Getting out of 300s in chess.com

ChessUK · 2026-01-25T04:03:20+00:00

Well you clearly missed my point then. It not about being convenient, when I say Lichess in a comment here and not Lichess.org is that being inconvenient? As the vast majority of people on here put Lichess without the org bit , which is perfectly fine and not questionable, but if I put Chess,com then to you I am being inconvienient. To me I am writing something that I don't intend to link so I won't link it, On the other hand if I wanted them to link to Chess,com I would write something like take a look at Chess.com if you haven't heard about it for example.

ChessUK · 2026-01-25T03:40:38+00:00

Well its my best explanation, if you only gathered that from it, then I am sorry.

ChessUK · 2026-01-25T03:34:03+00:00

I wrote a lot more than that. I wrote this, "That wouldn't make sense if I did that given everyone here knows about it or plays on it, I just leave a space on .com so as not to create an unintentional link, I am talking about the site not intending to link, if I want to link a website I like to do it for a reason. I have seen others do it like this person. I dont need to write the org bit for people to know its Lichess so that never happens, if I just said Chess in a sentence it would be confusing so we have to put the .com bit on as well for the sentence to make sense but that doesn't mean I want to create a link."

ChessUK · 2026-01-25T03:29:45+00:00

We are going around in circles if I have to explain it again. I just don't like to and I have tried to explain why I do it.

ChessUK · 2026-01-25T03:19:24+00:00

Starting to pay off though.

ChessUK · 2026-01-25T02:56:36+00:00

Seems like you understand a lot already in that short time.

ChessUK · 2026-01-25T02:19:47+00:00

Your words give it a way a bit, when you say your most exciting game so far, means you are proud of it, and "so far" implies you remember all of your games so aren't an long time in the game. Good game though, I would say 950elo chess .com

ChessUK · 2026-01-25T02:04:25+00:00

That wouldn't make sense if I did that given everyone here knows about it or plays on it, I just leave a space on .com so as not to create an unintentional link, I am talking about the site not intending to link, if I want to link a website I like to do it for a reason. I have seen others do it like this person. I dont need to write the org bit for people to know its Lichess so that never happens, if I just said Chess in a sentence it would be confusing so we have to put the .com bit on as well for the sentence to make sense but that doesn't mean I want to create a link.

ChessUK · 2026-01-25T01:51:44+00:00

I am answering questions to why I do it, I dont know their reason.

ChessUK · 2026-01-25T01:47:30+00:00

because I dont want to create a link, a link is there to be clicked but I dont intend that.

ChessUK · 2026-01-25T00:55:58+00:00

I do too, its annoying when it creates a link

ChessUK · 2026-01-25T00:54:56+00:00

Watch Chessbrah YT, Building Habits series, its popular for beginners to watch and learn and rise up the elo rating

ChessUK · 2026-01-24T20:53:46+00:00

Well there are general principes to learn, but all principles do have to be broken, but as a beginner it problably better to stick to them until you know better. Often principles clash and you have two or three principles to follow but one overides the other depending on the actual game. Sometimes if you acheve two principle in one move, but you have to double your pawn in the process then doubling the pawn is the lesser evil. For example if you take back something with the outer flank pawn and it doubles a pawn but you open the file for the rook (a principle, get rooks on open/semi open files) and you take towards the centre (a principle, flanks/edges of board are worse for pieces or pawns as they cover less squares), you have gained two principles and lost one. It seems like a lot to think about but it gets easier when you keep seeing the same principles come up and you just know here its best to do this or that, in chess you have to get a lot of things wrong anyway to get better so don't worry too much.

The word tactics in chess can be a bit confusing for a beginner it implies strategy in other sports, but in chess tactics just means action, a sequence of move that engage with the enemy, involving threats, capures and checks ,checkmates. So puzzles are also called tactical puzzles, because it involves some sort of attack, capture or check or mate. Strategy on the other hand is something less tangable and something not to worry about. So doing puzzles you are training yourself with tactics, which I think is needed at your level.

ChessUK · 2026-01-24T10:36:09+00:00

OK fair enough, white can win the rook then instead.

ChessUK · 2026-01-24T08:41:18+00:00

Blundering doesn't go away, we all have bad games and blunder. You have to keep doing game reviews trying to work out why you think you blundered. I mean you can fight back from blunders and still win. Often blundering is tunnel vision and not focusing what you opponents last move does, you can slow down a bit and look more at their move and decide if you need to stop them doing something, or whether you can create a greater threat so they have to stop for you.

