Rating increase

Hey guys, I wanted to ask some advice on ratings and how to increase your own, and how long it takes.

I started playing chess exactly 20th December 2006, I have been playing for about 56 Days now and my online rating is 1230

This is roughly how i improved

Days Played Rating
1 450
12 1060
50 1180
56 1230


My goal for the end of the year is 1600 rating.

I want to ask some questions, is my goal too big perhaps?
What is the best methods of increasing my rating, some tips would be nice.

I have been using playchess.com for playing blitz games to increase my strength. I also have chessmaster 10th edition which has some great tutorials for starters. I also registered on chesslecture.com about when I was playing chess for 47 Days.

One last question, is it harder to go from 1200 - 1400 than it is to go from 1400 - 1600, I think so, though I would want to make sure.

Thanks allot

Lots of tactics practice will work wonders. Generally it's said that every class is harder to get through than the last but I think that very much depends. Its been observed that rating increases often occur in jumps when your knowledge hits a certain critical mass. Of course these jumps don't naturally happen in handy 200 point increments so entirely possible 1400-1600 could take less time if your 'critical mass jump' takes you close to 1600.

Originally posted by Ian Coetzee
Hey guys, I wanted to ask some advice on ratings and how to increase your own, and how long it takes.

I started playing chess exactly 20th December 2006, I have been playing for about 56 Days now and my online rating is 1230

This is roughly how i improved

Days Played Rating
1 450
12 1060
50 1180
56 ...[text shortened]... than it is to go from 1400 - 1600, I think so, though I would want to make sure.

Thanks allot

i got to mid 1500's in a couple of months while doing tactical excercises and learning basic positional concepts

i've known how to play chess since I was a kid but only recently really began playing with actual strategy so 1600 in a year is very possible

Thanks allot for the replies.

Tacticts? Do you guys maybe have a good site for those?

Also, what do you think of Personal Chess Trainer? Its a program with lots of tactical, endgame and strategic problems to solve. I will also be using that.

Do you guys think that for a beginner like me, 100 rating increase per month for now is doable, for atleast 4 months?

Im really obsessed with chess atm. I like getting better at things.

I think up until about 1300 on here most games are lost due to basic blunders (and a lot of games higher up the food chain, I'm not a complete innocent). When you get to the 1500s it gets trickier and most people will see the tactics coming, up until then, I don't see why 100 a month should be a problem, just get a tactics book (I'd recommend the Polgar one) and study hard.

Originally posted by Ian Coetzee
Hey guys, I wanted to ask some advice on ratings and how to increase your own, and how long it takes.

I started playing chess exactly 20th December 2006, I have been playing for about 56 Days now and my online rating is 1230

This is roughly how i improved

Days Played Rating
1 450
12 1060
50 1180
56 ...[text shortened]... than it is to go from 1400 - 1600, I think so, though I would want to make sure.

Thanks allot

Originally posted by Ian Coetzee

Tacticts? Do you guys maybe have a good site for those?

Thanks idioms.

Also good is the chess software "Chess Tactics for Beginners" and "Chess Tactics for Intermediate players".

Studying definitely does help. I was stuck at 1100 for a year, and studied over the summer (From tactics, to strategy, to openings, to endgasme). My rating jumped 100 points in about 2 months. I then couldn't study after the end of summer, but in November and on, I have been focusing a lot on tactics. I went up to 1246 in November, 1297 in December, 1335 in January, and is now 1395(this is all OTB). The point is that tactics are a must. I am also trying the reach the lofty goal of 1600, by summer.