200+ points is a lot to improve in one year. I've had 2 big rating increases within a year, and its certainly always fun watching your rating climb in such a short period of time, but it isn't easy.
For me, my two biggest rating increases didn't happen by accident.
First - I had been playing chess for just over a year, mostly online. I played in 3 tournaments and had a provisional rating of around 1450. I then moved to las vegas and played in one of the top 5 run chess clubs in the country, run by Chris Bird who has sinced moved on to being a big time TD.
At this time i bought
The Amateurs Mind by Silman and was going to the club 2x week. Chris and another expert were always helping me go over my games and I was 1650 in about 9 months. Not long after, Chris moved on, and the club became much less organized. I was still steadily improving. After a while I reached a plateau around 1790'ish, but was I probably 100 points stronger. But the club was frustrating, there were a lot of players u1600 and over 2000 but very few A/B players. So I was getting stronger, but my rating wasn't going up because I couldn't beat the experts yet. After a while I got frustrated at the clubs organization, the fact my rating had been stagnant, and also poker was picking up. So I stopped going to the club for 2 years.
The second major jump I had is related to this comment. I not sure it applies as much for people under 2000.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Yugoslavian
Hmm, just playing blitz to get blitz higher is mainly going to be variance. You won't likely improve that much over time (well, at the very beginning you will get better as you get used to the time control and such).
In the 2 years off from live chess, I didn't study but I played a ton of 3m chess online. This really improved my tactical play, but more so my chess intuition. I had to really learn how to instinctively develop plans while being mindful of tactics, very quickly.
When I returned to the club, I think I went a full year with only 2 losses. I went up 200 points. I've moved twice since, back in LV now, but I don't really have time for tournaments or clubs the last couple of years. I've gradually moved up to 2100 rating, probably 2150 strength, while only playing slow chess 2-5x year. I still play tons of 3m chess because it is mostly what I have time for, and when I can I'll enter an occasional tournament.
I've reached another point where my progress is really slowing. A lot of it is lack of playing, but most of it is probably the game is really friggin hard and the higher you get the harder it is to improve considerably - especially just playing blitz. While I would love another 150-200pt boost, I don't see it happening unless I dedicate hours to proper study.
I agree with SicilianTaimanov that chesstempo would be a great place to improve. I really should do it too, but 15-20min a day there working on tactics will make you so much better.
best of luck in your improvement
Last edited by qjuice14; 10-09-2015 at 02:56 PM.