How to Get Better at Chess Fast!
“So, do you think I could become a grandmaster?” Many chess players, especially coaches, have heard this question before. Most are joking, but quick improvement is what people are after! If you are a new chess player there are ways to get better at chess fast. Even if you already know how to play, there are some ways you can quickly get better. So, is there a secret to fast improvement?
Improvement Looks Different for Everyone
Before diving too deep into how to get better at chess fast, let's start with how we define improvement. Where you are in your chess journey can change what improvement means to you. A master-level player would likely be thrilled to gain 50 rating points after an OTB game, and a beginner could easily gain 200 in their first big tournament after learning scholars mate. Improving in chess can be easy or difficult depending on your level!
What it Means to Improve in Chess
Whether we like it or not, most chess improvement is tracked in the form of ELO. Elo can be a helpful indicator, but not everyone has to improve at the same speed. I have seen students greatly improve their chess while their ELO stays consistent. Stay consistent with your effort and you will eventually see the growth you desire! But how do we optimize our improvement for the fastest growth possible?
The Basics That Will Help You Win Your Chess Matches
Here are the chess ideas that you need to master to improve quickly. If you don’t already understand one of these topics, mastering them will launch your rating.
- Understanding check and checkmate.
- Piece safety and hanging pieces.
- Basic tactics.
- Opening principles.
Chess Training: Practice All of the Basics
Once you learn these basics, you have to practice, practice, practice. Like any skill, only book or blog, learning will not make you good at chess. There are many great practice tools online that help you to practice either different scenarios or practice certain kinds of tactics.
Puzzles, Puzzles, More Puzzles!
Doing puzzles is not a magic answer to gaining rating points, but it is close. Many players, myself included, wish their online puzzle rating was their actual chess rating. While a high puzzle rating doesn’t directly correlate to a high OTB rating, puzzles are still vital to fast rating gains. So what is the best way to use puzzles for improvement?
Chess Tactics and Themed Puzzles
If you are still learning certain topics, doing themed puzzles can be a great way to master them. Are you still missing forks in your games? Try doing ten to twenty fork puzzles and then play another game, you will likely spot more of them!
There are some great resources in print form. Also, you can use online puzzle resources to quickly practice themed puzzles.
How NOT to Use Chess Puzzles
If you want to improve your chess, do not rapid-fire puzzles without pausing to analyze your mistakes. Don’t go too quickly. Take your time and make sure you are calculating the entire line before playing the first move. Study the positions, calculate as far as you can, look for forcing lines, and then play your move. It’s okay if you get the puzzle wrong, but don’t angrily move on to the next puzzle! Go back, try to find where your calculations failed, and learn from those mistakes.
Doing puzzles is a great preparation for playing chess matches, but you need to play real games to improve fast!
Play a Lot
The one question I ask almost all of my students every lesson is whether or not they played any chess games that week. Playing chess is the single most important part of improving at chess quickly. I think most coaches of any other sport or instrument would say the same! If you want to get better at something, you have to put in time doing that thing. So how should you play?
Avoid Playing Bots!
One thing that may be tempting, if you are a new player is playing bots. I would avoid playing bots and focus instead on playing real people. While a bot can be low-rated, the types of blunders they play are not very realistic. Good luck understanding some decisions made by lower-rated chess bots! Often, a bot will just not recapture in a sequence of trades or randomly put their piece on an unsafe square. Humans tend to make more understandable errors. If your goal is to get better at beating bots, then play bots players or play over the board in person at your local chess club!
Notate Your Games
One benefit of playing real games is that you can notate your games and review them afterward! So if you do play in person, try playing slower time control games while notating and reviewing the game.
Analyze Your Games
If you do make it to a local chess club, playing, notating, and reviewing the game afterward, can be a great way to learn from your mistakes! Especially if the player that you played was higher rated, they may be able to offer insights into your moves and where things went wrong. Never be ashamed or worried about losing! Those losses are invaluable to you improving quickly.
Online Analysis
If you played your game online, then the game was notated for you. However, before you look at the engine analysis of the game or look at the game review, try to look over the game yourself. Were there any moments in the game where you felt like you made a mistake? Try to use those moments as study positions and find a better move for yourself. Also, this can be a great time to take a look at your opening moves and see if you can learn another move of theory!
Openings
Opening theory in chess is just a fancy term for the best moves at the beginning of a game. It is a bit more than just who goes first, however. Masters, and computers, have figured out some of the best possible responses to different opening moves in chess, and knowing your way around some of those openings can be one way to boost your rating.
Now there are certainly bad openings to play, but generally, I would just focus on playing good solid moves that do three things:
- Help you control the middle of the board.
- Develop your pieces.
- Help you to get castled.
If you can play opening moves that move you toward those three goals, then you are in a good position. If you see some openings often, then if it makes you more comfortable and confident I think learning some theory is a good idea. Don’t spend too much time on openings! You could pick an opening to play, or you can just play smart principled moves and add to that opening repertoire as you do opening study.
How to Smartly Spend Your Study Time
So how do you balance your study time? Should it be mostly tactics and playing with little time on openings? The truth is there is no one answer for everyone, and your own games will give you the answer! After analyzing your games, ask yourself where you can improve and where you are failing. Are there many games where you are losing to basic tactics? Maybe your pawn structure is consistently a problem. Or maybe you are flagging because you don’t understand how to form a long term plan in your game.
Find a Chess Coach
If you are having a difficult time diagnosing your own games, then a chess coach could be a great option. There are coaches online on Lichess and more, but you can also go to your local chess club and see if anyone there offers lessons. Books, blogs, and online resources are a great way to learn more chess knowledge, but to get better at chess fast, a coach can help you know exactly where to focus your energy.