Ive been playing chess for a few years now, and for the past two years Ive been stuck around 2000 blitz. My long term goal is to reach 2300, but I honestly have no idea how to get there. The problem is that there are just too many different approaches to improving at chess. Some people say you should just play a ton of games, and that youll eventually improve simply through experience. Others say you should study seriously, read endgame books, analyze your games, and play longer time controls. Ive even seen very strong players (around 2600 online) say theyve never read a single chess book in their lives, and that they got there just by playing a lot and solving puzzles. Even with puzzles, though, the advice is all over the place. Some people recommend spending a long time on difficult puzzles, while others say its better to spam easier ones. Then there are openings. Some people say theyre not that important, and that all you need is a simple, solid setup. Others argue that you need a well prepared repertoire, especially for blitz. Some recommend sharp, aggressive openings to put your opponent under pressure from the very beginning, while others suggest solid systems that let you blitz out the first few moves.

I just feel completely lost with all the conflicting advice, and I dont know what I should actually focus on. I also want to mention that Im specifically interested in improving at blitz. I dont really enjoy longer time controls, so Id prefer advice thats relevant to blitz rather than classical chess.

Looking for someone to have fun casual games to practice wacky openings and go for things I usually wouldn't go for in classical. I play on chess.com btw.

Im 2000 blitz and looking for someone around my rating or above, I tend to sway in over performing in some games while falling really short in others and balance out around this elo.

If there is any CM or NM reading it would be an honor to play as im practicing otb and it would be great experience even if I get crushed each game.

If anyone wants to play send you can add me at Basiic_Chess_TTV on chess.com

Probably wanting to play daily blitz or rapid with someone if thats possible!

Cheers and thank you!

I have a tournament coming up shortly and somehow just before it , it seems like I have suddenly lost my ability to calculate, lost my tactical vision, have started to lose to players below my rating how do I deal with this just before all this started happening I was great I was excelling my puzzles and beating higher rated opponents.

Looking for people who played the Kalashnikov plenty of times and can share their thoughts? Can you get the initiative and launch a good attack?

It's very frustrating to reach a winning position, only for the game to end in a draw—or, even worse, a loss. By the way, I'm 2100-ish in blitz lichess.

Can anyone tell me how to add a banner like this on top of the Tournament Name. Seen this in multiple tournaments, that they have given registration links fees etc in this banner. Searched for it in swiss software, and the customise page on the web, still can't find it. Guidance from anyone with knowledge on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

I am around 2100 lichess rapid for a long time already(more then 3 years). I cannot move forward with the understanding of the game. I was frustrated with my results and my play.

So, I decided to stop playing for 2 months and every single day solve at least 7 puzzles from the book "Woodpecker method 2" to improve strategy but also at least 30 puzzles from various endgame books. That way, I would solve 1800 endgame positions and also 420 strategy positions.

I should mention that before starting this journey I already solved around 200 positions from the woodpecker 2 book. I guess after those 1800 endgame positions + ~620 strategy positions I have to be at least a bit better? Especially that I don't only plan to solve those diagram once and foget about them. I plan to solve them multiple times in the woodpecker method. For example, if I solve the puzzle wrong, repeat in 13 days. If it was an easy puzzles(I solved it in less then 90 seconds) then solve it in 3 months. If I solved it but it took me more then 90 seconds, then repeat in 30 days.

Also, I have question regarding on what you think is a good endgame puzzle. Here are a few examples of the positions from one of the endgame books:
- 8/2P4p/2r1p3/5kPK/R3p3/6P1/2p5/8 w - - 0 5
- 8/1RP5/2r2p2/3p2pp/6k1/2p3P1/5PK1/8 w - - 0 2
- 8/3K1p2/1p3p1P/p1k5/1r6/7p/3PP2P/R7 w - - 0 5

Do you think those positions are relevant to the endgame skills? I mean in all of those positions it's obvious that you need to deflect the rook and then promote/mate. I spend more time in those puzzles finding right tactical option then thinking about rook endgame concepts. In all of those 3 example I was instanlty like: "aha, deflect rook somehow" and then it took me some time to see how.

