Road to 2000 or 1000

Hi Chess family.

I've been a member for over 10 years and have been in a bit of a chess plateau for a while (years!)

Ive started a bit of a online journey of chess improvement on blitz games.

Would love your support/tips/advise to get to me goal of 2000 one day...

https://youtu.be/co7vlNpryzA 

Tips everyone's different so it's best to find way that you improve the most even if that's just playing fast or slow time controls so don't always listen to everything someone else says cuss ey might not work for you but try to take it into consideration

Though your already 2000 rapid lol are you talking about blitz chess?

Sorry for not clarifying. Yes want to get my Blitz to 2000 here, i have a long way to go!

Good luck ^_^

I was driving very fast on that road when suddenly my car broke down at around 1200.

I looked at your most recent losses and overall stats in blitz.

With white you play a weird system opening, KIA-style. While I would think this limits your long-term prospects, it absolutely works for you. With black this is also great against 1.d4 and various other first moves(KID).
But against 1.e4, you are getting crushed: Just going by all rated blitz games from May 1st to now, you perform 1726 with black, 1755 against 1.d4, and 1628 against 1.e4.
One common mistake you make in the Pirc is to play Nc6 rather than the more typical c5. So either study a bit, or switch to something else against 1.e4.

But openings aren't that critical in blitz (below 2600 or so). Looking at the actual games, the most common reason you lose is time trouble.
You are playing too fast in the opening and often missing good opportunities, but in the middlegame you often think for 20,30, even 40 seconds on a single move. That's fine if that move decides the game, but often it's just improving your rook a bit.

To fix this I'd recommend to analyze your losses with an eye towards time management:
A) Did you take sufficient time in the opening? In 3+2 that should be at least 3 seconds per move after the first few.
B) If you took a long time for a move (let's say more than 8 seconds in 3+2), was that justified? Was the position really complicated.
C) In the positions where you took a long time, what were your candidates? I once had a student who thought for 3 minutes in a 10+0 game. I asked him what his current candidates were and he had boiled it down to one candidate move 2 minutes ago! If you have only one candidate, or if you have multiple candidates you're pretty certain are all ok, play the first of those moves.
D) Make a time budget (10 seconds is great in 3+2), and plan a default move, ideally on your opponent's time. If it's not a tactical position and 10 seconds have elapsed, play that move.
E) When you are ahead material, seek to remove counterplay. You already strive for trades (good!), but also make sure that your king is safe, that all of your pieces are defended, and that you take out the opponent's threats early on.

Finally, be aware that the time budget should shrink relatively. If you have a really critical position at the start of a 5+0 game, you can spend 50 seconds. But if you have 60 seconds on the clock, spending 50 seconds loses the game, even if you find the very best move.

This is such great advise, thanks for taking the time to have a look and review.
I did notice recently that pirc c5 idea, especially vs queen side setups for white.

I will keep on going, 2nd video up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy2aHM8SGb8&t=291s

English OR Spanish!

A way (risky ) to fix time management issues would to be play some bullet chess it's not helpful for actual chess but time management is pretty important in bullet sometimes it helps me slow down in other games

I wouldn't recommend it for beginners though

So much garbage kid spam, glad you got a real reply too @foxtr1x I really like that mod's approach, which was to look for which opening / color you're having the most trouble with.

My advice will focus on how to get new ideas into your long term memory. Blitz only gives us enough time to play the patterns and ideas that exist there. TL;DR read the bolded words.

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The basic areas are opening, strategy, tactics, and endgames. I recommend picking your weakest area of those four... probably the area you haven't studied much because you don't like it, and spend a month or two focusing only on that.

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If it's the opening, then use a repertoire book / online course. Memorize the lines, but any time you can connect a move or variation to an idea, that will be best because it will stay in your memory more easily and for longer. It doesn't have to be some deep GM level idea. You can also use "silly" memory tricks like "in this variation when their knight comes forward, my knight stays back" or something similar. Also keep in mind that in the middlegame (at least early on) you'll tend to have an area (kingside / center / or queenside) that is where you'll seek play, and that play will either involve a pawn break or a lot of piece play. If you can sit with nothing but a blank piece of paper, and write down each main variation, and at least one idea associated with it (such as the area of the board you'll focus on first during the middlegame), then that's great. Try to get to that point.

If it's tactics, then I recommend you focus not only on the solution, but whether or not you're calculating many (or all) of the relevant moves. Particularly, whenever your move makes a threat, try to find ALL the options the opponent has to defend / counter attack / mess up that threat. Spend 5 to 10 minutes on each puzzle. If you spend more than 10 it's becoming a calculation exercise and it's better to give up and look at the solution, that way you can get through more tactics in a day. Every time you fail a puzzle or find a puzzle pattern you think would be fun / useful in a game, save that puzzle. A few days later try to solve the puzzle again. If you fail a puzzle more than once, that's fine, wait a few days and try again. Keep doing this until you've solved each puzzle on the first try at least once. If you end up memorizing the solution, that's fine, the point is to get the new pattern into your memory, because that's when you can start using it in games.

If it's strategy or endgames, I recommend getting a book, and reading it with two things. First is a notebook to take notes on ideas you find interesting or important. Second is a real 3d board (meaning not on a screen). Follow the book moves in your head as far as you can. Once the position starts to get unclear, put the moves on the board and then from there try to follow the book in your head again. Play through every line of analysis in the book like this. When the book has a diagram, don't look at the next moves, just spend some time looking at that position and think about what you would play if it were your game. After you've finished the book, read your notes and any part of the book that was particularly instructive or you want to be sure to remember, re-read that part of the book.

Well, for starters, pick basic openings you can easily play. I recommend the Ruy Lopez for white and French as black. Yes, it seems weird to recommend the Ruy Lopez, however, at 1700 blitz, theory is pretty unnecessary, just learn maybe 2-5 moves in the mainlines and you're set.

As for your middlegame issues, you can start by not taking as much time as you do in your rapid games (I've noticed you thinking for like 40 seconds on moves that don't necessarily need I good find -_-).

When you've got less than one minute on the clock, PAY ATTENTION to your time and try to speed up, especially if you've got less time than your opponent. Get your bullet rating up to 1500 so that you can learn time management better.

https://www.chess.com/game/live/114518278169 Here, you had 25 seconds and your opponent had 21 second, you should've tried to use your time for your own advantage! But no, you didn't. And when you're up on time and your opponent is close to timeout, don't just hang everything and expect to win. This is why I play bullet chess.