CM Can Kabadayi's Intermediate Advanced Study Guide (1400-1800 Elo)

Editor's Note: We are proud to present this study guide from CM Can Kabadayi as part of our 2025 Chess Improvement Challenge. We encourage interested improvers to sign up for the challenge, set their goals, and join the official Improvers club!

• NM Dane Mattson's Starting Out Study Guide (0-600 Elo)
• NM Robert Ramirez's Beginner Study Guide (600-1000 Elo)
• WGM Dina Belenkaya's Beginner Intermediate Study Guide (1000-1400 Elo)
• GM Arturs Neiksans' Advanced Study Guide (1800+ Elo)

I’m Can Kabadayi, a candidate master, cognitive scientist, chess coach, and Chessable author. This study plan is tailored to help players in the 1400-1800 Elo range improve their skills in tactics, strategy, endgames, openings, and practical play. It reflects insights from coaching adult improvers, creating Chessable courses, and analyzing hundreds of games from different rating bands.

To grow in chess, a combination of passion, discipline, and structured practice is essential. Effective training focuses on mental effort, self-reflection, and consistent application. This plan emphasizes actionable methods and resources to help you progress systematically.

• General Guidelines
• Tactics
• Strategy
• Endgames
• Openings
• Play

General Guidelines

• Desirable Difficulty: Engage in training that is challenging but not frustrating (70-80% success rate when you give your best).
• Structured Play: Use longer time controls for thoughtful decision-making and blitz sparingly for specific drills.
• Honest Reflection: Reflection isn’t just about identifying mistakes; it’s about understanding the thought process behind them. For example, ask yourself: What thought process led to this mistake? What could I have done differently? By focusing on the “why” behind errors, you tackle the root cause of your mistakes.
• Philosophy: Maintain at most one ongoing book or course in openings, endgames, strategy, and calculation. Adjust study focus based on game analysis and recurring mistakes.
• Chess.com Lessons: Supplement study sessions with lessons tailored to address personal weaknesses.
• Enjoy the Journey: Embrace learning as an ongoing process, celebrating progress while staying curious.

How to Study with Video

Passively watching videos isn’t enough—you learn by actively applying ideas! This suggestion came from one of my students on Chessable, and I believe it's a very effective study method:

1. Watch the Video: Spend 15–30 minutes watching the course content, then pause.
2. Practice with Exercises: Test your understanding by solving the exercises provided.
3. Wait a Day: Set the review cycle to start after at least a day.
4. Review and Reflect:

• • If correct, pause the review to free up time for new material.
  • If incorrect or unclear, rewatch the video or leave it in the review cycle for another attempt.

This approach works particularly well with courses that feature strong video content. While Chessable's MoveTrainer is a powerful tool, it can sometimes give the illusion of understanding by encouraging rote memorization of moves rather than grasping the underlying ideas. By extending the review cycle, you're challenged to truly internalize the concepts and calculate moves rather than relying on short-term memory. Pausing mastered material allows you to focus your energy on exploring new ideas and making meaningful progress.

Tactics

The importance of tactics in chess cannot be overstated. We should regularly work on tactical training to keep sharp. Here we need to make a distinction between tactics and calculation.

Tactics focus on short-term, forcing sequences that exploit specific weaknesses, such as loose pieces or vulnerable squares, often leading to immediate material gains or checkmate. These involve motifs like forks, pins, and double attacks, which rely on pattern recognition. When we say tactical vision, we mean the ability to quickly see those tactical patterns. On chess.com, Puzzle Rush is a good tool for tactics training, as it tests for fast tactical pattern recognition. On Chessable, “Common Chess Patterns” is also a good course to train tactical pattern recognition.

Chess.com Puzzle Rush:

• Start with a five-minute session.
• Gradually increase your target score by reviewing missed puzzles. If you are missing a particular tactical theme, you can specifically work on it with custom puzzles. You can go to Chess.com/puzzles and select "custom puzzles." Then select specific themes you want to work on. 
• Similarly on Chessable, you can track the time spent for the correct solution. You can aim for increasing the speed over time for Common Chess Patterns and can even set the Woodpecker (Cyclical) Schedule where you solve the same set of problems repeatedly with each cycle getting faster.

One thing I observed while looking at hundreds of online games between 1400 and 1800 ELO is that tactical consistency is poor around 1500 ELO: this means while overall play quality increases compared to 1200 ELO, crude one-move blunders are still pretty common. This suggests we need to not only solve tactical puzzles where we will find a win for ourselves but also actively engage in blunder-check puzzles where we don’t give a winning tactic to our opponent. I am currently working on a blunder-check course, but I also recommend Dan Heisman’s book “Is Your Move Safe?” to reduce blunders.

Tactical training can easily be incorporated into the daily routine with a minimum of 15 minutes/day. It is good to start the training with a tactics warmup, for example, a Puzzle Rush session. 

