You are 260, idk what you are on about
I am stuck at the 1150-1250 range.
Sort:
As a 1200, I just have to think not harder but rather scan the board more and check for what the opponent can do after they move a pawn on that side or something.
Another is since you play the Italian, which is e4, be prepared for other responses black may play and know the follow-up (coming from a guy who also plays e4).
Usually learning some opening theory will get you quite far, it gets you to a stable position. Another is just tactical/ positional gameplay because if the board is cramped then you have to have a good positional capability and tactical capability for the open board.
You can try to instigate an attack on their king and force a tactical play, or play solidly and defensively so that they can't push you back and then you slowly gain the advantage over time.
@1
"1. I haven't learned any opening theory but only principles" ++ Excellent
"the set-up I usually play is called the Italian" ++ Good
"2. I look over my mistakes briefly after a game (a few min of analysis)" ++ Very good
"3. I only started playing seriously around March 28th of this year, so 7 months ago." ++ OK
"4. My dad is a NM but I don't know how I would get him to teach me" ++ Play and analyse with him.
"5. I have chess.com diamond" ++ OK
I was going to post what I think is pretty helpful advice, but it’s a lot of words and the page refreshed when I was almost done. Dm me if you care enough and I’ll try typing it out again.
I'm also a 1250 and I can only suggest you to play some games with bots to improve your skills and then try to play some live matches
Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha that's very cool!
tactics puzzles
have stalefish analyze your games
read a classic chess book like best lessons of a chess coach
interesting anti-blunder advice... before you make the move you planned on making, find a better one
Nov 12, 2023
0
#12
Hi!
Have you tried with the help of a coach?
Please check out my post on improving at chess: https://www.chess.com/blog/maafernan/chess-skills-development
Good luck!
Nov 12, 2023
0
#13
TomekPrzemek16 wrote:
P$%p regularly. Otherwise you won't grasp the tactics.
What regularly?
Requested by the op
I think most people have the incorrect approach to improving at chess. The question to be asking is not what you need to learn to become better, but even before that, what exactly does better mean? What’s the difference between a player like you and a player like me and a player like Magnus Carlsen? And only once you understand that can you begin to ask what the steps are for getting there.
I’d propose there are three general areas which define the separation been the levels of chess players: vision, awareness, and planning. I’ll explain what I mean by these and how you can improve them.
Vision- probably the most rudimentary starting point for any chess player below 1600, vision refers mainly to noticing how the pieces on the board interact with each other (although at higher rating levels it starts to include much more). This means whenever you sit down at a board you should instantly be looking at all of the pieces, and understanding where they can go and what they can do. Noticing that your rook is on the same file as your opponent’s king, noticing that your pawn is under pressure from an enemy bishop, noticing your knight could land a fork if it got to the right square, these are the foundations of good chess vision. As you climb the rating pool you will notice after a certain point, around 1600, vision improvement sort of plateaus, with only incremental differences between, for example, a 2200 and a 2300 rated player. Still, if you’re less than 1600 this is definitely an area you’re going to need to work on. You can improve your vision simply by getting into the habit of taking time and looking at the pieces in any given chess position. You can do this during your games (if there’s enough time), during analysis sessions, or by looking through tactics puzzles and just focusing on this before moving onto the puzzle itself. Getting into the habit of looking at all of the pieces on the board will put an end to you hanging your pieces or missing one or two move tactics, both on your side of the board and your opponents’.