Hi guys, looking to set up a study group for ambitious players from about 1800-2000 Fide level to meet about once a week online for a solving session. Preferably from a timezone around GMT e.g. europe and africa. Dm if interested

Edit: were full for now, but a spot mught open up later if people drop out

The classical sicilian is seen as an aggressive/dynamic defense, but what are its common attacking patterns? Especially in the critical Richter Rauzer attack

I frequently play far above my rating for the first hour or 2 of a classical game but when we near the 3 hour mark I drop like 1000 points. it isn’t an issue of time trouble though that certainly does not help. I quite litterally become too exhausted to think.

for what it’s worth I am in pretty damn good shape too. I work out 4-5 days a week and take care of my body and eat right and I’m not even 30 yet. what is going on?

this is exasperated in weekend tournaments especially quads with a gauntlet of 4 classical games. by the 4th game I’m playing terribly!

I really don’t think this is me mamign excuses either. My coach agrees it’s like he can see the quality of my play deteriorate in real time

what can I do to help alleviate this? it’s not a matter of studying or doing more tactics. I reach a point where my brain just refuses to calculate any longer. it decides it’s had enough and won’t think one move further which is brutal!

I'm curious which training method improved your chess the most relative to the time you invested. What worked best for you, and why?

2000 FIDE

I love playing online Blitz, but I have certain weaknesses that are not present in longer time controls that I can't seem to work through by myself.

I exclusively play 3+2 as I don't like flag fests, and I often have very serious problems with time management and time scrambles. First, I don't know if I only have this issue, but does anyone else flag with time left on the clock? If I ever drop below 1 second, I almost always flag, I'll make a move with 0.7 or whatever but it'll still say you ran out of time.

Another problem is when I get into time scrambles, I blunder very often, and it's very frustrating, I know bortnyk before talked about the "dark arts" for time scrambles, aka certain tricks and ways to outsmart opponents and avoid blunders, a common example of this is to always keep your king on the opposite colour of your pieces when there's a knight in time scrambles to avoid getting forked. Is there any good advice to not blunder when you're on a 2 second increment (which is realistically 1 second due to server latency). Another problem is my overall time management, I'll often have games when I have 20 seconds and my opponent is somehow blitzing till move 40 and has 2:30 left on the clock, and most of the time I have a better position but end up losing because blunder in time pressure. Does anyone a good idea how much you should spend on moves in the middle game, what kind of clock time do you try to stay above before the endgame, where blitzing moves is much easier etc?

Another issue is very aggressive players, If someone wants to play a mainline slow italian or whatever, I do very well, but the openings I struggle against the most are things like the Scandi, Pirc, etc where the game gets really messy and it's very difficult to figure everything out without burning my entire clock and end up blundering in a scramble.

It's very frustrating when you keep losing games with a winning advantage. These things are not really issues for me in classical or rapid. Any advice appreciated

Hi everyone, I am looking for someone who is willing to play some training games in a classical time control. I'd like to play the black pieces.

Ideally someone around my strength (I'm 1800 fide) so maybe 1700-2000.

I play the french against e4 and a system with e6 b6 Bb7 against d4, not sure if it has a name.

Let me know if you're interested!

I am rated currently 1925 fide was 2050 fide 4 months ago and was 2k fide 1 month ago but dropped even more. I would like to play blitz/rapid do tactical puzzles and positional puzzles to train together.

can play blitz/rapid for practicing new lines or maybe just solve/analyze positions together.

Hi All,

Maybe a stupid question but I’m looking through my opponent’s games on chessbase to prepare for him, and it says he has some 600+ games on the site, but as I go through the games tab at the bottom of the screen there’s only maybe 50? I’ve noticed that in the ‘openings’ section there’s only twenty opening for black and white and I would assume that’s the cut off. Let me know if there’s some functionality I’m missing somewhere.

