Road to 1800 blitz rating(in 6 months)

I know this looks like a dumb goal but to me it's not. I am obviously a bad chess player so 1800 sounds like a reasonable goal to achieve since I am 1100+ Blitz right now. Why 1800? I am Nigerian and chess is not really a thing most people play well here so a 1800 rated player is probably one of the top 200 player in the country. 

Before you go shouting in the comment, I know others have had similar goal and didn't achieve it but I am fairly confident it's possible so I will try.  

First, a intro about myself. 

I am 18 going to be 19 next month. Learnt how pieces move about a year ago(Oct 2018) but never took it serious until June 2019. U can check my stats. I started from about 400+ rating so it took about 6 months to get to 1100 and I was playing on and off in those 6 months so I am sure I could have done better.

Time is something I don't really have cause I am a second year medical student so I will be focusing on things that will really improve my chess.

In the next 6 months, my goal is to an expert at 3 openings as white and 3 as black so I will be learning this on chessable.com.

I will also be using another site for tactics training and I will be doing about 50 daily.

Also, I am a huge fan of John Bartholomew so his videos are my main resource since my progress so far is all thanks to him. Basically, I will try to finish watching his climbing the rating ladder series and the standard chess video series in those 6 months(1 video per day).

Yeah, I also go through my own game to check for mistakes so I won't make them again.

I will make sure to update my progress every month so that others can follow. I am pretty optimistic right now and I hope I get better soon.

Tactics, tactics, tactics! Study Winning Chess Tactics by Seirawan.

Study the book first for pattern recognition before testing your knowledge on online interactive tactics site.

One of the success recipe that i knew is telling to everyone your goal clearly and what would you do to achieve it. Good luck

Not to dash your goals to pieces but going from 1139 to 1800 in 6 months would be extremely difficult if not nearly impossible. I have no doubt you could reach an 1800 blitz rating but in six months, I don't know. For me at least, I started on chess.com with a 600+ rating, it's taken me 2 years to get to 1600, my progress could actually be considered fast to some people, definitely slow to others. I personally would shoot for smaller goals, like 100-200 points and then once I get there try it again and again. If you look at the graphs of masters you will see a common pattern, first they will climb, then plateau and stay there for a while, then peak and climb again, then plateau and this process keeps repeating until they finally get to where they have climbed to the top of there performance level and probably cannot improve further. So the main issue is that you have to expect to plateau every time you peak, which will take time, maybe more time than you hope. Good Luck. I will look at your rating in 6 months to see if have accomplished your goal.

Thanks for the comment. I totally understand what you mean. I myself has had those moments. I was stuck at 900 for about 3 months out of the 6 months but when I realised what I was doing wrong, I saw changes. Just like you said it is not impossible so I have to try.

Thanks. I will check it out

I think you're doing great jaiyeblexxy! 

if you study and practice, I don't think it's impossible! I went from 1200 to 1700 blitz in the last 4 months, all while taking 6 full classes and working two part time jobs. if you're dedicated you can definitely improve!

Thank you for mentioning this. I hope I replicate your progress soon.

1800 blitz is attainable goal. Learning opening principles https://www.chessstrategyonline.com/content/tutorials/how-to-start-a-game-of-chess-opening-principles

And tactics is enough.

This seems like a major problem to your goals, which sound like a challenge even for those who have plenty of time. Time is a key resource to anyone trying to get good at anything. How do you plan on getting over this obstacle in particular? Even with an emphasis on only useful things it takes time to improve, especially so much, at anything. 

1800 Blitz would put you in the top 3% of players on this site.  That's certainly an ambitious aim.

I can never understand why people choose far of targets to aim for, like people saying they want to be a GM when they're nowhere near even being a NM.

I would aim for incremental goals personally, e.g. 1200, then 1300 etc.  Putting an arbitrary stick in the sand doesn't seem helpful.

But if you want to aim for it then go for it, it's up to you.

I agree with the medical studies being a huge obstacle to your progress. And by the way, 400-1100 in 6 months is definitely not the same as 1100-1800 in the same time frame as it gets incrementally harder to improve as one’s rating increases. So the goal may be attainable one day but pretty unrealistic in the time you set for yourself

thanks for all the comment. Both the positive and the negative. Just want to drop by to tell u that I broke 1200+. Hopefully, I continue to learn and get better

And also, I am trying to learn basic checkmates pattern right now. I went through some e4 concept like Ruy lopez too. I also noticed I need to work on taking my time to think my move and calculate variation

Good luck, man. I've been stuck in 1400 for years, but you are younger and more focused, so I believe you will reach your goal

Good luck! That seems like a sensible plan. I am also using Chessable to finally reach a reasonable level of mastery of a few openings as well as I also aim to reach 1800 this year (I’m around 1500). You likely can get by with less than six openings. I’m working on one opening for white, and then two for black (one against d4 and one against d5). As a fellow JB fan, I imagine the Scandinavian is one of your openings?

While your goal strikes some as ambitious, the fact that you only very recently took up the game suggests to me that you are primed to make such a move, especially if you are able to follow your program. Please report back from time to time!

You look like me bro, my goal is to become 2000 blitz from 1200 in 1 year. And I have passion and confidence like you. I'm waiting for your improvement!

My advice is if youre aware what parts of your game that are the weakest, you should really work on those first. I learned endgame tactics years ago on chessmaster for xbox. I then studied openings on chessgames.com. I just looked up the openings im used to doing and looked at the some of my favorite chess players and see how they use the same openings. You can literally search any opening, pick the player you want (lets say Kasparov), and see all the games hes used that specific opening. It was really helpful for me.