How I Gained 2200 Elo in Just 2 Years

Sorry some of the editing is a bit chopped, my mouse broke an hour into editing 😭😭😭
MY SOCIALS:
🚨 / jacksark
🚨 / discord
🚨 / jacksark1
🚨 / jacksarkisian1
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:54 0 - 500 Elo
06:45 500 - 1000 Elo
10:32 1000 - 1500 Elo
14:53 1500 - 2000 Elo
20:34 2000 - 2200 Elo
23:36 Outro

[@Witty_AlienClips]

Fantastic video! Bravo!!! ‼

[@ZDTF]

Real?

[@jacksarkisian]

thanku witty bro

[@thunderstrikebs5556]

You're the reason I'm scared playing caro kann😢

[@The_Lahmacun123]

​@@thunderstrikebs5556play h6

[@The_Lahmacun123]

​@@thunderstrikebs5556when they try to play Alien gambit

[@PURAHAN]

Still plays the London, unacceptable. Amazing video to be honest, motivated me to turn from 2000 to 2200.

[@jacksarkisian]

soon 2200 surely

[@edk1124]

Ding Liren literally played the London against Ian in the world championship match twice, and won one of them.

[@dg3872]

if ur 2000 in blitz or bullet, you can just switch to rapid and ul get there immediately due to recent rating inflation in rapid

[@tobi4812]

​@dg3872 how is there rating inflation in rapid? Genuinely curious

[@schrodriguez47]

​@@dg3872when you peak 2200 in rapid, the cuality is similar to blitz, when you are 2300 rapid your Blitz probably is higher

[@andrewwilson9123]

14:23: Tal was awarded the GM title for winning the 1956 Soviet Championship

[@jacksarkisian]

had no idea about that, super cool piece of history! apparently its happened as recently as 2016 with GM Abdelrahman Hesham after he won the 2016 African Chess Championship. as far as it seems its a major rarity though.

[@sealandball3043]

@@jacksarkisian You can gain titles by winning tournaments, so it's not that surprising. :)

[@cominoengenharia]

​@@sealandball3043it happened so few times in history that it is indeed quite surprising!

[@carcrash25]

Bro first off amazing video, the new lighting is so much better and you can clearly see the hours of effort that went into this edit, you deserve this!

[@ZDTF]

Cwash🤑🤑🤑🤑

[@jacksarkisian]

W crash man so inspirational

[@hish33p32]

24:34 I was really scared there that you wouldn't mention this guy, glad you did hahahaha

[@itskurtle]

Such an insightful video! Great job🙌

[@jacksarkisian]

thankyou man i appreciate it ❤️❤️

[@kaitlyng7850]

Im 1800 Rapid and I’m vibing here for a bit but damn 2200 in 2 years is wild. Hopefully 2000 is in reach over the next couple months but idk

[@jacksarkisian]

a big part about getting from 1800 to 2000 is the mindset & confidence. right now you probably look at 2000s thinking they're miles better than you - but as soon as you beat a few of them comfortably you'll realise how plausible it is to get to that Elo yourself. good luck bro.

[@UpQuark127]

I’m very close to 200 am 1950 rn

[@user-my8wf8qs1y]

Yeah me too i'm stuck at 1800 elp in rapid. I've been playing for 2 years at chess and i don't progress anymore

[@MellopellowChesss]

Saying from someone who peaked 2,000 elo myself. 1700-2000 is not that big. I fluctuate between those ranges {tilted rn} and the only difference I saw are "positional sacrifices" for 2000 elo. But everything else is basically the same.

[@pooper2831]

zen mode in lichess is very good to avoid getting intimidated by opponent's rating

[@willtaylorchess]

Love it mate, congratulations

[@jacksarkisian]

cheers bro, love your vids! should set up a match on stream sometime ❤️

[@willtaylorchess]

@@jacksarkisian For sure man, I have exams for my degree rn but this summer we should run it

[@jacksarkisian]

@@willtaylorchess lets do it, good luck with your exams bro. my dc is jacksark, hmu whenever you have some free time 🤝

[@MichealTimothy86]

First he played re8 capturing the king and that’s how he won in those 2 years💀

[@jacksarkisian]

cursed chess taught me everything i know 💀💀

[@MichealTimothy86]

@@jacksarkisian 💀🔥

[@go-awayyy123]

despite your opening bit sounding (and looking) like your generic "don't call this number at 3am (gone wrong)", complete with intense eye contact, I'm glad I made it through the whole thing. great video.

[@jacksarkisian]

hahaha glad you enjoyed bro, filming for these KZbin videos is very new to me, I speak with my hands irl & have to focus on keeping my hands still while recording 😭

[@go-awayyy123]

@@jacksarkisian if this is you being new to these type of videos, you'll blow up. jokes aside, 0 to 2200 in 2 years is beyond impressive. much love, and take care

[@DensiBensi]

Hey this video was really instructive and super helpful, thank you so much for posting!

[@jacksarkisian]

thankyou bro i appreciate it!

