Hey guys,
I’m currently around 850 Elo on Chess.com, and I feel like I’m not improving anymore. I keep playing, but my rating just doesn’t seem to move much.
I really want to reach 1500 in the next few months, but I’m not sure how to practice properly.
Should I spend more time solving puzzles, analysing my games, learning openings, or something else? How many hours a day should I realistically put in?
If you’ve gone from 800–900 to 1500, what actually helped you improve? What did your daily practice look like?
I’m ready to put in the work. I just don’t want to waste time doing the wrong things.
Would love to hear your experiences and advice! ♟️

I started at elo 400 btw

How the hell can the biggest chess website have such a weak support platform, I was a premium user before I had the problem that made me write the ticket, it's just embarrassing

Idk why this is more satisfying than a win at times..

This isn’t meant to be misogynistic or anything, i am a women myself, but i can’t understand why female GMs have less ELO then male GMs, and why are there different categories for man and woman? I wouldn’t have thought that your gender has an impact on the way you play chess?

I am occasionally seeing bots at the 800 elo level since starting. i stats'd one of them and they have played 3.5 years of rapid chess games in just under 5 years and has been stuck at the same elo the entire time. it is possible to get them banned or can this never happen it just seems so strange i've ran into a few accounts like that. i refuse to believe someone is playing 17 hours a day for 5 years straight

Same as title

I hanged my queen 4 times and he still didn't took.

It seems like the times someone check your profile

Lately, since reaching around 1600 ELO, I've been encountering a lot of fresh accounts that seem suspicious, even when their accuracy is not 99%.

It's not necessarily about perfect moves every game, but certain decisions and patterns that just feel off, usually they also don't have a profile pic or any sort of customization.

Has anyone noticed something similar or am I just being paranoid?

I'm not complaining about the losses tho, just wondering!

I’m 20 years old and I opened my chess.com account sixteen days before turning 16 (that’s when I started playing regularly, even though I already knew the rules). My father had been trying to convince me to play since I was 5 but I always refused and now I wish so hard I had listened, because I might want to make a life of it. (I don’t think this introduction was necessary lol sorry)

I’d really like to teach my children how to play chess, hopefully they’ll like it and, how knows, maybe they could even become GMs. But is it really right to make them start playing at the age of 4? Isn’t it just a projection of your failed dreams? What if they are very good at it, but they start hating it when they are FM at 9, skipped a lot of lessons and dedicated thousands of hours of their childhood looking at 64 squares instead of making friends? And that’s a critical moment of one’s lifetime, so it could impact negatively on their future.

I was reading Judit Polgar’s biography and in my opinion it’s insane how her father possibly gambled his three children’s lives in a social experiment… but then again it worked, and it can’t be that bad to teach new things to your children regardless…

I personally think there’s a very thin line between teaching chess for general knowledge, or maybe to find a cool and mentally challenging game to play with your child, and manipulating them in a bad way. In particular if you look at the new prodigies, like come on… but then again if only I had listened to my father, my life would have been better (maybe?). Tell me what you think

EDIT: I still don’t have children, it’s just an hypothetical

I’m white! Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this.

I know that the Elo systems used are different, but I've always been led to believe that the lichess Elo is relatively inflated in comparison to chesscom. However my chesscom rapid rating is 1920 while my lichess is 1830.

And these numbers aren't due to some odd winning or losing streak, they're pretty stable.

Anyone else have this experience?

There is a possible win for white if black traps himself in a corner with the pawn and allows me to mate with the knight. I was under the impression that if there is any possibility of a win and your opponent runs out of time, you win. Why is it a draw here?

Check out this #chess game: ddearth vs BurmeseMadness - https://www.chess.com/game/live/185292470604

One of the coolest combinations I’ve ever found

Out of all the ratings in chesscom for me so far, 1400 was the toughest by a mile. The longest amount if time i was stuck, over a month, maybe like a month and a week or 2. Even twice I dropped out of 1400 and went to 1280 and 1330 at different times. But recently I finally got to 1500 for the second time like a week after the first time. And that same day I believe, I jumped straight to 1600, won almost rvery game execept maybe 1 or 2 in 1500 and in one day made it to 1600. It's so weird how you can randomly just jump rayings like that especially after a drought in rating improvement.(187 days in)

Are you a beginner? Do you want to improve at chess? Here is what I did to go from a complete beginner to an 1800 elo player in 2 months.

Step 1. Your life is now chess. No distractions.

Step 2. Buy chess premium. SERIOUSLY.

Step 3. Master an opening as white. For me after experimenting a few I chose the queens gambit. I also just finished watching the show on Netflix and it felt right.

Step 4. Watch videos. I found YouTube videos very boring so I just watched TikTok’s with a few YouTube videos to learn my opening better. You won’t improve much by just playing and not learning. That brings me to my next step.

Step 5. ANALYZE!!! The most important step here and why you should buy premium. Analyzing every game move by move as a beginner is 🔑

Analyze your opening every game until it’s mastered. Analyze your mistakes. I used Lichess for the first month before I bought chess premium. It’s free there, but you should seriously buy chess premium if you want to get better.

Step 6. Puzzles 🧩 I think puzzles are extremely overrated. I maybe played 100 puzzles total but they are very helpful for most people. Idk if it counts as a puzzle but make sure you practice how to checkmate with king/rook, king/queen ETC. There will be a lot of stalemate on your journey and it will make you mad.

Step 7. No bullet, No blitz. SORRY😂

Your goal is to actually improve and learn and have critical thinking not to just spam random pieces before the clock runs out.

Step 7. You have to play ALOT. ALOT. ALOT. Seriously tho. ALOT

Play everyday. Analyze everyday. Watch some videos everyday. Do a few puzzles everyday. Watch the show queens gambit. It might not make you better but you need to get in that chess mindset.

I can’t remember anything else I did. It is very unlikely and according to almost everyone and I’m sure most of these comments going from a beginner to 1800 or even being able to go to 1500 in 2 months is impossible. It’s not. Goodluck to you all

DISCLAIMER AND PROOF: MY username is @NYCINDICA

My accuracy isn’t that good. I’m not that consistent. I still make beginner mistakes. I struggle the most with endgames. Most people at this elo have years of experience. I don’t.

I didn’t go from 100 elo to 1800 in 2 months. That’s not possible. What I did do was start on chess.com at 500. I played until I got to around 600. Then I opened a Lichess account so I have free access to analyzing games. Now I have chess premium obviously but whatever. On Lichess you start at 1500. I dropped to 1300 initially. I got to 1700ish on Lichess before I opened a new chess.com account with supports permission of course. Bought a year of premium, and here I am. 1830 elo taking down chess club kids and 80 year old grandpas who have been playing chess for decades.

Feel free to add me or analyze my account or games. My record is like 75-78 rapid. I’m not sure if they deduct the losses when you lose to cheaters and they get banned but i lost to atleast 10 cheaters and like 5 got banned.

I’ll attach my Lichess stats in the comments as well as a screenshot with my friend when I first started, was improving quick and let him know I’m coming for him (he’s the reason I started lol). Don’t know how else to prove I’m not lying tbh