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Ask HN: How to Improve at Chess

16 points by excitednumber ↗ HN
I enjoy playing chess in my downtime and find it especially useful if I am feeling mentally worn down to "reset" myself a bit.

What frustrates me is my inability to progress naturally (although, from reading, this is extremely common).

Why I turn to the community: For those who have progressed, what worked for you?

Was it a book, private lessons, practicing tactics? Anyway, looking to up my ELO rather than get mad at myself for not getting better over time.

Hope everyone is well and thank you.

15 comments

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ycombinete
Hey, if you could give us an idea of what your current skill level is, people would have a better chance of suggesting a path for you. What is your current raitng, and where do you play?
excitednumber
https://www.chess.com/stats/live/blitz/ten_cent_rooker

This is me. Sorry in advance for the username.

I vary between mid to high 900, low 1ks.

I tend to play blitz due to how I have incorporated chess into my life and enjoy the pressure to think quickly.

ycombinete
My rating is usually around 1200-1400, so not much higher than yours. I play on lichess.

One piece of advice I got from a very high rated player was to play longer time controls. He said, “playing only blitz you’ll just keep making the same mistakes over and over without even realising it”. I have found this to be true, and generally prefer the chess I play at Rapid time controls.

wildengineer
I have to parrot what others say about playing slower chess. I was around 900 when I started on chess.com and peaked around 1600. I did regress though as I lost the obsession.

This is what I did over many years:

- Playing alot of slow chess. This allows you to explore and learn from the exploration, but also gives you a small amount of pressure.

- Studying openings with mobile apps

- Consuming everything chess through books, apps, and videos. I loved watching analysis of the masters.

- Focusing on tactics over strategy. I learned from a really good chess player that strategy is more of an experts tool. I was never going to be an expert.

- Chess puzzles. This helps with pattern recognition, especially in blitz.

happyrock
Play on lichess.org. Play correspondence with a long timeout and take your time -- make sure you are making the best move you can think of, every single time.

Use their engine analysis feature after each game to see moves that you may have missed.

Also I got a lot out of Jeremy Silman's books, in terms of developing strategy.

(disclaimer I'm not actually very good)

dmarlow
> Use their engine analysis feature after each game to see moves that you may have missed.

This right here. If you don't go back and learn from your mistakes, how do you not repeat them?

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bjourne
You don't improve because you only play 3 minute blitz. To improve, you need to play longer time controls. Like 30+30, 30 minutes starting time and 30 seconds increments, or preferably even slower. Also solve a lot of puzzles. I've gained 250 ELO points in the last few years doing that.
galfarragem
I'm an average player at best but my experience tells me the opposite. To be able to play fast games successfully you need a "finely tuned algorithm". On longer time frames you can simple use the "raw power of your cpu and bruteforce". My ELO is way better on longer games (easily +300). The faster the game, the more I struggle.
bjourne
But that is not the opposite? All else being equal, if your ELO is 300 points better on longer time controls, it means that you play worse when playing blitz than when playing standard. You won't improve by playing bad chess.
donnanorton
I've heard that it's very important to analyze your own games. They say it's beneficial to make notes during the encounter to understand the nature of your mistakes.
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ttonkytonk
The tutorial on Chessmaster 7000 (about 15 years ago).
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milkcircle
I highly recommend watching the following Youtube channels. These chess masters often stream games in which they explain their thought process behind each and every move, and provide a high level overview of how they design their plans.

Chess Network - https://www.youtube.com/user/ChessNetwork

John Bartholomew - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6hOVYvNn79Sl1Fc1vx2mYA

Of course, following these channels will not improve your chess reasoning by itself, but neither will playing too many fast games without spending time to analyze the games. I typically play one longer game (10+5) and one rapid game (5+5) once a day then spend the rest of my free time trying to find areas of improvement.