[@redfinance3403]

Because of the huge number of games I’ve played i know how to play the opening pretty well but I’ve never actually spent the time to learn an opening yet and I’m 2200 😭. Solid advice tho, nice.

[@jacksarkisian]

that's exactly how I learnt my opening actually. I watched Gotham's 10 minute opening lesson on the London System - everything else was self-taught over 2 years!

[@JOHNTUCHESSLOVE]

Amazing video!

[@jacksarkisian]

thanks bro ❤️

[@bencash4967]

nice video so far, when you mentioned tilt, I thought of my own games, and for some reason I tilt more on rapid than on blitz, sometimes I'll go to 2150 rapid, just to fall back to 2080 in one day, while I stay fairly consistent on 2050-2080 on blitz (doesn't matter much how many games I play)

[@jacksarkisian]

Rapid is definitely easier to tilt in than Blitz or Bullet. it can take just 1 hour to lose 10 Rapid games, but can take 10 hours to win all that rating back. limiting yourself to only a handful of Rapid games per day is the only fix I've found so far to avoid that tilt - can really ruin your mood hahahah

[@WHAT-gm1xm]

Share me your chess id

[@gmludovic]

crazy progress tbf 👍

[@jacksarkisian]

thankyou 🙏

[@justrelax4084]

thats a masterclass thanks

[@jacksarkisian]

haha no worries, took an eternity to edit 😅😅

[@capivaraocapivara6137]

Congrats my friend

[@jacksarkisian]

thankyou bro

[@Lolmanloco]

This is a very useful video , i will start today and at the end of the month i will do a video proving your statement powerful im currently 1600, and i believe at the end of the month ill be 1900+

[@jacksarkisian]

looking forward to it bro, good luck!

[@Lolmanloco]

@@jacksarkisian thanks it's all because of this amazing video 👑

[@ArshPlaysChess]

Very informative vid..❤

[@jacksarkisian]

thankyou bro

[@raj_ski]

Congratulations on your achievement! Gaining 2200 Elo in just 2 years is no small feat. It's inspiring to see your dedication and progress. Keep up the great work and continue sharing your strategies and insights with the community. 💪🏼🔥 #ChessGoals

[@great2642]

yooo chatgpt whats up bro

[@jacksarkisian]

Thank you so much for your kind words and support! It's been an incredible journey, and I'm grateful for every moment of it. I'm glad to hear that my progress is inspiring to others. I'll definitely keep sharing my strategies and insights with the community. Together, we can all reach our #ChessGoals! 💪🏼🔥

[@lingtao969]

As someone who followed a similar path as you (peaked at 2200ish rapid like a month ago, currently 2000 blitz and started playing in around late 2021) I think your point on paying for courses may be wrong; for me, the chessable courses, especially opening ones, were actually very useful because of the detailed text explanations. Definitely no need to purchase video though, course only is fine and typically costs arouns 30-40$

[@lingtao969]

Just to add on, I think buying your first course at ~1800 rapid elo is very beneficial to advance your understanding of the game in general

[@jacksarkisian]

for sure, personally I think you should hold out until 2000 Elo (Rapid) to be spending any kind of significant money on chess improvement tools (significant being in the 100s of dollars). before the 2000 Elo mark, if you can find a course you're fairly certain would be beneficial for you at a price like $30-$40 then that's a no brainer - however I see far too many people forking out hundreds of dollars on sub-par courses when there's so many other glaring gaps in their game. congrats on the 2200 peak btw! 🥳🥳

[@fusion_not_pro]

Underrated video

[@jacksarkisian]

i appreciate it thankyou

[@freedot1463]

kinda weird you didn't mention Hanging pawns at all - his videos are incredible for improving, more specifically, his Middlegame playlist is one of the best free resources for understanding the middlegame on the internet

[@jacksarkisian]

i've not seen too much of Hanging Pawns - so couldn't really add my 10 cents on if their content is worthwhile. there are probably lots of other creators that have great, educational content that I didn't mention as well. sadly there is also a lot of bad videos promoting idiotic traps, tricks and essentially hope Chess - my main goal was to direct new players to well-made, thoughtful content.

[@freedot1463]

@@jacksarkisian very understandable, it is true there are a lot of great channels out there. I suggest you check him out regardless :) great luck on your journey

[@firehood9426]

@jacksarkidian His content is comparable to chessly courses, at the rate of my growth (I reached 2100 today) I’ll probably soon surpass his level. But that does not mean I will stop watching him. Just because he’s worse than me doesn’t mean I’ll have to stop watching him simply because he teaches chess better than most chess content creators have gained a following for teaching chess well. The only other content creators I could see potentially matching him are GothamChess and Daniel Naroditsky.

[@ArkhamTactics]

great video!

