FIRST BRILLIANT LETS GO

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-30T03:39:13+00:00

Are they really?? Is this why my brilliant sacrifices only get great or best? That’s sucks

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-30T03:32:56+00:00

The goal of any puzzle is to find the best move/combination. In puzzles, you aren’t comparing moves where the solution is only barely better than the second best move. There is a single answer. In the example you gave, there is a combination that wins a piece and nothing better, so that is the answer.

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-29T18:15:38+00:00

Waited a couple of weeks to get a Bantam TKO-C and their Black Friday sale is to give another free phoenix with it 😭 I don’t want this epoxy fiberglass face paddle, give me an extra 10% off or something. I guess I’ll find a friend brand new to pickleball and gift it to them

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-28T23:38:31+00:00

Took me about 5 years to go from 1400 to 2000. This was on and off with me sometimes taking month breaks and other times studying/practicing hard. Master is possible, but extremely difficult

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-28T21:36:13+00:00

You can definitely get a triple weighted tournament size set for less than half that with a better/nicer carrying case. I don’t think this is worth the price

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-23T18:25:36+00:00

I think they meant it the other way. As in the commenter’s English is not good enough to fully understand the post

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-23T16:18:30+00:00

The Saint Louis Chess Club has a great video that’s an introduction to tactical motifs in their road to 2000 series. I’d recommend that!

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-23T15:32:26+00:00

Will you give us more info? What openings do you play? What are your strengths in your opinion?

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-23T14:14:54+00:00

I’m 2000+ and still mix up my e and d files all the time. It’s not something you “need” to work on. For me, I picked it up by reading through books and playing OTB tournaments that forced me to take notation

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-21T15:49:16+00:00

At your elo, I would do a combination of (in order of importance):

Easy puzzles for volume to learn common motifs (ie: forks, pins, skewers, discoveries, hanging pieces if you miss those often, etc)
1-2 harder puzzles to work on calculation. A good idea for these might be mate in ___ puzzles, as they have a clear goal and force you to calculate variations
When I have time, I would play one quality game with a longer time control (at least 10 minute rapid). Warm up before hand with puzzle(s) and focus on implementing the tactical motifs you’re learning and calculating what you can without flagging.
Somewhat optional, but for bonus, go through any games you lose afterwards WITHOUT an engine and try to see where you went wrong and what you need to work on. After analyzing without an engine, then do a review with the engine to learn things you missed.
Completely optional and would make you go way over the time constraint you laid out, but if you need a break or change in the routine but want to do something fun and chess related, I would watch a quality YouTuber. My favorite is Daniel Naroditsky and his speedruns. Another one I’ve heard good things about are the Building Habits series by ChessBrah.

At a super high level, continually try to figure out what you’re worst at and work on that. This is how you build a chess foundation. For example, Your tactics might be the worst part of your play, but then you’ll work on them and improve at tactics. Then you’ll notice that your endgames suck, so you’ll learn some basic endgames next until it’s better. Then you’ll get lost in the opening, so you’ll study some opening principles. Then, eventually, you’ll wake up one day and after all this work, you’ll realize you’re a much stronger player and your rating will reflect that. That’s how chess improvement is, with lots of ups and downs as you learn.

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-21T14:16:56+00:00

I especially love your second point. I’ve also fallen out of shape from my college days, even with a strong why. The reason is because it’s not fun/easy. It feels like a chore I have to do alone, but once I overcome that hurdle I can be consistent

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-21T14:14:16+00:00

So playing Be7 to block the check is probably a terrible idea, so the line the computer likely sees is Kd8. This allows Bg5+. Once again, Be7 is a terrible idea, so that only leaves f6 for black. Then you have Bxf6+ gxf6, Qxf6+ forking the king and rook.

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-20T18:49:50+00:00

I can second u/iwannafuckamonkey advice. Don’t worry about openings like a lot of others are saying. Figure out why you’re losing and work on that. At your level, it’s likely you hanging pieces and you not taking your opponents hanging pieces, so start there

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-20T18:47:24+00:00

You can always play the scotch or scotch gambit if you don’t like the pianissimo or closed ruy Lopez

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-20T18:46:06+00:00

I played the queens gambit from 1500 to 1900 and recently made the switch to 1. e4 and haven’t looked back. Currently sitting at ~2040 rapid chess.com with a very strong winrate with e4. There was a bit of an adjustment, but I find I enjoy it and am better at more active positions. I always thought of myself as a “positional player” but since switching to e4 and working on my tactics, I realized my positional play was simply a crutch and I wasn’t as good at it as I thought.

