Who this is for: you rarely lose to simple tactics. Your games are decided by plans, endings and the clock.
Goals
- A full, tested repertoire: lines you know to move 15 to 20, with the typical plans and pawn structures.
- Strong endings: Philidor, Lucena, the opposition, rook against pawn, bishop and knight endings.
- Calculate deeply and verify before you move.
- Manage the clock: use time on critical moves, play the quiet moves fast.
Weekly plan (7 to 10 hours)
- Courses: Endgame 7: The Philidor defence and rook endings, Endgame 8: Pawn endings for experts, Middlegame 7: Calculation and defence, Middlegame 8: Deep combinations, Tactics: Mating patterns II.
- Puzzles (30 a day): hard rated puzzles, 15 minutes of Puzzle Rush in survival mode twice a week. Look at the hardest solved in your results.
- Games (6 a week): at least three rapid 15 | 10 or slower, one long game of 30 minutes or more each week. Review every long game deeply.
- Deep review: run a deep review (depth 18) on your best and worst game each week.
- Openings: extend lines, review due positions daily, study the model games in the explorer and add traps for your repertoire.
- Endgames: one ending a week, played against the coach until you can win or hold it with the clock running.
- Opponent prep: use prep before every important game.
- Ladder: the chess.com bots from 1600 to 2000.
How to measure progress
- Rapid rating 1800 to 2000.
- Puzzle rating 1900 or more.
- Review accuracy 82 to 88 percent in slow games.
- You reach the endgame with more time than your opponent.
Common mistakes at this level
- Playing “safe” and passive: no plan, drifting into a worse position.
- Misjudging a pawn structure and trading into a bad ending.
- Spending 10 minutes on move 12 and then blitzing the endgame.
- Studying only tactics. The next rating gain comes from endings, structure and time.
Tip: keep a mistake list: one line per game (“missed a fork on move 23”, “no plan in a Carlsbad structure”). Before each session, read the last ten lines and train what repeats.
Previous: 1200 to 1600. Next: 2000 to 2400.
Open in the app: https://chessgm.net/train/openings
Open this in chessGM (opens in a new tab)
chessGM is not affiliated with Chess.com, Lichess or Stockfish; they are named only to say what the app can read or compare with.