Milestones

[xjamesbx]

    I'm surprised there isn't a topic yet where people can post what accomplishments they've achieved on chesstempo.com (or heck, chess in general).  Since most chess players like to brag about their rating, I figured a topic for doing just that should be created.  What have you achieved lately that makes you proud?

    I'll get the ball rolling, I suppose.

    - I recently surpassed my expectations for my blitz rating for this site and hit the 2300 mark for the first time ever.  As of now, it's at 2282 because I'm not feeling very 'chessy' today and not moving that fast, but hey, I take solace in the fact I reached it.
    - I passed the 1800 mark for standard.   

[tama]

Lmao this topic was made for me!

I have bin playing chess for 1 year now and have reached a rating of
2000 standard i will continue to go up i hope, i am curantaly 14 best on the site!

I also noticed that there was a huge deacrease in the number of registerd members is it because they were to inactive and got deleted, last time i check there were 650 members and now theres 350!

[richard]

I also noticed that there was a huge deacrease in the number of registerd members is it because they were to inactive and got deleted, last time i check there were 650 members and now theres 350!

I changed the RD cutoff required for users to be active from 140 to 80.  There are still over 5000 registered users but the new definition has just under 500 of those active compared to just under 900 active under the old cutoff.  The figures you quote are probably users active in only one of standard or blitz, the active figure on the front page is based on users active in either blitz OR standard.

Regards,
Richard.

[tama]

I made it to the top 10 list! yay im happy today, scince this is the braging topic section i might as well let it out!

[richard]

I made it to the top 10 list! yay im happy today, scince this is the braging topic section i might as well let it out!

Congratulations tama :-)

[thelonederanger]

Solving tactics here has helped my game tremendously. I started playing here about a month ago and have solved at least a few problems every day.

I was struggling to break the 1700 mark when I started. Now I am rated around 1850. Tactically I've improved about 200 points since I started; unless there has been some sort of rating inflations with the site's updates.

Regardless, I have noticed a difference while playing at my chess club. I look at each position objectively and no longer bash out moves in a mechanical fashion. When I gain the initiative and get an attack rolling I will find the winning move more often; not giving my opponent time to consolidate.

[tacto]

Well, my rating here was 1600 when I started its now 1900.... I have improved, thanks to ChessTempo and the awesome Richard 

BUT, I have certainly not gained 300 rating points neither have you gained 200.

It takes a long time to get used to the site and to get your rating accurate it seems. I think the few hundred problems will make a rating climb.

EVERY single day so far that I have done CT I have improved my rating here.

Whilst my rating here increased 300 rating points my blitz ratings(on playing servers) have not nearly increased that much.

I also think there has been a slight inflation in the ratings since recent updates.

Nevertheless... I do think this site helps a LOT compared to any other study methods. I have employed a lot of newly discovered ideas in my games.

[thelonederanger]

BUT, I have certainly not gained 300 rating points neither have you gained 200.

I never felt I gained 200 points in my over the board play. The 200 point just refers to my performance here, but any improvement should have some influence over the board.

I've solved around 3200 problems here since last month and I'm about one month into de la Maza's seven circles program for a total of around 4000 problems. I think this equates to around a 50 uscf point gain in my chess overall for me personally; maybe even a little more.

It's seems to show at my chess club anyway. There I was around 1700, but lately I have been winning as many games as losing (with a few draws in between) with people rated 1800+ uscf.

I know even 50 points can be a significant gain, but I haven't studied tactics seriously yet (I've been hooked on endgames with some strategy thrown in here and there) and I think the recent tactics study has filled a hole in my development as a player.

[richard]

I'm glad to hear people are finding chess tempo is improving their OTB play.  Due to the high number of recent changes that have impacted problem difficulty,  CT rating is unforuntately not the best measurement of performance as some rating fluctuations will have occurred independent of user's increasing their tactical strength.  From this point of view, your active rank and percentile statistics on the stats page is probably a better indication of actual improvement.  At some point I will probably start collecting daily ranking and percentile stats so I can show those stats as a graph similar to the ratings graph (although probably only available for premium users).

Regards,
Richard.

[tama]

I don't feel like my online play has gotten any better since solving tactics on chesstempo, I do feel like if i play a 1 hour game i might c a differents, my current rating is 2000+ standard but my rating online is pathetic with a 1500 blitz rating on FICS, compered to this site were if u c the statistics that Richard gave to compare Fide ratings to chess tempo i should be mutch stronger.

Why am i 1500 playing strength but i can solve tactics at Master level?

[thelonederanger]

I don't feel like my online play has gotten any better since solving tactics on chesstempo...

Tama,

Maybe you just need to work on other elements of your game; like strategy, the endgame, or openings. Try going over the games you lose and try to find any consistent problems. Get some stronger players from a chess club or something to point out areas for improvement. Identify these weak points, isolate them, and work to strengthen them.

While playing solid players that avoid wild tactical positions do you have trouble coming up with productive moves? If so study a good book on strategy.

Do you dread the endgame? It might be time to study that phase of the game. I know many players that find the endgame boring. Many non-masters neglect this phase and strengthening your endgame play can put you light years ahead of your competition.

I wouldn't spend an exorbitant amount of time memorizing openings, but it is nice to have some kind of basic repertoire so that you are comfortable in that stage of the game.

As far as ratings and such, I would avoid cross comparing ratings between different sites and servers too much. Those numbers are all relative anyway. A 1500 here probably won't be the same on FICS, the USCF, ICC, etc. They're just tools to measure progress within that particular environment.

Anyway, I hope this helps and from an improving player to an improving player good luck.

[tacto]

Tama... dude your stronger than you think.

Your not a 1500.

You are like 1850 on chesscube I think. ChessCube is much closer to fide than FICS...fics blitz is really tough.

[tmr]

There has been some rating inflation with the last problem set of about 100 points or so (at least for standard mode which is my focus).  You can see this on ratings graphs for many users with a sharp breakpoint about the time the new set came out.

Clearly this site will help ones analytical capabilities, but as others have pointed out other aspects of the game are important too.  I often find myself blundering in the opening so I need work in that area also.

Lastly, while having the ability to solve tactics here is great for practice the big difference from real-life is strategy.  In a real game there is no indication that a tactic exists.  You need to have the ability to create the situation for the tactic.  That I think is a more difficult task.

[drahacikfm]

Lastly, while having the ability to solve tactics here is great for practice the big difference from real-life is strategy.  In a real game there is no indication that a tactic exists.

Yes, exactly.  One thing you can do here after solving a problem is to stop and ask yourself "Why was there a tactic in this position?".  The answer might be:  "his king was exposed", or "I had a lot more pieces developed than he did", or "his pieces were passive and mine were aggressively placed" or "he had two unprotected pieces that I could fork", etc.  Then remember these reasons, and you can try to get those types of situations in your games, or avoid being on the bad side of those situations.

[richard]

Looking at opening and endgame training is something I'd like to do in the future, but for now I have my hands full just with the tactics aspect of chess improvement :-)  It would also be really nice to round everything off with some strategy training tools but this is well beyond what I can hope to achieve at the moment.  Computers allow me to hide my own chess inadequacies in the tactical realm, and can help a lot with endgame and openings but I'd be completely out of my depth trying to put more strategy focused material together.  If subscription fees brought in enough revenue I could look at using the chess board interface (with some enhancements) to present strategy material which I payed people who know what they are talking about to produce. However it is unlikely the site (at least in its current form) will ever make enough money to justify that (it is questionable if it will even make enough to justify my own time spent, but I enjoy working on the site which is rewarding in itself).

Regards,
Richard.