How to Improve at Atomic

Are you a player than has been stuck at too low a rating for too long? If not, maybe you have been in the past. No one likes to be stuck. We look up to the people better than us, and we yearn to play like them and win like them. But maybe that isn't just a pipe dream. With enough hard work and time, you will go from a mere sapling in atomic to a great tree.

But where can you start? This blog aims to answer that question. Keep in mind that what's listed in this blog is just the surface level goals you should aim for; the tip of the iceberg. You shouldn't think of this blog as the one and only solution, either. I am just one person with my own beliefs and opinions, and some other people (maybe you!) will think differently.

We will be splitting this blog up into different rating ranges: 400-1500, 1500-1600, 1600-1700, and so on. Let's get started!

400-1500

At this rating, you are probably just learning how to play atomic and its strategies and tactics. You don't know many openings, and you keep losing to the same traps. Right now, you should be prioritizing two things: learning traps and basic tactics.

Learning traps

If you keep losing to the same trap or opening, learn how to counter it. A good way to do this is to actually learn how to play it as the trapper, not the trapped. This way you can also use the trap for yourself! Keep doing this until you stop losing within the first 10 moves of the game. You still probably will lose to high rated players, but that's normal. Just try not to lose in the opening and focus more on playing people of your own level.

Basic tactics

You should also try to familiarize yourself with basic tactics like double attacks and pins. There are a lot of good studies out there on these tactics, including mine:

This way you can have a better chance of winning in middlegames and endgames, and you won't miss obvious mate sequences.

1500-1600

At this rating, you should know not to lose to the most commonly spammed openings. You might also have a better understanding of strategies to win. Now, you should try to prioritize learning an opening (for white).

Learn an opening

After you have stopped losing every game as black, the next step is to learn how to win as white. Look through the Lichess move database (in an analysis board) and try to find an opening that you want to try. Next, spend a few hours memorizing some of the best computer lines for that specific opening. This way, you should be able to get a decent position out of the opening. Only worry about one opening for now and spam it for a while to see whether you like it or not. If you don't like it or don't win much in it, find another opening that works better. Do this until you find a favorite opening that you like to play and is also helping you win.

1600-1700

At this rating, you should have basic knowledge of tactics and some strategy and have worked out one or maybe even two openings that you have learned and put to use. Unless you really feel a need to, don't try and learn more openings as white for now. Studying as black can always help you though, which is the main thing you should be doing in this rating range.

Booking up as black

You should have stopped falling for common scams and traps ages ago. If you are still losing in 5 moves to Nf3 e3, you are not allowed to read any further. However, just learning to stop losing quickly doesn't mean you won't lose slowly. You have to start getting booked up on theory for black. I'd suggest starting with the opening you play as white, just so you don't look stupid and always lose to the same opening that you use....

You should also really check out @JakeStateFarm's YT channel (JSF - Atomic Theory), specifically the opening theory videos. There's a few in there that I wish I knew earlier in my atomic journey. Like I've said before, learning theory will not make you invincible. Even top players can still lose, especially as black. Again, prioritize beating the players of your own lever or lower, and don't worry too much if you still get destroyed by high rated players.

1700-1900

At this rating, you should have stopped peeing your pants every time you get black against someone decent. A quick note: when you get black (and just in general as well), try to be confident that you can actually win, not just put up a good fight. Anyways, all throughout the rating ranges, you should be constantly practicing and trying new lines as white and black. Personally, I'm supportive of off-theory, disgusting scams :).

There actually isn't anything new you should be doing here. This is kind of the "in-between" period where you're better than the low-rated players, but still not near the 2k players. I would suggest just to - like I said above - continue practicing your openings and learning/playing new ones. It's also around here that you want to start playing - and actually trying - against higher-rated opponents. This beating people of your own rating or higher is going to be the most efficient way of climbing the rating ladder.

Play more, too. You will need to develop game sense, and the best way to do that is just to play a bunch.

1900-2000

At this rating, you should be truly confident in your ability to win against anyone lower than you (but please don't look down on them). Now the greatest challenge is in front of you: reaching 2k. This is especially hard, as the higher you climb in rating, the harder it is going to be to gain rating. Beating <1800s gives close to nothing and beating 2000+s just don't give as much as they used to. I would say that this is the hardest part of being at this rating.

Tilt is really dangerous too, and losing to 1800s or 1700s can actually drop you a lot. You should always try to stop playing when tilt happens, but even I can't stop sometimes. After a tilt though, I find it helpful to use ZEN mode to help get out of the tilting phase (press "z" while in a game).

