Struggling to get to 300 ELO

I've been trying to get to 300 ELO using the advice you guys have given me (common sense, checklist, other things) but for some reason I fluctuate between 260-280 ELO. I know I suck and I really don't feel like trying to grind to 2200 ELO if I'm stuck at this level.

Can anyone practice, train, or tell me what I'm doing wrong?

You aren't struggling yet. You have just started playing. Chess is not an easy game to master, but the following should help you.

The most common challenges at your level are:

• Failing to do a blunder check
• Not following Opening Principles
• Playing too fast and not using your time as a resource effectively

Blunder check - The easiest way to improve is by not making simple, yet unnecessary, blunders. If you can make an effort each move to make sure you aren’t blundering your Queen will be enough to drastically improve your winrate.

Opening principles - Learn the basic opening principles:

• Control the center
• Develop your pieces early
• Castle early
• Don’t move the same pieces twice, get all your prices out
• Don’t bring out your Queen too early
• Don’t forget to develop your Rooks as well
• Don’t open up the center while your King is not yet castled (or safe).

There are plenty of resources available to learn more about them (like this one). After looking at several of your games I noticed a) you play too many pawn moves in the opening, b) you play with too much forward momentum, neglecting the rest of your development.

Time management - Take more time for each move. Don't just play random moves. You don't have the experience and insights yet to play moves in just a couple of seconds. Follow a basic decision making process. Take a moment to look at what your opponent is doing, check what moves you can play, consider the options. and pick the best one.

Time is resource you should use it as such. You shouldn’t lose games with more than 7 or 8 minutes left on the clock, especially not in the first 10 moves.

You can literally pick any of your games and you'll see that you didn't pay enough attention to these 3 aspects. But I can assure you, once you do, you'll get better rapidly.

Good luck!

Hey there!

Honestly, I think that doing puzzles, understanding basic endgames by practicing against the engine, and just exploring more tactics are a good start. Along with that, I feel that coaching from ChessMood would be best for you as well: it worked for me too! If you didn't know, ChessMood is a great resource for players at all levels of chess learning. They have many free videos, articles, and challenges that break down chess concepts and overall strategies in an easy-to-understand way. Plus, their community is super supportive of learning players, so you can get tips and advice from others using this wonderful platform! I benefited extremely from this platform, so give it a try and you'll see the immense progress you'll make through this! Have fun!

Link to ChessMood: https://chessmood.com/?r=NationalChessBlasters

Good Luck, 
HonoringStar40

I'm new too.. it took me a long time to get to 620. I felt like I was playing intense matches even at like 400. But not that my advice is worth much but..

I was playing moves too fast and not thinking about the immediate move or response after. I also was playing 10 min games and almost always ran out of time on good games. Switching to 15+ my rank went up much faster. But yea its a bit of a grind down here on the bottom lol... I will say every +100 elo so far the game gets more fun and I understand more. Keep at it dude maybe we'll be up there one day

Play longer games... Rapid games... don't move instantly... think at least 5 seconds...

We can play unrated live chess sometime if you like, but you are probably just lacking some fundamentals if you are struggling to cross 300 on chess.com; one of these fundamentals is chess "opening principles" for the opening stage of the game: https://www.chess.com/blog/KeSetoKaiba/opening-principles-again

As for the endgame, it is mostly practicing the common (theoretical) endgames and checkmate patterns and for the middlegame, I mostly recommend just solving tactics puzzles at first. The middlegame is one of the most complicated parts of chess, but tactics will help you find ways to win material at this level and is probably time well invested for learning.

Also, who says anything about grinding to 2200 rating? I wouldn't limit yourself by thinking of rating goals. Just enjoy the chess journey and keep learning and improving. The rating numbers will figure themselves out.

First of all, 2200 rating on this site in rapid is a good goal. I would like you to get to 1000 then 1500 then 2000 then 2200 rating. Smaller goals at a time first then one another step at step as climbing a mountain. A chess training routine or a training buddy in chess can help you improve a lot in chess. Coaching is another option but if you don't have any money to afford a coach, I am sure there are also free coaches around on discord. At your chess level 300 elo in rapid on chess.com, I think you should focus tatics and middlegame and tiny bit of basic endgame knowledge. You should also follow the chess principles and no need to study openings right now. Some instructive Content on YouTube like Danya, chess vibes, John bartho, gm ben finegold lectures, and others. Cool tip is you can also ask Chatgypt for help on chess materials.

hi