I've been playing many games on ICC, FICS, Playchess.com, InstantChess.com, Yahoo! Chess and ChessLive. In the past few weeks, I've consistently beaten most 1700 (or below) rated players. However, I've only been able to pull draws against those rated 1900+. Thus, based on my online performance. (which I know is not equvalent to FIDE or USCF ratings) I am well into the 1600s. However, my primary goal is t achieve Expert level and get to 2000.
I have an opening book for black, I ordered one for white and I've also ordered an endgame book. Finally, I purchased a middlegame book, "Reassess Your Chess." So far I've only studied about 1/2 of the black opening book. I plan to methodically plow through all of these books.
What more can I do to improve my play and achieve an Expert rating?
This is the kind of question that everyone has to find their own answer to, but here are a few ideas based on my own experience :
Analyse your games, especially those where you lose or make mistakes.
Ask your opponents for their comments after the game (and tell them that you're trying to improve your chess).
Make an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses. What do you do well ? What things often go wrong ? Then focus your efforts on working on your weaknesses.
Think about your opening repertoire. Are there any openings that have been less successful than others ? Which openings are better suited to your particular strengths ? A good aim would be to learn one new major opening which you can add to your repertoire.
Join a chess club. You're likely to learn more with having the discipline of sitting down for three hours face to face with one opponent.
Originally posted by exigentskyI got to 2000 in a few rating catagories on ICC. Right now im 1950 in blitz.
I've been playing many games on ICC, FICS, Playchess.com, InstantChess.com, Yahoo! Chess and ChessLive. In the past few weeks, I've consistently beaten most 1700 (or below) rated players. However, I've only been able to pull draws against those rated 1900+. Thus, based on my online performance. (which I know is not equvalent to FIDE or USCF ratings) I am ...[text shortened]... ll of these books.
What more can I do to improve my play and achieve an Expert rating?
I never really studied openings much.
What i found helped was studing tactics from a book. Puzzles, games, etc.
Along with tactics, a good book on strategy, like seirawan, or nimzovich. also helps compliment the tactics.
Nothing helps your rating like combinations. Understanding chess is good too, but forcing moves are hard to beat
Originally posted by exigentskyI have the same goal but for OTB ratings though. I started a blog to document my chess progress from now until then and also because I frequently crash my computer on purpose and don't want to lose my stuff. Almost done setting it up.
I've been playing many games on ICC, FICS, Playchess.com, InstantChess.com, Yahoo! Chess and ChessLive. In the past few weeks, I've consistently beaten most 1700 (or below) rated players. However, I've only been able to pull draws against those rated 1900+. Thus, based on my online performance. (which I know is not equvalent to FIDE or USCF ratings) I am ...[text shortened]... ll of these books.
What more can I do to improve my play and achieve an Expert rating?
Besides the usual, I think learning your openings is important at this stage since you have a good grasp or tactics and strategy already.
To quote somebody else on this site--and Steve Lopez from ChessBase:
"1. Study tactics!!! Chess is mostly short-term tactics.
2. Study endgames. Studying endgames is incredibly boring, but it's almost as important as learning tactics. It's good to know how to win (or draw!) in an endgame. Endgame study separates men from the boys. Spend most of your time on those two subjects: tactics and endgames.
3. Spend some time studying positional play/long-term strategy.
4. Do NOT spend a lot of time studying or memorizing opening systems/theory until you reach Elo 2000+. That is a hard rule to unlearn, but follow it.
5. Play as much chess as you can, especially with a stronger player. Swallow your pride and allow yourself to get beaten on the board. Your Elo will thank you for it.
6. Record your games and go over them--especially your losses--with someone stronger.
7. Replay over games of other good players (www.chessgames.com is good for this) and try to really understand why they made the moves they did.
8. Don't kick yourself when you lose: losing teaches you things, and there are more important things in life than winning at chess."
Originally posted by pinkthunder"Winning is everything!"
To quote somebody else on this site--and Steve Lopez from ChessBase:
"1. Study tactics!!! Chess is mostly short-term tactics.
2. Study endgames. Studying endgames is incredibly boring, but it's almost as important as learning tactics. It's good to know how to win (or draw!) in an endgame. Endgame study separates men from the boys. Spend most of your ing teaches you things, and there are more important things in life than winning at chess."
"Nothing is more important than winning!"
USA! USA! USA! USA! HAHA!