My Strategy For Improvement

As mentioned in the intro, I have been putting most of my time into studying chess using eight different sub-strategies that I'm going to share in this blog. First, I want to talk about why I decided I would do this and how I thought this would help me. However, before we even do that, I want to give the name I created for my strategy. The name I have decided on is "More time, Less distractions", More time means you get more study time and Less distractions means you will never get distracted by playing any games.

Before the moment I started my More time, Less distractions idea, I would never get any better, I wouldn't want to play any rapid or classical. I was always afraid I would lose rating points and not be 1703 in classical, I could not get out of 1500 blitz and I was making mistakes often in rapid. All of these are examples of a Fixed Mindset, I did not want to try to improve or try to risk playing classical. What I needed was a Growth Mindset. I wanted to improve drastically and to do so, I needed change. And so I created this strategy to improve and as a bonus, created a growth mindset. The reason I did not play any games is so that when I am done, I can see how much rating I can gain, or lose. Now it's finally time to show my sub-strategies:

1. Quit playing games

This is the first thing you have to do in order for this method to work. So try to do everything you can to stop being addicted to your bullet and blitz. However, if you still want to play, then you will no longer be following this More time, Less distractions strategy. So, before you go to the next one, make sure you stop playing.

2. Watch more YouTube

This one is key in order to get better. Watch YouTube videos of all types, the opening, middlegame, endgame, endgame patterns/studies, tactics, analysis, videos of the openings you play, etc. A really awesome feature Lichess has is the Watch tab. Hover over it and go down to "Video Library". You can find an entire library of videos to watch. You get the point. Watch more YouTube!

3. Create a document of chess tips

Create something like a Google Document to write down any chess tips or anything important mentioned in the videos you will watch.

4. Create a Lichess Study of your opening

As the title says, create your own study of the openings you play as white and black. Use an opening book and/or Stockfish to find the move you are going to play for each move the opponent is going to play. As a bonus, click "e" on your study to open the Opening Explorer and it allows you to see the moves you and the Lichess players make in the Lichess Database, the ones GM's make in the Master's Database, and the ones you make in the Player Database. To make your own study, go to the Learn tab in the top left corner, go to study, and click the big green plus symbol. And there, you now have your very own opening study.

5. Study other people's studies

While in the Study section, you can also search for other people's studies. These studies include everything from openings to endgame patterns and can really help your chess.

6. Review Master Games of your openings (or Master Games in general)

One of the most important things to learn from is Master Games. Go to the Master's Database on the Lichess opening explorer (click e) and play out some moves of your opening(s) and look at the top Master Games. Look at a couple of them for each variation and STUDY them! Do not just click through the moves and pretend to be done. Actually study and learn from them. Try to find moves the Master's made or missed, see what you missed. This is the final thing you need to actually improve.

After you have done all of these things, wrote and read your tips, watched and re-watched your YouTube videos, review your openings, etc., you can finally start playing games again and see your astounding progress. But one last thing that will help you improve even faster is:

7. Five a day

Just following these sub-strategies isn't going to help you find tactics. If you don't do tactics, you will miss chances in a lot of games because you didn't find the tactic that wins. That is why I recommend doing five puzzles a day to improve your tactics. Do not just click easy or easier and do puzzles below your skill level. Do puzzles at or above your skill puzzle. And only pick specific puzzles from Puzzle Themes if you need improvement for a specific part of the game. Otherwise, in that case, do ten a day.

Review every game you play!

You have to review ALL your games. Do not just review victories, also review your losses, see what you did wrong. Review doesn't mean click the Computer Analysis button, look at the graph for three seconds and claim victory. What review actually means is look at all the inaccuracies, mistakes, and blunders you made. If you didn't make any, still review the game. One way you can review your bad moves is on the game analysis, click "r" and Lichess will show all your bad moves one by one. You will be able to find the best move yourself, or skip it. It is a really helpful tool everyone needs to use. And the most important thing to remember is to review all your games!

The End

I hope this post was helpful to those who are struggling to improve and actually want to get better. I have used this method myself and it works flawlessly. I gained hundreds of rating points easily and boosted my win rate. Let me know how you improved in the forum topic. Bye!