edited moderator stumpyblitzer
Stuck Under 1300 for 16 Years!
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Aug 4, 2021
0
#3
IMBacon wrote:
6 years here and 6000+ games of speed chess. And you cant figure out why youre stuck?
Very dismissive. thanks man
Aug 4, 2021
0
#5
IMBacon wrote:
Just pointing out the obvious. Its up to you what you do with it.
I play bullet, but plenty of rapid as well, as evident in my post and my stats.
Aug 4, 2021
0
#7
IMBacon wrote:
Like i said...speed chess.
Perhaps you misunderstand 'rapid'. Rapid on Chess.com means any time control greater than blitz. So it includes classical. Many of these games are 1 hour time controls. I see you only do daily and bullet, so maybe you don't know.
Aug 4, 2021
0
#8
The rapid games you play are still only 10 minute games, which most would still consider to be speed chess.
Generally when people recommend playing long time controls, 10 minutes is the absolute bare minimum, with 15|10 or longer games being preferable.
Also, 48 hours across 7 months is pretty sparse.
I probably spend around 2-3 hours on Chess a day, working through tactics on here and in a book (The Woodpecker Method if you’re interested) and playing practice games in 15 minute time control against 2000+ engines, and then proceeding to analyze the games.
This means that I am putting more time into Chess in 1 month than you did in 7 months.
And I am not an outlier by any means.
For instance, I heard from B1ZMARK that he worked on Chess an average of 8 hours a day in the summer, meaning he worked on Chess more in a week than you did in 7 months.
I also saw a thread by Marqumax saying he was considering solving tactics for 6-8 hours a day if it would help him improve.
Both of these players are around the 2200 mark in online ratings, last year B1ZMARK was 1600 rapid and Maks was 1400 rapid.
Of course, these are rather extreme cases of improvement by very passionate and hard working hobby players, who are both aspiring for titles in the future, but that’s just to give you an example of how difficult chess is to improve at.
This isn’t to slight you by saying you are lazy, just putting into perspective the hours one has to put in to significantly improve in a reasonable time frame.
Reading a few chapters from a single book isn’t going to do you much good, I’ve heard higher rated players (2000 FIDE) recommend lower rated players (such as you and I) to read My System cover to cover multiple times to fully assimilate the crucial knowledge within.
Also, I hope you aren’t playing puzzles like a guessing game, wherein you play the first promising move you find without fully calculating the line to it’s conclusion.
Fully calculating lines is much more instructive and helpful, both for your pattern recognition (as it happens, thinking longer and harder on a given pattern has a way of cementing that patter in your mind) as well as your calculation skill, which is an important skill to possess.
Since I started solving puzzles that way I’ve become much sharper in a short time frame of about two months.
I went from being slightly worse than the Antonio bot in playing strength to casually destroying it (him?) almost every time I played in a span of just two months.
I understand that you, like many people may not have the time or interest to put in several hours of chess study a day, and that’s perfectly fine, you are still a fair bit better than average on chess.com, so even you stop improving altogether you are by no means a weak player compared to the average joe.
All in all, there is nothing wrong with you, you are most likely a perfectly competent person, and there is no secret that you are missing to improve at chess, it’s all just hard work, and the closest thing to a shortcut there is would be to hire a coach.
Best of luck to you, and I hope this was at least a bit helpful. :)
Generally when people recommend playing long time controls, 10 minutes is the absolute bare minimum, with 15|10 or longer games being preferable.
Also, 48 hours across 7 months is pretty sparse.
I probably spend around 2-3 hours on Chess a day, working through tactics on here and in a book (The Woodpecker Method if you’re interested) and playing practice games in 15 minute time control against 2000+ engines, and then proceeding to analyze the games.
This means that I am putting more time into Chess in 1 month than you did in 7 months.
And I am not an outlier by any means.
For instance, I heard from B1ZMARK that he worked on Chess an average of 8 hours a day in the summer, meaning he worked on Chess more in a week than you did in 7 months.
I also saw a thread by Marqumax saying he was considering solving tactics for 6-8 hours a day if it would help him improve.
Both of these players are around the 2200 mark in online ratings, last year B1ZMARK was 1600 rapid and Maks was 1400 rapid.
