How to get better at Chess?

As with many other things, how do you get better at it? Imagine if someone wanted to become a chemist and was simply told, ‘Just do chemistry.’ Without proper guidance, they might not learn anything or could even harm themselves. While the stakes aren’t as high in chess, the principle is similar: Can you really improve just by playing? Simply playing chess without proper guidance and strategy may not lead to significant improvement. It’s essential to combine practice with study and analysis to enhance your skills truly.

If you don't correct your mistakes, you reinforce them and continue to repeat them, rather than learning from and improving them.

Playing without a coach who analyzes your games with you—particularly losses—and offers structured training with targeted learning objectives may impact development and progress.

Simply playing isn’t enough to improve because you don’t review your mistakes, seek feedback, utilize structured learning, or focus on critical positions, such as key middlegames and challenging endgames.

To improve your skills, it is essential to:

• Minimize mistakes and identify hidden tactics.
• Study openings based on ideas and principles rather than memorizing many lines.
• Develop an understanding of positional concepts such as weak squares, outposts, and pawn breaks.
• Achieve mastery in endgames to capitalize on winning positions or secure draws when needed.
• Use effective training methods to ensure long-term retention of knowledge.

If you want to improve your chess and are tired of “just playing” without progress, then hire a coach, and you will be surprised how a few coaching sessions can help you improve your game.