[@jacksarkisian]

thankyou bro 🙏

[@erikaradzvilaite2247]

Not you calling me out with Ruy Lopez opening, feel so seen haha. But I knew this opening, as much as I like it, wasn't working for me at all just yet, clearly missing some understanding and skill. Inspiring video though! I have started kind of learning last month, learning how the pieces move and all that jazz - complete newbie, so this was useful. Somehow need to settle on an opening for white and overcome my fear playing with real people, can't be playing bots forever haha

[@jacksarkisian]

playing bots is great when you first start playing Chess, its a really good tool to practice your openings. if you go to "Chess.com > Learn > Openings" and select whichever opening you want to study, you can actually click "Practice vs. Computer" at the bottom of the example Chess board. you can also change the difficulty of the computer you're facing. this is super useful when you want to practice an opening, but the computer won't play into it. good luck with your progress!

[@michaelkoech9522]

great stuff

[@jacksarkisian]

thankyou g 🤝

[@xaviermoise7187]

I'm 1300 rating with 2700 puzzle rating and exclusively play 30 minute rapid games. I only do one game a day, because it's easier to rack up wins and streaks that way. I almost always play against lower rated opponents and with white because, statistically, the typical player wins more with white than with black. I sometimes play close to my rating or higher when I get white. I haven't bothered to learn any openings, but I have picked up a few classic books to read. In reality, I've only finished one Chess book, that's Bobby Fischer's "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess (1982)" when I was just beginning to play the game. I think the thing that has helped me learn the most is watching GMs play in tournaments and doing puzzles. I hardly have to learn any theory when I calculate very well 😅

[@jacksarkisian]

watching GMs play is certainly an underrated tool to get better, puts you in a better mental headspace as well - Mamba Mentality. don't look into your puzzle rating too much though, Chess.com's puzzle system is super broken so don't worry about it much - good luck with your Chess bro ❤️

[@pichshrackers]

finally something more detailed !!

[@jacksarkisian]

this took me 4 hours to record & 8 hours to edit 😭😭😭 glad you enjoyed

[@GregTurismo]

I’ve seen so many of these videos and I never get any better.

[@jacksarkisian]

do you want to get better? do you have time to get better? sometimes peoples situations irl make it very difficult for them to become a better Chess player. if you're super busy and can only play Chess for a few hours per week its going to be incredibly difficult to improve at a decent pace. similarly - if you have little motivation to get better you'll see the same result. if you can tell me a bit more about your situation in regards to Chess maybe i could give you some more specific advice - but sometimes peoples situations aren't very tailored to improving at Chess.

[@GregTurismo]

@@jacksarkisian I play chess many hours every week, and watch and follow rules to help me improve. I try to memorize openings and tactics, I work on puzzles each day and I analyze my games. Still 1100.

[@RaniaIsAwesome]

@@GregTurismo I have no doubt the vast majority of these videos are completely fake. People tend to learn chess as kids and develop interest as they grow up. They may be super casual but they would have played, looked at puzzles, that sort of thing. Just the basic fluency in how each piece moves and the basic tactics of not dropping pieces takes time. When someone makes a claim like this people are drawn to their video immediately. Why believe a random stranger on the internet just because they say something when they make money from it? Even top GMs like Niemann who thanks to the internet you can track their progress from when they were developing, did not just get to a rating like 2200 extremely quickly.

[@mevadavraj4178]

Right now i am stuck at 2150 , not reaching 2200, 2 years ago i was stuck around 1500 , then in last 9 months i gained rating rapidly and reached 2100+ , main reason i started watching youtube videos of daniel naroditsky speedrun it gives lot of insights how grandmaster thinks . But now i am stuck at 2150 last 1 month .

[@jacksarkisian]

you definitely reap the success of what you surround yourself with. if you start watching educational chess content regularly, you will definitely see that mindset reflect on your rating. its why I highly recommend people properly watch professional Chess tournaments too. as for being stuck at 2150, don't sweat it too much. being stuck at certain rating levels for months on end is normal post 2000 Elo. it took me a year to bridge the gap from 2000 to 2200 Elo. be patient and keep grinding 🙏🙏

[@skycaptain95]

At this level you need to start doing deep analysis with a coach or an engine to get better. You still have some kind of weaknesses and you may not even know what they are yet. Reason I would recommend a coach is because a human stronger than you is more likely to see the flaws in your play, whereas an engine coldly plays the best move even if it is nearly unfindable for even a top grandmaster. Secondly, you must start playing openings that you have studied that challenge your opponent. Most of the people I've seen play at this level have a few solid studied openings for each color, but may not strike viciously at their opponents when the time is right. The London is great, but too easy for black to equalize IMO. Once you get to 2300 I have nothing more to say. I've been hard-stuck for two years there. Maybe I have reached my genetic potential or I do not even see where I am failing.

[@mevadavraj4178]

@@skycaptain95 ya right now I am focusing on academic stuff ,but after 1 month i will be free as it would be my std 12 to college transition, so I am thinking I will get a coach and actually play fide tournament

[@skycaptain95]

@@mevadavraj4178 Good luck and remember chess is for fun! None of us can be top grandmasters unless we start at 3 years old or whatever. So we may as well enjoy the game.