Of course, these are rather extreme cases of improvement by very passionate and hard working hobby players, who are both aspiring for titles in the future, but that’s just to give you an example of how difficult chess is to improve at.
This isn’t to slight you by saying you are lazy, just putting into perspective the hours one has to put in to significantly improve in a reasonable time frame.
Reading a few chapters from a single book isn’t going to do you much good, I’ve heard higher rated players (2000 FIDE) recommend lower rated players (such as you and I) to read My System cover to cover multiple times to fully assimilate the crucial knowledge within.
Also, I hope you aren’t playing puzzles like a guessing game, wherein you play the first promising move you find without fully calculating the line to it’s conclusion.
Fully calculating lines is much more instructive and helpful, both for your pattern recognition (as it happens, thinking longer and harder on a given pattern has a way of cementing that patter in your mind) as well as your calculation skill, which is an important skill to possess.
Since I started solving puzzles that way I’ve become much sharper in a short time frame of about two months.
I went from being slightly worse than the Antonio bot in playing strength to casually destroying it (him?) almost every time I played in a span of just two months.
I understand that you, like many people may not have the time or interest to put in several hours of chess study a day, and that’s perfectly fine, you are still a fair bit better than average on chess.com, so even you stop improving altogether you are by no means a weak player compared to the average joe.
All in all, there is nothing wrong with you, you are most likely a perfectly competent person, and there is no secret that you are missing to improve at chess, it’s all just hard work, and the closest thing to a shortcut there is would be to hire a coach.
Best of luck to you, and I hope this was at least a bit helpful. :)
Aug 4, 2021
0
#9
BroiledRat wrote:
The rapid games you play are still only 10 minute games, which most would still consider to be speed chess.
Generally when people recommend playing long time controls, 10 minutes is the absolute bare minimum, with 15|10 or longer games being preferable.
Also, 48 hours across 7 months is pretty sparse.
I probably spend around 2-3 hours on Chess a day, working through tactics on here and in a book (The Woodpecker Method if you’re interested) and playing practice games in 15 minute time control against 2000+ engines, and then proceeding to analyze the games.
This means that I am putting more time into Chess in 1 month than you did in 7 months.
And I am not an outlier by any means.
For instance, I heard from B1ZMARK that he worked on Chess an average of 8 hours a day in the summer, meaning he worked on Chess more in a week than you did in 7 months.
I also saw a thread by Marqumax saying he was considering solving tactics for 6-8 hours a day if it would help him improve.
Both of these players are around the 2200 mark in online ratings, last year B1ZMARK was 1600 rapid and Maks was 1400 rapid.
Of course, these are rather extreme cases of improvement by very passionate and hard working hobby players, who are both aspiring for titles in the future, but that’s just to give you an example of how difficult chess is to improve at.
This isn’t to slight you by saying you are lazy, just putting into perspective the hours one has to put in to significantly improve in a reasonable time frame.
Reading a few chapters from a single book isn’t going to do you much good, I’ve heard higher rated players (2000 FIDE) recommend lower rated players (such as you and I) to read My System cover to cover multiple times to fully assimilate the crucial knowledge within.
Also, I hope you aren’t playing puzzles like a guessing game, wherein you play the first promising move you find without fully calculating the line to it’s conclusion.
Fully calculating lines is much more instructive and helpful, both for your pattern recognition (as it happens, thinking longer and harder on a given pattern has a way of cementing that patter in your mind) as well as your calculation skill, which is an important skill to possess.
Since I started solving puzzles that way I’ve become much sharper in a short time frame of about two months.
I went from being slightly worse than the Antonio bot in playing strength to casually destroying it (him?) almost every time I played in a span of just two months.
I understand that you, like many people may not have the time or interest to put in several hours of chess study a day, and that’s perfectly fine, you are still a fair bit better than average on chess.com, so even you stop improving altogether you are by no means a weak player compared to the average joe.
All in all, there is nothing wrong with you, you are most likely a perfectly competent person, and there is no secret that you are missing to improve at chess, it’s all just hard work, and the closest thing to a shortcut there is would be to hire a coach.
Best of luck to you, and I hope this was at least a bit helpful. :)
Generally when people recommend playing long time controls, 10 minutes is the absolute bare minimum, with 15|10 or longer games being preferable.
