This time, I am going to brag about my chess abilities. I have reached the ELO of 1500 and I thought it would be nice to save this achievement online for eternity as an addition to the validation I already got after bragging offline in front of my friends.

I will also explain how I made this achievement and what were the consequences on my private life.

TL;DR Play a lot. It is time-consuming.

Well, first of all, let me correct the title: When I started, my ELO was probably not 600 but 500 to 1500 sounds more impressive and could be potentially a good clickbait.

My ELO development

If you are a regular reader of this blog (lol, hi Chinese bots), you might have noticed that my last post was about hobbies I picked up in 2020. Well, chess overshadowed all of them in 2021.

Start

I started playing (as many others) during the chess renaissance in winter after Queen’s Gambit was released. I got addicted pretty soon afterward and have played more than 5000 games overall. Especially during the spring of 2021 and while in quarantine, I played way too much. I made a very quick improvement as well, even though I learned almost no theory.

During the year

I played after work, sometimes at work, installed the chess.com app on my phone, and played on public transport, in the toilet, before going to sleep, after waking up, name it.

Slowly, I convinced my friends to play as well. I gifted my brother a chess clock and during the summer, we played at parties.

In a pub. (It’s my brother in the picture.)

Chess

At a Bachelor party.

Chess

Or during a wedding.

Chess

When I knew I shouldn’t be playing, I watched YouTube videos with the hope they would make me smarter. Some of them might have done it. I was able to watch people playing for hours, from funny twitch spots to analysis of the best ranked players (not that I was able to comprehend their moves).

My interest slowly declined over the year. However, during the Autumn, I decided to learn the theory at least a little bit, started to play Rapid instead of Blitz, and improved a little.

End

Since I have started my new job in January, I am trying not to play as extensively as I did before. Due to this lack of play, my skills decreased, therefore I am not having that much fun playing - I almost don’t play anymore. It seems like I have already reached my goal and getting worse isn’t motivating much.

My goal for 2022 is to play offline in a chess club at least once, possibly attending a tournament.

How to improve

Let’s summarize some Do’s and Don’t according to me.

Do’s

  • Always analyze the game after you played.

  • Learn basic theory and openings. It’s not necessary, you will learn it while playing but it will save you some time.

  • There is a number of Reddit posts and other resources, that holistically explainin how to get better. On r/chess, there is a whole improve section that explains it better than I ever would.

  • Watch chess videos on YouTube, there are plenty of them. I enjoyed the classical and most successful GOTHAMCHESS and Botez sisters for more fun content.

  • Limit your number of games. Do not play when you are tired and not focused.(Wait it’s a don’t. But it belogs together.)

Dont’s

  • Playing Blitz and bullet early in the progress (possibly whatsoever), playing Rapid makes for much better progress.

  • Don’t procrastinate with chess on your phone. At that moment, it was not very different from playing Candy Crush.

  • Don’t play many hours a day and don’t play before you go to sleep. I kept dreaming about chess and had the playboard in front of my eyes all the time.

Mental health and addiction

Chess is much more stimulating than one would expect. You can play Blitz chess brainlessly for hours. And it is not worth it. The so-called Tetris effect which “occurs when people devote so much time and attention to an activity that it begins to pattern their thoughts, mental images, and dreams” happened to me and it was not a pleasant experience. At times, I just could not stop playing. Especially at the beginning, I could spend an entire day playing or playing late at night.

Please do not use the app if you are prone to addictions. Read some stories on reddit, it is not to underestimate.

Summary

I had a lot of fun playing and I was proud of myself for getting better. On the other hand, I was on the edge of addiction. And I procrastinated because of chess A LOT. If you want to play, I would recommend playing only in a designed time block, avoid playing Bullet and play Blitz only after you studied the theory (openings and tactics).

Do I regret spending that much time playing chess online? Yes. Does publishing this article try to justify and validate this experience? Probably yes. Will I continue playing chess? Yes, but I will try to play just occasionally and - if possible - offline.

Am I advanced enough to give you a good advice? Probably not really, the lesson here is to 1. brag and 2. tell you my story of playing too much, possibly there is someone who can relate to this.

Anyway, I have a chessboard at home now. Coffee/beers and talks are awesome if anyone would be interested, write me and visit me.