I only used Lichess, apart from using Chesskid before (Chesskid could not compare to Lichess's features). It is really easy to get to 1900+ only if you do the following:
* Practise puzzles
* Best if you join a club
* Play and analyse games
* Play classical
The last few comments are the most important
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We must do brain exercises for the mind sharpness
I agree with the other posters that you can improve even if Lichess is the only tool available.
At your current level, the biggest thing you can do is to avoid obvious tactical and positional blunders. Basic tactical blunders are relatively easy to spot where you lose material (especially in retrospect with analysis!), and you can practice tactics with puzzles. Positional blunders are a little more vague, but generally align with basic chess principles or rules of thumb, and are highly related to the pawn structure, control over the board, and piece activity (for example, playing pawn to f6 for no reason which while it may not immediately lose material, can weaken your pawn structure and create holes for your opponent to take advantage of).
To eliminate blunders, it helps to have a system for evaluating candidate moves. Look for moves that are:
- forcing (with captures, checks, attacking other pieces),
- defensive (adding a defender, retreating a piece from an attack, blocking an attack with another piece),
- and moves that either improve your position or restrict your opponent (gaining more space, parking a piece in your opponent's camp supported by a pawn, taking away squares that your opponent can put their pieces on, controlling open files with rooks, pushing a pawn to break open a key file or diagonal, etc.)
Use these categories to ask yourself:
- What is your opponent threatening to do on their next move?
- What moves look good for me and may accomplish multiple goals?
- How can my opponent reply to them (i.e. the blunder check)?
- and always do a king safety check for both sides, asking what squares are weak around the king, where can the king move to, what squares are defended, etc.
As you gain more experience and knowledge, this will start to become more natural and intuitive, and you will see improvement.
On top of that, all the other advice from the previous posters stands:
- Practice with longer games where you have the time to think
- Take notes during the games. Ask what moves look good, what are your plans, what do you think your opponent is trying to do.
- Analyse those games afterwards, especially where you lost. Ask yourself what was the mistake/blunder, how should I have prevented that on the board, and why did I miss seeing that? There's a whole forum and a team dedicated to analysing games!
- Make sure you know the basic checkmate patterns and endgame techniques/ideas
- Don't worry about opening theory (e.g. memorising lines 20 moves deep), but make sure you do play according to opening principles. Don't copy moves in an opening if you don't know why they're being made - figure it out first. The best openings for improving are generally considered to be 1.e4 e5 and 2.d4 d5.
- Set realistic goals for yourself, but more importantly, have a plan for how you want to get there that fits within your schedule (for example, depending on time available, solve 5 puzzles a day, play one rapid game, analayse that game, and spend 30 minutes reading up on endgames, and review one GM game on the weekend)
- When you are studying, set up an actual chess board or analysis board and physically make the moves to drive home the ideas. You can't become a decent soccer player just by reading about strategy and physics, for example - same goes with chess.
You should see your game improve over time, and going from 1500 to 1800 in a year on Lichess isn't unreasonable if you have a plan in place and focus on the right aspects. Realise though that improvement is a function of both time and dedication/effort and don't feel frustrated with yourself when you reach plateaus. Also, there's a wealth of experience on this site, so don't be afraid to reach out and post more if you have questions :)
@Diwaditya "I'm not able to get above 1500 😭😭😭"
you will. have patience.
"Is it possible to get 2000 without reading chess books?"
yes. watch educational streams or videos for example. they are all free and online.
"Is it possible to get 2000 without a FIDE rating? or any national rating?"
yes
"The only tool I have for learning chess is Lichess!
😭??????????????"
even only with lichess you can get there by solving 1000000000000 puzzles and playing slow games and reading the studies under "studies" on the lichess menu and use stockfish and analysis.
Great post Mezmer as usual :)
@Diwaditya You will be able to get 2000 rapid but You Have to study. I recoment learning or studying for about 6-8 monts or how much it takes for You to study. Take your time. Don't ever quit. Just keep studying for some time and You will eventualy get 2000 rapid
I don't play rapid much but I comfortably beat 2100s ... I am not FIDE rated.... I didn't study chess until I reached 2100 blitz and rapid.... The only things I did was practice... And analysis of my games with an engine ( chess purists will call this unethical yes... But it worked for me) ... I didn't do much puzzles...I watched alot of master games... And I jumped from 1400 to 1800 in a year (probably more or less)...
I'm not saying that you'll definitely improve if you did what I did... I'm just trying to reassure you that it isn't impossible...I played alot of chess games... Spent more than 10 hours a day playing chess or doing chess related things..
Have patience... Let your love for chess keep burning with passion... You'll get there! 😁
