Best way to get back into the game?

Hi all,

I just came back from a 2-year hiatus. I don't want to start playing again immediately, since I'd be pretty rusty. I've already started doing tactics puzzles (on Chesstempo), but is there a best way to play unranked games – when I try to find unranked games on 'play,' it seems I can never find an opponent? Is there anything else I can do (both unranked games and ways to train myself again)?

And as a sidenote, is 1500 blitz considered good (I think my best was 1600 before I tilted quite a bit)? I always assumed it wasn't very good

Welcome back to chess again

You can get games unrated, but unrated do tend to take a little longer to pair because most people play rated games. If you play unrated, then choosing a popular time control can help you get paired quicker. The chess.com popular time controls are 10 min, 5 min, 3 min and 1 min. Similar is 30 min and 15/10 min, but these typically take a little longer for me in unrated. 

To answer your sidenote, yes 1500 blitz is really good. Well, it is good against the average anyway. The way chess ratings are aligned is massively skewed because there are sooo many more kids learning the rules and chess beginners out there in comparison to titled players like Grandmasters. GMs and IMs COMBINED make up less than half of the top 1% of all chess players and all the other titled players combined make up less than the top 1%. This means that the many lower rated players bring down the average some. 

If you check chess.com stats, you'll see something called "percentile." Your global percentile is the percentage of chess players in the world your rating is higher than (this statistic only counts "active" players meaning accounts which played at least one game in the last 90 days) for that time control. 

1500 is probably around 90 or 95 percentile meaning that this rating is higher than about 90% to 95% of all active chess.com blitz players in the world! Yes, 1500 is pretty high in this respect, most players NEVER reach this high a rating...ever.

Now that I've built up your confidence (everything I've said so far is true though), here comes the reality check. Chess rating is much tougher to increase the higher you get. This is both mathematical based on how the rating system is calculated and also because the players higher rated play more accurately, so there is a smaller margin of error. Due to this, the amount of knowledge the higher rated players have can sometimes seem exponential even to a player just a few hundred points lower. 

Statistically, if a 1000 rated player were to play a 900 rated player (the gap is 100 points between them), then the chance of the higher rated player winning is identical to that of a 2000 rated player playing against a 1900 player (gap also 100). However, the knowledge gap between a 2000 and a 1900 is much greater than the knowledge gap between a 1000 and 900 player. 

The crazy part is that even at the high percentile of 1500 rating, the player at this level is lacking so much chess understanding including basically all real positional considerations. I didn't even learn about positional concepts like weak squares and outposts until I was about 1600 chess.com rating and it wasn't until 1800+ I began STARTING to really learn about various pawn structures and how to utilize them to my benefit. Previously, all of my pawn structure knowledge was more rudimentary things like try to avoid doubled pawns or try to avoid getting isolated pawns.

Chess can be really humbling in the fact that the higher you get, then the more you learn, but also the more you realize you didn't know and can sense how much more you still don't know. 

Ironically, some of the most humble chess players I've ever met are in the 2000-2200 range. Of course there are a mix of arrogant and other personalities at the lowest and highest ratings, but I've come to realize that the players strong enough to be in that 99 percentile (2000-2200 is in that realm) often times still recognize just how much they still don't know about the intricacies of the game.

Yeah, I understand there is a massive skill difference even between 1600 and 1500 rated players. I think part of the reason that I quit, was because ironically I would read books on positional chess. However, during games, even though my positional understanding was still poor, I would look only for positional moves and start missing a bunch of tactics. That's right before I left I had dropped a bunch of rating points, and I had simply become frustrated, although the main reason I quit was because I was too busy. I certainly need to improve my positional understanding a lot, but I think ironically my tactics need even more improvement.

Looking for positional moves and overlooking simple tactics against you is the story of my life xD I don't know if this ever goes away once you begin thinking positionally, but it probably lessens a little around 1800-ish I'd estimate. 

Keep at it and keep improving when you like Don't forget that chess improvement is a journey and you don't have to race up the rating ladder overnight (super amazing if that that was practical though lol).

Vote Chess in a club with good discussion is a great way to get back. 

To get back, do not play blitz.
Play 15|10 rapid. That gives you more time.