Also, 48 hours across 7 months is pretty sparse.
I probably spend around 2-3 hours on Chess a day, working through tactics on here and in a book (The Woodpecker Method if you’re interested) and playing practice games in 15 minute time control against 2000+ engines, and then proceeding to analyze the games.
This means that I am putting more time into Chess in 1 month than you did in 7 months.
And I am not an outlier by any means.
For instance, I heard from B1ZMARK that he worked on Chess an average of 8 hours a day in the summer, meaning he worked on Chess more in a week than you did in 7 months.
I also saw a thread by Marqumax saying he was considering solving tactics for 6-8 hours a day if it would help him improve.
Both of these players are around the 2200 mark in online ratings, last year B1ZMARK was 1600 rapid and Maks was 1400 rapid.
Of course, these are rather extreme cases of improvement by very passionate and hard working hobby players, who are both aspiring for titles in the future, but that’s just to give you an example of how difficult chess is to improve at.
This isn’t to slight you by saying you are lazy, just putting into perspective the hours one has to put in to significantly improve in a reasonable time frame.
Reading a few chapters from a single book isn’t going to do you much good, I’ve heard higher rated players (2000 FIDE) recommend lower rated players (such as you and I) to read My System cover to cover multiple times to fully assimilate the crucial knowledge within.
Also, I hope you aren’t playing puzzles like a guessing game, wherein you play the first promising move you find without fully calculating the line to it’s conclusion.
Fully calculating lines is much more instructive and helpful, both for your pattern recognition (as it happens, thinking longer and harder on a given pattern has a way of cementing that patter in your mind) as well as your calculation skill, which is an important skill to possess.
Since I started solving puzzles that way I’ve become much sharper in a short time frame of about two months.
I went from being slightly worse than the Antonio bot in playing strength to casually destroying it (him?) almost every time I played in a span of just two months.
I understand that you, like many people may not have the time or interest to put in several hours of chess study a day, and that’s perfectly fine, you are still a fair bit better than average on chess.com, so even you stop improving altogether you are by no means a weak player compared to the average joe.
All in all, there is nothing wrong with you, you are most likely a perfectly competent person, and there is no secret that you are missing to improve at chess, it’s all just hard work, and the closest thing to a shortcut there is would be to hire a coach.
Best of luck to you, and I hope this was at least a bit helpful. :)
Thanks! Although most rapid I have done is over 15|10. I've been putting maybe an hour into puzzles a the past couple weeks. I'm also bummed out that my puzzle rating is 800 points higher than my rapid. Doesn't make sense.
Aug 4, 2021
0
#10
Apologies for my misapprehension then, 15|10 is good.
Oh, and puzzle ratings just seem to be inflated in general, with the majority of the people I see on here having puzzle ratings hundreds of points higher than their rapid, including myself.
It’s perfectly normal. :)
Oh, and puzzle ratings just seem to be inflated in general, with the majority of the people I see on here having puzzle ratings hundreds of points higher than their rapid, including myself.
It’s perfectly normal. :)
Aug 4, 2021
0
#11
Anti-Communist wrote:
BroiledRat wrote:
The rapid games you play are still only 10 minute games, which most would still consider to be speed chess.
Generally when people recommend playing long time controls, 10 minutes is the absolute bare minimum, with 15|10 or longer games being preferable.
Also, 48 hours across 7 months is pretty sparse.
I probably spend around 2-3 hours on Chess a day, working through tactics on here and in a book (The Woodpecker Method if you’re interested) and playing practice games in 15 minute time control against 2000+ engines, and then proceeding to analyze the games.
This means that I am putting more time into Chess in 1 month than you did in 7 months.
And I am not an outlier by any means.
For instance, I heard from B1ZMARK that he worked on Chess an average of 8 hours a day in the summer, meaning he worked on Chess more in a week than you did in 7 months.
I also saw a thread by Marqumax saying he was considering solving tactics for 6-8 hours a day if it would help him improve.
Both of these players are around the 2200 mark in online ratings, last year B1ZMARK was 1600 rapid and Maks was 1400 rapid.
Of course, these are rather extreme cases of improvement by very passionate and hard working hobby players, who are both aspiring for titles in the future, but that’s just to give you an example of how difficult chess is to improve at.