[@mevadavraj4178]

@@skycaptain95 ofcourse 😄

[@ixsai]

thank you man

[@jacksarkisian]

no problem bro

[@zaidsilk6089]

amazing video (btw a fork with Qf4 was missed at 7:02 )

[@jacksarkisian]

thankyou! and is Bf5 after Qf4? 🤔

[@WesleyPlaysChess]

Great video 👍👍

[@jacksarkisian]

thankyou bro ❤️❤️

[@joeroberts6362]

This is a great video thanks very much. I'm currently 1350 elo, if I could be 2200 in 2 years I would be very happy

[@jacksarkisian]

as long as you keep dedicated to your goals you'll 100% get there bro, be sure to reply to this comment in 2 years to flex 😎

[@binhminhsam]

The Chess Brah

[@ppetrus1521]

Pure gold. 👍

[@jacksarkisian]

thankyou g 🔥

[@haliddrobo9117]

Great video, I have been playing chess for around 12 months and I am currently in a pretty strange position considering my rating. Reached 1500 back in January after a very quick climb of gaining 120 elo in 10 days, and I stayed in that rating area for a decent time.Then a completely insane tilt followed, dropped down to almost below 1300 in just a single week. Recently I hit 1400 again and I am climbing back up to 1500 in a more stable and controlled manner, albeit much slower this time. Any idea why those jumps and falls in elo happen? What should i be on the lookout for to prevent it from happening again?

[@jacksarkisian]

this is pretty normal actually - the reason for this is you're not a consistent Chess player yet. whilst you might have some really nice games, you probably are constantly blundering positionally, not to mention hanging pawns and pieces every so often as well (which can also lead to very tilting sessions). i think it goes to show how little difference there is between a 1300 and a 1500 on Chess.com, you simply need to work on consistency. usually the easiest fix for this is grinding puzzles to improve your board awareness, also brushing up on some of your openings could help a lot if you believe the mistakes are occurring extremely early on.

[@haliddrobo9117]

@@jacksarkisian Actually very true, you read me like a book haha. I am pretty inconsistent in regards to my chess, one game I could play almost perfectly with 90+ accuracy, the next i could blunder a simple 2-3 move tactic. Thank you for the advice, I will try my best to implement it.

[@Celatra]

as someone who's 800 blitz, i play a strange queen's pawn sideline ,of d4 d5 e3 Nf6 c4 and if pawn takes c4, i capture with bishop, if any other move i capure the pawn of d5 and just develop my pieces and gives me a high win rate. i went from like 600 to 800 with this in not even a week. occasionally i push C5 or develop my second knight but that's the main idea. to just get bishop and queen out quick while having pawns supporting the center.

[@jacksarkisian]

if they take your pawn on c4, this is the Queen's Gambit Accepted (not a modern move order, but transposes). develop your knights before you play cxd5 though! there's no rush to take on d5 if you're also comfortable with them playing dxc4. you're queenside knight should land on c3, and your kingside knight should land on f3. ofc i don't want to tell you how to play your openings, but this move order is a slight improvement on what you already seem to do. there's some great videos out there on the Queen's Gambit (the pawn structure is also called the "Carlsbad Structure") if you want to study it at all :) congrats on your recent Elo gain!

[@Celatra]

@@jacksarkisian thank you, i'll read on it !

[@Filipioschess]

Kramnik: Very Interesting

[@jacksarkisian]

i'm gonna be Kramnik's next victim 😭😭

[@zebecuro]

As someone who cannot even get to 200 elo you are at the event horizon for me

[@jacksarkisian]

how long have you been playing for?

[@user-bt5km6nj1o]

Thanks biro

[@daft2114]

congratulations! I make very slow progress. First i established 1600 than 1700 and now 1800 but i played for years. I think one thing that's bad for my rating is switching openings all the time

[@jacksarkisian]

yeah switching up openings will do that to you, but on the bright side you're probably more well-drilled in a variety of openings than someone like myself 🔥

[@daft2114]

@@jacksarkisian true it's also helpful when teaching kids (which I do).

[@raghavendrabhat6035]

A great video. At 1300 will try to reach 2000 this year

[@jacksarkisian]

super achievable bro, I gained 2000 Elo in my first year of playing chess, then 2200 in my second year. good luck!

[@raghavendrabhat6035]

​@@jacksarkisian thanks. Keep up the great work and such insightful videos.

[@Centuari]

Danya is the goat of chess commentary

[@jacksarkisian]

Danya's consistency is unmatched 🐐

[@nicolasmadray3309]

This video is so down to earth and as someone who recently reached a 1000 rating, I can't be more thankful. But, I play only online since I have no one nor time to play OTB. Will my chess knowledge still be the same OTB as online?

[@jacksarkisian]

generally I don't think there's much of a difference between OTB and online. I think the rule of thumb is you're probably 100-200 Elo weaker OTB than you are online. it can take a lot of time to get used to classical time controls though. I'm currently approaching 1800 Elo OTB (I've only played 3 FIDE rated tournaments, so I think I can get to 2000 relatively quickly). But as for 2000+ Elo I couldn't really speak on the discrepancy, things get way more complicated at that level due to tournament availability, rating inflation, etc.

