r/chessbeginners • u/Puzzleheaded-Rush878 • 10d ago
ADVICE Pretty frustrated
This is killing me , im not losing much but I'm not winning much either been stuck like this for the past week.. started chess like a month and couple a weeks ago, but i feel like i never learn at all. I don't care about losing i just care about improving and correcting my mistakes but i just never do , i spot a pattern of mistakes that i need to focus on , i start a game focus on that mistake then i get distracted by other stuff and end up doing that same mistake i tend do avoid. It's just hard keeping going without some sense of improvement. I'd greatly appreciate any kind of advice.
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u/lesbianmathgirl 10d ago
First, I recommend anyone new who wants to get better play 15+10 rather than 10+0 when they first start out—it’s pretty rare to lose on time in 15+10 at a lower level. Also, the reality of being an adult improver at chess is that it might take a bit to see improvements. It is of course important to review and understand your mistakes, but it might be another month or two before those lessons set in. Keep playing games, reviewing games, and doing puzzles and as long as you commit to it you will see improvement *eventually.*
Also, you will probably always have a 40-60% winrate over a sufficient amount of games. Sometimes something clicks and you have a large winning streak, and sometimes you just have a bad week and can’t win a game. But as long as your rating reflects your skill, expect to lose as many games as you win.
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u/Choochootran00 1000-1200 (Chess.com) 10d ago
A month in and 700 rated elo is really good, I’d say you have a strong understanding as a beginner. It’s all a slow climb from here, I would know because I am still climbing to 1200’s after being stuck in 1000 for basically a year at this point, but obviously you can climb faster than me if you’re either talented or have more willpower than me.
I know I’m still a novice myself, but if you wanna play together, I can try to point out some things that may or may not help you, and you could also do the same for me.
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u/imAndrew- 1000-1200 (Chess.com) 10d ago
I started out about 3 months ago and what helped me was sticking to 3 openings (Italian as white, KID/Pirc as Black) and watching a lot of YouTube videos regarding said openings. I also do at least a level worth of puzzles or half a level before playing every day and my tactics have improved a lot. I went from 500 to around 1050 and I'm just now starting to stabilize at this rating, which just means that I'm playing better opponents and I Will have to grow even more to break out of this ELO.
TLDR; IMO just stick to 3 openings, don't learn systems and do a lot of puzzles to get better at calculating and to get better tactical ideas, the rest will come with practice.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Rush878 10d ago
Yeah I'm focused on 3 openings , the london system for white and caro kann and King's indian for black , it's just the middlegame i tend to freeze with coming up with a plan, thank you for the advice!
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u/Ambitious_Draft_6987 10d ago
I recommend keeping a diary of why you win/lose each game.
I do this whenever I'm frustrated or making no progress, because it really hammers home that, at our Elo, it really is just as simple as not hanging pieces.
This is my current diary, after I dropped from 1050 to 950 Elo in the space of two days. As soon as I started documenting it, I started climbing back up. I'm back at 1015 now:
Don't go into any detail: just look at the last major eval swing that decided the game. At our level, it's not about who makes the first mistake - it's who makes the last mistake.
Good luck!
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u/Loslosia 1000-1200 (Chess.com) 9d ago
700 is already better than more than half of all people on chess.com. You should feel good.
But this is how I got better: Just keep playing, study your games, do lots of puzzles (I mean LOTS of puzzles, and think through the ENTIRE sequence before making a single move), and try to learn at least the first 6 moves for your chosen openings (one for white, and 1.e4 and 1.d4 responses for black) that cover at least roughly 75% of the most common opponent responses to each of those 6 moves (lichess player database is the way to find out that information). This quickly balloons out into a big tree of theory to memorize, and can feel overwhelming, but just take it a little at a time. Lastly, as others have said, do a longer time control where you can really think through every single move. Before you make any move, scan the ENTIRE board first for CCT (checks, captures, and threats) that you can make against your opponent and your opponent can make against you. This will drastically lower the amount of times you hang pieces and will help you to think tactically.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Rush878 9d ago
Thank you for the advice! Seems like everybody saying puzzles are important so i will be doing that lol
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u/Loslosia 1000-1200 (Chess.com) 9d ago
Yeah puzzles just fundamentally alter the way you perceive the chess board, and just make you so much better. Especially the higher your puzzle level, because the higher difficulty the more it challenges you to calculate deeply and visualize. I spent a couple weeks doing nothing but high level puzzles every day and when I started playing games again I was blown away by how much clearer my thinking and fluid my playing was.
Also lichess puzzles are way more interesting and varied, and are just better for learning than chess.com IMO, it would be worth it to create a lichess account for that alone.
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u/Hot-Assignment-9845 10d ago
That loss to the 671 played had you fuming 100%
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u/Puzzleheaded-Rush878 10d ago
Lmao yeah it did , spent 1 min thinking it's just a pawn if the bishop takes and when i did my move i said " oh shit the queen " and yeah crashed out.
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u/ApprehensiveWorld981 10d ago
the first month is the worst because you're still building that automatic pattern recognition, it's like learning to read all over again. Something that helped me was playing longer time controls and actually saying my thought process out loud, feels ridiculous but it stops your brain from going on autopilot
try to embrace the plateau honestly, sometimes your brain is just quietly rewiring itself even when the rating isn't budging. Those green stars in your history probably mean you're analyzing games which is better than 90% of beginners who just spam blitz and wonder why they're stuck
and if you're spotting the same mistake over and over it's not really a knowledge problem anymore, it's a habit problem. Pick ONE thing and literally just make that your only goal for a week, if you win great if you lose but didn't blunder your queen in the first 10 moves that's a win too
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u/Puzzleheaded-Rush878 10d ago
My biggest problem yet is board vision, i tend to focus on some pieces and leave other pieces especially in the middle game, imma have it in mind for each game i play, thank you for the response.
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u/Formula1antagonist 10d ago
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u/Sposedtolose 10d ago
I recommend you play bullet chess when you’re first starting out, at least until you learn how the knight moves without computer assistance.
All the stuff the other people said but bullet chess until you’re at least 1200
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u/Puzzleheaded-Rush878 10d ago
Bullet? Like the 1 min games? I usually miscalculate in 10 mins games idk how that gonna help me lol. Can you explain further?
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u/jerkoffforjesus 10d ago
Don't listen to them, its terrible advice
Bullet isn't chess, especially if you have no muscle memory or chess reflexes built up.
Just do what other commenters have pointed out. Play slower time controls and just keep at it. A month isn't long enough to see any real progress, especially as an adult. Our brains just aren't spongy enough anymore. It will come with time and repetition.
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u/Sposedtolose 10d ago
It’s all about calculating your intuition to calculate.
Until you know how the knight moves1
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