Awareness- this is also called intuition, but that implies it’s a natural gift, while the truth is anyone can improve it. Awareness is the ability to quickly identify the important aspects of any given chess position. This ability is an important thing that separates the top super grandmasters from their peers. Being able to synthesize a position into its fundamental points and understanding which are most relevant is a skill you’re going to be working on your entire chess career. You can take the first steps towards improving your awareness by learning how to analyze a position, and then practicing that. (I can recommend books or YouTube videos on the subject at your request.) Once you learn how to analyze positions (the formula only takes a few minutes to learn) you’re going to need to practice in every game you play, analyzing the position and understanding its key elements. When you’re able to break down a position you’ll understand what the focus of your game should be about, what type of moves you should be looking for, and what plans you should be making. Which brings me to the third subject:
Planning- this is by far the single most important improvement you can make to your game, and it’s a wonder to me that they don’t teach it to new students, or don’t spend time focusing on it. The difference between the finding best plan available and finding the second best is the only reason the top 20 chess players don’t draw every single game. People like showing the exciting tactical games, but like 90% of decisive chess games at the very highest level are not decided based on tactics that someone missed. They’re decided based on who chose the better plan. If you can learn to plan, and to plan well, you will see exponential chess development. Studying tactics and all is great, but they’re not making you a better chess player, they’re strengthening your vision, which is very important, but nothing will give you more of an appreciation for the depth and breadth of chess than understanding how to make plans. So what is a plan? Once you know how to analyze a position you will be able to grasp the strengths and weaknesses on both sides of the board. A plan is a long term goal or set of goals that you form based on this analysis. Some examples would be: I want to get my knight to g5, my bishop to e3, my queen to h4, and then start an attack against his king which he weakened by pushing some pawns. Or it could be, I want to get my king to safety on the other side of the board by moving him from g1-f2-e1-d1-c1 because my opponent busted through my king’s defenses on this side of the board. When you can do this you’re going to see chess in s completely different light. Instead of searching for “best moves” which are going to be impossible to guess unless it’s a tactic, you’re going to search for a best plan. Never again will you look at your pieces and wonder what you’re even supposed to be doing with them. You’re going to have an understanding of what you want to do with them, and you’ll always be able to think of moves to play. Nothing will give you such a huge advantage over the opponents you’re playing at your current level such as being able to choose a good plan. There are many excellent resources to teach you how to plan better, let me know if you’d like me to drop a couple.
To conclude, I’m not really sure why chess teachers today will push you to study tactics and analyze your games as much as they do. Those are nice things which may enable you to get better scores against your current level of opponents, but won’t really improve your rating very much. (Tactics aren’t even very useful without vision, you’re not going to notice the tactics exist in your games unless you can use your vision to see where they emerge from.) Teachers will also push you to study openings and endgames. These too will give you better scores against players at your level, but you’ll never be able to compete against a player with a solid plan unless you have one of your own. Never. Also, watching Levy or Hikaru, while it might be entertaining to hear the analysis, is not going to give you any useful skills you’re going to be able to plug into your games. Opening traps aren’t improving your chess skill. So start with getting into the habit of using vision until it’s at a 16-1800 level. Learn how to synthesize positions into their key elements. And then learn how to formulate plans based off of those elements. If you really want to take your chess to the next level, you need to work on the things that actually differentiate you from the players at the top level.
maafernan wrote:
Hi!
Have you tried with the help of a coach?
Please check out my post on improving at chess: https://www.chess.com/blog/maafernan/chess-skills-development
Good luck!
He makes some good points in this article BUT a teacher isn’t strictly necessary. If you’re focusing on improving the right aspects of your game (see above) a few YouTube videos or books, and lots of brainpower, will get you to a very high level. If you hit 2000 and stagnate then a teacher probably becomes a good idea.
Nov 12, 2023
0
#16
chessplayer722 wrote:
Requested by the op
I think most people have the incorrect approach to improving at chess. The question to be asking is not what you need to learn to become better, but even before that, what exactly does better mean? What’s the difference between a player like you and a player like me and a player like Magnus Carlsen? And only once you understand that can you begin to ask what the steps are for getting there.
I’d propose there are three general areas which define the separation been the levels of chess players: vision, awareness, and planning. I’ll explain what I mean by these and how you can improve them.