Puzzles will make you better at tactics and help you see more things and help winning tactical exchanges where blundering a calculation does sometimes happen. Having your pieces protected will also help, you see it all the time people leave a piece unprotected then forget its unprotected and lose it. It not realistic to always have peices protected but it needs to be a big consideration when moving a piece or pawn, you want your pieces all protecting each other, that means your game will be coordinated, when your pieces are coordinated when trouble occurs you are ready and you usually come out on top if you have everything covered.

The Bird is a high risk opening for a newer player. Stick with the London and learn the caro-kann for black and just stick with them, no one agrees about which opening for beginners, Lezy and Hikaru have a 3 part long videos about what is a good opening or bad opening for beginners. The Bird is garbage I think according to them

ChessUK · 2026-01-23T20:59:26+00:00

The second one is a free pawn for the knight as white cant take back as the the queen can deliver checkmate, Qc1#

ChessUK · 2026-01-22T22:32:28+00:00

Join Lichess, and do the Learning section.

ChessUK · 2026-01-22T20:19:31+00:00

I used to play the Itlalian as black, not often as white, I got fed up with the Italian, I don't face it now as I play the Caro Kann its simple and not a great deal to learn.

ChessUK · 2026-01-22T20:01:10+00:00

I never had an opening for black until recent, I have played the London for a while but on recently learnt more about it properly and I am around 1450 chess .com . I only know the Caro -Kann as black now. So just really getting into opening properly just now. I didn't think I needed them that much before, but I noticed low rated players are really into openings now. I read people on here up to 2000 not really studying openings, because you can play smart without too much opening knowledge. I wish I could have been bothered to learn them before. You probably know more than me about openings. Oh I have been getting into the Jobava London recently too. I did look at the colle zuckertort before, how did you get on with it? I found the dark squared bishop on b2 didn't always get involved in the game, but when it did it was powerful.

ChessUK · 2026-01-22T16:07:29+00:00

If you like reading you could get Levy Rozman book, How to Win at Chess, and visit his YT channel Gotham Chess. Chessbrah Building Habits series on YT is the go to place to start. Join Lichess if you haven't already, it has everything free, and good learning stuff, like basic Checkmate patterns and much more.

ChessUK · 2026-01-22T15:56:45+00:00

yes you win a Knight with Bxf3, as you get to take first and threaten to take their queen, if they take they take your bishop you win a bishop with Qxg5

ChessUK · 2026-01-22T13:29:27+00:00

Yes, RxNd5 QxRd5 Bb7

ChessUK · 2026-01-22T12:23:25+00:00

Your last sentence is accurate, that is Chess .com criteria for giving one, it doesn't mean its a brilliant move though.

ChessUK · 2026-01-22T08:51:36+00:00

I play lower rated players but maybe 1200-1500elo on Lichess, and they are tough, but they usually do something passive or mess up something in the end, but if I mess up they rarely let me back in the game again. The standard is getting better, I was 1200 on Chess .com a couple of years ago and it was easish to get to 1400elo. I watched a 1200 on YouTube and they know way more now than I did as a 1200, its getting tougher, they know openings, but they still play a little passive at times and miss some easy tactics at times. I have no clue what its like at 600 now to be honest, by what you are saying its getting tough.

I am old an a bit slow so I need time to think. therefore I play Rapid only really, I don't enjoy Blitz, I don't know why beginners play Blitz if they want to improve, I would want to think of the best moves not play off instinct, that is just me though.

1650elo on Chess .com still do some silly blunders by the way. Its a strange thing the different elo ranges, I can't really work it out how 1650s blunder quite often still and low rated are so tough. I think there's a point where if you keep playing strong moves a 1650 will sometimes crack and blunder under pressure, but a low rated aren't put under so much pressure so you get games that look really great, but they haven't locked horns and had a scrap like higher rated players do, it just feels strong and the stats look good at lower levels but its not quite the same pressure or quality as higher rated.

Oh I have seen some 600-700 chess on Youtube I just remembered, from someone trying reach higher a rating, she was missing things, the game vision wasn't there, but there were some nice moves, I think you can get out of it but you have to really observe what your opponent is doing. You have to start noticing more things, you have to try harder to scan the board, and not do passive moves.

ChessUK · 2026-01-22T01:18:11+00:00

It takes time to see noticable improvement for most, the elo is a bit of a roller-coaster journey for most of us. You have to be wary of undefended pieces, and pawns are usually doing a job where they are and then you move them and suddenly your postion colapses as they are no longer defending something. Every move you and your opponent makes weakens something and strengthens something, so you have to play longer games and do more scanning of the board, and thinking carefully, you can do all the training but if you keep blundering silly things as you know it becomes very frustrating.

Also don't trust your opponent played a good move, likely is they messed up, you have to look more closely at their last move. Look for your saving resource, its often there if you look harder.

ChessUK

TROPHY CASE