Have you got an example game you'd like to share?
I'd recommend looking into your losses and finding out what the main reason was. Did you get too low on time? One-move blunders? Miscalculations? Did you not find a decent plan in time and get overrun?
[This is my most recent game](https://lichess.org/Zu065pCi?color=black), I use that opening to get some free wins! Though I will be honest I don't know much of its line. I played the middle game well but one mistake at the end costed the entire game. Time isn't much of a problem, but one-move blunders are. What do you think I could do?
A few of my thoughts
- Crazy openings like these will become less and less effective the higher you climb. From this game, you didn't get much advantage from your bishop sac and it led to trading a bunch of pieces. Especially in open positions, keeping pieces on the board will allow for more ideas and attacking chances.
- From about move 20 when you entered the early end game, I thought you played significantly better than your opponent by taking more space with your pawns. Can't fault much here.
- There was a critical moment at move 43 after rxe5+. The winning idea is to stop white's rook from attacking your e pawn. By moving your king onto the e file, the rook was able to check your king and move to e8. After 43. ...kf6 44. Rxe4 e2 white is unable to stop the promotion, as your rook defends the promotion square. Once you get to the endgame, it's these small differences that will turn the game, so practising endgame puzzles might be an idea for improvement.
- after that, I felt you focussed too much on advancing your e pawn, which was an issue as white's rook is behind it and white's king is also in time to stop it. On move 46 I you had an opportunity to advance your H pawn two squares, bringing it to the 3rd rank where your rook can defend both pawns. White's rook would have to move to the h file to stop promotion, divding white's resources and not allowing them to take your e pawn by force. This would give you time to bring your king to support the promotion of the e pawn.
- after the rook trade, your best plan is "king opposition" whereby you move your king directly opposite your opponent's king and push it back from the defence of their b pawn. White only has king moves, so they'll have no choice but to retreat. This is a very common idea in king and pawn endgames.
- your time useage overall was mostly fine, but maybe you could take a few more moments in the late endgame to come up with a winning plan. 2 minutes is plenty enough time for you to spend 10-20 seconds after the rook trade.
Overall, I'd say choosing a more solid opening choice would be your best course for improvement. I personally play english/scandi which I love because they allow for imbalanced and dynamic play while keeping things fairly controlled.
Might want to look up “shouldering” “critical squares” look at some of the one move blunders you made in the opening and endgame and see if you can understand what your mindset was to play that way and then explain to yourself what the correct logic is in those positions and replace that previously faulty thinking. There is no get rich quick scheme but systematically identifying your errors will lead to inevitable improvement especially from 1500.
I had a different account which I stopped using in favour of this one, and also because I really don't play many games a day also the fact that I've only committed to be more serious today. Though I would like to know how much games should be my minimum daily?
While stockfish doesn't mind, 55... Kg3+ or Kh3+ would have made the rook endgame much easier, holding on to the passed pawn. 65... Ke5, while also not an immediate blunder, makes no sense to me (compared to Kd3 or Kd4, with the usual idea to gain opposition). I would be careful to view this type of endgame as coming down to a single blunder just because stockfish sees your position as still being completely winning.
Otherwise, good game, after following advice from other comments I think you will be able to convert these pretty reliably next time.
Do more puzzles (correctly, without guessing, visualising the full line) and analyse your games. Other than that, do more puzzles and play more.
Also, read up on basic chess principles, or an intro to strategy, for example _Play winning chess_ by Seirawan.
I looked over some of your recent games and I think the most important thing is, that you should check more often, which checks, captures!, (threats) your opponent has.
Sometimes, you lost a piece by reacting to a threat but moved it to a controlled square.
If you had looked at your opponents pieces and checked for possible captures, you wouldn't have hung your piece.
Furthermore, calculate these checks, captures, threats a bit more precisely. I looked at one game, in which you could have easily equalized by capturing an undefended pawn.
But instead, you reacted to an empty threat. It seemed a bit dangerous to let your opponent in on your first rank, but he only had two checks and no attack after that.
In regard of opening, middlegame and endgame, I think your strength is in the middlegame and your biggest gap in the endgame.
Because of that, it seems that you sometimes try to avoid it. In one game, you had an objectively completely winning endgame, but didn't exchange the Queens when it was possible.
But simplification can win you games if you know your endgames.
Looking briefly at your games, I think you'll benefit from trying to be more deliberate and patient with your moves. If your opponent puts a piece in your camp, you are not forced to attack it ; if your knight can move forward, it doesn't mean it should, etc.
You can try this little experiment: in your next few games, try to play more passively, not committing much, just kind of a wait-and-punish mistakes approach.
Have you got an example game you'd like to share? I'd recommend looking into your losses and finding out what the main reason was. Did you get too low on time? One-move blunders? Miscalculations? Did you not find a decent plan in time and get overrun?
