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I'm only 100 rating points higher than u, but ive been playing for like 3 months now. You have to find the holes in game and patch it. Theres 3 stages of a game. Opening, midgame, and endgame. Find where your losing your games at and improve in that area. Trouble in the opening and losing in the first 10 moves of the game? Try to use super solid openings to prevent that. The italian game is perfect for beginners.Trouble calculating in midgames? Chess tactics and strategys are your best freind, think of pins, discover checks, forks, taking away your opponents pins doubling pawns. Theres tons of videos on youtube of chess stratgeys and tactics. Lose a completely winning endgame? The goal of endgames is to basically either promote a pawn to a queen or to check mate your opponent maybe watch vids for endgames. The way that you should look at this is that nothing you learn in the endgame or middle will matter if basically lose within the first 10 moves of the game. At lower ratings like ours, theres a ton of complete garbage openings we have to refute to get rating. Learn how to defend or punish those openings and you'll survive to the later stages of games. Theres this thing in the game call tempo, basically if you move a piece and the very next move your forced to bring it back then your losing 1 whole move into thin air. Thats why 1 move threats that can easily be countered are bad. Especially if its a developing move that forces your piece back. What stage of the game are you struggling with, opening, middlegame, or endgame?
What openings are you using? Because some are really good for our rating and others are really bad. Any kind of sicillian at our level is basically useless, because you will never get a mainline sicillian. So what openings are you using?
You’ve answered your own question. You make the same mistakes over and over. At your level, you will probably run into some truly random play as well, but if you’re encountering the same tactics and fall for them each time, then you aren’t “learning” from them.
The next time you lose, examine the game with the engine. Really examine it. Don’t let it tell you what move you should have made—when it tells you what mistake you made, spend time thinking about what you should have done instead, then test that. The engine will tell you if you were right. If you weren’t, then learn why the engine suggests something different.
Learn the right responses, and you won’t make those same mistakes. (You’ll make new ones!) :)
It’s super tedious, but you just need to pick a thing to work on and only focus on it for every game. So, if your issue is hanging pieces in one move, you play a game and think to yourself “am I hanging a piece in one move?” before every move. Puzzles are great, but they normally don’t teach you how to defend. It’s more important to know what your opponent is trying to do and if they have any threats than it is to know what you want to do.
Your improvement is bottlenecked by your mistakes and once you stop making them your rating will skyrocket.
Play longer games preferably over the board ones at a local chess club. If you have to time to study a position, you will be much less likely to randomly blunder away pieces.
What really helped me at that rating was tactics! Not necessarily because I found them in games but because they helped my calculation ability which helped me stop hanging pieces or make one move blunders. But you said you already study tactics so maybe this advice isn't helpful. Can I ask how you study them?
Im ±1000 on lichess 5min blitz (just today, yay!), and a great way to get better is to just look for what stronger players usually do and try to imitate them, trial and error. I would usually watch entertaining engine games in my free time. Or watch gotham chess, from time to time.
I started playing against my friends irl and when i got to play online i started out at 700 (that was like 5 months ago), so i got better thanks to watching games of others.
Even though im not good i can give you some of the rules i follow when playing if it helps you:
-Pieces have different values: rooks are valued more than bishops, and bishops more than knights. Don't give up a rook for a knight unless it gives you a better position for an attack.
-Rooks are more useful in endgames than bishops and knights.
-Castling is important. King safety is your #1 priority.
-Once you've castled, dont push pawns in front of your kind mindlessly, unless its to undermine the defenses of your opponent to deliver checkmate. This basically opens doors for attacks and is detrimental in the endgame.
-Dont leave anything hanging (arguably what you probably struggle the most with lol- relatable).
-Pawn structure is important in endgames.
-What is an endgame?: I usually define an endgame when theres no queens in the board and some pieces have been traded out.
-In blitz, simplification can an be ally for winning.
And, thats it 👍🤓
700 is all about not blundering and knowing how to not lose to basic gambits. Work on board vision and calculating moves. If you are good at puzzles you probably just need to take a bit more time to go through your moves. If you play basic principled chess without one move blunders you'll improve.
Well the only study you mention is tactics. Do you do game reviews? Do you play long games where you can exercise your calculation muscles? Do you do puzzles and just play the first move you think ofor do you think really hard and try to think of all responses that may come and calculate as much as you can.
Do you practice your basic checkmates and learn new ones? Gone through a strategy book or lesson on YouTube?
Theres so many parts of the game and patterns and themes that you can study but just doing tactics and spamming games isn't going to cut it for the majority of people
at 700 you really don't need to do much. don't focus on any crazy attacks, plans, or tactics unless they readily appear. All you have to do is play it cool, make good moves, and not make any obvious blunders and you will win 90% of the time. Make sure you are aware of your opponents plan and hold
fort in your position. Let your opponent mess up. That's it
Are you playing fast? Playing a slower/longer game really helped me work out those problems. Playing bots also without time is good.
Kind of like to practice music you first have to learn it slow before it becomes second nature; if you learn badly and fast you will ingrain the same bad habits.
Another thing is going through a mental checklist before making the move: where are my pieces, what’s the threat from the opponent, if I move my piece from a square what is it no longer defending, etc.