Calculation, on the other hand, is the broader skill of visualizing and analyzing move sequences, considering both your plans and the opponent’s resources. It involves mentally simulating variations, assessing the resulting positions, and making optimal decisions. While tactics often involve forcing moves, calculation involves both tactical and non-tactical scenarios, such as transitioning to favorable endgames or improving piece positions (quiet calculation).

To mimic a real game environment, calculation training should involve mixed puzzles, combining tactical and positional problems. This approach prevents isolation and fragmentation of skills. That’s why I structured my award-winning Chessable course, “Fundamental Chess Calculation Skills,” in this way—it has received great feedback from intermediate players in the 1400–1800 Elo range. Azel Chua’s Chessable course “Calculation” is also a good resource, especially when it comes to identifying targets and building a good nose to smell the tactical cues.

Take your time with calculation puzzles, giving yourself around 10–15 minutes per problem. Accuracy is more important than speed with calculation training. Writing down your solution before checking the answer is a great way to hold yourself accountable. Good authors also explain alternative moves and analyze the likely causes of typical mistakes, helping you understand and address recurring errors (you can keep a calculation mistake log to take note of such errors).

Tactics Journaling

Document frequently missed patterns—backward moves, defensive tactics, thought-process errors such as wishful thinking, or calculation mistakes such as poor evaluation or not generating several candidate moves. Review these weekly to track progress.

Strategy

Based on my observations, awareness of weak squares and weak pawns begins to emerge around the 1200 Elo mark. Between 1400 and 1800 Elo, players experience a significant improvement in strategic vision, and they develop a "feeling for the pieces"—quickly recognizing whether a piece is good or bad on a given square. Players also start forming long-term plans, such as exploiting weaknesses or maneuvering knights to outposts. This progress often coincides with a deeper understanding of typical middlegame plans in their preferred openings. By the 1800 Elo range, players may even sacrifice material to prioritize piece activity and coordination. For this rating band, focusing on strategy pays significant dividends.

Just like tactical patterns, chess also has recurring strategic/positional patterns. Spaced repetition is an excellent tool for learning these patterns effectively. For example:

• Undermining operations: Using a pawn move to create an outpost for a piece.
• Clearance sacrifices: Giving up a pawn to liberate a piece or open a critical square.
• Pawn play to bury an enemy piece.

These concepts are central to my Chessable courses “The Art of Awakening Pieces” and “The Art of Burying Pieces” which focus on improving piece activity through key strategic patterns. Intermediate players benefit greatly from understanding how pawn play directly connects to piece activity and restriction.

For intermediate players looking to strengthen their strategic foundation, I also recommend these resources:

• Simple Chess by GM Michael Stean
• Chess Strategy for Club Players by IM Herman Grooten
• The Art of Exchanging Pieces by myself

Here are recommended Chess.com resources on strategy:

• Name Your Pawns by GM Simon Williams
• Breaking Down Closed Positions by GM Jon Ludwig Hammer
• Master Material Imbalances by WGM Tatev Abrahamyan

Apply Concepts in Games

Testing strengthens memories and improves learning. So use every chance to test yourself and fight against the illusion of learning. You can also save important patterns and details you learned during training and create a Chessable course from them. Then revisit them regularly to internalize them. 

• Practical Implementation: Use ideas from the course in your games. For example, focus on maneuvering pieces to weak squares or executing pawn breaks learned in the course.
• Game Reviews: After your games, check if the strategic principles were correctly applied. Adjust your study focus based on these findings.

Example of a Strategy Course Study Routine

• Daily (15-30 minutes): Watch a lesson from a strategy course like The Art of Awakening Pieces.
• Daily (15 minutes): Practice related exercises, focusing on one theme (for example, undermining squares).
• Weekly (1 hour): Play training games to practice applying strategic concepts, followed by reviews.
• Reflect: Maintain a journal of recurring strategic errors and revisit related lessons or exercises.

Endgames

At the intermediate level, endgames become increasingly frequent and impactful. Investing time in endgame study at this stage can significantly boost your confidence and practical results. As a coach, I’ve observed that intermediate players often struggle with converting advantageous endgames. Addressing these issues can give you a significant edge over your peers. Endgame training reinforces positional understanding and ensures effective transition from middlegames. Focus on both theoretical and strategic endgames.

Many players around 1500 Elo struggle with handling rooks in endgames. They often prioritize materialism, refusing to sacrifice a pawn for activity, which leads to passive defense. Just like developing the skill of converting an advantage, endgame improvement happens most with practical experience. Playing instructive sparring positions involving rook endgames against training partners can greatly improve rook endgames, which are the most frequent endgame types in chess.

Daily (15 minutes):

Incorporate light endgame drills into your daily routine to reinforce basic concepts. Use Chess.com/endgames to practice foundational positions (for example, Lucena, Philidor) or imbalanced scenarios such as rook vs. two minors, knight vs. bishop endings, etc. These short, focused exercises are ideal for maintaining familiarity with core techniques.

Weekly (1 hour):

Dedicate one focused session to more in-depth study and practice. Use resources like Silman’s Complete Endgame Course or Mastering Endgame Strategy by Hellsten. Practice rook endgame positions against an engine or sparring partner, focusing on converting advantages or defending difficult positions.

