Chess players are obsessed with ratings these days, even though, because of the COVID pandemic, there is an understandable shift from comparing FIDE Elos to boasting about conquering new heights on online chess servers.

Anyway, here is a typical question that is often asked by improving chess fans:

How many rating points should I try to gain in a year?

Let's talk about the different factors that affect the answer.

The lower your rating is, the easier it is to harvest points

For example, improving from Elo 1000 to 1400 in a year is an attainable feat for many people. A jump from 1400 to 1800 over a year is an impressive rate of progress. 1800 to 2200 in a year is an exceptional result. 2200 to 2600 in a year is not something I have heard of. And 2600 to 3000 in classical chess has never been achieved by any human.

What is your K-factor (not to be confused with the X-factor)?

In article 8.56 of the FIDE Handbook, you will find the following information:

K is the development coefficient.
K = 40 for a player new to the rating list until he has completed events with at least 30 games.
K = 20 as long as a player's rating remains under 2400.
K = 10 once a player's published rating has reached 2400 and remains at that level subsequently, even if the rating drops below 2400.
K = 40 for all players until their 18th birthday, as long as their rating remains under 2300.

If the number of games (n) for a player on any list for a rating period multiplied by K (as defined above) exceeds 700, then K shall be the largest whole number such that K x n does not exceed 700.

To avoid boring you with Math, let's say that with a K factor of 40, you will be getting 20 rating points per win over an opponent with the same rating as you. If your K decreases to 10, you will be earning only 5 rating points per such a win. Most FIDE-rated players have a K of 20, netting 10 points per win against an equally matched opponent. The higher your K-factor is, the larger the variance, i.e., the more rating points you can gain (or lose!) per year.

How many tournament games do you play per year?

In this post, we won't be discussing how many games it is beneficial to play for chess development. This is an important independent topic. Let's say that you can't expect to gain a lot of rating points if you play very few tournaments.

Previously, when the FIDE rating lists were published not monthly like now, but quarterly or even less frequently, a well-known lifehack for a quick boost was to squeeze in, let's say, 60 games in one rating period. By acting this way, you could take advantage of the fact that your rating was fixed, and the gains kept coming "for free". Nowadays, it is much harder to pull off such feats since you can play only as many tournament games in a month, especially if we are talking about the classical time control.

This is a crucial thing to know. Some people tend to think that improving players should be gaining rating points more or less steadily. For example, at a rate of 5-10 points per tournament or something like that.

Conversely, it usually takes a player some time to build up a leap to the next level before it takes place. During this stage, anything can happen, including tanking the rating a bit. A simple explanation for this is that as you acquire new knowledge and skills, you move away from some of the methods that benefitted you in the past and may temporarily become even weaker. However, once you master the new skills, you take a giant step forward.

Let's take a look at the rating progress of Magnus Carlsen and discuss it from our topic's perspective:

Unfortunately, the FIDE site doesn't display the whole graph. Carlsen's first published FIDE rating was 2064 in April 2001. You can view the data in hisFIDE profile, though.

Using the data from the FIDE profile and looking at the graph, we can determine how many rating points Carlsen gained or lost in a given year (starting from January 2002 for simplicity's sake):

In absolute numbers, Carlsen's best year was 2003 (+205 points), while his worst year was 2015 (-18 points).

From Jan 2002 to Jan 2014, Magnus was consistently accumulating rating points year by year. Since then and until now, his results have been mixed.

The median rating gain per year was 26 points, and the arithmetic average is about 39 points. The figures are something to keep in mind if you are rated above 2000 and ambitious enough to be thinking of progressing at the World Champion rate! Of course, you should remember that Carlsen's K was 10 most of the time, so you can aim for higher gains if your K is still 20 or 40.

Still, please don't be overly obsessed with ratings. Let this thought-provoking quote by Magnus Carlsen guide you on your path of chess improvement:

Without the element of enjoyment, it is not worth trying to excel at anything.

Chess players are obsessed with ratings these days, even though, because of the COVID pandemic, there is an understandable shift from comparing FIDE Elos to boasting 

Starting February 14th, you will be able to challenge Henrik Carlsen in the Play Magnus app. His spot on the Hall of Fame is as deserved as can be since without Henrik Magnus would have neither existed as a chess player, nor even as a person!

Henrik is an enigmatic character who doesn't give too many interviews. Also, when he does talk to the media, the reporters usually keep approaching him with the same questions about his son Magnus Carlsen over and over again.

To help you prepare for your upcoming matches with Henrik and to shed some light on his personality, we decided to ask him a few tricky questions related to chess:

How would you describe your chess style? Did you have any chess role models growing up? What are your key strengths and weaknesses as a player?

Although I don’t play chess in coffee houses very often, I think I am a typical coffee house player! Always looking for tactics and swindles. Magnus has sometimes been slightly impressed by my tactics, as well as amazed at what he calls a complete lack of positional understanding and concern for king safety.

Did you ever consider playing chess professionally, or was it always more of a hobby/part of cultural education for you?

