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How to Get Better at Chess: A Practical Training Plan
A realistic plan to improve at chess: how much time to spend on tactics, endgames, openings and playing, and how to learn from every game you lose.
Many players play hundreds of games and stay at the same level. Playing is necessary, but it isn't enough on its own. Improvement comes from a mix of playing, reviewing and focused study. Here's a practical plan that works for most players, whether you have 20 minutes a day or several hours a week.
The big picture
For players rated up to about 1500, almost all games are decided by tactics: pieces left hanging, forks missed, mates overlooked. So the plan is weighted heavily towards tactics and towards playing games you can learn from. Openings come last, because at this level they matter far less than they seem to.
A good weekly balance:
- About 40%: tactics. Puzzles, and spotting patterns in real games.
- About 30%: playing and reviewing. Longer games, followed by honest review.
- About 20%: endgames. The basic checkmates, pawn endgames and rook endgames.
- About 10%: openings. Just enough to reach a playable middlegame.
Tactics: a little every day
Tactics are pattern recognition, and patterns are learned by repetition. Ten or fifteen puzzles a day beats a two-hour session once a week. Try to solve each puzzle completely before moving: find the whole sequence, including your opponent's best replies, not just the first move. Start with the patterns in our guides to forks, pins and skewers, discovered attacks and checkmate patterns.
Play longer games
Bullet and blitz are fun, but in fast games you don't have time to think, so you mostly repeat what you already know. To improve, play at least some games at a rapid time control, like 10+0 or 15+10, where you have time to calculate and apply what you've studied. Think of blitz as exercise and rapid as training.
Review every loss
A loss is the best lesson you'll get, but only if you study it. After each serious game:
- Go through it yourself first, before using an engine. Find the moment where things went wrong, and what you were thinking.
- Then check with the engine. Look for the biggest swings, not every small inaccuracy.
- Name the mistake. Was it a tactic you missed? A plan you didn't have? Time trouble? An opening you didn't understand?
- Look for patterns across games. If you keep losing pieces to knight forks, or keep running short of time, that's what to work on next.
Reviewing your wins helps too: you'll often find your opponent missed something, and so did you.
Endgames: small investment, big return
Learning the basic checkmates, the essentials of pawn endgames and the Lucena and Philidor positions takes a few hours and pays off for the rest of your chess life. Endgame knowledge also improves your middlegame decisions: you'll know which trades lead to winning endgames and which to avoid.
Openings: principles first
Pick one opening as White and one defence each against 1.e4 and 1.d4, and stick with them so you learn their typical plans. The Italian Game, the Queen's Gambit and the Sicilian Defence are all good choices. Learn the ideas, not long lines, and lean on the opening principles when you're out of book.
Mindset and habits
- Use the blunder check on every move: checks, captures and threats for both sides. It's the single most useful habit in chess, described in common mistakes.
- Play opponents a little stronger than you. The computer at the next level up, or rated opponents just above your rating.
- Take breaks after losses. Playing angry leads to quick, careless games. A short pause protects your rating.
- Track progress over months, not days. Ratings go up and down. Over a few months of consistent work, the trend is what matters.
A sample week, 30 minutes a day
- Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 15 minutes of puzzles, then one rapid game.
- Tuesday: 15 minutes of endgame study, then review a game from the weekend.
- Thursday: 15 minutes of puzzles, then 15 minutes on your opening ideas.
- Weekend: play a few longer games, and review one loss carefully.
Start now
The best time to start is your next game. Play a rapid game against an opponent or the computer, review it straight afterwards, and write down one thing to do differently next time. Do that consistently and you'll be surprised how quickly the numbers move.