Vision- probably the most rudimentary starting point for any chess player below 1600, vision refers mainly to noticing how the pieces on the board interact with each other (although at higher rating levels it starts to include much more). This means whenever you sit down at a board you should instantly be looking at all of the pieces, and understanding where they can go and what they can do. Noticing that your rook is on the same file as your opponent’s king, noticing that your pawn is under pressure from an enemy bishop, noticing your knight could land a fork if it got to the right square, these are the foundations of good chess vision. As you climb the rating pool you will notice after a certain point, around 1600, vision improvement sort of plateaus, with only incremental differences between, for example, a 2200 and a 2300 rated player. Still, if you’re less than 1600 this is definitely an area you’re going to need to work on. You can improve your vision simply by getting into the habit of taking time and looking at the pieces in any given chess position. You can do this during your games (if there’s enough time), during analysis sessions, or by looking through tactics puzzles and just focusing on this before moving onto the puzzle itself. Getting into the habit of looking at all of the pieces on the board will put an end to you hanging your pieces or missing one or two move tactics, both on your side of the board and your opponents’.
Awareness- this is also called intuition, but that implies it’s a natural gift, while the truth is anyone can improve it. Awareness is the ability to quickly identify the important aspects of any given chess position. This ability is an important thing that separates the top super grandmasters from their peers. Being able to synthesize a position into its fundamental points and understanding which are most relevant is a skill you’re going to be working on your entire chess career. You can take the first steps towards improving your awareness by learning how to analyze a position, and then practicing that. (I can recommend books or YouTube videos on the subject at your request.) Once you learn how to analyze positions (the formula only takes a few minutes to learn) you’re going to need to practice in every game you play, analyzing the position and understanding its key elements. When you’re able to break down a position you’ll understand what the focus of your game should be about, what type of moves you should be looking for, and what plans you should be making. Which brings me to the third subject:
Planning- this is by far the single most important improvement you can make to your game, and it’s a wonder to me that they don’t teach it to new students, or don’t spend time focusing on it. The difference between the finding best plan available and finding the second best is the only reason the top 20 chess players don’t draw every single game. People like showing the exciting tactical games, but like 90% of decisive chess games at the very highest level are not decided based on tactics that someone missed. They’re decided based on who chose the better plan. If you can learn to plan, and to plan well, you will see exponential chess development. Studying tactics and all is great, but they’re not making you a better chess player, they’re strengthening your vision, which is very important, but nothing will give you more of an appreciation for the depth and breadth of chess than understanding how to make plans. So what is a plan? Once you know how to analyze a position you will be able to grasp the strengths and weaknesses on both sides of the board. A plan is a long term goal or set of goals that you form based on this analysis. Some examples would be: I want to get my knight to g5, my bishop to e3, my queen to h4, and then start an attack against his king which he weakened by pushing some pawns. Or it could be, I want to get my king to safety on the other side of the board by moving him from g1-f2-e1-d1-c1 because my opponent busted through my king’s defenses on this side of the board. When you can do this you’re going to see chess in s completely different light. Instead of searching for “best moves” which are going to be impossible to guess unless it’s a tactic, you’re going to search for a best plan. Never again will you look at your pieces and wonder what you’re even supposed to be doing with them. You’re going to have an understanding of what you want to do with them, and you’ll always be able to think of moves to play. Nothing will give you such a huge advantage over the opponents you’re playing at your current level such as being able to choose a good plan. There are many excellent resources to teach you how to plan better, let me know if you’d like me to drop a couple.
To conclude, I’m not really sure why chess teachers today will push you to study tactics and analyze your games as much as they do. Those are nice things which may enable you to get better scores against your current level of opponents, but won’t really improve your rating very much. (Tactics aren’t even very useful without vision, you’re not going to notice the tactics exist in your games unless you can use your vision to see where they emerge from.) Teachers will also push you to study openings and endgames. These too will give you better scores against players at your level, but you’ll never be able to compete against a player with a solid plan unless you have one of your own. Never. Also, watching Levy or Hikaru, while it might be entertaining to hear the analysis, is not going to give you any useful skills you’re going to be able to plug into your games. Opening traps aren’t improving your chess skill. So start with getting into the habit of using vision until it’s at a 16-1800 level. Learn how to synthesize positions into their key elements. And then learn how to formulate plans based off of those elements. If you really want to take your chess to the next level, you need to work on the things that actually differentiate you from the players at the top level.
