Figured I'd come back here 10 months later and 100 points higher rated to summarise what I've done since:
--> Ongoing lessons with a titled player, working on 'find best move' exercises, some basic endgame exercises involving bishops, and king+pawn breaks, tactics and drilling openings/training games.
--> I did buy Checkmate Patterns Manual on chessable, which is a thematic checkmate course - I would recommend this to all players over 1400.
--> I purchased Andras Toth's Chess Principles Reloaded Course (Center and King Safety) - Probably not well suited to those over 2000 but there would be value add to anyone in the 1200-1800 rating range. This definitely helped me polish off some minor weakneses as a 2100.
--> Opening Work - continued to refine my openings placing emphaisis on side-lines where my game results were poor (ie. under 45% win rate using openingtree). Admittedly, I still play a lot of dubious and sharp openings with blank so theres only so much I can do without moving to something completely solid.
I would add that my time commitment into playing chess is probably about 50% down over the past year compared to the previous year, so that is definitely having an impact on ongoing growth, but I'm committed to continuing until I surpass 2200 blitz... another 100 points to go!
Typical study plan for a 2000 trying to reach 2200?
Figured I'd come back here 10 months later and 100 points higher rated to summarise what I've done since:
--> Ongoing lessons with a titled player, working on 'find best move' exercises, some basic endgame exercises involving bishops, and king+pawn breaks, tactics and drilling openings/training games.
--> I did buy Checkmate Patterns Manual on chessable, which is a thematic checkmate course - I would recommend this to all players over 1400.
--> I purchased Andras Toth's Chess Principles Reloaded Course (Center and King Safety) - Probably not well suited to those over 2000 but there would be value add to anyone in the 1200-1800 rating range. This definitely helped me polish off some minor weakneses as a 2100.
--> Opening Work - continued to refine my openings placing emphaisis on side-lines where my game results were poor (ie. under 45% win rate using openingtree). Admittedly, I still play a lot of dubious and sharp openings with blank so theres only so much I can do without moving to something completely solid.
I would add that my time commitment into playing chess is probably about 50% down over the past year compared to the previous year, so that is definitely having an impact on ongoing growth, but I'm committed to continuing until I surpass 2200 blitz... another 100 points to go!
Love to hear the improvement! One thing that I noticed everyone saying is to study endgames but I myself never studied in depth and I know basic principles but nothing much.
I started playing daily games and I tried out openings with shredder database. I don't play the games very seriously, but I focus on the opening and try to understand the resulting position. The new knowlegde and kind of positional openings (london, queens gambit, caro, slav) brought me from 2100 to 2400 in blitz in about 2 years. So it's not really fast, but it took not too much effort.
You may study the recently launched book "Must Know Chess Concepts To Become A Strong Player" ... step by step process is there.. Its like an eye opener !!!
"Even though it's been a day", bro you ain't stuck.
Hey Kraig, sorry to revive a very dead post, I'm seeing you got to 2300. Impressive job! I am a 2000 and have done almost the exact things that you did in your original post. It gives me hope that I can also continue to improve. Along with all the info here, are their any things you'd reccomend that haven't been mentioned yet? Thanks!
Thanks for the input @Batman2508