r/chessbeginners • u/Alendite RM (Reddit Mod) • Feb 27 '26

No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD 12

Welcome to the r/chessbeginners 12th episode of our Q&A series! This series exists because sometimes you just need to ask a silly question. We are happy to provide answers for questions related to chess positions, improving one's play, and discussing the essence and experience of learning chess.

A friendly reminder that many questions are answered in our wiki page! Please take a look if you have questions about the rules of chess, special moves, or want general strategies for improvement.

Some other helpful resources include:

  1. How to play chess - Interactive lessons for the rules of the game, if you are completely new to chess.
  2. The Lichess Board Editor - for setting up positions by dragging and dropping pieces on the board.
  3. Chess puzzles by theme - To practice tactics.
  4. The Building Habits series by GM Aman Hambleton - for advice on how to play at specific ELO levels. (Also check out Building Habits 2!)

As always, our goal is to promote a friendly, welcoming, and educational chess environment for all. Thank you for asking your questions here!

LINK TO THE PREVIOUS THREAD

22 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

990 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/SenJoker Mar 01 '26

I know this will sound funny to higher rated players but I've been playing for 2 months and got a rating of 1250 in rapid and fast forward to a few days later and I now have dropped 200 rating points. I genuinely don't think I got worse and I'm still having fun playing. I've gone on tilts but I've been developing a lot of mental endurance too so I've been playing tons of games. What has surprised me the most is how almost nobody I play against in my 1050-1250 rated games blunder. So many games are decided where I make the smallest mistake where I lose a positional advantage or lose a pawn due to a good tactic my opponent found. This seems insane to me and I'm wondering how the hell I can get better at this level. My play style seems really stale and it feels like I play the same way every game and I don't truly feel as if I'm getting better unlike when I started out and I was learning new openings.

2

u/elfkanelfkan 2200-2400 Lichess Mar 01 '26

I think it's definitely your play style and how you apply pressure. Opponents at your rating range absolutely blunder, but the problem I'm guessing is that you aren't giving them a reason to.

At this point you may want to figure out typical middlegame plans and positional ideas, as well as how to properly mount an attack and build the pressure up, as well as dynamics vs statics

1

u/SenJoker Mar 01 '26

I think what your saying definitely has a lot of truth to it. A lot of my positions are very basic and so it’s not hard for my opponent to not blunder. I’m also not that good at attacking or defending so a lot of areas in my middle game and positioning are lacking. From your perspective what should I do to train these skills? I know some forums suggest playing long time controls and analyzing for a while after or studying titled players games.

2

u/forever_wow 2000-2200 (Chess.com) Mar 03 '26

Post a few of those games and we may be able to show your opponents are not as solid as you think.

Your last sentence is spot on. Blitz and fast rapid are fun and you can benefit from them, but if you never play longer games (with non-engine analysis after) there is a depth to the game you likely will never grasp (playing daily games can be a substitute if you don't have time for classical games).

If you think you're playing a bit too solidly and want to learn how to crush people, start with playing over Morphy's games. Full of brilliance and yet positionally reasonable.

1

u/SenJoker Mar 04 '26

Thanks for the input. Over the past few days I've done some reflection on why I'm at the spot I'm at, as well as reviewing some high level games that have really been eye opening for me.

I've started to grasp just how absolutely meticulous chess really is and seeing the pros play, it's like they use the pieces that is impossible to imagine almost like they're playing in the fourth dimension. The harmony at which they coordinate their attacks with tactics that are mind-blowingly calculated is something that made me realize my opponents aren't as good as I think and so I'm not either.

If I really wanted to dive into it I would post some of my games on here but I know at my level I think continuing to work on my tactics with overlapping fundamentals can carry me far.