How to improve: the chessGM loop

Players get better when they close the loop between doing and understanding. chessGM is built around one loop:

1. Play a real game with a time you can think in (10 minutes or more).
2. Review it the same day with Game Review. Look at your key moments, not at every move.
3. Fix the pattern behind each big mistake with a puzzle or a course lesson on that theme.
4. Learn one new thing on purpose: an opening line, an endgame, a tactical theme.
5. Repeat. Your next game tests what you learned.

A weekly rhythm that works at every level

• Play about half your time.
• Puzzles and lessons about a third.
• Review and opening or endgame study the rest.

The rating bands in the next part of the guide give this rhythm concrete numbers for 0 to 2600+.

Tip: quality beats quantity. Three games you review carefully teach more than thirty you forget.