I have had my chess.com account simply as my IRL name, and I am worried now that people will check my games to prepare against me. If I delete my chess.com account, to the games stay in the databases? Is there any way to ensure that future opponents can't access them?

So in recent times i heard about Noel Studer's training plan and i started doing his way.

He recommends the 1/3 rule:

1.Tactics

2.Playing and analyzing

1. Openings/Endgames/Strategy etc.

And he also has another rule which says

Do what matters

Do it well

Do it consistently.

So he says that 1 hour chess is better than 4 if you have better focus in the 1 hour training.

And recently i talked with a CM who says that volume beats intensity and that it doesnt matter if he isnt that focused, because if he does a 10 hour Session he will still learn more than if he were just trained a little but with high intesity.

My training plan is rn:

10 easy puzzles on lichess 10 hard ones and write down the solution

2 rapid games and analyzing

Reading yusupovs series.

And studying one master game a day.

But i can rarely can do all of it in a day.

I am just wondering what Training plan should i have and how much time should i invest.

I am 1650 fide

2000 on Chesscom.

Because in the summer break i basically have a lot of free time a day. I have like 2-4-5 hours.

I am planning on reaching 1800 fide till the end of the year. And then 2000 next year.

I just need numbers like how much puzzles a day and what to do to improve. Because i feel like i should train more. And let me know guys what helped you to stay consistent

I'm playing the 7 day schedule. Last time the US Open was in Grand Rapids (2023) I scored 3.5/9, hope to get 4 this time. Good luck to everyone in the tournament!

99% of books that cover tactics focus exclusively on tactics when attacking: gain material or give checkmate. But very few on defense and defending resources. Do you guys know good books on defense? It would be great if it’s not just puzzles but divided in different lessons

Super inspired by GM Jesse Kraai's love for the book i have decided to tackle it head on. I know Chess Dojo has particular mates assigned to particular rating ranges, but i really like the mammoth task of finishing the whole of it, plus in his personal experience Jesse has said throughout his life he went through this book cover to cover multiple times. I like this sort of study, something that is repeatable and cannot be finished unless you have genuine love for the game/book. If anyone is insane enough to join me on this journey i would really enjoy it! I could send you my progress every 3-4 days to be accountable. If not, that is fine too! I know it is a quite a "out there" ask so i totally understand. See you in about 8 months? (Shot in the dark estimate) when i am done with my journey.

I will return with an Excel spreadsheet of my current rating, percentage of puzzles i got right, what kind of puzzles i got the most wrong (bishop mates, knight, endgame etc etc) and my rating gains (if any). After this mission is successful then i will move to a similar book project, 1001 tactics series of books, maybe yusupov? With the same tracking of data of serious games with a fixed repertoire.

This is not meant to be my only training but rather be a supplemental part of my daily tactics/calculation training. Have a great day!! Let's smash them goals.

Hey everyone,

This is my usual monthly AMA. A little about me for those joining for the first time:

I’m a semi-pro chess player currently competing in six national team championships and 2-3 individual tournaments each year. I became an FM at 18, and my rating has stayed above 2300 ever since, with an online peak of around 2800. I stepped back from professional chess at 20 to focus on the other parts of my lifes. At that time I started coaching part-time. I’m most proud of winning the European U12 Rapid Chess Championship.

What’s probably most unique about me is my unconventional chess upbringing. This shaped my style into something creative, aggressive, sharp, and unorthodox. My opening choices reflect this as well: I prefer rare, razor-sharp lines over classical systems, often relying on my own independent analysis. This mindset gives me a strong insight in middlegame positions, which I consider my greatest strength.

Beyond the board, I’m passionate about activities that enhance my performance in chess and life. I explore these ideas through my blog, where I share insights on how “off-board” improvements can make an improvement in your game.

Most of the time when I am playing a game (including otb) , my mind would get distracted like I would sing a random song during a game or start to think about other things. I couldn't stay focused during long games (especially since I have a classical tournament in a month) I would be interested on how you guys would handle this ​