Improving beyond 2000

Hello, I just got back into chess and was wondering how to improve beyond 2000?

Background: I had stopped playing consistently for a while (3 years maybe?) and expected my level to have diminished but it turns out I'm still about the same level as before. If anything I can say I've improved because my mentality has changed now. Before, I used to play mostly blitz and I would spam games and not analyze. Now I'm playing rapid and analyzing every game and I'm seeing improvements and it looks like I might make to 2100 rapid. I've also been filling some gaps in my opening repertoire.

One more thought is that I made it to 2k about 5 years ago when I was 13 and since then I didn't really make it any further, (only made it close to 2100 about 3-4 years ago before I lost interest). So I think 2000 might be to me some kind of plateau maybe, since before that my rating was going up very quickly and I was progressing kind of naturally without really forcing it (from like 600 to 2000 in about 2 years), although, I must say, chess WAS my main hobby back then and that's how I was spending most of my free time, and I had a lot of free time because of the pandemic.

So the questions I have are: What separates a 2200+, or even a titled player from someone like me (around 2k)? What should I have in terms of opening prep and repertoire (especially since I'm considering to start playing in some FIDE tournaments), and what should I focus on improving/learning/working on?
PS: Chess isn't really my priority at the moment, it's not even my main hobby but my interest spiked again recently, I'm not really looking to become a GM by next year, but I kind of want to improve a little bit and get some good results over the board since I have some free time this summer.

oh hey, been a while

Indeed.

It's ok tilt happens all the time but if you made it, it means you have the level for it.

True but that's for rapid.

I made it to 2k blitz around june 2021.

Maybe you're right it's just about patience. From the looks of it I'm heading towards 2100 rapid already.

But I also feel like my knowledge/capacity needs some work beyond just playing practice games online... hence the thread.

you just have to improve every aspect of your game, learn to navigate your openings better, work on calculation, just learn as much as possible

400

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v.

102 Elo.

I'm sure you're right. How would you recommend improving each of these aspects? How do you learn openings?

Also for endgames, middlegames, any useful resources?

For endgames I like Theoryhacks Endgame Course on chessable which should be free

for middle games, books like Logical Chess by Irving Chernev expose you to a lot of plans, from there it’s practice on deciding what plans to implement — playing classical really helps for that

for openings I started with a basic repertoire to get “equal” positions in the opening around 1800, after 2100 I started trying to get an advantage but I’m only really doing that after 2300-2400 lol, so it’s less of a big deal than you may think

I would say that 2200s blunder significantly less and pose more questions to their opponents than 2000s. They are also far more likely to actually think during the opening when an opponent deviates from known theory

Yeah I heard many people say that about openings. But personally I think the opening orients the game and where it will go. Like if you know in advance what the middlegame plans will be, and you're playing the first few moves with confidence I think it's quite an advantage.

I will check the chessable course. I prefer video format over books tbh but I might check out the Chernev book. Does it tell you like how to choose your middlegame plan based on the pawn structure/piece positioning...? Because that's another thing I wanted to ask about, would you say knowledge in pawn structures is a key thing that separates 2.2k+ from the rest. I found a youtube series by a guy called 'Chess geek' on pawn structures, I've also been watching his King's Indian and Ruy Lopez courses, does anyone know him, is he good? It seems like he doesn't have a title but he's quite advanced and his content seems like in depth and well thought out.

Another thing is openings, my current rep is:

White: Vienna - Little theory and very practical to play, but I was thinking of upgrading to a 'real' opening if you know what I mean, like the Ruy Lopez because sometimes all it gets you is an equal or even slightly worse position if your opponent knows what to do. Although some of them do fall for it, many 2ks actually do pretty well against me when I play it.

Black: French (I'm quite familiar with it having played it for a long time although I've avoided many main lines) and KID (I need to catch up on the theory of this one and the chess geek series is helping me). I would say the french and the KID taught me a lot about specific plans in specific positions (e.g what to do with a bad bishop or when we have less space in the center, pawn breaks, kingside vs queenside pawn attacks), but they're rather dense and theoretical, especially the KID, and everytime I play the french I get bored to hell by the exchange variation. Everyone plays it to avoid the complications and it kills the excitement out of the game.

Don't know if I should change anything or just stick to what I know.

The opening orients the game, yes, but it's more your thinking during it that has that effect than knowing a lot of theory, unless you take the latter to extreme levels. Logical Chess doesn't necessarily do things based on pawn structures and that's not how I learned to play, but plans based on those do seem to spring to your mind naturally as you play a position more and more times tbh. I don't know about others, but I probably know pawn structures worse than you if you've actually studied it xD, and I would say that most 2200s are the same -- it's tactical ability and just experience in making plans more than almost anything else.

Read this:

GM Larry Evans' method of static analysis - Chess Forums - Chess.com

My posts #4, 7 to 10 and especially 12.

Then play over the three sample games on page 1 and 2, reading the notes.

For calculation, puzzles on a real board (no arrows or moving pieces)

tactics, just regular puzzles and puzzle rushes to really burn in those patterns

openings and strategy is probably my weakest area and im still trying to figure that out so idk

Correct.

I've been playing chess most of my life (my first chess tournament was in the 1970s) and as far as I can recall I've won exactly ONE rated tournament or match game entirely on preparation.

It was a nice game, mind you.