Patch up holes

You should really try to examine your own gameplay and find which openings or which specific position you seem to be struggling at. For me, Nf3 e3 and Nh3 as black were two really big holes, but I can safely say that I am decently confident and comfortable playing them now.
Do the same as me. Once you find those holes, work to study them and fix them. Of course, you can't be perfect (especially as black, a huge disadvantage) but try your best. Ask some 2ks what they do to play openings. I hope we can all spam @ReChesster with hundreds of questions :b.

2000 and above

Speaking of @ReChesster, he will be a special guest in the blog today! I have not yet reached 2k, so I thought that it would be better for ReChesster - a seasoned 2300+ with a peak of 2500+ - to talk about what to do when you breach the 2k barrier, although I think what he says can be applied no matter what your rating is.

ReChesster's Words

[Edited for grammar and cut for clarity and cohesion]

"So the game is most often divided into opening, midgame, and endgame. Since I am the expert on opening, I will mainly talk about that, but I will, of course, also talk about the other two as well.

For opening, you generally need to work on white and black prep separately. Being at 2k should mean that you already have a pretty decent opening repertoire. From here, you generally have two options: you either keep playing your opening and perfect it or switch to a different one.

An extreme example for the first option would be @RenaudMerle. He keeps strengthening his 2N more and more.

An extreme example for the second option is @Vannto. He can play any opening he likes very strongly, but due to never really focusing on one opening, he has no particularly strong white spam. You can find the same with other top players like @Wolfram_EP and @Natso, though not as extreme. You will notice they have considerably stronger white openings than vannto, for example.

Both of these approaches have their pros and cons. The first one's advantage is that after a while you will develop an extremely strong white spam that is nearly unbreakable. the downside is you will only know what you see in your own opening, and never know how to play different kinds of positions.

I myself, and also most other top players, recommend doing a mixture of the two. I played a couple of different openings and then, in the end, settled with one opening and worked on making it an extremely strong spam of mine, while also still occasionally trying out other openings.

Those are the possible options for white prep. Now moving on to black prep.

For black prep, my general advice is to make it as solid and playable as possible. Scam lines are nice, but when people figure out or learn the refutation, then you have nothing to work with anymore. My favorite example of that is 2. ...Nh6 against 2N. It has a huge amount of scam lines, but once people figure out how to refute them, then you don't really have anything playable anymore. Of course, 2N has an insane amount of scam lines for black, so it's unlikely you will run out of them, but do you really want to prep a new scam line all the time? With 2. ...c6, you get solid positions against almost every single line white can play without having to rely on specific scam lines. This is just 2N, but your prep should be according to this principle for every opening.

That said, for matches, I definitely think that scam prep has a huge advantage too because usually, when it's good scam prep, the opponent won't see it coming. So if you have a match coming up, it's a good opportunity to use that scam prep.

Moving on to middlegame. This is the part where most people struggle, and also the weakest point. This was true for me too for a long, long time, and it's quite difficult to train as well. What helps with middlegame is playing different openings because you will get to see different kinds of positions, which also have different kinds of tactics. Another really good way to train middlegame, which helped me at least a lot, is doing puzzles to improve your tactical vision. [You can find puzzles on PyChess.org, but most players would probably recommend atomicpuzzles.org.] Also, it obviously helps to thoroughly analyze your games, especially losses. You often end up seeing nice tactical ideas there too.

Actually, never mind, I won't do anything for endgame because I'm actually really, really bad there myself, lel, sorry."

My Words

C'mon, Re. I guess I have to write something about endgame now.

Endgames in Atomic are more just memorizing different positions, because specific positions will always have specific way(s) to win (at least as far as I know). There are numerous endgame studies for Atomic out there that you can find with a quick search in the study tab.

However, you have to know that you won't need to learn every possible endgame position, as some will come up in a real game maybe 1 in 5,000 games or something. And (also to the best of my knowledge) if you are in an endgame where you know you can win but don't know how, it is still a draw and not the end of the world.

Outro

This blog took a long time to make, mainly because I had no motivation for a few months. However, I'm really glad I finally finished it.

Thanks to @ReChesster, of course, for helping write most of the last section. But also everyone in the Atomic community! You have all been great friends since the beginning of my journey. I hope we can all have fun playing the game of Atomic chess together in the future!

Peace! ✌️

@anonymously1234