What can I do to improve my game as a 550??
Losing games is part of chess, have a quick look at how many losses I have to my name. So you should try not to get upset when you lose. Pushing past 1100 requires a lot of practice and practice of the same kind of position, I only know how to play because I have experienced the same scenario hundreds of times.
For that, you need to play hundreds of games and give careful consideration to where the game goes right or wrong for you (using the elo in self analysis), you need to think about what you could have done better and why it is better when you’re not playing so that when you are playing you don’t make the same mistakes or you do take a similar approach if it is good.
An example here for you would be that as black I would always fall for the Greek gift sacrifice, I fell for it about 100 times before I thought okay, maybe I need to prevent the knight from getting to g4 or take out the white bishop, or change my move order a little bit, you get the gist… I still sometimes fall for it though but not as much.
I looked at some of your recent games and your openings were mostly fine, but your losses were mostly decided by one-movers and counting/calculation mistakes, and tunnel vision. This is pretty common at beginner level. You should probably work on your board vision, especially try to improve an eye for one-move blunders like leaving pieces hanging, or accidentally undefend your attacked knight by closing off it's connection with queen etc. If you lose a game, make sure to review your games and try to figure out where you've gone wrong, and how you could've prevented it. I'm sure a decent improvement in your vision and awareness out of all skills will have benefit for your chess.
Other than that, you should focus on following the most important principles like king safety (number 1 priority), activate and include all your pieces organized etc.
I would recommend not getting involved in opening theory until you get into intermediate area, because I believe someone should stay away from any kind of memorization until they get to a certain point, since they might be hurtful. Just trust yourself and make natural, developing moves.
I would also recommend not getting too worried about your rating, since you've already proven you deserve to be 750 the moment you hit it. So it's just a matter of practice and time before you bounce back. Stay strong and be confident! Confidence and joy are the most important elements in chess!
tactics mostly. protecting against them and applying them on your opponent.
developing pieces to good squares that contribute somethings to the game.
always stay even in material as the game progresses.
Stop worrying about ratings. As someone said earlier, study chess principles. I just don't understand why everyone here is fixated on their rating. Learn how to play sound chess. Study great players of the past like Tal, Capablanca, Fisher, Reshevsky, etc. Play through their best games and try to understand why they made the moves they made. Having a rating just to have it is a waste of effort. Becoming a better chess player is a lifelong process. You must start by loving the game. There are no shortcuts.
Instead of creating new account after new account and getting the same result with each one, put in the work to become better. Improving does not just happen automatically when you play a few hundred blitz games.
Studying a book like Chernev's "Logical Chess: Move by Move" will help you. The author presents a number of games and explains the reason for each move in each game.
Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond.....
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond
This is just my opinion, but I hope it helps :
1)
I saw your games and found out you sometimes make mistakes that allow your opponent get your pieces (such as pawns) for free. You must not allow your opponent to get any of your piece for free, and if you allow that, you have to earn another advantage like piece development.
2)
More important thing is you can be much better when you understand the connection between pieces in attacking and defending. For example, in the game you played with FulanoPaes (in 24.2.12), 11...Bb4+ 12.Nd2 white's knight is attacked by your bishop and protected by king and queen, and cannot move because of your bishop, so you can play 12...Ne4, attack the knight with your knight. White cannot make other pieces defend his knight (if he pushes c pawn to block bishop, then simply takes it with your pawn, and if white captures it with b pawn, recapture. If white do not capture your pawn and move his knight, he will lose because if you push your c pawn, you will attack his king and queen at the same time so lose his queen...) so you can capture the knight with your bishop for free! White cannot capture your bishop because he will lose his queen. (+ if white king give up his knight and moves to f1, taking the knight with your knight will be better than taking it with your bishop, because it is check so white has to use one more move to make his king safe. It is losing of tempo.)
(+ there is alternative : 12.Nd2 and white's bishop cannot move because of your rook, so you can push your f pawn and d pawn to attack bishop, white captures them with his pawns and make weaknesses of double pawn and isolated pawn... and when after you develop your knight to d4, white will lose his bishop. This is engine line maybe
)
Well... because of explanation, it could feel too complicated, but what I mean is when you attack or depend, just calculate how many pieces are attacking the target and how many pieces are depending. It will be better if you start thinking which piece can reinforce attacking or defending.