[@nicolasmadray3309]

Awesome, Jack! Thank you so much for that explanation. I wish you the best in your advancement, and we look forward to more videos!!

[@misomiso8228]

Do you play any OTB Chess? Do you have a Fide rating for Classical as well? Would be interesting as 2200 is Candidate Master level!

[@jacksarkisian]

I started playing OTB in January this year - currently around 1750 FIDE. Have only played 3 FIDE rated classical tournaments so far, living in Australia where capital cities are so far away from each other makes it hard to compete regularly. Hoping to break 2000 Elo OTB at some point!

[@vedbhanushali608]

thanks huge journey ahead.

[@jacksarkisian]

thankyou bro you too ❤️

[@blackmirrorhenity3669]

Interesting I know vast improvements are possible at the lower levels, at the higher end of chess 2000 2600 rating, 100 elo is one of the best progressions that few players can acheive each year.

[@jacksarkisian]

i think online Chess is a lot different to OTB Chess though, one adjustment to your opening or endgame knowledge could boost your Elo by 100 over a few weeks online - but the same can't be said about OTB.

[@blackmirrorhenity3669]

​@@jacksarkisian agreed, but online chess rateings are not the same as over the board online grades are inflated significantly my online grade is 2300 over the board grade is 1930, but online grades over the board grades can be converted roughly, 300 / 200 points online worth about 100 points over the board which takes about year or longer depending on the time you put in.

[@Anonymous-8080]

Sagar Shah is my favourite commentator too. Infact, I started playing chess because of him. Only if you would have understood Hindi, you can see watch his funny side too lol. He is so much funny especially when he's with Samay Raina. 860 elo player here.

[@jacksarkisian]

Sagar Shah reminds me of a Premier League commentator in a way - he’s not afraid of making commentary cinematic & thrilling. I feel like a lot of commentators are afraid to show too much emotion in their commentary because it’s a “gentleman’s game”. Definitely wish I could see more of him outside of Chess!

[@Anonymous-8080]

@@jacksarkisian Well said. Same with Tania Sachdeva.

[@hish33p32]

14:30 - 14:35 That's genuinely scary though, ngl

[@youngt2827]

Good shit

[@jacksarkisian]

thankyou bro ❤️

[@andrewunthank3521]

Currently 1100. Thanks for the video. Unsure where I should set my goal for this year.

[@jacksarkisian]

how much time can you spend playing chess per day? i could probably give some advice on a realistic goal for you :)

[@andrewunthank3521]

@@jacksarkisian I can dedicate about an hour to watching content and about an hour to playing. Thank you!

[@jacksarkisian]

@@andrewunthank3521 by the end of the year i'd definitely think 1500-1600 is a good goal to set. in 2023 i set my end of year goal as 2000 Elo - i ended up reaching it in July. if you end up reaching 1500 earlier than expected, just keep pushing for the next 100 Elo mark. 🤝

[@andrewunthank3521]

@@jacksarkisian Soumds good man. Thank you.

[@Jiten-pm5lz]

Hey man it would be really cool if you can respond. I hit my peak of rapid 2001 yesterday but my blitz and bullet has been disappointing to say the least (1250). I play rhe catalan and kid so since blitz and bullet are more tactically focused i cant keep up. But if i change my opening, the muscle memory i had will be gone. Do you have a suggestion on how i can keep my opening while also adapting the line and approach to support blitz, thanks.

[@jacksarkisian]

in my experience, muscle memory actually is specific to each time control weirdly enough. i play very differently in blitz, rapid, bullet and OTB. i don't think you would have a big problem in playing an entirely different opening in blitz/bullet. if you're still worried about it though, you could switch to a Queen's Gambit setup. its a lot less theory dense than the Catalan (so hopefully you won't get flagged so much) whilst keeping a similar if not identical pawn structure to what you're used to. i find the main thing that confuses players when switching between openings is the pawn structures, so really if you find any other opening with similar pawn structures to what you currently play, it should work out alright.

[@Jiten-pm5lz]

@jacksarkisian but I don't have an issue with theory. My problem is opponents not playing any theory. They would force tactics when I want to play positional. While I would castle my kingside, they'd do a pawn storm on the queenside. By the time I cure the chaos, I'm not down anything objectively but the moves I need to find are really obscure tactics such as sacrificing the a1 rook etc... which in blitz is not as practical when at this point its the middle game so you only have 1min to 1 and a half minutes.

