Keep losing at 800 rapid

I started Chess 2 months ago

I cant tell why I lost in most games, and when I used lichess analysis Im always surprised by my brain damaged moves and lose all self-esteem. Recently I lost to a tard who simply hanged his queen somehow.

I dont know how to play cozy opening, bored of whipping out the right knight.

What can I do to reach the intermediate level?

The first thing to improve on at your rating (and you are no exception) is blunder checking. You lose games because you don't blunder check, and don't check whether your move loses material or not. This relates to tactics, but is applied in a way to intentionally check if your move loses material, or results in you getting mated. This will help you improve your play, and help you not lose games. In addition to checking for blunders every move you should be asking yourself two questions before you make your move. First is why did my opponent make the move they made (this goes double when the move seems odd)? This will help you see any threats that they are making, and counter them if needed (not all threats need to be countered right away). The second is how will my opponent respond to my move. When doing this always try to see what their best would be in the position, and also assume that they will be able to figure out why you made the move you made. This will help you make better moves, and not lose due to blunders (outside of the ones made in time pressure).

Here is a couple of videos from Chess Vibes YouTube channel on blunder checking and how to prevent blunders:

How to Blunder Less

Why You Keep on Blundering

The next thing to focus on is tactics in general. I see your puzzle rating is in the 1800 range so not bad for your rating, and is probably good enough to get to 1000 rating, but intermediate players will be significantly better a tactics and puzzles in general than you are right now. Doing puzzles will help improve tactics, and books on tactics are a great way to improve tactics. Working on tactics does two things. The first is obvious. You get better at recognizing tactics in games. The second is it improves your calculation ability, and enables you to calculate faster and with more accuracy . Both help during the entire game.

Endgames are what to focus on next in level of importance. Now you don't have to go crazy, but especially if you get better at not blundering you will need to understand a little more than the overkill mates. Here is what you need to learn when it comes to endgames:

1. Overkill mates:

• two queens/two rooks/queen and rook vs king:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/inch-by-inch-row-by-row

• King and queen vs king:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/basic-checkmates-the-queen-dance

• King and rook vs king:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/basic-checkmates-king-and-rook-mate

2. Endgame Principles: Principles of the endgame article

3.King and pawn endgames: This may be a little beyond what your current rating is, but once you gain 100 rating points you will start to run into players who know the very basics, and once you gain 200 rating points most of your opponents rated higher than you will know the very basics of king and pawn endgames. Learning the very basics though will help you win games, and draw games you should have lost even at your rating.

Chess Vibes King and Pawn Endgame video

Here is some other videos that can help with building your endgame knowledge and skill:

Chess Vibes Endgame Playlist (Videos 1-8 and if you want videos 15-17)

Chess Vibes Endgame Book Study (He is going through Silman's Complete Endgame Course book one of the best endgame books out there)

Openings: There are three things to focus on in the opening. First is the opening principles. This is the basis of chess opening theory, and will help you no matter what your opponent plays. Don't memorize moves this will not help you in the long run. The second is tactics. Tactics occur in all parts of the game, and looking for tactics will help you gain advantages in the opening as well. Tactics in the opening are used to not just gain material advantages, but also accomplish one or more of the opening principles. The third is not blundering. If you can get through the opening with even material or better then you will in general have better middle game and endgame chances. When playing the opening you should be thinking about every move and how does it accomplish one or more of the principles of the opening. If the move does not meet at least one (and ideally more than one) of the principles then there needs to be a tactical reason (or to prevent loss of material or checkmate) then it is probably not a good move. If you can meet a threat while also accomplishing an opening principle then that is usually the better move.

Here are some resources on learning the opening:

Gotham Chess How to Learn Openings

Gotham Chess Basic Chess Openings explained

Chess Vibes Punishing Opening Mistakes Video

Opening Principles Article (you probably have read this already, but it is a good idea to always go over the basics again especially when your rating is under 1000)

Strategy: This will the most complicated subject, and is also the one you should focus the least on until you reach 1000 rating. I will include some resources for this area, but it is a big area to cover, and will take the most time to get competent in this area.

Chess Vibes Tactics/Strategy Playlist

https://www.chess.com/article/view/good-and-bad-pieces

https://www.chess.com/article/view/strong-and-weak-pawns

https://www.chess.com/article/view/try-your-hands-at-planning

https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-to-evaluate-a-position

Here is a playlist from Chess Vibes that goes over a lot of the basics and I think will be very beneficial for you to watch these videos: Chess Vibe's Beginner Playlist

Hope this helps.

"Always assume your opponent will play the best move" is a great piece of advice. If you play moves in the hopes that your opponent does what you want them to do, you're gonna get decimated. Your opponent wants to win just as much as you do.

However, you should also be prepared to know what to do if your opponent doesn't do what is expected; especially if they do an outright bad move. When your opponent messes up, it doesn't mean anything if you don't know how to punish it.

Not all blunders are immediately obvious. You have to pay attention and see if there is a flaw in the move your opponent played, which is very hard at times. But if you do it right, you can easily catch subtle mistakes that will quickly swing the game in your favor.

Learn and apply the most important principles of chess. - (core of my teaching)
Always blunder-check your moves.
Solve tactics in the right way.
Analyze your games.
Study games of strong players.
Learn how to be more psychologically resilient.
Work on your time management skills.
Get a coach if you can.