When I started playing in the local Asker Chess club at 15, I was trounced by some younger players (Agdestein brothers and B. Oestenstad) and professional chess was never in my thoughts. It was a hobby I was quite passionate about until work and family took priority.

Do you have a favorite chess game? Also, please share with us one of your own best games, which is characteristic of your playing style.

I usually watch Magnus playing in tournaments and sometimes his choices make even the analysis.sesse computer confused. I find those moments very fascinating. I cannot claim any memorable games myself, although I did in fact win the beauty prize in a Norwegian 5-round classic chess weekend tournament back in 2001. At the time Magnus was already much better than me, but I had a great event and ended far ahead of him (for the last time 🙂).

Previously the Play Magnus app used to revolve around challenging Magnus at different ages. According to one of the databases, you defeated 9-year old Magnus in Arnold Grand Prix in 2000, while he came back for vengeance at 16, beating you in the Arctic Chess Challenge in 2007. Do you have any “secret” memorable games against your son that we can present to our readers?

When we traveled Europe by car in the autumn of 2003 we played quite a lot of Blitz during our stay in Crete. Magnus had 1 or 1.5 minutes against my 9 or 8.5. Still he managed to win nearly all our games. I was quite proud in the Arctic Chess Challenge in 2007 though, just for meeting the top-rated player (Magnus) as late as round 6!

You compete in classical, rapid and blitz FIDE-rated tournaments from time to time. Do you also play online and, if “yes”, what site do you prefer?

In fact I mainly play online. I joined chess24 already back in 2013 or 2014 and have played too many games (as bukkerogtakker) ever since 🙂

Editor's note: "bukker og takker" literally means "bows and thanks" in Norwegian, i.e., it is a self-ironic way of saying "thank you for the applause" after a game.

Do you talk chess as a game with Magnus nowadays? Are there situations when you ask him for advice? Or, vice versa, maybe he loses a tough match and you, as a father and a passionate chess player, can’t abstain from recommending him something?

One of the things I learned early was fortunately to stop giving Magnus bad advice, and I tried to shield him from most of the advice from others as well. While we talk about his games sometimes, typically sometimes when I have had access to a computer, I don’t offer advice. When I played tournaments more frequently in the past I sometimes benefited from Magnus’ advice as well as from my opponents fear of Magnus preparation!

Is there anything else you would like to share with the users of the Play Magnus app? Any special tips on chess or life in general?

For many of us, chess improvement is mainly about not dropping pieces and pawns left and right. One winter several years ago I did some 15,000 tactics (at chess24) and that reversed my otherwise negative trend and rating loss for subsequent years.

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Starting February 14th, you will be able to challenge Henrik Carlsen in the Play Magnus app. His spot on the Hall of Fame is as deserved »

How does one obtain space advantage and use it to cruise to victory? What are the potential pitfalls of getting overzealous when it comes to grabbing space? Let’s find out!

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Twice a week, the Play Magnus team works to bring you a fresh, new lesson designed to help improve your chess skills. Lessons help you learn everything, from strategy and tactics to openings and endgames.

Keep an eye out for these new lessons, coming to Magnus Trainer every Monday and Thursday

How does one obtain space advantage and use it to cruise to victory? What are the potential pitfalls of getting overzealous when it comes to grabbing space? Let’s find out! 

To what extent is psychology important in chess? Opinions vary greatly.
On the one hand, Bobby Fischer famously stated: “I don't believe in psychology. I believe in good moves”. This quote reminds us that the outcome of any chess game is ultimately decided on the board.

On the other hand, in more recent times quite a few World Chess Champions have had psychologists on their teams. Most notably, during the Korchnoi vs. Karpov and Karpov vs. Kasparov rivalries hypnotizers and yogi were deeply involved in the matches, allegedly affecting the outcome of some of the pivotal games. Later Viktor Korchnoi went as far as to claim that Magnus Carlsen must posess some sort of hypnotizing stare since super Grandmasters tend to fall apart chess-wise when playing him, losing even “dead drawn” positions.

Today we will discuss a few psychological tips that will hopefully help you improve your results as a practical player.

Tip 1: Remain cool and confident no matter what happens

Staying confident and not tilting is obviously good for your decision-making process. Also, it deprives your opponents of mental energy by making them feel uncertain about themselves and provoking them into questioning their calculations.

Conversely, if you show signs of weakness (shaking your head, breathing heavily, keeping a crooked posture), your opponents will get a morale boost and start looking for a promising continuation even more ardently.

There are two important exceptions to this rule. The first one revolves around setting traps for your opponent. For example, some players, particularly in time trouble, may start shaking their heads or pinching their hair when there is a flawed tactical resource available for their partners. If the unwary prey walks into the trap, the hunter will get back to normal. Also, sometimes such behavior will be demonstrated unintentionally due to genuine miscalculation. Therefore, while it is important to keep an eye on the psychological state of your opponent, you should make the final decisions based on the position on the board.

The second one concerns vivid people who simply can’t keep a poker face. A notable modern day example is Hikaru Nakamura. You can fully expect him to make grimaces and give away other body language signs regardless of whether he thinks he blundered or you have just made a terrible mistake. Therefore, you either ignore these “tells” completely if you realize that your opponent is overemotional, or you study the person thorougly in order to be able to interpret the signs well enough based on intricate nuances that are not visible to the average spectator.