[@cyrillewatthee8376]

Great video, straight to the point and concise! I agree with pretty much all of what you said, except for the very first part (as a beginner, learn a couple of simple openings). In my opinion, this is great for people of intermediate level, but as a complete beginner, sticking to a few openings you know well can 'narrow' your understanding of the game, which likely will cause you to progress less quickly (just my opinion). I picked up chess at the beginning of this year (I used to play chess when I was a kid with my father though, so I was not completely new to it) and climbed to 2000 elo in a matter of a few months, without playing any specific openings for a long time, but doing pretty much everything else you highlighted (play rapid, which gives yourself time to think about your moves / review your games / don't play too much games a day / solve your daily puzzles / watch high level players and listen to the commentary / ...), except for the opening part. I just now started to pick some openings I like to study their lines more deeply, but for me personally, I think it helped me a lot not to have any standard opening prepared as a beginner. This forced me to really think about my moves and my opponents moves, every moment of every game. So my openings have varied a lot, based on what my opponent was playing and what my own plan was that game. And yes, as a beginner, this means that you will fall into a lot of 'noob traps' at first, but if you review your games, you will learn from those experiences and your understanding of the game will grow far more quickly than if you just spam the 'safe' moves of your favorite opening pretty much every game, at least that's what I think. Just my opinion though, you obviously made it to 2200 only playing the London System just fine, so yeah, it clearly works! But I personally think that it's better for complete beginners to not focus too much on a few openings, but more on basic concepts, tactics and opening principles that will help them improve their general understanding of the game. Have a good day!

[@jacksarkisian]

that's a super interesting route to success, i've not heard of many people doing it like that. i think learning a specific opening does give a good sense of structure - it also makes you very coachable if you should choose to hire a coach later on. is also very much depends on how much time people have to study chess, and how they are at learning and picking up new concepts. your method seems like a major gray area, where you could set yourself up for some serious glory, or you might need to go back to the basics at some point. regardless congrats on your fast success - super interesting!

[@godzillafirefox923]

@@jacksarkisian hello, your progress is very good and I'd say the fact that you did it with the london is even more insane. Memes aside, I am rated 800 after almost 500 games and 2.5 months of playing and I use the Italian, and sometimes Vienna for e4 or Queen's Gambit and London if I am in d4 mood. As black, I just respond with e5 and d5 and follow opening principles. I am thinking of learning the ruy lopez as well, in some time but I have heard that it has a lot of theory and shouldn't be played below even 2000 level but I believe that most people won't know ruy theory at my level and it is a very intuitive opening which follows opening principles and is quite self explanatory. Should I learn the ruy or should I avoid it? Given that no one will play theory probably, should I just learn the ideas behind it and play a few games with it to get a grasp on them? This is somewhat similar to what I did with the London and Italian. Hope you read this. Great video, best of luck in your chess journey and I believe you'll reach 2000 OTB faster than you think if you put in the time! Also, Mikhail Tal is my inspiration but I am not at the level where I can replicate his type of play in middle and end games. I think he is up there with Magnus, Fischer, Paul Morphy and Kasparov!

[@jacksarkisian]

@@godzillafirefox923 i would say wait until you're a bit higher elo to learn the Ruy Lopez. whilst your opponents probably won't know the theory properly, you will also make a lot of mistakes at your level trying to master it. i'm very far away from playing similarly to Tal as well, he's a one of a kind player & you'll have something to be very proud of if you can even fractionally replicate his playstyle. good luck to you bro!

[@godzillafirefox923]

@@jacksarkisian I see, well it won't hurt to leave ruy for some time later and I'm doing pretty well with italian and Vienna... currently I am focusing more on improving my endgames and doing many puzzles and tactics. And yes, Tal is one of the best players ever for me, and I honestly think playing like him is almost impossible, witty alien does get close but Tal was a different species in that sense!

[@blackman7186]

From this video i may or may not have learnt about chess, but i sure learnt that your favourite colour is blue.

[@jacksarkisian]

hahaha is it that obvious? 😭😭

[@blackman7186]

@@jacksarkisian it's so obvious that I would notice it even if I was blind hahaha 😂

[@salemtv5808]

OMG! i thought i was alone reviewing my wins and ignore my losses.. i thought i need a shrink to sort this weirdness 😂

[@jacksarkisian]

to be fair its wayyyy more fun to review your wins 😂😂

[@salemtv5808]

@@jacksarkisian thank you really appreciate it i was expecting agreeing to get my brains fixed hahahaha

[@GarrotCarrot]

I will say Levy Rozman's courses on chessly are worth the money. The studies, drills, and quizzes really help you remember and understand the positions well.

[@jacksarkisian]

from what I've heard, Levy puts an insane amount of time & effort into his courses - I wouldn't be surprised they're of high quality. sadly the same can't be said about most courses though. one thing I didn't mention in the video is just because someone is a high-rated player, doesn't mean they're a great teacher. I've watched lots of videos from Grandmasters explaining concepts and tactics but they're teaching it just awful - nullifying their expertise to a certain extent. Gotham is a major exception though, great teacher.

[@nowaywayno5499]

Great Video!!!, but i still have a question, did you read any chess book?

[@redwanurrahaman8644]

videos give you way better value.books are for titled players,,

[@jacksarkisian]

this ^^ if you like reading books then go for it - but 9 times out of 10 I would recommend videos.

[@cjikeako]

1. Daniel Naroditsky 2. Robert Hess 3. David Howell. The commentator dream team. A team so good, they almost never put them together in one commentary team.

