I’m 13, Losing Hard, and Refusing to Quit—Will You Back My Comeback?

Hi everyone, I’m Alex, 13 years old, and I’m on a mission to climb out of a brutal losing streak and become a better chess player. 

I’ve been grinding hard on Chess.com, but I keep losing rated games and it’s crushing my confidence. I know I need better tools—unlimited puzzles, lessons, and game reviews—to really improve. That’s why I’m asking for help.

🎯 My goal: Reach a 750 rating in 2 weeks
💥 My challenge: If I hit it, will someone sponsor me with a Platinum membership?
💡 I’ll post updates, share my games, and prove I’m serious. I’m not asking for a handout—I’m asking for a chance.

If you’ve ever been stuck, frustrated, or felt like giving up, you know how much this means. I want to fight through it. I just need a little help.

Thanks for reading—and if you can’t sponsor, even a word of encouragement means the world to me.

I’m here to grow and ask for help, not to trade insults. If you’re not interested in supporting that, I’ll move on.

Update #1: Still Fighting

Hey everyone, just wanted to drop a quick update. I’ve been playing every day, working on tactics, and trying to stay focused—even when it feels like the rating gods are against me 😅.

I’ve had some tough losses, but I’m not giving up. I’m 13, and yeah, I’ve been asking for help because I want to get better. Not for attention, not for pity—just for a chance to grow. I know I’m not perfect, but I’m putting in the work.

If you’re reading this and you’ve ever felt stuck, you know how hard it is to keep going. But I’m still here. Still grinding. Still chasing that Platinum membership so I can unlock the tools I need to improve.

Thanks to anyone who’s even considered helping. And to the people who’ve been kind—you have no idea how much that means.

Let’s see where this goes. I’m not done yet.

—Alex

(btw, i got my blitz back to 700 ;D)

I would recommend doing puzzles on lichess

Thanks for the suggestion! I’m sticking with Chess.com for now—one of my goals is to hit a 2500 puzzle rating there. Just trying to stay focused and keep improving where I’ve built momentum. But yes, actually I do use lichess puzzles on occasion and play a LOT on there. What I have noticed though is that their rating system is not correct, unlike chess.com's. On lichess, my rating is 1170, on chess.com my rating is 670 rapid. So i wanted to switch to chess.com to get a real rating.

ChatGPT?

You can play on chess.com but do puzzles and game reviews on lichess. You can actually copy over your games from one website to another using the PGN

no XD not chatgpt, just a student who spent a LOT of time writing

I get that Lichess has great tools, but I’ve found the AI coach and game review on Chess.com way more helpful for understanding my mistakes. It’s helping me improve faster, and that’s why I’m sticking with it.

Oh ok lol

I suggest finding a 1on1 chess coach

yeaah thats really expensive though

Hey, so, I don't think anyone is going to sponsor a random person on the internet. Membership is costly - and, if you want to improve, maaaybe just grind puzzles and stop playing bullet.

I get what you’re saying, and yeah—membership isn’t cheap. I’m not expecting anything, just putting myself out there and seeing if anyone’s down to help. I’ve been grinding puzzles and trying to improve, even if I play too much bullet sometimes 😅. Just doing what I can with what I’ve got.

Yo. https://www.chess.com/students will get you 50% off of any chess.com membership, be it diamond, platinum, or gold. This is probably your best bet for a cheaper membership. No one's going to subsidize a random person off of the internet as many others have said.

If you are unwilling or unable to pay for platinum even with the discount, lichess has some great bloggers with lessons. Their puzzles are also pretty good. The chess.com AI is pretty neat and makes analyzing your games easier, but it's not worth paying for alone.

If you really want to improve, lichess and puzzles is your best bet.

thx so much!!

thanks!!

Also I put this guys posts and messages into gpt detector and this is what it said:
"We are moderately confident this text was originally human writtenand polished by AI"

Also the emojis are specifically used by GPT
 "🎯 My goal: Reach a 750 rating in 2 weeks
💥 My challenge: If I hit it, will someone sponsor me with a Platinum membership?
💡 I’ll post updates, share my games, and prove I’m serious. I’m not asking for a handout—I’m asking for a chance."

Why would bro use gpt lol

nope, ive just seen that kind of thing from AI before, so why not?