This isn’t to slight you by saying you are lazy, just putting into perspective the hours one has to put in to significantly improve in a reasonable time frame.
Reading a few chapters from a single book isn’t going to do you much good, I’ve heard higher rated players (2000 FIDE) recommend lower rated players (such as you and I) to read My System cover to cover multiple times to fully assimilate the crucial knowledge within.
Also, I hope you aren’t playing puzzles like a guessing game, wherein you play the first promising move you find without fully calculating the line to it’s conclusion.
Fully calculating lines is much more instructive and helpful, both for your pattern recognition (as it happens, thinking longer and harder on a given pattern has a way of cementing that patter in your mind) as well as your calculation skill, which is an important skill to possess.
Since I started solving puzzles that way I’ve become much sharper in a short time frame of about two months.
I went from being slightly worse than the Antonio bot in playing strength to casually destroying it (him?) almost every time I played in a span of just two months.
I understand that you, like many people may not have the time or interest to put in several hours of chess study a day, and that’s perfectly fine, you are still a fair bit better than average on chess.com, so even you stop improving altogether you are by no means a weak player compared to the average joe.
All in all, there is nothing wrong with you, you are most likely a perfectly competent person, and there is no secret that you are missing to improve at chess, it’s all just hard work, and the closest thing to a shortcut there is would be to hire a coach.
Best of luck to you, and I hope this was at least a bit helpful. :)
Generally when people recommend playing long time controls, 10 minutes is the absolute bare minimum, with 15|10 or longer games being preferable.
Also, 48 hours across 7 months is pretty sparse.
I probably spend around 2-3 hours on Chess a day, working through tactics on here and in a book (The Woodpecker Method if you’re interested) and playing practice games in 15 minute time control against 2000+ engines, and then proceeding to analyze the games.
This means that I am putting more time into Chess in 1 month than you did in 7 months.
And I am not an outlier by any means.
For instance, I heard from B1ZMARK that he worked on Chess an average of 8 hours a day in the summer, meaning he worked on Chess more in a week than you did in 7 months.
I also saw a thread by Marqumax saying he was considering solving tactics for 6-8 hours a day if it would help him improve.
Both of these players are around the 2200 mark in online ratings, last year B1ZMARK was 1600 rapid and Maks was 1400 rapid.
Of course, these are rather extreme cases of improvement by very passionate and hard working hobby players, who are both aspiring for titles in the future, but that’s just to give you an example of how difficult chess is to improve at.
This isn’t to slight you by saying you are lazy, just putting into perspective the hours one has to put in to significantly improve in a reasonable time frame.
Reading a few chapters from a single book isn’t going to do you much good, I’ve heard higher rated players (2000 FIDE) recommend lower rated players (such as you and I) to read My System cover to cover multiple times to fully assimilate the crucial knowledge within.
Also, I hope you aren’t playing puzzles like a guessing game, wherein you play the first promising move you find without fully calculating the line to it’s conclusion.
Fully calculating lines is much more instructive and helpful, both for your pattern recognition (as it happens, thinking longer and harder on a given pattern has a way of cementing that patter in your mind) as well as your calculation skill, which is an important skill to possess.
Since I started solving puzzles that way I’ve become much sharper in a short time frame of about two months.
I went from being slightly worse than the Antonio bot in playing strength to casually destroying it (him?) almost every time I played in a span of just two months.
I understand that you, like many people may not have the time or interest to put in several hours of chess study a day, and that’s perfectly fine, you are still a fair bit better than average on chess.com, so even you stop improving altogether you are by no means a weak player compared to the average joe.
All in all, there is nothing wrong with you, you are most likely a perfectly competent person, and there is no secret that you are missing to improve at chess, it’s all just hard work, and the closest thing to a shortcut there is would be to hire a coach.
Best of luck to you, and I hope this was at least a bit helpful. :)
Thanks! Although most rapid I have done is over 15|10. I've been putting maybe an hour into puzzles a the past couple weeks. I'm also bummed out that my puzzle rating is 800 points higher than my rapid. Doesn't make sense.
Nah don’t worry a lot of people including me have puzzle rating’s way higher than their rapid ratings.