[@jacksarkisian]

this team on the Champion's Chess Tour & Julius Baer Cup is unmatched tbf

[@RupeeServices]

Learning from a good teacher is good. I gained 1925 in 7 months from learning from puzzles and Levy.

[@jacksarkisian]

nice work bro! 2000 soon 😎

[@probablyanon]

1.5 years in from 200 to1700!

[@jacksarkisian]

major W, congrats bro. how much time are you able to play/train per day?

[@wthxrsh]

I am stuck at 1200 for so long... gotta study and make new strategies. Btw helpful video!

[@jacksarkisian]

thankyou bro i appreciate it. how long have you been stuck for?

[@wthxrsh]

@@jacksarkisian i have reached 1200 in october 2023 and then in dec to march i took break from chess... started playing again in april, reached peak of 1287 in may..and now i am at 1160s🫠

[@TheRealHappyRabbit]

great ,i found out i actully also start2022 march and now 2300rapid and 2500 blitz

[@jacksarkisian]

2500 blitz 😳😳😳 ggs bro you completed Chess 🤣🤣

[@macdonaldnnadi]

Send ur account I’m very curious. I started 2022 and I’m 2200 rapid but sheesh 2500 blitz is crazy

[@oletroy3184]

THANKS BUD

[@jacksarkisian]

np bro 🤝

[@FelipeV3444]

Degen bullet is real

[@Qvee1]

I've been playing chess for 9-10 months and only have 1300 but I've been playing very rarely for the last few weeks, I've almost only been doing puzzles and I have 2800 elo for that. I want to get 3000 or 3100 and then only play rapid.

[@jacksarkisian]

i wouldn't look into puzzle ratings too much, its a very neglected system on Chess.com's behalf as far as ranking goes - although the puzzles themselves are very instructive. 1300 in only 10 months is quite good progress though, you're definitely on the right track. keep grinding until you get hardstuck at a rating for a few months, then begin to look for solutions 🤝

[@macdonaldnnadi]

Same bro. I also got to 2200 in 2 years. 💯💯 I got 2k in 1 year and then gained only 200 more in the whole second year

[@jacksarkisian]

haha exactly the same as me, i wouldn't be surprised if its quite common. i got to 2000 elo, didn't want to lose it for a while so i sat on the rating - then later on that year i grinded to 2100, then 2200 to make it an even number 💯

[@marcobarbera7404]

After two months you were already around 1000, clearly you played chess before jan 1, 2022, maybe when you were younger. Starting really from 0 and as an adult is much more challenging

[@jacksarkisian]

i actually haven't played before january of 2022. however i was completely obsessed in the first month, i was spending over 10 hours per day playing Chess, watching Opening videos, solving puzzles, watching Grandmasters, etc. i've got around 2,000 hours spent on Chess.com (you can see yours at chessti.me.io) and thats not including all the time i spent off the platform. basically university hadn't started for me, and in my first month i had essentially unlimited time to play & study, so i got to 1000 pretty quickly.

[@akshayysinngh]

I crossed 2000 elo today 😁 Hope I get to cross 2200 in a year from now!

[@jacksarkisian]

congrats bro, reply to this comment when you hit it 🔥🔥

[@user-qc9cd5iz3l]

And here I am fricking depressed went from 1000 to 700 and still going downhill both in life and chess

[@jacksarkisian]

700 and 1000 Elo are super similar, much less of a gap than you think. i bet if i paired you with a random 1200 Elo player without showing you their rating - you'd give them a run for their money. at sub 1500 Elo, all it takes is one thing to click in your Chess and your rating will skyrocket. just wait for that moment bro 🔥

[@abdoulaziz5644]

​@@jacksarkisian I think you are underestimating 1200 rated players because you are way stronger than that level. Just like when Hikaru says that 2400 rated players in blitz don't even know what they're doing

[@jacksarkisian]

@@abdoulaziz5644 i don't think a 700 Elo player should expect to win against a 1200 Elo player consistently, but they'll definitely not be blown off the board. likewise for me, i beat a 2360 rated player in Rapid yesterday when i was at 2200 Elo flat. its moreso that players find themselves sitting at ratings that don't deserve, some 700s deserve to be 1000s and some 1000s deserve to be 700s. lower level Chess can be very luck-based and weird like that. i definitely get what you mean though, it is a little hard for me to see it from the same perspective as other ~1000 Elo players, but based off what my community on Twitch tells me and from my own experiences this seems to be more or less the case.

[@larsborghuis1726]

I am a 1550 but I quitter for a month and forgot lot about chess any tips to pick up chess again?

[@jacksarkisian]

just patience to be honest. you'll have to go through a shaky period where you won't get the results you want - its important to not tilt here. there's a good saying in football "a good player doesn't become a bad player overnight". persistence will get you back to the level you need to be at 🤝

[@pratypt]

0:08 you started playing on 1st jan 2022 and were already near 2 thousand ELO within 4 months?!

