Quote:


Then good luck in chasing your goals.

an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 06/24/21 at 18:21:35:


It's been a pleasure thus far. I'm surprised that I developed this strong of an interest in the game again at this point but I'm really glad that I did. It's just a part of my everyday now and I enjoy studying just as much as playing. 

Spending some time on ChessTempo right now and then going to play a bit.

cathexis wrote on 06/24/21 at 11:04:26:


Honestly: I think this is a far, far too basic and casual approach to this. He's saying to hopefully play 1-2 30+5's a week lol. I can play multiple 30+30's or 45+45's a day already. And as far as study...I don't see how someone can expect to go from where I'm at to the upper 1% of the USCF by working on the game a few hours a day. Not when there are guys with 10-20+ years of experience on me who already spend more than that on the game daily and have for years. I know from past endeavors how important rest, nutrition, and balance are but I'm definitely already putting in 12+ hours a day and intend to keep it that way, barring a day or two break now and then. 

I know how long this is going to take and I'm in no rush. I'm also not looking to just waste time. I want to push myself.

Jupp53 wrote on 06/24/21 at 08:36:21:


Thank you for your post and the advice. I appreciate it!

ChessIsWar wrote on 06/24/21 at 06:02:17:

In reverse order.

How best to go about doing so
* Play lots of slow serious games
* Carefully annotate all your slow serious games
* Study lots of master games

How fast
* Ten years if ever. The 10,000 hours is not far off the mark, that's 20 hours per week of the right sort of work (see above).

How far
* 2200 is a performance level, not a knowledge level. You will need to be able to win 75% of your games against 2000 players. Find some 2000 players, talk to them, see what they know and more importantly what they can do, and how long they have been working at the game to get there. Know that you will have to work longer and harder and smarter than them in order to beat them three out of four. 2200 is at the 99th percentile, by definition 99% of rated chessplayers will never make it. Many of the ones that don't make it are very smart and have worked very hard.

ChessIsWar wrote on 06/24/21 at 06:02:17:

Every hour you spend playing coffeehouse games online is another hour you are not improving. Twenty hours per week is what you need to invest, can you really even spare one hour for fooling around?

I don’t understand. 
What is the relation between the title and the content?
Which war? Which ongoing military conflict do you desire to participate in?

I wanted to make this thread here for a few reasons. First - I can't find a more serious, in depth, and beneficial chess forum online. The Chess.com forums are a zoo and not something I can be wasting my time with at this point. That said, I do have a thread up there that explains where I'm coming from and what I've been doing over the past week plus. 

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/total-war-61208037

I have 2 USCF games played lifetime, both on the same day several years ago. I lost both and have a 980p rating. Since that time, I have very little true experience to talk about. I have spent the majority of my time playing online poker, socializing, reading about other topics on life, etc. Over the past week and half, however, I have been basically doing nothing but playing and studying the game. I can truly say I've never been more into chess or any other game before, which is actually saying a ton. I simply can't consume or play enough. 

I'm renewing my USCF sub on July 1st and will be playing in rated online USCF games on Chess.com, as well as in ICC's T89 of Team4545. Alongside this, I'm going to play a ton of "coffeehouse" games online and just keep pouring time and energy into improvement. At some point in the near future, I'll begin incorporating OTB rated play locally, as well as dipping into Manhattan and The Marshall now and then for more serious games. 

Goal = 2200 USCF standard rating. I'm 39 now and I see a ton of people in my shoes wondering how far they can progress, how fast, and how to best go about doing so. I want to set out on this path and see exactly what it entails and where it leads me. At the absolute least, playing competitive chess is something that is just all around beneficial for me and definitely the best thing for me to be putting my energy into at this point.

I welcome all/any advice, discussion, suggestions, and comments and I look forward to participating in the community here, as well as growing as a player and person.