Tips for Reaching 2200 on Chess.com Rapid

Hi everyone,

I just reached 2000 on chess.com in rapid games, and now I'm aiming for 2200. If anyone has tips or advice on how to get there, I'd love to hear them. Whether it's study tips, training routines, or gameplay strategies, I'm open to any suggestions.  Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi

Just keep doing tactics. Although for me 2k took about 1.5 years, while going from 2k to 2.2k took 5 years 😂. So don't expect it to be as easy

Hopefully, I can reach it faster than you did. 😂😂😂

Play and analyse your lost games.
Study endgames, especially rook endings.

i do analyse my lost games and i am studying pawn and rook endgames currently

Any tips for 1600+ to get to 2000 in 6-10 months or so, or is that too ambitious?

Figure out the main reason why you're losing games and work on improving that aspect of your game.

My friend and I began training together in May of this year, both of us at around 2050 rapid. We figured out that I was lacking positionally while my friend was lacking tactically. (Gross simplification but good for the purposes of this post.) Armed with this knowledge, we trained a good deal, exchanging plenty of information along the way. We frequently analyzed each other's games.

I reached 2300 a few weeks ago while my friend just passed 2400. (He's a lot more dedicated than I am.)

What worked for me was just playing a lot of games. And also doing a lot of tactics and analyzing my games.

it is absolutely possible // just work on your openings and middlegame play(making plans and getting your pieces to right squares) along with tactics

Yes. My friend passed 2400 in that time period too.

It took a lot of effort together. I believe I was training and studying 4 hours a day at one point.

as you can see, 2200 to 2300 took a lot longer than 2050 to 2200.

Can you share exactly how you spent those 4 hours? I'm willing to put in more than 4 hours and want to reach that 2200+ as soon as possible.

1) Analyze your games and know exactly why you lost a certain game. Keep doing this until you see a pattern. Once you identify the weakness, spend a lot of time on fixing it. I had to read a book containing an annotated selection of GM positional masterpieces to improve my piece coordination.
2) Develop your opening repertoire further into the early middlegame. Confidently playing your first ten moves is essential, especially in a 10 minute game. Know the standard plans of the middlegame to extend your opening knowledge as far as possible. It isn’t enough to have a “basic overview” anymore, go for specific line memorization out to certain tabia and know the plan by heart. (You may need to buy books and full-length chessable courses for this.)
3) Have a regular training partner with similar goals and playing strength as you. You won’t forget to practice. More importantly, you can analyze each others’ games and gain insights from a fresh pair of eyes. Your partner may expose weaknesses you never even knew you had.

4) Do tons of puzzles. You can use another site or use puzzle rush on this site. This hones your tactical instinct and contributed to my initial quick rating jump.

I spent an hour playing and analyzing my own games, an hour studying openings, 30 minutes on puzzle rush (or equivalent tool on another site), 30 minutes on more difficult puzzles (for calculation), and an hour on spectating a friend (you can learn from that too). Comes out to about 4 hours.

Hope this helps!

Thanks a lot for the great advice! I really appreciate you sharing your training routine and tips. If you have any recommendations for good books on positional play or tactics that helped you, I’d love to check them out.