@SpursJuve4TheWin said in #17:
> No because my blog was on bullet. Whereas here I was talking about blitz and rapid. Because on those time controls, if you improve your game, you increase your rating. That's the point of this post, how to do that. Luckily there have been lots of great answers which help a lot.
Alright. So what I understand is, that you want to increase your general playing strength AND chess understanding, so you may get an overall stronger player. If this is the case, then looking at blitz and rapid is imho not enough. I'd rather focus on classical games and over the board play (typically around 2h time control for 40 moves).
By joining a chessclub, you may solve several problems at once:
1) You typically get strong opposition, that can help you, to find the weaknesses in your game (and hints in how to progress). Often it's advisable, to work on the "weakest part of the chain" in your play - this will shift constantly, btw.
2) You can play OTB chess in a local leage and challenge yourselfes in a "real word situation". You may be surprised, how much information you will get from those games played and analyzed.
By doing this, you will automatically have lots of human colleagues on your side, that will help you to progress in our beloved game.
One more thing: I often hear ppl saying, that they don't want to join a chessclub vor several reasons. And that's fine.
But from my personal experience, I don't know even a single person, that made it to 2000 FIDE/National ELO/Expert level without being in a club and thereby beeing surrounded by teammates, that help you on your lifelong journey. Of course, there may be exceptions, because of several reasons: having a coach, being extremely talented, going to a full time sports-school, what soever... But this exceptions are just too rare (at least in my german bubble).
Another analogy could be soccer: Noone thinks, that he/she could be a high class soccer player by just playing at the playground or at home. You need to join a club and get the right coaching, exercise, opposition and experience, to get to an expert level. But for some reason, ppl think they can do it "alone" in chess. I personally think, tha's an illusion but I respect other opinions - it's just my personal experience.
If I understood you wrong and you just want to progress in blitz and rapid, then just forget about what I wrote or don't.
Bye and good luck on your lifelong chess journey.
> No because my blog was on bullet. Whereas here I was talking about blitz and rapid. Because on those time controls, if you improve your game, you increase your rating. That's the point of this post, how to do that. Luckily there have been lots of great answers which help a lot.
Alright. So what I understand is, that you want to increase your general playing strength AND chess understanding, so you may get an overall stronger player. If this is the case, then looking at blitz and rapid is imho not enough. I'd rather focus on classical games and over the board play (typically around 2h time control for 40 moves).
By joining a chessclub, you may solve several problems at once:
1) You typically get strong opposition, that can help you, to find the weaknesses in your game (and hints in how to progress). Often it's advisable, to work on the "weakest part of the chain" in your play - this will shift constantly, btw.
2) You can play OTB chess in a local leage and challenge yourselfes in a "real word situation". You may be surprised, how much information you will get from those games played and analyzed.
By doing this, you will automatically have lots of human colleagues on your side, that will help you to progress in our beloved game.
One more thing: I often hear ppl saying, that they don't want to join a chessclub vor several reasons. And that's fine.
But from my personal experience, I don't know even a single person, that made it to 2000 FIDE/National ELO/Expert level without being in a club and thereby beeing surrounded by teammates, that help you on your lifelong journey. Of course, there may be exceptions, because of several reasons: having a coach, being extremely talented, going to a full time sports-school, what soever... But this exceptions are just too rare (at least in my german bubble).
Another analogy could be soccer: Noone thinks, that he/she could be a high class soccer player by just playing at the playground or at home. You need to join a club and get the right coaching, exercise, opposition and experience, to get to an expert level. But for some reason, ppl think they can do it "alone" in chess. I personally think, tha's an illusion but I respect other opinions - it's just my personal experience.
If I understood you wrong and you just want to progress in blitz and rapid, then just forget about what I wrote or don't.
Bye and good luck on your lifelong chess journey.
