How did your chess journey start at 400 Elo, and what strategies took you to your current level?

I started playing chess two years ago without any knowledge of the game. Initially, I believed chess required a high level of mathematical skill and intense focus, as many people suggested. Taking it up as a challenge in 2022, I was surprised by the complexity, such as the en passant rule and the fact that the king, the most crucial piece, moves only one space! lol,
Meanwhile, the queen is really powerful.

Beginning with an Elo rating of 400, I faced difficulties and was not able to improve, then I decided to pause actual games. Instead, I turned to YouTube videos for guidance. Many recommended solving puzzles, but it was challenging to guess the best moves. Despite the difficulty, I committed to solving 30-40 puzzles daily. After three months, I resumed playing and saw improvements, reaching an 800 Elo rating.

However, I again stuck in 800 Elo, and then I learned about the three phases of the game: opening, middle, and end. Choosing the London System for the opening phase(yes London system, I was a beginner bro), I found a little success, reaching a rating of 900 Elo. After that, I choose the Sicilian Defense, which proved beneficial due to the abundance of videos and its inherent complexity.

Despite these strategic choices, I faced another difficulty in the endgame, no matter what I did, I lost in the endgame. To overcome this, I delved into studying endgames, a challenging aspect for me. Despite initial struggles, combining book study and YouTube tutorials allowed me to advance from 900 to 1200 Elo.

Yet, challenges never go as opponents started giving me checkmates in the middle game, preventing me from reaching the endgame. (why there is so much pain in chess)
To address this, I focused on studying the middle game, even though it was complex. This effort paid off, and I climbed from 1200 to 1600 Elo.

However, my progress again stuck once more at 1600 Elo. Simultaneously, I dedicated time to solving 20-25 puzzles daily, reaching a 2100-level proficiency in puzzles.

Would you give me some advice, on how can I overcome 1600 Elo?

I will be thankful to you.
Have a nice day!!

wow what a Nice Story. to rise from 1600 You need to gain your own Vision of desk and Feels of current Position, marked all it's weak and strong points, based on that You may Choose or Create Correct Goal of developing, by Analyzing all that , also it allows You to catch Sense of danger, where are most vanuable point in your defence, and opponent defence, if You are quite agressive player, that skill becomes more natural. So train Vision and Feels, and You will Rise at least to 1750+ and then it's all up to Your Focus and Conctration train, also important to work with Health, that feels like helps, and get Mind not overtensed, and Relaxed in Right Time

@Ranger_ein said in #1:

I started playing chess two years ago without any knowledge of the game. Initially, I believed chess required a high level of mathematical skill and intense focus, as many people suggested. Taking it up as a challenge in 2022, I was surprised by the complexity, such as the en passant rule and the fact that the king, the most crucial piece, moves only one space! lol,
Meanwhile, the queen is really powerful.

Beginning with an Elo rating of 400, I faced difficulties and was not able to improve, then I decided to pause actual games. Instead, I turned to YouTube videos for guidance. Many recommended solving puzzles, but it was challenging to guess the best moves. Despite the difficulty, I committed to solving 30-40 puzzles daily. After three months, I resumed playing and saw improvements, reaching an 800 Elo rating.

However, I again stuck in 800 Elo, and then I learned about the three phases of the game: opening, middle, and end. Choosing the London System for the opening phase(yes London system, I was a beginner bro), I found a little success, reaching a rating of 900 Elo. After that, I choose the Sicilian Defense, which proved beneficial due to the abundance of videos and its inherent complexity.

Despite these strategic choices, I faced another difficulty in the endgame, no matter what I did, I lost in the endgame. To overcome this, I delved into studying endgames, a challenging aspect for me. Despite initial struggles, combining book study and YouTube tutorials allowed me to advance from 900 to 1200 Elo.

Yet, challenges never go as opponents started giving me checkmates in the middle game, preventing me from reaching the endgame. (why there is so much pain in chess)
To address this, I focused on studying the middle game, even though it was complex. This effort paid off, and I climbed from 1200 to 1600 Elo.

However, my progress again stuck once more at 1600 Elo. Simultaneously, I dedicated time to solving 20-25 puzzles daily, reaching a 2100-level proficiency in puzzles.

Would you give me some advice, on how can I overcome 1600 Elo?

