Stuck at the same rating: why it happens and what to change
Many club players know the feeling: months of games, and the rating does not move. Improving at chess again rarely comes from playing more of the same: it comes from finding what keeps you stuck and changing the way you train.
Why club players stop improving
A plateau is rarely a matter of talent. It is usually a matter of habits: the way you play, the way you look back at your games, the way you prepare. Four habits come up again and again in club chess.
- Many fast games, none looked at again. Ten blitz games in an evening feel like practice, but if you never go back over them, you repeat the same mistakes at speed.
- No regular tactics training. Club games are very often decided by a tactic, and you only spot tactics quickly if you see them often.
- Hoping instead of calculating. You play a move because it threatens something, without checking what your opponent can do in reply.
- Openings learnt as long lines. Fifteen memorised moves are of little use when your opponent leaves the book at move five, and you do not know the plan.
The good news is that each of these can be changed, one at a time. The rest of this article takes them in turn, then puts them together in a weekly plan.
Play slower games, and fewer of them
In a bullet or blitz game there is no time to think, so you play the moves you already know, mistakes included. Slower games give you time to look for your opponent’s threats, to calculate and to make a plan: the very skills you want to build. A rapid game with a few minutes for each critical move, or a club game over the board, teaches you more than a dozen fast ones.
Choose one time control and stay with it, so that your rating there tells you something. Our article on chess rating levels explains why numbers differ between sites and time controls, and why a single evening’s swings mean little.
Find the move that lost each game
After every loss, and every game you nearly lost, look for the move that decided it. Do it yourself first, before the engine: replay the game and mark the moments where you were unsure. Then check with an engine and find the move where the evaluation turned.
- Replay the game without help and mark where you felt unsure.
- Find the losing move with an engine: the one after which the position was no longer playable.
- Write one sentence: what you should have seen, in plain words.
- Sort it: a piece left unprotected, a tactic missed, no plan, an endgame mishandled, or the clock.
After ten or twenty games, your notes show a pattern. For many players the same few kinds of mistake come back again and again, and that list is your training plan: it was written by your own games.
The blunder check: one question before every move
Many lost games turn on one move that let the opponent in. The habit that catches it is simple: before you play, ask what your opponent can do after your move, starting with checks, then captures, then threats.
White is tempted by 1.dxc5, which wins a pawn. A blunder check finds Black’s answer at once: 1…Qa5+, a check from a5 along the diagonal to e1. The bishop on b5 stands on the same rank as the queen, and nothing protects it.
If 2.Bd2, then 2…Qxb5. If 2.Nc3, which blocks the check and protects the bishop, Black removes the knight with 2…Bxc3+ 3.bxc3 Qxb5: the bishop on g7 now sees c3, because the pawn has left d4. Either way White has given a piece for a pawn. Better was 1.c3, which closes the diagonal, or 1.O-O, which takes the king off it; both keep the game level.
Before each move, ask what your opponent can do after it: checks first, then captures, then threats. It takes a moment, and it saves games.
This one habit is the start of calculation. Our article on how to calculate in chess shows how to go further: candidate moves, your opponent’s best reply, and the end of the line.
A few puzzles every day, at the right level
Puzzles train the eye that spots tactics, for you and against you. A few every day work better for most players than a long session once a week: our article on how many puzzles to solve a day gives a simple routine. Choose a level where most puzzles take real thought and few leave you with nothing, and write the whole line before you check the answer.
The Knight’s Notebook brings sixty puzzles a month at one level, in a PDF to print, with every solution explained at the back. If you want to work through one pattern at a time, 300 Chess Puzzles is sorted into ten themes, each with a short lesson.
Learn plans rather than long lines
Opening study can easily take all your time, yet the opening is seldom where club games are really lost. Instead of memorising long lines, learn what each side wants: where the pieces go, which pawn break frees your position, and the two or three traps that come up again and again. Then, when your opponent plays something new at move five, you still know what to do.
A small repertoire you understand is worth more than a wide one you half remember. Our article on choosing an opening shows what club players really play, and how to pick openings with clear plans.
Do not skip the endgame
Won positions are often thrown away once the queens come off. Endgames are where an extra pawn turns into a win, and where a passive king can throw one away. You do not need to study theory for months: a few basics go a long way.
- The basic mates, with queen, rook or two rooks, without stalemating. Our article on basic checkmates gives the method.
- An active king. Once the queens are off, the king is a fighting piece: bring it to the centre.
- Passed pawns. Push them, support them, and put your rook behind them.
A weekly plan to get unstuck
- Every day: a few puzzles at your level, with the whole line written before you check.
- Two or three times a week: a slower game, with a blunder check before every move.
- After each game: find the move that lost it, write one sentence and sort it.
- Once a week: one endgame topic, or one model game in an opening you play.
- Once a month: read your notes and train the kind of mistake that comes up most.
Judge the plan by your games, not by your rating of the week. No routine can promise a number of rating points. What this one does is show you what you lose games to, and give you the time and the material to fix it.
If you would rather not choose the puzzles yourself, The Knight’s Notebook brings you sixty a month at your level: Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced. You can try twenty free puzzles on Lichess first.