Breaking 800-1100: Seasoned Novice Seeks Suggestions ( 1500+ games..)

I originally posted this to - 'Why is my rating so low' I think perhaps I'm speaking from a slightly different perspective having played chess all my life, and regularly over the last few years, it's not so much why's my score low, but can anyone suggest or advise on how to take my chess to *the next level* (I find books impossible to follow, I'm really hoping for active feedback) FIRST: So I know that disconnecting is affecting my rating somewhat ...and my intuition says that although I try and match players +200 from me, the matching system rarely pits me against anyone more than 50-100 higher than me..so I don't get the benefit that comes from playing higher ranked players..AND I know the odd blunder does me in..HOWEVER after 1500 + games over the last couple of years I've been stuck in the same low narrow and narrow bracket.. PLEASE would anybody be willing to maybe play me or help me analyse some of my games (whatever might help) and to help me find out how I might sure up my game ?? Thanks for taking the time to read.

Ａ

I responded in that other thread too! Count me in to play/analyze.

I agree that books are terrible. I don't know who thought that paragraphs of notation was a good idea, and maybe they are if you're really strong, but for the rest of us it's just torture.

Just telling you now- getting better's going to be half analysis and understanding, and half huge volumes of games.

Which? I just played (and lost) against a far superior opponent...if anyone has a bit of time to look at the game I just played Vs DeirdreSkye I'd really appreciate some input..thanks :)

oh right yeah there are 3 we had a couple of false starts

it's the most recent one

not that one! lol it went over 40 moves

First of all, anyone who has been stuck at a rating for a long time often has some aspect of chess they don't like. They find it boring, or confusing, or etc but they don't like it, so they've avoided it... but now they're being held back by their weakest area.

 

Secondly, since you're rated a bit low (no offense) you probably haven't focused enough energy on short term accuracy. "What does my opponent's move threaten?" and then before you move "Is my intended move safe?"

Everyone asks these questions sometimes, but the goal is blunder check 100% of your moves in 100% of your games... and that kind of habit tends to be terribly tedious to form. For example an hour (or more) a day solving untimed tactic puzzles with the goal of accuracy.

When you solve for accuracy, you're not training tactics as much as you're training good calculation habits. Like looking for ALL the checks and captures available in the position. Clearly defining in your mind what your intended move threatens, and then looking for all the ways your opponent can defend against that threat.

I like to use pawns to illustrate, so for example consider the position below where black plays 2...d5

 

Lets pretend you're black and you're trying to predict white's move.

Well most low rated player only consider capturing. So they'll only calculate pawn takes pawn, then knight takes pawn, and that will be the basis for their choosing d5 as a good move.

But white has 4 types of moves.

1) Capturing (exd)
2) Defending (like Nc3 or Ne2)
3) Playing a counter threat (e5)
4) Ignoring (like Nf3)

 

In particular ignoring is a good one to check for because it verifies your threat is real. Many times players lie to themselves and say "my opponent must respond this way" but in reality they can ignore it.

---

Anyway, I didn't mean for this to turn into such a long post.

To sum it up:

1) If you're stuck at a rating, focus on your weakest area, likely the area you've been avoiding
2) At low ratings good calculation habits are tedious to form, but everyone has to do it before moving on.

Looking at 1 win and 1 loss (that were over 30 moves) I immediately notice you're not following the opening principals.

So first of all I think you should read this:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-principles-of-the-opening

 

And then challenge yourself in games to follow the opening principals as best you can.

In short, the opening principals are:

1) Center control (place and maintain a pawn in the center)
2) Speed (develop your knights and bishops off the back rank in as few moves as possible)
3) Castle to safety (usually to a side where the 3 flank pawns are still on their original squares)

---

Maybe you've heard this before and don't like it. Maybe it seems too restrictive and you'd rather do your own thing, but remember you have be willing to fundamentally change the way you play if you're stuck at a rating.

It doesn't have to be for the rest of your chess playing life, but for a while, try it out. Challenge yourself to follow the opening principals for their own sake (i.e. not because you understand or like them). After a game is over, go over the opening move by move to see how well you followed them.

I'm happy to help out. Let's look at this game you played a few days ago where you lost to an opponent below 1200 rating in a 30 minute game. I've annotated the game for you:

 

 

Here you go.

Based on that game I think you have some real potential for development. The biggest issue is your opening, where you are playing too carefully and slowly, giving control of the centre too easily. You didn't make any big mistakes tactically (apart from taking the pawn on d4 on move 19), but positionally you were struggling quite a bit.

I think swithing to playing e4 or d4 openings, with very direct play on the centre will benefit your chess knowledge and skills much faster. So just follow the basic principles, try to control the centre with your pawns, develop and get king to safety, and then continue from there. If you can play as well as against Deirdre in terms of not giving up free material, you should easily get 1200+ in rating fairly quickly.

You also missed 18 ... Qxg5, after which you'd have been winning

Great post, thanks for taking the time to post that.

I'm happy to play some unrated games with you, 30 mins, where we can talk about what's going through your head.

 

I'm still pretty much beginner level myself (rapid:1400) but I know a little theory, strategy and well, the offer is there. I've tutored IT and english and find it actually helps me as well, so I think helping someone out would help me too.

 

just send me a friend request if you fancy and I'll send you a challenge next time we're both on.

"... Just because a book contains lots of information that you don’t know, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be extremely helpful in making you better at this point in your chess development. ..." - Dan Heisman (2001)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140626180930/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman06.pdf
"... The books that are most highly thought of are not necessarily the most useful. Go with those that you find to be readable. ..." - GM Nigel Davies (2010)
"... If it’s instruction, you look for an author that addresses players at your level (buying something that’s too advanced won’t help you at all). This means that a classic book that is revered by many people might not be useful for you. ..." - IM Jeremy Silman (2015)
https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-best-chess-books-ever
"... [annotated games are] infinitely more useful than bare game scores. However, annotated games vary widely in quality. Some are excellent study material. Others are poor. But the most numerous fall into a third category - good-but-wrong-for-you. ... You want games with annotations that answer the questions that baffle you the most. ..." - GM Andrew Soltis (2010)