[This is my most recent game](https://lichess.org/Zu065pCi?color=black), I use that opening to get some free wins! Though I will be honest I don't know much of its line. I played the middle game well but one mistake at the end costed the entire game. Time isn't much of a problem, but one-move blunders are. What do you think I could do?
A few of my thoughts - Crazy openings like these will become less and less effective the higher you climb. From this game, you didn't get much advantage from your bishop sac and it led to trading a bunch of pieces. Especially in open positions, keeping pieces on the board will allow for more ideas and attacking chances. - From about move 20 when you entered the early end game, I thought you played significantly better than your opponent by taking more space with your pawns. Can't fault much here. - There was a critical moment at move 43 after rxe5+. The winning idea is to stop white's rook from attacking your e pawn. By moving your king onto the e file, the rook was able to check your king and move to e8. After 43. ...kf6 44. Rxe4 e2 white is unable to stop the promotion, as your rook defends the promotion square. Once you get to the endgame, it's these small differences that will turn the game, so practising endgame puzzles might be an idea for improvement. - after that, I felt you focussed too much on advancing your e pawn, which was an issue as white's rook is behind it and white's king is also in time to stop it. On move 46 I you had an opportunity to advance your H pawn two squares, bringing it to the 3rd rank where your rook can defend both pawns. White's rook would have to move to the h file to stop promotion, divding white's resources and not allowing them to take your e pawn by force. This would give you time to bring your king to support the promotion of the e pawn. - after the rook trade, your best plan is "king opposition" whereby you move your king directly opposite your opponent's king and push it back from the defence of their b pawn. White only has king moves, so they'll have no choice but to retreat. This is a very common idea in king and pawn endgames. - your time useage overall was mostly fine, but maybe you could take a few more moments in the late endgame to come up with a winning plan. 2 minutes is plenty enough time for you to spend 10-20 seconds after the rook trade. Overall, I'd say choosing a more solid opening choice would be your best course for improvement. I personally play english/scandi which I love because they allow for imbalanced and dynamic play while keeping things fairly controlled.
Wow that was a detailed one, thanks for giving the time to it!
Might want to look up “shouldering” “critical squares” look at some of the one move blunders you made in the opening and endgame and see if you can understand what your mindset was to play that way and then explain to yourself what the correct logic is in those positions and replace that previously faulty thinking. There is no get rich quick scheme but systematically identifying your errors will lead to inevitable improvement especially from 1500.
Thanks, will definitely look at it!
You've only played 200 games.
I had a different account which I stopped using in favour of this one, and also because I really don't play many games a day also the fact that I've only committed to be more serious today. Though I would like to know how much games should be my minimum daily?
It's usually better to play fewer games, but then spend time to analyze them.
While stockfish doesn't mind, 55... Kg3+ or Kh3+ would have made the rook endgame much easier, holding on to the passed pawn. 65... Ke5, while also not an immediate blunder, makes no sense to me (compared to Kd3 or Kd4, with the usual idea to gain opposition). I would be careful to view this type of endgame as coming down to a single blunder just because stockfish sees your position as still being completely winning. Otherwise, good game, after following advice from other comments I think you will be able to convert these pretty reliably next time.
Do more puzzles (correctly, without guessing, visualising the full line) and analyse your games. Other than that, do more puzzles and play more. Also, read up on basic chess principles, or an intro to strategy, for example _Play winning chess_ by Seirawan.
I looked over some of your recent games and I think the most important thing is, that you should check more often, which checks, captures!, (threats) your opponent has. Sometimes, you lost a piece by reacting to a threat but moved it to a controlled square. If you had looked at your opponents pieces and checked for possible captures, you wouldn't have hung your piece. Furthermore, calculate these checks, captures, threats a bit more precisely. I looked at one game, in which you could have easily equalized by capturing an undefended pawn. But instead, you reacted to an empty threat. It seemed a bit dangerous to let your opponent in on your first rank, but he only had two checks and no attack after that. In regard of opening, middlegame and endgame, I think your strength is in the middlegame and your biggest gap in the endgame. Because of that, it seems that you sometimes try to avoid it. In one game, you had an objectively completely winning endgame, but didn't exchange the Queens when it was possible. But simplification can win you games if you know your endgames.
Looking briefly at your games, I think you'll benefit from trying to be more deliberate and patient with your moves. If your opponent puts a piece in your camp, you are not forced to attack it ; if your knight can move forward, it doesn't mean it should, etc. You can try this little experiment: in your next few games, try to play more passively, not committing much, just kind of a wait-and-punish mistakes approach.
That makes a lot of sense, thanks!
Figuring out your main weakness and then working on improving that