I recently hit 1800 Elo in chess. I didn't grow up playing chess, so I didn't have any formal training during the formidable years of my youth. Therefore, the rating struggle was real.
So, the first piece of advice I can give, is start young. Obviously, this isn't practical advice if you're already an adult, particularly an older adult. However, if you have kids, grandchildren or other youths that view you as an influential figure and you want them to take an interest in chess, start them young.
I'll be very brief about my chess background, just to provide insight on what I did, how long it took, etc, in order to add some substance to my recommendations.
I learned the moves at some point in childhood, just like I learned how to play checkers, spades, Monopoly and all other kinds of games that were popular before technology dominated the field of gaming.
I played off-and-on with friends throughout early adulthood. Never took the game serious, and never played anyone else who did either. We all just "knew the moves" and pretty much the smartest person won.
Then I played someone who had studied the game, and by that time I had rarely encountered any of my friends who could beat me (at least consistently), but again, the games were few and far between (sometimes even years apart). After playing that person who actually knew how to play chess, I realized very quickly that there were levels to the game, and I sucked. Bad!
In fact, it demoralized me to the point that I didn't play again for several years. Then I started hanging out with a small group of friends who liked to play, and I became interested in the game again. I started beating them consistently, and my interest grew. However, this time I didn't have any delusions that I was good, I knew I sucked.
So, slowly I started doing a little research and began to learn the very basics of the game, which up until that point I didn't know.
Then about 5 years ago I started playing chess online. It quickly became an obsession, and I played A LOT! Sometimes 12 hours a day.
So, to clarify a time frame, it took me roughly 5 years of actual serious chess playing to become an 1800 rated player. The reason I say that is because once you start to get decent, people always want to ask, "How long have you been playing chess?" The truth is that I've known the moves since I was a kid, but I didn't really start "playing" until about 5 years ago (and I took some time off too, so probably 4 years of consistent playing).
The point of this post is that hindsight is always 20/20. Looking back I think I could have been much more efficient and calculated in the way I learned the game of chess. For me, it was about improvement and getting good, it wasn't just about playing chess. If you get into chess, it will become that for you too.
So knowing what I know now, here's what I would do:
When I started playing online, I was already probably a 700-800 player. If you are just starting, or like a 400 rated player who knows very little, just play a lot and try to focus on the very basic chess principles: put a pawn in the center of the board, develop your pieces, try not to move the same piece twice before getting developed, castle.
Just focus on that and playing a lot until you get to around 800-900.
Once you get to that level, learn a system for both black and white that you can play against anything. Something where you just learn where your pieces go, and the basic ideas of the system. For example, the London or Colle for the white pieces. And maybe the Czech or Caro Kahn for the black pieces. There is a ton of content on YouTube that will teach you the basic principles of every opening you can think of. Just find one you like, preferably something that you can play against anything your opponent does. That will save you a lot of time not having to study opening theory.
Focus on just learning those openings, and most importantly understanding the ideas associated with them, not just trying to memorize lines. Play a lot, and review your games using Lichess so you can start to "know" certain lines.
About 1200 I would start doing lots of tactics puzzles. Again, Lichess is a great source for all things chess. I would still play a lot, but I would begin to start reviewing every game and try to understand my mistakes and what positions gave me problems. I would start to divide my time rather evenly between games, reviewing games, watching instructional videos/reading chess books, and doing tactics. If you have 2 hours a day to devote to chess, give each section 30 min (it doesn't have to be exact, just roughly).
This will get you to 1500. From there this would be my training plan:
Chess.com: take advantage of the free resources the site offers. Do the 3 free puzzles, the daily puzzle, a puzzle rush survival and a puzzle battle. Then play 1 rapid game and review it thoroughly. All of this is free. This routine alone will take around an hour. I would do this every day. Maybe take one day off a week if you want to give your mind a reset, or just to take a break.
I would do the chess.com routine early, perhaps in the morning if time was available, then take a break. If you have time in the evening, I would get on Lichess and do 5 puzzle storms, then 30 min of endgame puzzles. If you still have time, then I would play games on Lichess until I lost, reviewing every game. Once I lost, I would be done with playing chess for the day. If time still allowed, I would watch an instructional chess video (which almost all chess videos are instructive to some point).
At the 1500-1800 level I would focus hard on endgames. There are several endgame courses available on YouTube and I would find one I liked and watch 10-15 min of endgame videos per day. If you really wanted to double-down on endgames (which I highly recommend), I would buy an endgame book (Silman's Endgame course or 100 Endgames You Must Know). But again, if you just want to do the 100% free route, you can find plenty of endgame material on YouTube.
The final thing I would add to the equation is reviewing master's games, particularly masters who play the same openings as you.
It goes without saying that a lot of people aren't going to have the time do that routine 6 days a week. I assume that's probably a minimum of 4 hours per day. But you could break it up into an hour or 2 hours per day, and maybe do endgames 2 days a week, chess videos 3 days a week, review master games on one day, or whatever works for your schedule.
The goal here wasn't to focus on the time and scheduling, but to emphasize the training plan. I think even if you had plenty of free time, I probably wouldn't do much more than what I outlined. Unless you're young, and even then it's going to take your brain time to process all the information you're downloading, you'll just do it faster.
There's my training plan. I'm very confident that this alone will get you to 1800 at least, and most likely this would get you to 2200 and higher.
I should add that if you wanted to bypass all of this, just hire a chess coach that can personalize a plan for you, that focuses on your strengths and weaknesses. But this plan is free. And it works.
I should also add, if you're looking for a chess coach, I'm for hire.
gg
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