Not improving in chess

Hi all, just wondering why I stuck with my 1600-1700 ELO rating in online games in chess.com for a year. No matter what practice I did, I still play the same.

I started playing chess here for more than a year.. I already play with hundreds of players, I added some of them as my friend.

I remember a year ago,  I play with a premium diamond player with a 1400 rating, but when I checked his account today, he is still on 1400 that rating. I also checked another diamond chess.com friend of mine and also noticed that his 1500 rating last year is still the same today.

, I checked his account, he is still on that same rating. Just wondering if our minds is capable of improving, or we are born with a certain limit of mental capability.

Is there a possibility for me to become 1900 someday? and how long it will take me to get that rating. Thank you :)

I see you just got a premium account - there are some good tools there you can use.   I really like the videos.  

A question:  Have you identified any of your weaknesses in chess?   Personallly I have several I'm consciously trying to improve on.  (example:  Patience in closed openings).   Actually, my online rating has gone down, but I think my chess is getting better.   I'm working for long-term goals and enjoying chess along the way.

Ever thought of working with an online coach?   A game or two with them might be a good way to get you out of your rut.  

Well, these days we are lucky. We have chess engines of GM strenght. It's like you having a Grandmaster right in your room, available 24/7 for you. Just put them to play games against other engines & try to guess the next move, & let them show you why your alternative is slightly inferior or really bad. Or even make them evaluate your own games. Play against Chessmaster's weakest personalities & then go on improving step by step. It's a project.

A 1680 rating and you're complaining?!  God, I'd be happy if I could just be an average player at 1200!  

dude above 1700-1800 its not about making mistakes ...its understandin how to control weakness ...first should be aware of weakness ..if u cant become premium but still wanna become better ...i should suugeest yu ...learn weaknesss by  analysin yr own games and note it down in book ...well id u dont know the name ...u can define by yr self ...yu can improve and most players who are premium are people wrkin some places ..they dont usually find time to conc on improvement ..u can look on how many hours they paractice ...

use chess arena to analyze :)

Being stuck on a rating while still putting effort into training always means that your training is either useless or ineffective because there are other things for you to understand first. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. I play tactically 'correct' but I still keep getting hopeless positions against stronger players?

Solution: Your planmaking needs work, read Silman (How to reasses your chess/Thr amateurs mind).

2. I keep making tactical blunders. And Iam often surprised by my oponents moves.

Solution: Probably same as above + solve tactics puzzles regularly every day.

3. I AM solving tactics puzzles every day, but I always need a lot of time to solve them with no sign of improvement:

Solution: This could still be an issue of positional misunderstanding (you simply do not understand positions thus having problems even finding variations to calculate). Otherwise you are lacking visualization or memory. To train visualization and memory I recommend Chess Eye or Chess Memory for the PC.

There's another great method to combine tactics training with visualization/memory training: Every time you solve a tactics puzzle you do the following:

1. Memorize the position

2. Cover it and visualize it

3. Solve the puzzle in your head

4. Put the solution on the board (Important step, it allows you to compare the board with the image in your head. Sometimes you will find the solution, but when looking on the board you will realize a bishop on c4 you completely missed).

Hope this helped.

Oh and by the way: If tactics is an issue, also mind having a look at Seirawan's "Winning chess tactics".

I think that the first thing on the checklist -- but perhaps you have already checked that off if your rating is in the high 1600s -- is to check and make sure that you are playing the stronger opening lines. To a certain degree, most games are won or lost in the first 12 moves.

Another thing that may give a certain psychological lift is to often turn the board around and see the position from your opponent's perspective... and then REALLY try to figure out all the (relatively) good moves that the opponent might play. Doing that might be more productive than spending tons of time on tactics study because you will/should be spending time figuring out your opponent's tactics... and then going one up on him/her!!

Guys thank you so much for the reply specially with your tips AeberhardSamuel and SaharanKnight..
Ok I'll try to figureout now whats wrong with my moves and try to develop the best mainlines of a chess opening. Thank you :)

i dont think ur putin as much efort into ur online games becos ur standard ratin is 1400 wich is quite a big difernce to 1700 online. do u get lots of games at one go? i tend to blitz out my moves if i do dat also u shud play lon standdard games. if u wanna play me then ad me nd ill see u in live...

hi sir tichcherr, due to poor internet connection in my house I only play live chess games during my lunch break at my work when my boss is not around. :)

I added you as my friend sir, play you on live games when we are both online :)

I really think that most of us are stuck with a certain rating, and that no matter what we do, it's not going to change much. Now, before everyone jumps all over me and tells me I've got feathers (or something more odoriferous) for brains, let me explain what I mean.

There is, first, our native intelligence and capacity for memory and calculation. But there is also our lifetime of practice and habits. After a certain age, we tend to behave in the same patterns over and over again. And if, for a while, we take up chess or guitar or piano or gin rummy with a divine passion, we soon find that it's slid back into its "normal" place in our lives. We improve our ratings in chess by a hundred points or so, but then it gets shoved onto the back burner to make way for another "passion."

There's nothing wrong with this. Nothing at all. But I believe it's the way we work. Unless you're willing to commit large amounts of daily time over a period of months or years, you're probably not going to improve a lot. I'd love to think I'm wrong, but the experience of 61 years tells me that, for me at least, I'm probably not.

Msteen i dont believe that.

After each game, won or lost, if you really analyze your FIRST one or two mistakes of the game (or maybe one game-changing mistake later on in the game), I would think that anyone should slowly improve. In my last 30 games, I probably remember 90% of my first mistakes played and also figured out the solution.

That said, MSteen is really on to something... in those last 30 games, most of the mistakes are from lack of concentration, impatience or some other behavior that would be hard to change quickly. Yeah, I repeat the same kind of behavior, if not as often since I became aware of it. A lesser amount of mistakes are from ERRORS IN JUDGMENT and one should really be able to improve quickly in that area, as one identifies the error.

All in all, I think one should be able to improve significantly over time -- but really watch out for those bad habits! 

By error in judgment, I mean things like accepting loss of a bishop for a knight in the middlegame, if that prevents the opponent from getting a passed pawn... in other words, making a correct judgment call about the significance of that passed pawn in that certain position. Good judgment should naturally increase with experience.

that was very smart. Very smart. Thx a lot, even if you mind the other guy

i thought you ment trusting the wrong people in chess  ;)

Actually, I could start by not trusting myself!

I kept (notice the past tense) thinking I have the same problem. I used to wonder on chesskid.com why my rating wasn't going up at all! Because everyday I read tactic books, puzzle books, openings for 3 hours, and played and replayed tons of games! But my Dad told me (I play him everyday) that my play has been improving day by day as he plays me. So just because my rating wasn't going up and I felt like I wasn't getting better the people around me noticed my style of play was getting better. Does that help? :)