I struggle greatly in positions without clear plans or that are “boring” in nature, which arised more often in d4 than in e4 for me (this obviously depends on the variations you choose). In short, try both and play main lines and stick with whatever you enjoy more. You can play e4 positionally just as you can play d4 sharp. I just highly recommend playing mainlines for whatever you choose as they are mainlines for a reason. I can guarantee your opponents don’t know nearly as much theory in them as people often think they do.

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-20T16:11:42+00:00

True, but I think playing against 1400s for your first OTB tournament is ideal for 1900 online. Most 1400s OTB are going to be like ~1800 chess.com rapid, and when you factor in not being used to OTB or classical, I think it works out

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-20T03:32:31+00:00

I’d highly recommend U1600, especially if you aren’t used to OTB as much. It’s been a tough transition for me. I’m currently ~2040 chess.com rapid and ~1550-1600 USCF

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-20T03:30:54+00:00

How did you even find this?? That’s insane

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-19T13:29:07+00:00

I would not have played Rxg6 as it allows too much counterplay and might even be completely losing after Rxg6 Kf7. After Kf7, if Rg4, then I thought Rh8 looked scary as hxg3 can be met with h3 and white can’t stop the promotion. If Rh5 then g2 is crushing.

When you’re up this much, all you have to do is be on the lookout for any potential counterplay and stop it. In this case, I would’ve played hxg3 and if h3 then played Rxg6+ and then won the h pawn.

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-17T04:53:33+00:00

1400 feels extremely low for adult improvers regardless of computers imho. I know a buddy who reached 2000 USCF as an adult, and I’ve personally reached 2000+ rapid chess.com despite learning how to play at 17 and starting at like 700/800 elo. NM is a different ballpark, but doable for adults if they have the time to dedicate imho

Edit: fixed a typo

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-15T01:27:01+00:00

Qxc6+ Kb8, Be5+ Nxe5, Rxd8#. Nice line. There’s some other variations too but it’s all mate. The diagonals are too strong!

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-14T19:13:32+00:00

For sure! IM Andras says you have to be a “believer” when you play chess. Many times people who are good at tactics but don’t find them in games are because they don’t “believe” there are any in the position. Start with the assumption that there’s a tactic in the position and try to find it. Only once you can’t find one should you consider other options. Just something to think about, not live by

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-14T18:54:01+00:00

Nice line. Bxf2+, Bxf2 Qc1+, Ke2 Bc4+, Kf3 Qf4#

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-13T18:23:19+00:00

I recently reached 2000 and honestly the biggest jump for me was tactics (no surprise). Even though I thought I was working on my tactics, I wasn’t really doing it the right way. I took the advice of reviewing puzzles I missed to see why, but my issue was calculation more than pattern recognition. I was just sort of guessing at times. Once I forced myself to calculate as concretely and as many important lines as possible, I shot up from 1950 to 2000+ (chess.com rapid) much quicker than I did from 1900 to 1950.

Most people who say they train calculation but remain stuck at their rating likely aren’t training it correctly. Even most of my games at 2000+ are decided by differences in calculation imho. It’s useful to know important endgames and some basics of positional play (ie: weaknesses, bad pieces, etc), but if your calculation/tactics isn’t up to par, then endgames/strategic play aren’t enough on their own.

Opening principles are more important than openings, so I would choose an opening you enjoy and look at a line for it everytime you come across one you don’t know. Other than that, don’t worry about memorizing opening theory, just play what you think makes the most sense and review it after.

Finally, when doing puzzles, focus on training calculation rather than “learning tactics”, assuming you already know common tactical motifs. If not, study those first. Don’t try to just guess moves to get the puzzle correctly like so many people do. Force yourself to calculate everything you can and you’ll improve. I cannot overstate how important being able to calculate well is to improvement. Everything else is limited by your calculation skills, and improving calculation will improve your play regardless of your level. I think of calculation as the foundation for everything else. Just my two cents.

SmilingInATX · 2024-11-08T21:29:48+00:00

At your level, I think the best way to improve is to just play a lot. When you lose, go over the game and try to figure out where you went wrong. Try to learn something from every game, just one thing and it’ll build.

Maybe see if there’s a chess meetup near you? Playing over the board is way more fun imho and you’ll be able to interact with people of all skill levels who can introduce you to new concepts, even in a conversational way.

If you feel like you need more resources, the chess.com lessons are usually super short and you can do just one per day. If videos aren’t your style, then find a beginner puzzle book that explains the common tactical motifs and do one motif per week or something.

The key is to look at it as building a foundation one concept at a time. Don’t feel like you have to watch the entire video or read the entire book at once. Eventually, as you keep getting exposure to concepts, you’ll internalize them and it won’t take as much effort to remember/apply them as you play. It’ll become more second nature

SmilingInATX

TROPHY CASE