Has anyone reached 2000 on chesscom by playing chess as a hobby?

But even though I said "talent" to add to "obsession" I could try to be more useful too. Especially for 2,000, which is not so high (I've known quite a few of them over the years, though I'm not one).

First, learn the moves well enough to not make your one-move "oops my queen" type mistakes.

Second, actually take seriously the basic ideas like development, center control, king safety, etc. If I look at lower rated games, so, so often they neglect these things. If you stop neglecting them it's almost like magic.

Third, some basic tactics, like pins, forks, skewers, discoveries, and making moves *with check*.

Fourth, some basic strategy, like awareness of files, diagonals, outposts, etc., and when it might be good to seize one.

So I think a lot of people get to this point. It's easy to stall here. You don't make obvious mistakes and neither do your opponents. The question is what to do next?! Honestly, I should maybe not try to answer because this is where I think I am myself, but here's what I think:

Fifth, deeper tactics. No use reviewing "what is a pin" again. Look at three and five ply combos that seem surprising until they don't seem surprising. Also, look at other types of tactics like overloading, decoying, in-between moves, etc.

Sixth, deeper strategy. Look at some openings, but not to memorize the moves. Notice when the annotator says something like "it's key in this variation of the Caro for Black to get in c5, and for White to prevent it." Or, "control of the c-file is key in this variation." Then notice how often Black makes a move to try to support c5, or the c-file, and how often White makes a move to try to prevent Black from doing that--honestly, it can be eye-opening because all of a sudden you know the strategic reason behind why these moves are being made, which you used to not know.

Seventh, or maybe earlier, endgames. Can you do Lucena, and Philidor, and Vancura, and stuff about as deep as that? Deeper? Do you consciously decide whether you want to play on both sides or not? Which pawn you want to end with (or have your opponent end with), and stuff like that?

Seeing as I'm 1500 now, and I feel like I've got the first four covered, but I'm working on the next three, I think they should be good for 1750 or so if I do them. After that, we'll have to see what comes.

As said above... if you play as a kid, you might get to 2000 online effortlessly. As an adult you need to put in some work, but it's still far from being impossible.

This part is not right though. Only about 80 points between chess.com rapid and USCF at ~1700. It's more at lower levels. I'm not sure chess.com likes links, so I won't do one, but chessgoals has some pretty extensive stats that are pretty close to what I've observed irl.

I would love to see more detail. Both rating pools are pretty wonky, imo. You can see all the chess.com pools are just misshapen and can't be "right." Meanwhile, the USCF pool was actually bimodal at least for a while, and the scholastic kids can be wildly misrated.

Or, look at chess.com blitz vs rapid, which, for most of the distribution, the rapid ratings are higher, but at the highest end they aren't.

I have been playing chess for a little bit now and i'm happy with my progress

I'm playing chess for fun without having daily practice and I play just when I want. It's 3 years and I'm 1100 and I feel like a +1300. I have the same problem. I don't wanna set special times in a day to practice chess tactics. But I also raaarely sloowwly improve. Better than nothing.

I also never watch videos and never had coach and never tried to learn tactics from somebody else and never had a chess book. But I also never prefer this way. Just because I don't have a suitable situation for learning chess and prefer to spend my time for other things.

Dude same lol

ok i am only 11 iand i have won rl games of chess and i have wonn 500 times

I would advise you to not focus on rating. Rating and results will improve when you start learning different openings, when you start playing in tournaments, when you start analyzing grandmaster games. Study endgames with most avaliable resources since endgames are most important phase of the game. Have love for the game of chess. Read chess books, hire a coach and focus on improving your game, not your rating.

Thanks for your advices, but I have no intention to become grandmaster or something. I only play chess as a hobby and I want to see how far I can go with that attitude, the amount of time and energy I spend for this game. I reached 1100 now despite knowing nothing about opening, end games, chess strategy or patterns...And based on the evaluation of chess engine, I think I can reach 1600 or 1800 at best in the future with this speed.

All I want to do is to play chess in the laziest way as possible, but still be able to reach the highest result in my ability. I think I need to find another way, a smarter way in playing chess, not just spending most of my time for this game

I watch some youtube channels in my free time, such as GothamChess, TungJohnPlayingChess...and I enjoy the match and the way these youtubers discuss and analyze about the game. But after all, I can only enjoy the show and don't get much from the video, because I can't premove so many moves ahead to avoid traps or find best moves like those grandmasters. I think if I want to pass the 2000, couches, courses and time would play a vital role and they're compulsory.

you should definitely explorer some opening line and practice again and again

Yeah it took me a couple months to enter 1900-2000 it just takes practice...

i know a guy that is 1700 online but plays consistently 2100+ on game analysis and he hardly ever plays anymore. Hes played for like 2 ish years and got me into chess and now on lichess and my alt on chess.com are both 1700 but im still worse than him lol.

So far I've made $65 off of chess as a 700 USCF lol (and that was due to luck, three of the players withdrew due to drama and that put me in 1st)
I'm pretty sure that's all I'll make off of chess for the foreseeable future

i got to 2400 blitz here playing chess as a hobby that i don't even play much anymore.

I’m beginning to get the impression that the easy access of chess entertainment watching streamers and YouTube videos is driving the average rating down. When Arpad Elo created his rating system, 1500 was average. For many years on this site, 1100 was average. But the average rating on the site the past four years has been going downhill like its on a skateboard.

I do know the antidote, but I doubt the younger players here will embrace it.