Questions from a player stuck at 800-900 for over 4 years

Good on you for trying to figure out what is wrong with your game.

In my experience with improving I found playing an opening constantly helped me improve. For example if you play 500 games of the London system against 500 different players you will get 500 different ideas played against you although the first 8 moves will nearly be the same thing but the move order will be different. You start to get an understand as to the WHY you are playing the moves. The next 500 games you will be able to build more on middle game ideas.

The best way to find inspiration on what to do in the middle game (if you cannot figure that out yourself is
) is to go online and watch speed runs. People that are better than you that just play that opening.

Why specifically speed runs? Because watching someone good play the same thing against 100s of people helps you with pattern recognition. It helps you understand the WHY.
Why do I play these seemingly meaningless moves in the opening? Oh because my middle game plan will be to fight for this square to stay aggressive and keep initiative.

Why do I castle queenside in this position?? Oh because he blocked his bishop in here allowing me to pawn storm on the king side.

You need to learn game plans Why you are doing things.... so memorising the opening will come naturally once you understanderstand the Why.

And lastly watch some boring end game videos. Learn to be comfortable with an end game. Because like you say sometimes people don't make mistakes you need to be comfortable going I to an end game.

That's a very summarised version of my opinion in what helped me improve quite fast... hopefully that helps and good luck

@NellyPotardo said in #81:
> Good on you for trying to figure out what is wrong with your game.
>
> In my experience with improving I found playing an opening constantly helped me improve. For example if you play 500 games of the London system against 500 different players you will get 500 different ideas played against you although the first 8 moves will nearly be the same thing but the move order will be different. You start to get an understand as to the WHY you are playing the moves. The next 500 games you will be able to build more on middle game ideas.
>
> The best way to find inspiration on what to do in the middle game (if you cannot figure that out yourself is
> ) is to go online and watch speed runs. People that are better than you that just play that opening.
>
> Why specifically speed runs? Because watching someone good play the same thing against 100s of people helps you with pattern recognition. It helps you understand the WHY.
> Why do I play these seemingly meaningless moves in the opening? Oh because my middle game plan will be to fight for this square to stay aggressive and keep initiative.
>
> Why do I castle queenside in this position?? Oh because he blocked his bishop in here allowing me to pawn storm on the king side.
>
> You need to learn game plans Why you are doing things.... so memorising the opening will come naturally once you understanderstand the Why.
>
> And lastly watch some boring end game videos. Learn to be comfortable with an end game. Because like you say sometimes people don't make mistakes you need to be comfortable going I to an end game.
>
> That's a very summarised version of my opinion in what helped me improve quite fast... hopefully that helps and good luck

Thank you! I will search for some speedruns on youtube. I am also back to the London system. It's easier to navigate than the Italian game.

Went a bit too fast, losing a bishop because of it. And def. should have gone for the pin. But this was one of those games where I actually wanted to play nice and slow, wait.. not trade right away.. but it seems like my opponent almost forces me to do just that so we are left with 3 pieces in 2 minutes time.

Is there any way to keep my own pace and not be forced into a trade war?

httpscolon//lichessperiodorg/0is6gYaA If I am reading this correctly, you waited ~2 seconds before choosing 9 Bb5+. I see mistakes like this a lot. The piece of a player is attacked, and, instead of immediately doing something about it, the player replies with an attack. That kind of thing might work out okay, but it is complicating the position and something might go wrong. ~2 seconds is not enough time to check for potential future problems. The machine does seem to think that Bb5 was your best chance for a small advantage at move 5, 6, or 7. Now, I think that I am going to go back to the surface.

@nizzledizzleshizzle said in #82:
> Thank you! I will search for some speedruns on youtube. I am also back to the London system. It's easier to navigate than the Italian game.
I can recommend aman Hammonds London system speed run. He is so good at explaining things in a simple way..

Also ginger gm I think has a good London system speed run

@kindaspongey said in #84:
> The piece of a player is attacked, and, instead of immediately doing something about it, the player replies with an attack.

So now there are two pieces attacked.

@NellyPotardo said in #85:
> I can recommend aman Hammonds London system speed run. He is so good at explaining things in a simple way..
>
> Also ginger gm I think has a good London system speed run

That’s handy! Will check tonight. I really like the London so far

It’s def going better. Play a bit more on another site and I have gained around 50 points in daily chess and 125 in rapid in the last 90 days. With rapid I play 10/5.

Watching speedruns has helped a lot in getting a better understanding of the game.

Pressure from opponents I find the most difficult when they just keep pounding and I just need to keep defending. I let my pieces hang less but not completely eliminated, especially when it comes to more moves than 1 and trying an attack and mid calculating.

Opening wise, with with... Italian game or scotch. With black often just e5 and end up with horse game.

@nizzledizzleshizzle I have taken the trouble to review 10 of your most recent games, and you lose matches because you leave your pieces undefended + tactical reasons. When you move, you have to ensure that the piece won't be attacked by any other enemy piece + Practice tactics. I went to your profile and you have 1200... you really need to improve there, at least try to reach 2000 in tactics to see real progress.

If you don't work on these 2 weaknesses, don't expect to improve by magic. Stop crying and start doing tactical exercises.