Aug 4, 2021
0
#12
Ok so
1. NO games 10|0 or lower
2. One hour a day isn't enough. Try to aim for 1 hour a day of puzzles, and 1 hour a day of games, and 30 minutes a day of studying.
3. Before you make a move, make sure to check for your opponent's threats
4. Don't play useless moves. Try to have a plan in mind.
I feel like the main thing I noticed from watching your game is that you seem to be really good at tactics, although it doesn't click in your head super quick, as you missed quite a few tactics in the game I was watching you play. Perhaps try doing puzzle rush more often, as the 3 minute puzzle rushes seem to help a ton with spotting tactics quicker in games. You're definitely a stronger player than I am, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but doing puzzles quicker seems to help me a lot more than just sitting and looking at a puzzle for a couple minutes, it's no big deal if I get it wrong as I can just try and remember why the solution is what the solution is, and why my idea doesn't work.
Also for openings I enjoy using the analysis board and going over the top 3 responses for the opponent, as well as most of the natural moves and figuring out why some of them don't work. Try openings that are more aggressive as those tend to be easier to play, just because the opponent doesn't have as many options that you need to know responses to. I enjoy the fried liver attack as white, the Smith-Morra against the Sicilian, and the Fantasy variation against Caro-Kann players.
Good luck I guess, and I hope what's been working for me helps you out as well!
Anti-Communist wrote:
BroiledRat wrote:
The rapid games you play are still only 10 minute games, which most would still consider to be speed chess.
Generally when people recommend playing long time controls, 10 minutes is the absolute bare minimum, with 15|10 or longer games being preferable.
Also, 48 hours across 7 months is pretty sparse.
I probably spend around 2-3 hours on Chess a day, working through tactics on here and in a book (The Woodpecker Method if you’re interested) and playing practice games in 15 minute time control against 2000+ engines, and then proceeding to analyze the games.
This means that I am putting more time into Chess in 1 month than you did in 7 months.
And I am not an outlier by any means.
For instance, I heard from B1ZMARK that he worked on Chess an average of 8 hours a day in the summer, meaning he worked on Chess more in a week than you did in 7 months.
I also saw a thread by Marqumax saying he was considering solving tactics for 6-8 hours a day if it would help him improve.
Both of these players are around the 2200 mark in online ratings, last year B1ZMARK was 1600 rapid and Maks was 1400 rapid.
Of course, these are rather extreme cases of improvement by very passionate and hard working hobby players, who are both aspiring for titles in the future, but that’s just to give you an example of how difficult chess is to improve at.
This isn’t to slight you by saying you are lazy, just putting into perspective the hours one has to put in to significantly improve in a reasonable time frame.
Reading a few chapters from a single book isn’t going to do you much good, I’ve heard higher rated players (2000 FIDE) recommend lower rated players (such as you and I) to read My System cover to cover multiple times to fully assimilate the crucial knowledge within.
Also, I hope you aren’t playing puzzles like a guessing game, wherein you play the first promising move you find without fully calculating the line to it’s conclusion.
Fully calculating lines is much more instructive and helpful, both for your pattern recognition (as it happens, thinking longer and harder on a given pattern has a way of cementing that patter in your mind) as well as your calculation skill, which is an important skill to possess.
Since I started solving puzzles that way I’ve become much sharper in a short time frame of about two months.
I went from being slightly worse than the Antonio bot in playing strength to casually destroying it (him?) almost every time I played in a span of just two months.
I understand that you, like many people may not have the time or interest to put in several hours of chess study a day, and that’s perfectly fine, you are still a fair bit better than average on chess.com, so even you stop improving altogether you are by no means a weak player compared to the average joe.
All in all, there is nothing wrong with you, you are most likely a perfectly competent person, and there is no secret that you are missing to improve at chess, it’s all just hard work, and the closest thing to a shortcut there is would be to hire a coach.
Best of luck to you, and I hope this was at least a bit helpful. :)
Generally when people recommend playing long time controls, 10 minutes is the absolute bare minimum, with 15|10 or longer games being preferable.
Also, 48 hours across 7 months is pretty sparse.
I probably spend around 2-3 hours on Chess a day, working through tactics on here and in a book (The Woodpecker Method if you’re interested) and playing practice games in 15 minute time control against 2000+ engines, and then proceeding to analyze the games.