One thing that I've noticed being brought up in some of the books I've been reading recently to improve planning is GMs rejecting what they feel is the best line for a continuation that leads to a position where their moves/targets are more obvious than their opponents and therefore easier to play. It seems like this is actually a big factor in them evaluating different plans and trying to find the "best" one. What are your thoughts on this interpretation?
On a side note: This might be a one-off, but I think one of the reasons Magnus Carlsen is so dominant is because there is less of a gap between "best lines" and "easier to play" for him than others. He often finds computer best moves, that other super GMs give him 0% chance of playing, very quickly. It's insane the immense natural talent he has.
K_Brown wrote:
chessplayer722 wrote:
Requested by the op
I think most people have the incorrect approach to improving at chess. The question to be asking is not what you need to learn to become better, but even before that, what exactly does better mean? What’s the difference between a player like you and a player like me and a player like Magnus Carlsen? And only once you understand that can you begin to ask what the steps are for getting there.
I’d propose there are three general areas which define the separation been the levels of chess players: vision, awareness, and planning. I’ll explain what I mean by these and how you can improve them.
Vision- probably the most rudimentary starting point for any chess player below 1600, vision refers mainly to noticing how the pieces on the board interact with each other (although at higher rating levels it starts to include much more). This means whenever you sit down at a board you should instantly be looking at all of the pieces, and understanding where they can go and what they can do. Noticing that your rook is on the same file as your opponent’s king, noticing that your pawn is under pressure from an enemy bishop, noticing your knight could land a fork if it got to the right square, these are the foundations of good chess vision. As you climb the rating pool you will notice after a certain point, around 1600, vision improvement sort of plateaus, with only incremental differences between, for example, a 2200 and a 2300 rated player. Still, if you’re less than 1600 this is definitely an area you’re going to need to work on. You can improve your vision simply by getting into the habit of taking time and looking at the pieces in any given chess position. You can do this during your games (if there’s enough time), during analysis sessions, or by looking through tactics puzzles and just focusing on this before moving onto the puzzle itself. Getting into the habit of looking at all of the pieces on the board will put an end to you hanging your pieces or missing one or two move tactics, both on your side of the board and your opponents’.
Awareness- this is also called intuition, but that implies it’s a natural gift, while the truth is anyone can improve it. Awareness is the ability to quickly identify the important aspects of any given chess position. This ability is an important thing that separates the top super grandmasters from their peers. Being able to synthesize a position into its fundamental points and understanding which are most relevant is a skill you’re going to be working on your entire chess career. You can take the first steps towards improving your awareness by learning how to analyze a position, and then practicing that. (I can recommend books or YouTube videos on the subject at your request.) Once you learn how to analyze positions (the formula only takes a few minutes to learn) you’re going to need to practice in every game you play, analyzing the position and understanding its key elements. When you’re able to break down a position you’ll understand what the focus of your game should be about, what type of moves you should be looking for, and what plans you should be making. Which brings me to the third subject:
Planning- this is by far the single most important improvement you can make to your game, and it’s a wonder to me that they don’t teach it to new students, or don’t spend time focusing on it. The difference between the finding best plan available and finding the second best is the only reason the top 20 chess players don’t draw every single game. People like showing the exciting tactical games, but like 90% of decisive chess games at the very highest level are not decided based on tactics that someone missed. They’re decided based on who chose the better plan. If you can learn to plan, and to plan well, you will see exponential chess development. Studying tactics and all is great, but they’re not making you a better chess player, they’re strengthening your vision, which is very important, but nothing will give you more of an appreciation for the depth and breadth of chess than understanding how to make plans. So what is a plan? Once you know how to analyze a position you will be able to grasp the strengths and weaknesses on both sides of the board. A plan is a long term goal or set of goals that you form based on this analysis. Some examples would be: I want to get my knight to g5, my bishop to e3, my queen to h4, and then start an attack against his king which he weakened by pushing some pawns. Or it could be, I want to get my king to safety on the other side of the board by moving him from g1-f2-e1-d1-c1 because my opponent busted through my king’s defenses on this side of the board. When you can do this you’re going to see chess in s completely different light. Instead of searching for “best moves” which are going to be impossible to guess unless it’s a tactic, you’re going to search for a best plan. Never again will you look at your pieces and wonder what you’re even supposed to be doing with them. You’re going to have an understanding of what you want to do with them, and you’ll always be able to think of moves to play. Nothing will give you such a huge advantage over the opponents you’re playing at your current level such as being able to choose a good plan. There are many excellent resources to teach you how to plan better, let me know if you’d like me to drop a couple.