Openings

At the intermediate level, real progress comes from understanding typical middlegame plans that arise from your chosen openings. This ties directly into the improvement of your strategic understanding, as discussed earlier. When studying your openings, ask yourself these questions:

• What pawn breaks am I playing for in this opening?
• Which piece exchanges favor me in this structure?
• What are the ideal squares for my pieces?
• What is my strategic goal in this opening?

By connecting these strategic ideas to concrete moves, you gain a deeper understanding of your opening and its philosophy. Knowing the spirit of your opening, rather than just memorizing moves, increases your confidence and helps you navigate unfamiliar positions or transpositions more effectively.

Choosing and Studying Openings

At this level, pick openings that you genuinely enjoy playing. Chess styles begin to emerge here, with players showing preferences for aggressive (attacking) or quiet (positional) setups. Choose openings that align with your style. 

Spaced repetition, such as through Chessable courses, is excellent for memorizing theory. However, ensure the course is tailored to your level and doesn’t overwhelm you. Look for authors who explain moves in-depth and carefully consider the instructional design.

Daily (15 minutes): Review moves in your opening repertoire using Chessable’s spaced repetition system.

Here are recommended Chess.com resources related to openings:

• Every Pawn Structure Explained by GM Johan Hellsten
• Every Opening Trap To Crush Your Opponent by GM Ben Finegold
• Learn Every Chess Opening

Other ways to learn openings:

• Active Recall (Weekly, 15 minutes): Practice recalling moves by setting up the initial position and generating the opening moves in your opening files for both sides from memory. Active recall strengthens learning by forcing your brain to work without relying on cues, ensuring you don’t confuse recognition with true understanding.
• Guess-the-Move Training (Weekly, 1-2 hours): Study instructive games by model players who excel in your chosen opening. Actively guess their moves throughout the game, focusing on the opening-middlegame connection. This method prioritizes quality over quantity, as you spend significant time analyzing a single game in depth. You can accompany it by quickly looking at many master games in your openings. This focuses on quantity over quality, and it will improve your intuition about typical piece placements and middlegame plans in your openings.
• Blitz Games (8-10 games max in one session): Blitz games are useful for drilling your openings in practical situations. Every blitz game involves an opening stage, providing frequent opportunities to practice and encounter typical responses at your level. After each game, reflect on one takeaway: “What would I do differently if my opponent played the same moves again?” Update your opening files with these lessons, improving one move at a time.

PLAY

1. Importance of Playing Games

Playing bridges the gap between study and practical skills. Opt for classical or rapid games with increments to promote thoughtful play. In OTB tournaments, the stakes and focus are higher. Avoid treating classical games like blitz; divide your time wisely to make deliberate decisions.

2. Blitz Games in Moderation

For players above 1400 Elo, blitz can be useful for openings or tactical drills if limited to eight to 10 games a day. Extract one actionable lesson per game to maintain quality over quantity.

3. Analyzing Your Games

Focus on identifying and understanding different mistakes. Take losses as opportunities for growth.

• Reflect deeply: Were you confident in the opening? Hesitant in critical moments?
• Look beyond engine suggestions and identify thought-process errors.
• Note recurring mistakes (e.g., ignoring threats or poor blunder-checking) and their root causes.
• Working with a coach can significantly speed the process of identifying important knowledge gaps.

4. Turning Mistakes into Lessons

Transform mistakes into actionable habits:

• Create flashcards or a Chessable course of instructive mistakes for spaced review.
• Develop a small checklist to remind yourself of the processes that are not automatic. Keep it simple—focus on two or three key items at a time to avoid overwhelming your working memory.
• Assume every mistake highlights a skill gap and don’t dismiss them as silly blunders—was it overconfidence, lack of pattern knowledge, or time management?

5. Track Progress

Maintain a learning log to monitor areas like puzzle accuracy, blunder reduction, time management, the rate of converting better endgames, etc.

6. Find Community

Chess is less solitary within a community. Join groups like Chess.com's Improvers club or Chesspunks to stay motivated, find sparring partners, and exchange ideas. Teaching and sharing progress within a supportive network reinforces learning and keeps you accountable.

Weekly Training Plan

Below is a tentative weekly training plan for players having around eight hours a week for chess study. Tactical training can be spread throughout the week and not only for the Puzzle Rush slot. It is very easy to solve tactical puzzles (mind its distinction from calculation) and you can do them while commuting, etc. 

A classical game with post-game analysis and log updates totals a minimum of 2.5 hours. If you have limited time, consider separating the game and the analysis/log updates into two sessions. 

Suggestions to Fit Different Schedules

• For 5–6 hours/week:
  • Halve the time for strategy and endgames.
  • Limit blitz.
• For 10+ hours/week:
  • Extend strategy and endgame sessions.
  • Add additional sparring games or rapid and classical games.
  • Increase the guess-the-move training and treat it like a real game.