3)
One more important thing is understanding of control of the space. Control means you have piece which attacks that space. If you are white and play 1.e4 then you are controlling d5 and f5. In openings, good players make strong pawn structure which control the center of the board and do not let their opponents break it, or move their minor piece to good space which can make them control lots of spaces. (Think of knight in c3 and f3. They control a lot of spaces, and also control the center, supporting their pawns. In the case of bishop, take a good diagonal.)
So, do not only concentrate on how to attack, just make strong structure and make your pieces stronger. Just attacking is not a good choice in opening in most cases... For example, when I meet lower ratings (I dont know exactly but maybe 1200-1400?) they often take out their queen to make scholar mate (I think they usually defend on tricks
), then I defend my piece and attack the queen with developing my knight, my opponents have to move their queen so lose tempo. If they do not carelessly take their queen out like good players do, there will be no chance for me to developing for free.
So... moving the same piece several times in opening means you use one chance which can be used for developing another piece. When you move your piece (not developing) to attack opponent's piece, and opponent defends it with developing his piece, then you are falling behind. (If you attack with developing your pieces, it is very good
Maybe your opponent will defend with developing, and it is the way opening is done.)
4)
Actually, you don't have to listen carefully what I said above at this moment, because in 500-700 ratings mistake occurs often in missing pieces for free. So, when your opponent move his piece, just check which pieces are attacked by his move and depend the piece which is not protected. This is very simple, but also the most important thing in chess.
5)
I mentioned about the opening a lot, but I don't think you have to learn openings deeply. Of course opening is important, but tactic principles like what I said are much more important so you can raise your rating just following them.
When you follow them and want to be better, then I recommend to learn opening for first 4-6 moves. You don't need to learn more now. Even 1400 ratings know first few moves about opening, and some of them never studied about it.
But if you learn it, you can take advantage in early phase and know how to treat opponents. For example, In the game you played with Leodan235713 (in 24.1.30), the opening is Ruy Lopez, and when white captures your knight with bishop (4.Bxc6), you can capture it with your d pawn (which is main line in exchange variation). And if white's knight capture your e5 pawn and you know about the opening, you can know that it is a bad move because you can move your queen to d4, attack the knight and pawn in the same time, after white make his knight safe, you capture his e pawn and check. White king has to move and it makes him cannot castle anymore. If white queen blocks the check, you just capture it and it is same. White king has to move to capture queen and cannot castle.
For learning openings, you don't have to buy books. I think books are for 1700+. You can find good lectures in Youtube like Gothamchess or Chessvibes, and it is enough.
(If you want to buy book, my recommedation is Modern Chess Openings. It shows a lot of openings with good description.)
So, for conclusion... 4) is the most important now. 4 > 2 > 5 > 3 > 1. Care about basic tactics, and when you become better, learn about tactics like pin, fork, discovered attack, ... and after, learn concept of double pawn, isolated pawn, passed pawn... then you will be stronger.
As a player who stuck in 1750 in rapid, I feel like 1800 is a wall so I understand what you feel... but do not stressed by rating so much. The most important thing is not stressed by chess and having fun with playing it.
Well, this is all I want to say. Have a good day!
Always check your intended move is no blunder before you play it.
Do not play your intended move, but imagine it played.
Then take some time to check it is no blunder: does not lose any piece or pawn, does not run into checkmate.
Only then play it.
That little mental discipline alone is enough to reach 1500.
Always check your intended move is no blunder before you play it.
Do not play your intended move, but imagine it played.
Then take some time to check it is no blunder: does not lose any piece or pawn, does not run into checkmate.
Only then play it.
That little mental discipline alone is enough to reach 1500.
Unrealistic
This is my second account. On my first account, I had a progression from 600 to 750. The problem was that I got a lot of anxiety while playing games because of my rating, so I decided to try to create a second account in which I didn't care about the rating as much. But my rating now is 550?? I don't know what happened to me, now 500 rated players seem just almost perfect at chess. If someone reviews some of my games and tell me what's wrong with me, I would be very grateful, thank you