37-year-old guy here.
My 4½-year-old son recently started taking chess classes. I had never properly learned how to play chess before . I barely knew how the pieces moved , So I decided to make a Chess.com account to understand what he was learning.
I learned the basics through Duolingo Chess, lol, and then basically started playing through pure vibes and very little understanding.
This has been my "progress" over the last 80 days.
I finally reached 400 Elo in Rapid!
I've seen quite a few posts from people reaching 1000 Elo in roughly the same amount of time. Clearly, I'm taking the scenic route. But I'm enjoying the process and would love some advice on how to improve from here.
Things I'm somewhat decent at:
- I've mostly stopped hanging pieces left and right in Rapid.
Blitz is still a completely different story
- I've spammed the hell out of the Italian Game as White.
It's basically my answer to everything. I've learned quite a few variations from YouTube chess teachers. Unfortunately, I tend to play a similar style as Black too, which probably isn't the best long-term strategy.
- I've watched enough videos to know how to deal with Scholar's Mate and the Fried Liver.
I actually welcome them now.
Things I still struggle with:
- Managing time in Blitz.
I usually end up running out of time even when I'm ahead in material. Apparently, having extra pieces doesn't help if you don't have any time left to move them.
- Missing mate-in-1s and mate-in-2s.
I'm around 1350 in puzzles, but somehow the patterns don't always make the jump from puzzles to actual games. Then I look at the game review afterward and wonder how I managed to completely miss something that was sitting right there.
So, fellow beginners and slow learners, I'd love to hear your stories!
How did you improve when you were starting out? What helped you go from "I'm just moving pieces and hoping for the best" to a more respectable Elo?
I'd especially love to hear from people who felt like they were progressing slowly. Any advice on what I should focus on at this stage would be greatly appreciated.
And if anyone else took the scenic route, please tell me I'm not alone.
Thanks!
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