Very helpful. I've dabbled in chess for a while now. It's kinda demotivating to keep playing and wanting to improve because I've been stuck at the same playing level for a while.

I got stuck at 2000 for a year now im like 2200+ hopefully 2400 by Christmas

Getting stuck happens the hard part is breaking it how I did it was switched up my style of play a bit (for example keeping more pieces on the board ) you have to actively change what your doing not just "get better "

You may not break the barrier but thats how I broke mine if you want tips

This to get to 1500: https://chessmood.com/chess-study-plans/for-intermediate-players

This is only a guideline, but its very good advice.

@voxoso - I hear you, guv. "Getting stuck" at a grade level can very frustrating indeed. Your having said that brings one extra thing to my mind: try not to get dispirited if your grade goes down when you start trying new things and techniques in your gameplay. When we do something new we're not perfect. What one is learning to do is often better than what one has been doing, but until one gets the practice in one isn't always very good at actually executing the new skill. In self-improvement at chess, what matters isn't that your grade or results show immediate improvement but that your understanding of the game is improving. That can take a while to translate into results.