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Chess improvement · Updated October 10, 2026

How to get better at chess: a plan that works

Most players who stop improving aren't lazy. They're training the wrong thing. They watch opening videos and grind puzzle streaks while losing the same way they lost six months ago. The fastest way to get better at chess is to find the mistakes you repeat and train those until they're gone.

The short version

1. Play longer games. 10+5 or slower. You can't learn from moves you had no time to think about.
2. Review every loss within 24 hours. Your own thoughts first, engine second.
3. Track your repeat mistakes. The same error three times is your next lesson.
4. Do tactics daily, ideally from positions like the ones you reach.
5. Learn opening ideas, not move lists. Know the plan when you leave book.
6. Study basic endgames once, properly. They never change.

Why most chess improvement stalls

At most levels below master, games are decided by a few big mistakes, not subtle positional nuance. A hung piece, a missed fork, a king left in the center. Yet most study time goes into openings and passive content.

The other problem is that every player's leaks are different. One player keeps losing the same Caro-Kann structure; another keeps missing back-rank tactics; another collapses whenever they're short on time. A generic course can't know which one you are. Your games can.

A weekly chess improvement plan

Step 1: Play games you can learn from

Bullet and 3-minute blitz are fun, but most of the moves are reflexes. If your goal is improvement, play at least 10+5 for most of your games. You need time to calculate, so your reviews show real thinking errors rather than panic.

Step 2: Review your losses the right way

Before you turn on an engine, go through the game and write down what you were thinking at the key moments. Then check with the engine. The gap between what you thought and what was true is the lesson. Our game analysis guide walks through it step by step.

Step 3: Find your repeat mistakes

This is the step almost everyone skips, and it's the one that matters most. After ten reviews, sort your mistakes into buckets:

• Tactical oversights: hung pieces, missed forks, missed checks.
• Opening problems: lines where you're worse by move 12.
• Plan problems: you didn't know what to do once development finished.
• Endgame technique: winning positions you didn't convert.
• Time trouble: good positions lost on the clock.

Whichever bucket is biggest is where your next month of study goes. Doing this by hand takes hours. ChessMogg does it automatically: it surveys hundreds of your Chess.com or Lichess games and shows which patterns cost you the most.

Step 4: Train tactics daily

Tactics are the highest-return skill below 2000. Fifteen focused minutes a day beats a two-hour weekend binge. Solve slowly, calculate the full line before moving, and redo the puzzles you missed. Puzzles drawn from your own games are even better, because they train the exact patterns you miss.

Step 5: Learn openings by ideas

You don't need 20 moves of theory. You need to know where your pieces belong, what pawn break you're aiming for, and the one or two traps in your lines. Start with our opening guides: each covers the plans and common mistakes, not just moves.

Step 6: Learn the endgames that come up

King and pawn basics (opposition, the square rule), Lucena and Philidor rook endings, and how to mate with king and rook. These come up constantly in online play and they never go out of date.

How long does it take to get better at chess?

With the plan above, many improving players see progress within a couple of months, but it varies a lot by starting level, time and consistency. Be wary of anyone promising a specific rating gain. What you can control is whether each week of training targets the mistakes that actually cost you games.