I last posted about a chess update more than one and a half years ago, and I stopped posting because I wasn’t making steady improvement in the numbers, and after a while I lost the habit of posting.
The end of 2018 is a good time to post an update because I have improved quite a lot, and a lot of interesting things have happened since I last posted.
The best thing that’s happened is that I found a great coach, and all of my improvement is thanks to my lessons with him. I started lessons about four months ago, and I have seen steady progress since then. I found my coach on Lichess, and he is Mr_Penings there. While I always felt that having a coach would improve my game, I never quite knew how to go about this. I came about Lichess coaches on Reddit, and I was very lucky to get the right person on my first try.
I think this is the most important thing if you want to improve. The lessons have completely changed the way I play for the better, and it is really helpful to analyze games with an expert and see things that you would probably never see on your own.
I have also switched over from Chess.com to Lichess which I think is a much better platform with a lot of tools that are very helpful in improving your game. Lichess studies are a great way to learn, and their Opening Explorer is also a very useful tool to learn openings.
Now, some stats to keep a view on progress.
I have joined USCF since June of last year so now I have a USCF rating and I’m playing USCF rated tournaments quite regularly so my USCF rating is going to be the main measure for me and the Lichess Classical rating will be a secondary measure to track progress.
- USCF Rating: 1452 (Percentile: 82)
- Lichess Classical Rating: 1955 (Percentile: 97.8)
My Lichess rating is quite high at the moment, and this is the only time I have broken 1900 anywhere in any rating format, and I am in clear sight of 2,000 or even 2,100 in the year to come. I am hoping to push the USCF rating to the same level as well of course.
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