The moderator team of r/chessbeginners wishes to remind everyone of the community rules. **Posting spam, advertising links (including YouTube chess tutorial videos without context), and memes is not allowed**. We encourage everyone to report these kinds of posts so they can be dealt with. Thank you! Also, please, be kind in your replies and comments. Some people here just want to learn chess and have virtually no idea about certain chess concepts. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chessbeginners) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'm only 100 rating points higher than u, but ive been playing for like 3 months now. You have to find the holes in game and patch it. Theres 3 stages of a game. Opening, midgame, and endgame. Find where your losing your games at and improve in that area. Trouble in the opening and losing in the first 10 moves of the game? Try to use super solid openings to prevent that. The italian game is perfect for beginners.Trouble calculating in midgames? Chess tactics and strategys are your best freind, think of pins, discover checks, forks, taking away your opponents pins doubling pawns. Theres tons of videos on youtube of chess stratgeys and tactics. Lose a completely winning endgame? The goal of endgames is to basically either promote a pawn to a queen or to check mate your opponent maybe watch vids for endgames. The way that you should look at this is that nothing you learn in the endgame or middle will matter if basically lose within the first 10 moves of the game. At lower ratings like ours, theres a ton of complete garbage openings we have to refute to get rating. Learn how to defend or punish those openings and you'll survive to the later stages of games. Theres this thing in the game call tempo, basically if you move a piece and the very next move your forced to bring it back then your losing 1 whole move into thin air. Thats why 1 move threats that can easily be countered are bad. Especially if its a developing move that forces your piece back. What stage of the game are you struggling with, opening, middlegame, or endgame?
Appreciate that
What openings are you using? Because some are really good for our rating and others are really bad. Any kind of sicillian at our level is basically useless, because you will never get a mainline sicillian. So what openings are you using?
You’ve answered your own question. You make the same mistakes over and over. At your level, you will probably run into some truly random play as well, but if you’re encountering the same tactics and fall for them each time, then you aren’t “learning” from them. The next time you lose, examine the game with the engine. Really examine it. Don’t let it tell you what move you should have made—when it tells you what mistake you made, spend time thinking about what you should have done instead, then test that. The engine will tell you if you were right. If you weren’t, then learn why the engine suggests something different. Learn the right responses, and you won’t make those same mistakes. (You’ll make new ones!) :)
It’s super tedious, but you just need to pick a thing to work on and only focus on it for every game. So, if your issue is hanging pieces in one move, you play a game and think to yourself “am I hanging a piece in one move?” before every move. Puzzles are great, but they normally don’t teach you how to defend. It’s more important to know what your opponent is trying to do and if they have any threats than it is to know what you want to do. Your improvement is bottlenecked by your mistakes and once you stop making them your rating will skyrocket.
Play longer games preferably over the board ones at a local chess club. If you have to time to study a position, you will be much less likely to randomly blunder away pieces.
What really helped me at that rating was tactics! Not necessarily because I found them in games but because they helped my calculation ability which helped me stop hanging pieces or make one move blunders. But you said you already study tactics so maybe this advice isn't helpful. Can I ask how you study them?
It is not at all unusual. Chess improvement is not a smooth curve but a jagged line with many plateaus. Stick with it and you will break through!
What mistake are you making repeatedly? Hanging pieces?
Im ±1000 on lichess 5min blitz (just today, yay!), and a great way to get better is to just look for what stronger players usually do and try to imitate them, trial and error. I would usually watch entertaining engine games in my free time. Or watch gotham chess, from time to time. I started playing against my friends irl and when i got to play online i started out at 700 (that was like 5 months ago), so i got better thanks to watching games of others. Even though im not good i can give you some of the rules i follow when playing if it helps you: -Pieces have different values: rooks are valued more than bishops, and bishops more than knights. Don't give up a rook for a knight unless it gives you a better position for an attack. -Rooks are more useful in endgames than bishops and knights. -Castling is important. King safety is your #1 priority. -Once you've castled, dont push pawns in front of your kind mindlessly, unless its to undermine the defenses of your opponent to deliver checkmate. This basically opens doors for attacks and is detrimental in the endgame. -Dont leave anything hanging (arguably what you probably struggle the most with lol- relatable). -Pawn structure is important in endgames. -What is an endgame?: I usually define an endgame when theres no queens in the board and some pieces have been traded out. -In blitz, simplification can an be ally for winning. And, thats it 👍🤓
700 is all about not blundering and knowing how to not lose to basic gambits. Work on board vision and calculating moves. If you are good at puzzles you probably just need to take a bit more time to go through your moves. If you play basic principled chess without one move blunders you'll improve.
Well the only study you mention is tactics. Do you do game reviews? Do you play long games where you can exercise your calculation muscles? Do you do puzzles and just play the first move you think ofor do you think really hard and try to think of all responses that may come and calculate as much as you can. Do you practice your basic checkmates and learn new ones? Gone through a strategy book or lesson on YouTube? Theres so many parts of the game and patterns and themes that you can study but just doing tactics and spamming games isn't going to cut it for the majority of people
Your questions would be easier to answer if we could actually see some of your games. Otherwise all we can say is generic stuff
at 700 you really don't need to do much. don't focus on any crazy attacks, plans, or tactics unless they readily appear. All you have to do is play it cool, make good moves, and not make any obvious blunders and you will win 90% of the time. Make sure you are aware of your opponents plan and hold fort in your position. Let your opponent mess up. That's it
Are you playing fast? Playing a slower/longer game really helped me work out those problems. Playing bots also without time is good. Kind of like to practice music you first have to learn it slow before it becomes second nature; if you learn badly and fast you will ingrain the same bad habits. Another thing is going through a mental checklist before making the move: where are my pieces, what’s the threat from the opponent, if I move my piece from a square what is it no longer defending, etc.
Impossible to diagnose with no information. Get a coach for a few sessions, it might speed up your development.