To conclude, I’m not really sure why chess teachers today will push you to study tactics and analyze your games as much as they do. Those are nice things which may enable you to get better scores against your current level of opponents, but won’t really improve your rating very much. (Tactics aren’t even very useful without vision, you’re not going to notice the tactics exist in your games unless you can use your vision to see where they emerge from.) Teachers will also push you to study openings and endgames. These too will give you better scores against players at your level, but you’ll never be able to compete against a player with a solid plan unless you have one of your own. Never. Also, watching Levy or Hikaru, while it might be entertaining to hear the analysis, is not going to give you any useful skills you’re going to be able to plug into your games. Opening traps aren’t improving your chess skill. So start with getting into the habit of using vision until it’s at a 16-1800 level. Learn how to synthesize positions into their key elements. And then learn how to formulate plans based off of those elements. If you really want to take your chess to the next level, you need to work on the things that actually differentiate you from the players at the top level.
One thing that I've noticed being brought up in some of the books I've been reading recently to improve planning is GMs rejecting what they feel is the best line for a continuation that leads to a position where their moves/targets are more obvious than their opponents and therefore easier to play. It seems like this is actually a big factor in them evaluating different plans and trying to find the "best" one. What are your thoughts on this interpretation?
On a side note: This might be a one-off, but I think one of the reasons Magnus Carlsen is so dominant is because there is less of a gap between "best lines" and "easier to play" for him than others. He often finds computer best moves, that other super GMs give him 0% chance of playing, very quickly. It's insane the immense natural talent he has.
To your first point, I definitely agree. Humans aren’t engines and we can take that into consideration when playing against each other. Learning to evaluate plans based off such merits will bring lots of wins, although eventually (when you reach the the very top .000000001%) this may not be enough. Still I think it’s a very solid strategy for anyone below 2500 no question.
I believe you’re also making a very good point about Magnus. I would personally like to believe this talent of his comes from an incredible amount of natural awareness or vision. He intuitively knows exactly how the pieces and squares are working together to create whatever potential is lying within any given position. Can we ever reach this level by working on our own skills in this area? Unlikely, but with enough dedication maybe it’s possible.
Nov 13, 2023
0
#18
TomekPrzemek16 wrote:
"I am stuck at the 1150-1250 range."
I am stuck at 600-700 but I don't announce it like it's the main headline.
Bro, who cares?
First of all, I want to improve and I'm asking for help to get past that rating range.
Second of all, maybe the reason you are stuck at 600-700 is because you aren't asking for help and finding out ways to improve beyond that range?
PersonallyGabe wrote:
TomekPrzemek16 wrote:
"I am stuck at the 1150-1250 range."
I am stuck at 600-700 but I don't announce it like it's the main headline.
Bro, who cares?
First of all, I want to improve and I'm asking for help to get past that rating range.
Second of all, maybe the reason you are stuck at 600-700 is because you aren't asking for help and finding out ways to improve beyond that range?
The man is a first class troll. Or as I like to call it, an attention wh*re
Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond
Good Positional Chess, Planning & Strategy Books for Beginners and Beyond...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/introduction-to-positional-chess-planning-strategy
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell
I know that I haven't been in this range for a long time, but when I play my games. I get a strong feeling that I'm going to be here for a while, just like when I was 800. And I feel like I need some advice that can help me get past this rating.
Extra Info:
1. I haven't learned any opening theory but only principles, but the set-up I usually play is called the Italian.
2. I look over my mistakes briefly after a game (a few min of analysis)
3. I only started playing seriously around March 28th of this year, so 7 months ago.
4. My dad is a NM but I don't know how I would get him to teach me
5. I have chess.com diamond so I can use anything on cc. Along with lichess and any other free stuff online.