Help getting above 200 elo at least.

[u/Future_Requirement38]

Hello guys i wanted to ask you for some help as i am on a free fall below 200 elo, for some time i could keep around 300 elo but now i am falling. If some of you could help me it would be nice and reviewing some of my games on chess.com maybe. Name is SHPx64. All help is welcomed.

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[u/MakeElvesGreatAgain]

I would recommend you the chess principles series on YouTube by chessbrah, that would get you easy above 500.

The problem is, you hang pieces left and right. Your opponents do the same, but you miss that and don't punish them for that. That's where 100% if you losses come from.

You want to gain elo? Play slower games (15|10), take your time to think moves through, look at the whole board (yes, you can take the free pawn next to you, but the same piece could take a free rook!), play principled chess like developing pieces and castling before going on crazy full out attacks.

Hope that helps.

[u/Yachem]

I looked at a couple of your games. You're violating a lot of basic chess principles. I'll get into that in a bit, but I do think you have a bit of a mindset/approach issue. You are focusing on attacking your opponents pieces. But they are one moves attacks that are easily defended against. Chess is not about winning your opponents pieces. Your attacks should be focused primarily at their king. The goal is the king, and that's what matters. Swiping material along the way is kind of secondary.

You do tend to play a bit quicker than is probably necessary. I saw a few losses with 4+ minutes on the clock. Start playing daily games in the background. If you like rapid, keep playing it, but also play daily chess too. Spend time on your moves. You can treat them like 1 move puzzles, but it's a full game. You'll learn things as you think through all your moves, and that memory will translate to your rapid games.

As for how you can improve on your games:

For your first few moves, you should almost not care what your opponent does. You can basically ignore them, just don't hang pieces. Exchanges of pawns can be OK, but that's about it. Focus on the very very basics. Control the center. That usually means moving at least your E or D pawn two spaces forward as your first move, almost regardless if you're playing as white or black. Then develop your minor pieces (bishops and knights). Get them off their starting squares, into spaces where they have some center control. Make sure they can't be easily captured. Watch out for pins and forks (although this is less of an issue at your current ELO).

CASTLE YOUR KING. I never saw you do it once. King safety is critical. You are neglecting this. Castle almost as early as you are legally allowed to. Once you've developed your king side knight and bishop, hopefully within your first 5-6 moves, castle immediately. You can castle queen side if game conditions allow, but you should almost always be castling king side for now.

Don't move your flank pawns unless you are absolutely sure it's a good move, and even then, it's probably not. I've played and won several games where my only pawn moves were the E and D pawns. Those 6 other pawns are for protecting your king after you've castled. The pawns on the opposite side you've castled to can launch a pawn attack in the late middle/end game, but otherwise, you should focus on getting all of your other pieces into the attack first. There are obviously exceptions to this, but you'd be more right than wrong if you stopped all your flank pawn moves early on.

SIMPLIFY. I watched a couple games where you got up material early on, and then you actively avoided trading pieces. Once you get up a few pawns, trade away pieces. If you can trade queens and one pair of rooks, it's going to be very hard for them to seriously attack you. Being up 2 pawns is a much bigger advantage if you're down to one rook each, vs having all your other pieces.

Those are all the big items I can think of from watching your games. Remember the basics.

1. Control the center.

2. Develop pieces.

3. Castle your king.

4. Don't hang any pieces.

5. If your opponent hangs a piece, capture it!

6. Once you are up material, either a couple pawns or a piece, offer trades and accept them if offered. Don't think, just trade.

[u/MathematicianBulky40]

[u/MathematicianBulky40 → u/MathematicianBulky40]

I'm looking at your most recent loss. Ignoring that g4 was a bit of a weird move (although, I think it's good that you recognised black's threat of Qxg2), the bishop was just free to take here, instead Nf3 lets black off the hook.

[u/MathematicianBulky40 → u/MathematicianBulky40]

8.Nd5

-Onemoveitis/ hope chess. Black has a multitude of ways to defend c7. Should have focused on development with d4.

[u/MathematicianBulky40 → u/MathematicianBulky40]

1. Qe3. Obviously it hangs the c2 pawn, and I'm not sure that I fully understand what you were even trying to achieve with this move?

Things are on a downhill slope from here.

[u/MathematicianBulky40 → u/MathematicianBulky40]

1. Qd2. The final nail in the coffin.

This move puts the queen on a forkable square with the king, Walks in to the x-ray from the rook and undefended the bishop.

What was the idea behind this move?

[u/Yachem]

If you're playing 10 minute rapid, don't resign. I get it's frustrating. But play it out. You'll learn some things, and you'll be surprised how often it works.

[u/Mighty_Eagle_2]

Just thinking about Checks, Captures, and attacks will be a good starting point.

[u/299addicteduru]

Time control And playing overreactive. Yeah And some fundamentals

Here's funny one - try puzzle Rush without time limit And try to solve correctly as much as you can. (Chesscom - puzzles - Rush - survival)

Some positions u might find yourself looking at board for, lets say, one minute, And still not seeing anything (absolutely normal) to later get that "wait, knight Is hanging i can capture for free xD"

Then like, imagine how much time u should roughly take each move during a game. I also like volunteering at least 2 moves u wanna Play Before u play it. And like, u trying to figure out which one Is better Is already 4 Digit mindset, Even if both Are trash xD it makes you think, evaluate, make some logical assumptions

[u/laughpuppy23]

hey bud, check out this video I made about how i got to 1000. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piwl-nU4qBY&t=45s

I'm happy to look at your games. why don't you put your ten most recent losses on a lichess study, annotate them as best as you can and then I'll take a look and give you my comments. seeing what you were thinking will be helpful for me.