Chess Resolutions for 2025

Okay so I'm going to do something drastic for the new year.

I will stop playing chess for the first 6 months of the year from January 1st to end of June.

Here's my reasoning :

Practice, daily puzzles, and daily blitz or bullet or rapid will only let you reach a certain peak in online chess. And.i feel this is around the :

2000 to 2100 in blitz (next Goal)
2100 to 2200 in bullet (achieved high rating of 2200 - Finally!)
And
2100 to 2300 in rapid

If you want to maintain this level, you need to continue building up pattern recognition skills by doing daily puzzles.

But beyond this level, you need something much more.

And there would not be any point playing online chess as you will be stuck in this range for a very long time.

I was personally stuck in the 1900 to 2000 blitz for close to 3 years. I did hit 2100 once but quickly went back down to the 2000s.

So the big question is: How do I improve my online chess rating when playing against elite online players?

Simple: THEORY

Chess theory can help improve your chess by leaps and bounds. And you're better off learning chess theory once you reach a certain level in online chess.

So here are my goals:

1. Build blindfold chess skills..

Visualising the board really helps. For example, a1 is black (easy) but what is e4?.. That's right, it's white.

Here's how I'm learning it everyday..

a1 a3 a5 a7 are all black
Similarly
a1 c1 e1 g1 are all black squares...
And all the squares in between are white..

I need to however build my knight and queen movement skills.

More on blindfold later

2. Chess endgame theory

Learning endgame is going to improve your chess in unimaginable proportions. If you look at top grandmaster games, it's all about fighting out in the start strategically (of course without committing blunders) and building an tiny edge in the endgame. And then simply grinding out in the endgame if you know all the technical endgame skills.

I'm really bad at rook and pawn endgames, king and pawn endgames, and of course queen and pawn endgames.

I plan to complete the dvoretskyd endgame manual by end of June anf also silmans endgame theory.

4. Caro kann defense
1.e4 c6
I plan to dig deep in this opening and learn all the important lines

5. Scotch opening
This opening is used a lot in bullet. If you know the ins and outs of this opening, you can easily defend as black and easily win.. As your opponent will run out of options.

6. As white
London system 1. d4 d5 2.Bf4

Theres something about this opening. Plus it was played a lot in the recent gukesh ding wcc match up.

7. Play offline tournaments with real people

I'm based in Berlin so I will be attending a lot more offline tournaments here and face off with real people.. And of course longer time controls

And finally:

8. 12 Puzzle Rush Daily + 5 Hard Puzzles
This daily routine will easily set me up for success..

(None of this was from chatgpt). It's all me..
But I might copy paste this text into chatgpt and ask it to generate a timetable.

Actually, you know what.. I'm going to stop playing online chess from today and focus solely on theory and puzzles.

Hit me up in another 6 months.

And my goals from July to December 2025

1. Hit 2200 on bullet.. If breached easily, then 2300 bullet
2. Hit 2200 Blitz.. If breached easily, then 2300 Blitz
3. Hit 2500 puzzle.. If breached easily, then 2700 puzzle
4. (Not mandatory) but 2600 rapid.. If there is no online cheating and if I have time.

Have an awesome 2025 folks!