What goal for an adult beginner

Hello , 

I started chess very late at 32  about 10 months ago. I started from scratch, at the point I had to learn "en passant" and the very basics of the game. In about 8 months of serious practice every day I went from 900 to 1300 chess.com Elo (at peak), then took a brake about 2 months and now  struggling to come back over 1200. 

I do not believe being particularly gifted for the game but need some guidance on where to put my goal. What kind of Elo should I except and aim for about the end of the year, a year after etc... 

It seams that the easiest part of progress is behind me and it apparently do not help to start as an adult. I can expect practice about 10 hours a week, playing, analysing, tactic and some online lessons  when I have time. 

I have no clue about the average performance over the years of adult beginners like me who practice regularly. Should I expect a year of stagnation  or is it possible to steadily gain 100 elo/year on the first years  ? 

(I know the Elo is not the goal here, but it reflect what I mean by that, playing and understanding better the game )

Cheers

If you have questions you can create your Own topic 👍

I think 100 elo a year is a fine goal.

Thanks Ghost for your answer

beware he is not ghost,   he is ghost rider

I learned chess at around 30. It's been about 18 years since. My national rating is 1602 (acquired after 30 games) which to me, doesn't represent my true playing strength which i believe lies somewhere between 1800/1900 (on a good day). Also, i have been inactive since 2012. Been playing online mostly. I practice regularly (about 10 hours a week as well). I also recently switched my Black opening repertoire, which caused my online rating to take somewhat of a dive. But i feel i finally found what i want to play and am hoping to go up steadily. Not that i'm obsessed with ratings. I'm obsessed with trying to play chess well, regardless the results. I have a lot of bad days though... Anyway, maybe i can be your clue.

@DeirdreSkye Thank you for your inputs. I may need to study more endgames. Can you let me know your improvement on your first years and the age you started ? 

@Spelenderwijs  Thank you for your feedback, I understand your were active player from 30 to about 42, what would have been your progress on your first years please ? 

Thanks for sharing

No, i have only been an active player between 2009 and 2012. About 3 seasons. 30 games total. Before that, it was online playing and practising as well. So you could say i've had about 8 years of practise before i joined a club. It was a messy practise though, i might add. Not the kind of practise i'm on right now. also, i didn't really have an opening repertoire. Anyway, after 6 games my national rating was set at 1096. And after 24 games more i managed to crank it up to 1602. And then i took like a hiatus, which is still ongoing

With regards to losing, I heard GM Sam Shankland say that losing is painful to him, but it can't devastate you.   In other words, losing cannot and should not psychologically destroy you.  It hurts, but use the hurt as a useful lesson to propel you forward.

It's not easy.

People are too hard on beginners sometimes.

Sure their questions aren't perfect, but they just want some context. Dude is asking if 100 points a year is reasonable. I think it's reasonable. He could do more or less, but now he has some perspective.

This topic has good advice though, more than most topics like this.

Chess takes a loooooong time to get good at. And somewhat frustrating is it's a performance game e.g. pros peak in their 30s. In other words you can't always translate your knowledge into wins.

So anyway, when people say just enjoy playing and learning for its own sake, they're not wrong. In fact it's more an ultimatum than advice... either your enjoyment of the game will allow you to have a long term relationship with chess, or you'll quit.

I learned all the rules at 18, and improved slowly... but I didn't care. For me it was fun just to learn something new, and to play a game where I didn't fall for some trap I'd fallen for 2 or 3 times in the past. My plan was to get to 1300 and quit. At 1300 I realized there were still things I could learn and still mistakes I might be able to avoid, so I kept playing.

@Allebonx

i agree with all the replies and i think most of them gave you hope because  im 28 years old and im totally beginner and i was thinking the same as you . i felt disappointed when i think but when i read the replies on your post i think i will be better and i will always enjoy any chess game i play 

I totally agree with DeirdreSkye. Except for a brief contact in high school (a couple of months) I only started to play at age 37 as an outlet. Married with two kids, one of them with several health issues, and with overtime at work, I had to be very conscious of the time I could dedicate to the game. Now I manage to play about 5-6 tournament games per year. This, and joining a club, have been of great help. Very slowly, but I've been able to improve until now, when I'm 1562 FIDE at age 46. But to me it's all about the flow, being in a different world time to time.

At least being an adult has an advantage: it's said chess is a school of life, but for us life has been a school for chess. It helps to put things in perspective.

I am 40 now, full time job, wife and 2 kids. Started playing 6,5 years ago on this site .  My first tourney in Januari 2015. With practice, study and OTB play i have now an (dutch) rating of 1640, and initial Fide rating of 1726. 

You have to find a good balance between job/family and chess.

Here is how my rating progressed.

These days, many openings books are mostly collections of annotated games.

A Grandmaster told me that he believes with hard work, any player could reach Candidate Master level, probably even FIDE Master. Any higher probably requires some natural talent and youth. Of course, we're talking about a lot of hard work and determination, but it is possible.

I'm sure you did a lot more then that to become an NM.