Tip 2: The “I got this messy position from someone else” technique

It is quite typical of chess players to start blaming themselves for forgetting opening preparation, missing a key tactical strike in the middlegame or ending in a gruesome endgame with no counterplay whatsoever. How do you shake off the tension and the frustration?

One of the ways of getting over the dark past is to take a short walk during your opponent’s move and, upon returning to the board, to smile and to tell yourself: “Wow, what a weird position I have been treated to by a friend of mine! I wonder if I can somehow turn the tables on my opponent?!”

In a nutshell, you assign all the blame on your imaginary friend. This way you are no longer overly concerned about losing since it’s your friend who is responsible for all the harm done. However, if you manage to come back from this mess, it is going to be a fantastic achievement on your behalf! Quite a few seemingly hopeless positions have been saved using this technique.

Tip 3: Conceal your area of interest on the chessboard

The less your opponent knows about your real game intentions, the better.
Some chess players (Vasyl Ivanchuk, Alexander Morozevich, et al.) have a habit of occasionally analyzing the current position blindfoldedly, ignoring the board and staring somewhere else in what we would call nowadays “Beth Harmon-style”. This way you can’t tell what’s really going on in their minds.

If you do look at the board, it is useful to send a fake narrative across, hoping to hinder the decision-making process of your partner. Don’t stay glued visually to the part of the board that you are most interested in. For example, if you are worried about the prospects of your opponent attacking you on the kingside, you may act as if you are more concerned about his minority attack on the queenside or your own threat of snatching a pawn on that flank. The opponents who are not self-confident enough may easily be swayed into letting go of their own ideas and switching to the narrative that you are trying to impose on them (“I should probably not go for the attack on his king since losing my pawn on the queenside is so scary!”).

Obviously, there are plenty of other interesting psychological tricks that one can employ in chess. We will continue exploring them in the subsequent episodes.

As you probably know, in the perfect world you are supposed to analyze every game you play, thinking what you could have done differently and coming up with improvements. Most players are well-familiar with this important advice, yet they do not follow it due to laziness, lack of time and other excuses that are not hard to come up with.

However, it is far less common to recommend analyzing all your chess games from the psychological point of view. After the game is over, replay it in your head, focusing specifically on what you and your opponent did right and wrong in terms of psychology.

If something worked out to your benefit, decide whether it is worth using this trick more often. Or, conversely, if your opponent was able to knock you out psychologically, try to come up with an efficient remedy against such behavior and see whether you should add this weapon to your own psychological arsenal.

To what extent is psychology important in chess? Opinions vary greatly. On the one hand, Bobby Fischer famously stated: “I don't believe in psychology. I believe 

Somewhat surprisingly, of all the combinations of minor pieces two knights do the best job of fighting off the queen. Let's see how these fierce battles usually proceed!

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Somewhat surprisingly, of all the combinations of minor pieces two knights do the best job of fighting off the queen. Let's see how these fierce battles usually proceed! 

♟️🧰 New Lesson // Queen vs. Two Knights

A game from which we learn that the Pseudo-Trompowsky can lead to problems for White.

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During Opening Week, the Play Magnus team works to bring you fresh, new lessons designed to help improve your chess skills - every day for a week!
These lessons will help you understand the main ideas of the opening, and test your aquired skills

A game from which we learn that the Pseudo-Trompowsky can lead to problems for White. 

💎 Openings Week // Queen Pawn Openings - The Pseudo-Trompowsky - Guess the Move

This is a clumsy name for an opening variation, but it is one that has stuck. Let's take a look at this poorer cousin of the Trompowsky itself.

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This is a clumsy name for an opening variation, but it is one that has stuck. Let's take a look at this poorer cousin of the Trompowsky itself. 

💎 Openings Week // Queen Pawn Openings - The Pseudo-Trompowsky

Today we will try to guess Magnus' moves in his crushing attack in the Trompowsky.

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Today we will try to guess Magnus' moves in his crushing attack in the Trompowsky. 

💎 Openings Week // Queen Pawn Openings - Magnus Plays the Trompowsky - Guess the Move

The Trompowsky, named after a Brazilian master, is a cousin of the Torre Attack and Veresov openings. An early Bg5 is common to all, but in the Trompowsky, the bishop is developed before either of the White knights. This gives the position an original flavor.

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The Trompowsky, named after a Brazilian master, is a cousin of the Torre Attack and Veresov openings. An early Bg5 is common to all, but in the Trompowsky, the bishop is developed before either of the White knights. This gives the position an original flavor. 

💎 Openings Week // Queen Pawn Openings - The Trompowsky

Black does not have it all his own way after 2.Bg5 Ne4, as we are about to see.

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Black does not have it all his own way after 2.Bg5 Ne4, as we are about to see. 

💎 Openings Week // Queen Pawn Openings - The Trompowsky Mainline - Guess the Move

Your rating progress

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