I will be thankful to you.
Have a nice day!!

try to find your style of play. the fact that I asked myself this question made me progress from 1700 to 2000. and of course I would not have been able to do anything if I did not have tournament experience, because the arenas are an opportunity to sometimes play against stronger opponents or of your level but with other approaches to the game. at 1600, it is on the development of a plan that you have to work because the tactical vision is already enough well in place, so think of your next moves like a tree structure, but always have several short ideas in mind because calculating a long variation of 5 or 10 moves is worthless up to 2200 classical. the advantage is that short variations will make you work your mind more quickly and you will abandon unnecessary procrastination. then, create a small opening repertoire from your already solid base, so look at the openings that you already play and thanks to insight, make the connection between winning rates on this or that opening. Once you have a decent mastery of this first repertoire, learn openings by watching players at the level you want to reach soon to get an idea. and then add the new to the old and you have all the tools to reach 2000
I did it like this, it took me about 2 years from 1700 to 2000

@CSKA_Moscou said in #3:

try to find your style of play. the fact that I asked myself this question made me progress from 1700 to 2000. and of course I would not have been able to do anything if I did not have tournament experience, because the arenas are an opportunity to sometimes play against stronger opponents or of your level but with other approaches to the game. at 1600, it is on the development of a plan that you have to work because the tactical vision is already enough well in place, so think of your next moves like a tree structure, but always have several short ideas in mind because calculating a long variation of 5 or 10 moves is worthless up to 2200 classical. the advantage is that short variations will make you work your mind more quickly and you will abandon unnecessary procrastination. then, create a small opening repertoire from your already solid base, so look at the openings that you already play and thanks to insight, make the connection between winning rates on this or that opening. Once you have a decent mastery of this first repertoire, learn openings by watching players at the level you want to reach soon to get an idea. and then add the new to the old and you have all the tools to reach 2000
I did it like this, it took me about 2 years from 1700 to 2000
that's a hard way , he s 1600+ in rapid, not in Blitz, it's good way, but maybe he needs something softer for start

The areas of chess to improve at are...

1. Openings
2. Middle game plans for a selected opening
3. Endgame

Between these three are

1. Tactics
2. Strategy

There are many ways to learn the game. The goal is to find what areas you need work on more than others. A good way to understand this is to find out how you lose games and how you mainly win games.

Starting at 400 sounds rough. I got to the 1000s after maybe like 5-10hours of playing. For your rating I wouldn’t focus too hard trying to memorize the openings because everyone is pretty bad at that still. Focus more on end games. Maybe learn a couple traps. And you’ll hit the 1600s

I learned by playing. I never read a chess book, watched YouTube videos, or put much effort into it.
For the openings, I just looked at a few Nakamura chessgames and copied him.
1/0 is good for learning openings, because you can play quick games and learn from mistakes. Losing is a good tutor.
But that will only take you so far.
Eventually you'll have to improve tactics and knowledge of theory.
The middle-game and end-game requires even more work.
The more knowledge and experience you have, the more likely it is that you'll continue to move up the ladder.
At some point, however, talent will takeover. The ultimate arbiter is work ethic, creativity, spatial intelligence, calculation, and working memory.
All of which decline as you age. Well, potentially everything except for your work ethic.

I started learning how the pieces moved.
Then I learned quick mates: like the bishop/queen pair.
Then I realized how silly those quick mates were, and how they were never going to work against anyone experienced.
I began to look at openings, because I realized that a lot of players were getting an advantage quickly. It seemed like within the first ten moves I'd always set in motion a terrible sequence of events.
Initially, I focused on two openings; the king and queens gambit.
I realized the Kings gambit was often too aggressive. There are a few ways to counter the Kings, which if white responds correctly, turns the game into an insane asylum of wacky positions. It became burdensome because I'd have to remember like 5-6 different variants up to 6 or 7 moves in depth just to keep the material equal. And black could always dictate pace and style, which was annoying.
I then realized that I was too aggressive. I began to contemplate the importance of maintaining a solid position. I recognized that offensive strikes should be very calculated and precise, and they shouldn't come at the expense of one's position unless it brings a significant material advantage.
I switched to the Sicilian for a while, but that wasn't for me.
I then switched to the English and the Hungarian opening, which allowed me to transition into multiple variants. I liked having those options available to me. I can better control the game using those two openings.
Then, I realized that tactics were important. They might be hard, but they force one to think critically. I began to do more puzzles, which increased tactical awareness and improved middle game play.
Then I realized that in order to win at higher levels of play I had to squeeze small advantages into a victory in the endgame, because nobody at a high level just folds over. This was more challenging, especially for an aggressive player that wanted quick wins.
That has been my journey.

My chess journey went the opposite direction. Started at around 1400-1600 ELO, than gradually worked my way down to the low 1000s. At this rate, I'll hit 400 before long.

Your journey is great and you have a bright future. Don't give up, make a daily routine and you'll reach 2000 in no time!