I’m guessing I should play more games(duh) and study theory…?
You’ll probably need to study some theory on openings and endgame.
Also do puzzles to improve your tactics.
The single player campaign is pretty good
Switch to lichess.org (open source, has all of chess com’s paid features available for free, plus no ads or trackers).
Start with the chess basics set: https://lichess.org/learn
Then the basic tactics set: https://lichess.org/practice
And then do puzzles: https://lichess.org/training (chess com makes you pay for more than a few per day). Do a lot of them.
Then, you can also analyze your games on lichess using it’s analysis engines (which chess com makes you pay for). Uh I can’t find a good guide how to do this right now, check back later.
I second this
600-700 is around when the basic beginner traps stop working. Fried liver attack, etc, and not moving on past those traps is why so many get stuck there for too long.
Reading theory is helpful, but I’d say that’s more important at 1000+ ELO. For now, I’d say learning the basics of evaluating any position (king safety, long diagonals, weak squares, etc). Also, knowing many openers is good and all, but I suggest picking one and get really good at that. “I fear not the man who has practiced a million openers once” -Bruce Dickinson, or something.
My personal choice for openers are Kings Indian attack (as white) or Pirc Defense (as black). These are very similar, so if you know those two well, it doesn’t really matter what color you start as - they tend to end up with similar mid-games.
Also, around 700 it becomes important to spot which tactics are available to you in various positions. The puzzles at chess.com are really helpful for learning this.
As for the lichess argument, yes, it’s good. But I find that the analysis engine on chess.com is slightly better. And on that note, if you have a subscription, analyze your games afterwards, as it helps you understand what went wrong or right (yes, don’t just analyze your victories). Also, keep in mind that chess.com and lichess have different ways of calculating ELOs.
Also, use the time you have. If you’re playing 10min games, make sure to use your time accordingly. Don’t rush into a blunder because you didn’t see the revealed check or the fork. Personally I mostly play 10min games, as that gives me plenty of time to evaluate the board. Sometimes I do 3min when I’m less patient.
Source: 1757 day streak on chess.com, 1261 ELO while I’m writing this (Although, knowing myself, I’ll trip back to 1100ish soon)
The chess com engine analysis sucks. It’s too focused on glazing you and not enough on being honest. It certainly feels better than the lichess engine, but it doesn’t actually share more information.
For example, it used to be that a “brilliant move” was any move that you spotted but that the engine didn’t. But now, it’s been changed so that any sacrifice is a “brilliant move”.
Further, the LLM based analysis is also pretty bad. It only seems to explain moves, but like most LLM’s, it actually hallucinates and recommends nonsensical stuff, or incorrectly makes other claims about the position. If you search on r/chess you can find plenty of examples of this:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Chesscom/comments/1p7n8js/can_something_new_explain_why_chesscom_ai_thinks/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/chessbeginners/comments/1ko6snm/is_chesscom_ai_useless/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Chesscom/comments/1o2j3rg/is_the_ai_text_in_the_game_analysis_just_plainly/
etc etc.
As an alternative, if you really want that type of UI, you can also use Lichess’ server based engine analysis (you get 40 free per day unlike chess com’s paid stuff):
But it doesn’t tell you why a move is bad. If you really want to learn why a move is bad, the local analysis lets you play your moves against stockfish and experiment and see why they are lacking.
Just learn to use the Lichess local analysis. It’s designed to actually facilitate improvement instead of glazing users and getting them to keep paying.
Warm up with puzzles before playing.
Stick to a repertoire you’re comfortable with and your opponents are not.
Play when your mind is in the right place and focus properly.Play in real life.