This means that I am putting more time into Chess in 1 month than you did in 7 months.
And I am not an outlier by any means.
For instance, I heard from B1ZMARK that he worked on Chess an average of 8 hours a day in the summer, meaning he worked on Chess more in a week than you did in 7 months.
I also saw a thread by Marqumax saying he was considering solving tactics for 6-8 hours a day if it would help him improve.
Both of these players are around the 2200 mark in online ratings, last year B1ZMARK was 1600 rapid and Maks was 1400 rapid.
Of course, these are rather extreme cases of improvement by very passionate and hard working hobby players, who are both aspiring for titles in the future, but that’s just to give you an example of how difficult chess is to improve at.
This isn’t to slight you by saying you are lazy, just putting into perspective the hours one has to put in to significantly improve in a reasonable time frame.
Reading a few chapters from a single book isn’t going to do you much good, I’ve heard higher rated players (2000 FIDE) recommend lower rated players (such as you and I) to read My System cover to cover multiple times to fully assimilate the crucial knowledge within.
Also, I hope you aren’t playing puzzles like a guessing game, wherein you play the first promising move you find without fully calculating the line to it’s conclusion.
Fully calculating lines is much more instructive and helpful, both for your pattern recognition (as it happens, thinking longer and harder on a given pattern has a way of cementing that patter in your mind) as well as your calculation skill, which is an important skill to possess.
Since I started solving puzzles that way I’ve become much sharper in a short time frame of about two months.
I went from being slightly worse than the Antonio bot in playing strength to casually destroying it (him?) almost every time I played in a span of just two months.
I understand that you, like many people may not have the time or interest to put in several hours of chess study a day, and that’s perfectly fine, you are still a fair bit better than average on chess.com, so even you stop improving altogether you are by no means a weak player compared to the average joe.
All in all, there is nothing wrong with you, you are most likely a perfectly competent person, and there is no secret that you are missing to improve at chess, it’s all just hard work, and the closest thing to a shortcut there is would be to hire a coach.
Best of luck to you, and I hope this was at least a bit helpful. :)
Thanks! Although most rapid I have done is over 15|10. I've been putting maybe an hour into puzzles a the past couple weeks. I'm also bummed out that my puzzle rating is 800 points higher than my rapid. Doesn't make sense.
You and me both. My Puzzle rating is 1900 as of yesterday and my Rapid is 900. I've been rising in rating fast though.
Nice
Let me tell you one thing My rating for shorter time controla is worse than longer ones
Not gonna lie, that was a pretty scary story
Geez biz does 8 hours a day thats insane
------EDIT: I have improved thanks to the advice that everyone has given me here. Please do not read this initial post and respond, saying something like "maybe you just lack talent", without looking through some of the few dozen responses.------
I know there are other threads out there about not improving and being stuck, but I'm convinced no story is as scary as this. Not even asking specifically for advise to fix my problem, but mainly what anyone might think be the plausible cause(s). Here's some background. I started playing chess at age 5. In between then and seven months ago, I'd played a lot very sporadically and studied almost none. The minimal studying and thousands of games in the past seemed to have barely improved me, but eight months ago I'd decided to give studying an honest try.
I hear people say that one should easily climb past 1500 or 1600 with simple tactical skills gained through puzzles. So I started solving puzzles. Steadily improved and made it past a puzzle rating of 2000 over those seven months and 48 combined hours. I also read a couple chapters from Nimzovich's 'My System' about passed pawns, pawn chains, discover checks, etc, and went above and beyond by studying a bit of opening theory, watching masters' games, and analyzing most of my games. I play a lot of bullet, but have been doing rapid as well and trying to implement my new tactical skills, which I know I have. I encourage anyone to look at my stats. My rapid rating is barely higher than when I started my account six years ago. It is improving slightly, but at this rate it'll take a year to reach 1400.
I'm really interested to understand what's going on mentally with me. When I play against someone say 1500, they seem almost infallible. I can hardly catch mistakes and take advantage. I know they're making tactical mistakes though. I, on the other hand, exert so much energy on every move, but will slip up on one or two moves which the other player will instantly take advantage of. I think I might be a less visually oriented person than average. Is it possible for someone to just posses an immutable inability to play chess? Is this normal? I don't think I'm doing anything wrong.