What does it take to play at a 1400 level?

I was wondering what you needed to know to play at a 1400 level? Openings?

Is there a path to improve your play to this level?  What would you suggest?

You need to have a basic understanding of at least what to accomplish in the opening,for example, pick one opening for white such as the queen pawn opening and learn the first 4 or 5 book moves and then the same for black. And then as a good friend who just happens to be a national master told me..TACTICS, TACTICS,TACTICS!!!   I have a couple of comp programs I use to train in tactics and I do have to admit, one good tactical punch will usually bring your opponent to his knees!..hope that helps. The cheesmaster program has an incredible amount of tutorials to help in all ares and if you spent an hour a day working with it, you could easily reach 1400..

I completely agree with Csaw. Im in the 1300's right now in live chess. For me, I still suck at openings. I have a good grasp on the end game, but it's all about tactics. a lot of people mistakenly think that chess is about keeping all of your pieces...it's not. It's about good trades. Getting your opponents pieces into poor positions, etc. Or setting it up so that when they move out of check you can take the piece behind them, or unleashing a discovered check on them and taking a free piece while your at it. use the analysis board! Try to think 4-5 moves ahead.

I think of 1400 chess as someone who knows basic strategy and tactics but who hasn't completely internalized it all. They still make lots of mistakes at every level of the game.

To get to 1400 you should, IMO...

Study a beginner strategy book. Get all the fundamental strategy concepts in place: i.e. Don't lose material for nothing (Learn the relative value of the pieces)! Exchange pieces to your advantage. Mess up his pawns, and try not to get yours all messed up. Develop pieces in the opening. etc.

Learn basic tactical motifs: pins forks skewers and basic mating themes and endgame mates (King and Rook. two rooks. King and Queen. Back rank mates. Bishop and Rook etc.)

Apply all this stuff in games against people at roughly your level (a little better is ideal for learning... a little worse is ideal for fun ;) ... and in a few dozen games you should notice real progress.

I won't say learn basic tactics, I think you should try to see maybe 3 move combinations when you have to. Possibly even more important is getting alot of tactical experience (which helps you figure out the best way to look for them. For example, if you see your queen in front of your king, make sure it can't be won by the bishop or rook. Always analyse discoveries if they're there, they're not so hard to find as long as you look for them.). Tactical confidence is really important, in a tournament game you can't think all strategy when every few moves you lose material, they must be combined.

Also I recomend you get a good book on strategy on how to plan, that's all I did and I can make some good plans now! Study hard at it, and if you still son't understand there are plenty of strategy books to buy. Pick your openings based on what positions you like and what middlegames you want to get into. it's good to get a book that tells you about the opening and once you understand it well enough, get a book that gives you all the theory on it. Of course, you can't take advantage of having a good position after the opening if you don't know the strategy!

Now, endgames are almost as important. Get a book on that too and make sure you know at least the basics of all endgames and know how to win in the endgame if you have a material advantage!

It's not really THAT much, and not that hard either, you just need to put some effort into it and once you understand it, you'll get much better and probably not forget it. Honestly, all of this should take you above 1400 but it's still not too tough. Once you understand the strategy and have solid tactics, analysing your games is a good way to learn new techniques and improve your play. The good thing about learning strategy is that it sticks in your head and really helps you to find the right moves.

Tactics.  Really mostly tactics.

simple: don't give up material. that's it. playing at 1400 means not hanging pieces (throwing away material), falling for simple 1-move tactics (pins, forks, etc).

basic basic tactics.

 I'd second that. Also, lower rated players, for whatever reason, are like feral dogs and normally attack with wild abandonment. Get yourself a solid set-up, develop your pieces - by the time you've done this your opponent will have probably already overextended themselves, or made a pure loco sacrifice.

Persistance and learn from your previous mistakes.

Biggest mistakes even at 1400 level is hanging ur pieces, which is where u leave them on a square they can be captured by ur opponent. Fix this first and u will improve alot. This means u must take ur time to examine the game and board carefully before making ur moves. Also gain some fundemential opening understanding a good simple book for this is 'winning chess openings' By- Yasser Seirawan. and lastly learn basic tactics, such as forks, skewers, pins and so on.

The most importand to get there is simply dont let ur pieces be taken easily from u. Watch what ur doing!

I'd suggest putting in some study of endgames as well, just some basic stuff, because it can really affect how you play in the middlegame and is a good way of seeing exactly what you should be driving at. I think all the Seirawan "Winning Chess" books are great, they really helped me when I wanted to aim for 13-1400ish. I'd definitely invest in the tactics one and the strategy one (the strategy one is a great introduction, and good for this level, once you get to the next step there's plenty of other good books out there to improve your strategy). I'd also look at Chess Mentor. There's a lot of really good lessons for your level, the basic openings lessons will give you an idea of what you like and why each opening is used, whereas the mating lessons are also a must I think. Those are probably the ones that helped me the most, and then use tactics trainer to boost your tactical knowledge. You won't realise how much you're learning until you see the board and suddenly realise you can see a winning tactic!

Thanks to everyone who contributed.  I'm a 43 year old bitten by the chess bug and now it time to get a little more serious about this game of kings.

I believe I have good opening knowledge, but my endgame is terrible. I am also trying to learn tactics. But yes, tactics is the way to go, that's why I'm not good at the Tactics Trainer!

P.S. My rating is 1266, so I'm not the best person to ask for tactics advice.

glad you opened this topic..

im also a 1400-1500 player (1470 at the moment).

im not so good at openings, and i often make mistakes..but i try to work on my tactics..

when i joined chess.com (where i learned everythig i know,thank you chess.com:)) i was losing almost all of my games,even from <1000 opponents,and now i even have a 1700 victory..

the thing is..i started playing chess 6 months ago so im wondering if my rating is any good if i compare it with the time ive been playing???

 About ten beers

I am a 1350 player now. But I feel i loose concentration and do not plan ahead.

I also do not look from the oponents point of view. I know these mistakes and am working on it

tactics and noboby has said this ENDGAME they will be your bread and butter of chess

Many roads lead to Rome.  The only sure way to get to 1400 (or any other rating) is to consistently beat players rated 200+ points lower -- however you do it.  (And I don't mean by cheating!  )

The biggest thing at 1400 (like many have said) is to avoid giving the game away too easily by dropping material or walking into checkmates.  That's primarily a matter of tactical ability.  Other things like openings, middle game strategy, and endgames factor in (since no 1400s are created equal and everyone's style is different), but improving tactics will boost you up the rating scale faster than anything else -- though those other areas have to keep up to some degree.

At my level of understanding of chess, the game revolves around plans and goals which each player must try to carry out with the help of tactics and good piece positioning. And if all of that fails and your opponent looks to have a positional advantage in the middlegame, hold on and try to trade down into an endgame where your superior knowledge will lead to victory. Of course my level of play is only somewhere between 1700-1800 uscf .

heres wat i think is the difference between the rating levels

900-1100 not making to many blunders

1200-1300 a good opening and a few tactics

1400-1500 great at tight endgames, a good opening and tons of tactics.

1600+ tactics mastered opening great endgame maybe being skillful while trading off pieces.