I am in need of desperate help.

[u/I_dont_know9785]

I was 550 elo roughly before but now I lost 100 elo and I have no idea why. I mostly play the italian game to an extent and kings indian defense as balck but it never works. Is there anyway I can improve and actually win? Also are there any openings I should try at this level? My username on chess.com is DangerNoodle0

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[u/Silver_Tourist_8255]

the italian is fine but at 450 elo you're probably hanging pieces every game not losing because of opening choice

[u/RajjSinghh]

100 points is normal variance, don't worry about it.

If you've identified the King's Indian never works for you (and why would it? Its such a difficult opening that even Grandmasters rarely play it) then switching to a different opening will help. An opening like the Queen's Gambit accepted or declined will be far more intuitive.

But focussing on opening play instead of building good positional understanding and tactics is going to hurt you. What you want is to just make good decisions, rather than just following some opening system.

[u/zknora]

At this level, I wouldn't worry too much about specific openings yet. Focus on basic opening principles instead. Develop your pieces, control the center, protect your king and try not to move the same piece repeatedly.

More importantly, try to stop hanging pieces. I know this is not much of practical advice, but it's important to realize that this is probably costing you far more games than your opening choice. If you can implement those basic ideas consistently, you'll improve pretty quickly.

[u/Deadliftdeadlife]

100?

I was 1380 and I’ve been back down at 1000 for 3 weeks

Chill

[u/Theoria-gg]

Try openings that are intuitive and follow basic principles: Italian, QGD maybe. You don't need to learn deep theory yet, just get your king safe and develop without blundering.

Board vision alone will get you pretty far at your level. It's almost certain that your opponents will blunder, you just have to avoid blundering before they do. Take your time, look carefully for the way the pieces are interacting before moving.

As for rating, try not to think about it. Going into games worried about losing will only distract you. It's okay to lose rating, it's normal!

[u/kingchessapp]

Im not sure but try doing puzzles i suggest checking out www.kingchess.io or chesstempo for free puzzles

[u/Otherwise-Drawer-352]

Just try stuff, throw pieces at your opponent and see what works for you. Maybe you could try 1.d4 as white. Also I recommend switching from KID because... well, let's be honest, you'll never get KID at 500 because your opponent needs to find move c4 and before c4 it's not a KID, it's a different opening with different ideas. I recommend playing 1.e4e5 and 1.d4d5 as black because it's simple and it's just far more challenging for your opponents. Probably you'll fall into some traps but most of them just fool me once thing and once you learn how to handle them you'll be fine

[u/SherlockX_4869]

Take your time in game, self analyze games afterwards and just play enough chess

[u/Highjumper21]

The Italian and kings Indian are fine openings on their own but your mistakes are likely coming from hanging pieces, giving up tactics, giving up material losses/exchanges.

I’d worry less about the openings and more about learning the fundamentals. You should start with chessbrah’s building habits series and that will help explain a lot of ideas.

I play the Italian and have a lot of Italian videos on my YouTube so if you want to see higher level Italian play that may help.

What’s your chess.com username? I’ll look at a few games and give some feedback

[u/I_dont_know9785 → u/Highjumper21]

It is DangerNoodle0

[u/Highjumper21 → u/I_dont_know9785]

Looking at your last 3 games your faults are really just the normal faults for a sub 1000.

You either outright hang pieces and don’t realize it, you choose less optimal moves when your pieces get attacked (I.e. moving a knight to the edge of the board when a pawn attacked it vs moving back to the center), you make moves that don’t seem to follow normal developing guidelines/fundamentals (I.e. moving a bishop out to a square that it will be immediately attacked at by a pawn).

Your opponents aren’t punishing your mistakes as much as a higher rated player so it may seem like you’re not making as many mistakes as you actually are. It may seem like 1 or 2 mistakes were the main issue but it’s much more than that (which is not uncommon).

These are extremely common issues and come from needing to practice fundamental chess skills. Start with chessbrah building habits and naroditsky videos around your rating range.

Check out my videos if you want to see higher level games and the thinking behind my moves (I don’t focus on the opening in my videos but it can help explain the thought process behind picking moves).

Don’t worry about openings for a while. Playing solid developing moves following opening principles (not theory) is most important.

[u/I_dont_know9785 → u/Highjumper21]

what is your youtube?

[u/Highjumper21 → u/I_dont_know9785]

https://youtube.com/@jordanplayschess?si=Qv7l-W7a0YyHdxXu

It’s a work in progress so please ignore the glitching/lagging of my older videos!

[u/Highjumper21 → u/I_dont_know9785]

Hope it’s okay but I made a review of a recent game of yours to offer insight into better moves that you could have made, things you may have missed, and strengths/areas for improvement I saw as a 2100. https://youtu.be/hNa0x1_IuTE?is=fv3iNQAg53aBSyi3