Major USCF Improvement in just 6 months

[chipschap]

I have been on Chess Tempo for 6 months, and it has been by far my primary means of practice.  In that time my USCF rating has increased by 130 points!  And that is over several events in 4 different states, so it is not just a statistical fluke based on a couple of games or a limited set of opponents.  Neither is this a change from a volatile provisional rating; I had a well-established rating going in.

It is easy to conclude that this large rating improvement is due 100% to Chess Tempo.  Perhaps that would be too much, but it certainly seems that way!  I was floundering around for a couple of years and then started in on Chess Tempo and all of a sudden my rating took a giant, verifiable, sustained leap.  It's a bit short of de la Maza's claimed "400 points in 400 days" (1 point per day) but, at 130 points in 180 days (0.72 points per day), it's within shouting distance.

So draw your own conclusions but I'm continuing my practice here, that's for sure!

[richard]

Congrats on the rating increase (and thanks for the free marketing :-)  ).

Regards,
Richard.

[revenant]

Chipschap provides confirmation of Andreaconda's recent rejoicing post.  :-)

[chipschap]

Congrats on the rating increase (and thanks for the free marketing :-)  ).

A couple of  players at the Hawaiian Open (over Labor Day weekend this year) asked what I had done to improve so much over the previous year, and I mentioned practice on CT.  They were familiar with CTS but not CT, and said they would try it, so perhaps some Hawaiians have showed up here

[andreacoda]

Many congrats!!! I start to believe that what they say (that for players of "low/medium" level, tactics is 90% of the game) is definitely true!
Hope I will be able to report a progress as good as yours soon enough - even if I am not in a hurry, I am after improvement, not "fast" improvement!
Congratulations again, and keep up the great job!
Andrea

[tama]

Chess tempo has helped everyone, i was at 1600 icc standard before i started chess tempo and now im over 2000. best site on the internet for chess.

[uri blass]

Congrats on the rating increase (and thanks for the free marketing :-)  ).

A couple of  players at the Hawaiian Open (over Labor Day weekend this year) asked what I had done to improve so much over the previous year, and I mentioned practice on CT.  They were familiar with CTS but not CT, and said they would try it, so perhaps some Hawaiians have showed up here

I think that the interesting question is how many people found CT more productive than CTS.

I think that finding things fast is also important and 
I have some idea that can combine both of the advantages.

In ICCF correspondence games that I play in a server  I have both submit and after I submit my move I need to click commit to make my move final.

The same can be also in chess tactics.

People can have submit and commit options and the idea is that people who see the right move fast as interesting but want to check it can do it and get points for finding the move fast.

Finding the move fast is important not only for blitz because if you calculate many lines in OTB games then you cannot use more than few seconds for everyone of them.

Uri

[tama]

Uri, most of your comments are a great indicater that you haven't played chess for very long and if a FM tell you something then there closes to 100% correct. As for your last comment i think dracikfm said CTS teaches the user to react fast and is good for blitz or bullet but useless and counter productive for OTB.
CT teaches you how to calculate accurately long variations and increase the speed of calculating accurately. But of course for beginners that just learn how to move the piece CTS is a bit better because it will teach you tactics.

[uri blass]

Uri, most of your comments are a great indicater that you haven't played chess for very long and if a FM tell you something then there closes to 100% correct. As for your last comment i think dracikfm said CTS teaches the user to react fast and is good for blitz or bullet but useless and counter productive for OTB.
CT teaches you how to calculate accurately long variations and increase the speed of calculating accurately. But of course you are a beginner and just learn how to move the piece CTS is a bit better because it will teach you tactics.

I just got to the top 20 in standard rating at the time of this post
I have a fide rating of 2049 so I am clearly not a beginner.

I played in a tournament in spetember this year so
"you haven't played chess for very long" is clearly wrong.

The only thing that I can agree is that there are people who learn to play faster
from training in CTS or from playing blitz(otherwise people are not going to suggest
the idea that CTS is counter productive for OTB).

I am clearly not one of them.

Note that the best GM's in OTB games are also the best blitz players so knowledge to play blitz well is clearly used for OTB games and I do not believe that I can become significantly better in blitz without being better in OTB games.

Uri

[newlook]

Uri, I used CTS for a while before I found Chess Tempo. In all honesty, the two sites are very similar. Where they differ, they should be different, as that gives people options. For myself, I wanted Standard mode; CTS doesn't have one. CT is actively maintained and updated with improvements, and Richard is very attentive to feedback and suggestions. CTS is on auto-pilot and will not change. Some people like CTS better, and that's fine. Many of us here have tried both and decided that we like CT better -- some of us enough to reach into our wallets and give some monetary support. No amount of arguing is going to change what people have concluded from their own personal experiences. Use CTS or CT or both.

[tama]

ops im sorry i didn't mean you were a beginner i meant to type.

But of course for beginners that just learn how to move the pieces CTS is a bit better because it teaches you tactics.

[texian]

sometimes it is just as simple as some like chocolate, some like vanilla .. while, i really enjoy playing blitz, i have abandoned it completely for now as i am just re-learning the game .. i've found nothing that equals taking the time to really analyze a problem for learning to visualize the board a move or two ahead .. at some point, i hope to return to blitz just for the fun of it, but for now i need the time to learn and discover patterns that are too easily overlooked in a blitz game or 3 second problem

one other comment on the differences between CT and CTS is the value of this very active forum .. i have tried actively participating in several message boards including CTS and have found the CT Forum to be one of the best for discussing invidual problems and approaches to learning .. we all have different learning styles and tastes, but the forum has been one of the best resources i've found for ideas and discussions

continuing kuddos to Richard and other active posters here for the tips, suggestions, and excellent site