[@jacksarkisian]

yep, I got to 1700 pretty quickly, then I had 4 wisdom teeth removed and stopped playing chess for quite a while (and struggled to get back into playing regularly). during those 4 months I would play for probably 8 hours per day, I was only going to university 3 days a week so I had lots of free time to study & practice!

[@WHAT-gm1xm]

Hello brother 👋🏻 i have a few questions can you answer me 1.My rating is 1200 elo should I play or learn Sicilian opening i usually play Italian opening 2.my thought process and openings are weak and my rating stuck in 1200 elo how can I improve sometimes i play closed position 😕 3. Knight vs bishop which is better and why? 4.what is your chess rating and who is your favourite chess player past and present 5. What is common mistakes in chess

[@jacksarkisian]

hey bro i'll try my best to answer your questions 1. i would stick to the Italian, try to learn as much of the Italian as you can through KZbin video's and free resources online (there are some good videos made by chessbrah and Alessia Santeramo namely on the Italian Game) 2. thought process and openings are sometimes in the same category, it means you don't always understand what your opening is trying to achieve. the advice from point 1 should help you out with this. middlegames become much easier for you when you know what you're trying to achieve out of your opening, you'd be surprised how good you already are at finding tactics. 3. knights are better in closed positions, bishops are better in open positions. in endgames where all of the pawns are on the opposite coloured square as the bishop, the knight will be better - if not, the bishop will be better (i will be making a video on endgames soon to help explain this more). bishops will also be better if you have two and your opponent have none almost 90% of the time (unless the knights are extremely well placed) 4. my chess rating right now is 2202, i peaked at 2249 a few weeks ago. my OTB rating is also around 1750 Elo, but i've not played enough tournament games to get a true rating yet. my favourite player would have to be Richard Rapport, very exciting player who never opts for the boring option in games. 5. the biggest mistake people make in Chess is underestimating themselves. people spend countless hours bettering themselves in Chess, and they think they're not getting better because their Elo isn't improving. its possible for your Elo to go down, whilst you're becoming a better player. sometimes you need to take 1 step back to take 2 steps forward 🔥

[@WHAT-gm1xm]

@@jacksarkisian thank you 😊 so much brother for sharing your experience and answering my question

[@rishita3719]

Okay,let's make This a challenge I'm currently 1000 and stuck here since October I'll update u guys my rating climb or fall Next update on 4th september

[@jacksarkisian]

lets go bro, i believe in you 🙏

[@chengalvalavenkata2401]

if the middlegame and endgame play is strong enough, opening theory isn't critical (unless we're in a sharp, tactical opening) for

[@jacksarkisian]

100% agree, especially if you play a Systematic Opening, the theory is very unimportant. however sometimes it can be difficult to play against gambits you've not seen before (the Stafford Gambit in particular is brutal if you don't know what you're doing. otherwise you're completely right

[@gurhanweyrah3930]

I am 1200 after 9 months

[@jacksarkisian]

congrats bro, thats super promising progress. how much time do you spend playing per day?

[@Joel-vw9mo]

Rematch farming is quite nice though

[@redwanurrahaman8644]

😂right..when opponent is tilted

[@macdonaldnnadi]

It also doesn’t improve ur skill, just elo.

[@hish33p32]

13:23 - 13:35 Ahh so it's like resorting to steroids when you want a really good physique, even though you actually haven't put in everything in your power to achieve it. Nice analogy there, it really is just subconsciously giving up, but in the case of chess, the money literally is wasted since there wasn't any cheating done.

[@jacksarkisian]

pretty good analogy, the best bodybuilders all use steroids, but they put in the hard work beforehand. i think its most common for people who don't have a lot of time they can dedicate to chess. they throw money at the issue and hope it will make up for the time they weren't able to spend actually training. chess courses can obviously be beneficial in various cases, but not if you haven't laid the groundwork already.

[@ii_Oranjey]

And Tyler1 has gotten to 1900 in just a year.. incredible

[@jacksarkisian]

with The Cow 💀💀💀

[@ii_Oranjey]

@@jacksarkisian FR :joy:

[@isaacolajide7852]

Tania by far my favorite commentator, she makes the games so much more exciting.

[@jacksarkisian]

Tania is fantastic, sadly I see a lot of people with different opinions, thinking only male commentators are knowledgeable enough to commentate on big events. she's definitely one of the best in my opinion though - makes a great team with David Howell, Simon Williams and James Canty as well 🔥

[@viharikrishnan5588]

@@jacksarkisiannobody said that

[@jacksarkisian]

@@viharikrishnan5588 people constantly say it the chat of Chess.com broadcasts, its very quickly deleted by their Moderators though, i also see it quite a lot of comments on Chess.com's official TikTok, which is mostly unmoderated.

[@viharikrishnan5588]

@@jacksarkisian Ohh first of all that's not okay but maybe what they meant by that kind of comment is for men matches they want male commentators i think that's why but that doesn't make it right. In any other sports i probably fully agree with them but in chess i think she commentating is not a bad thing because it's not physical or aggressive sport

[@jacksarkisian]

@@viharikrishnan5588 yeah i agree with this. in most sports, women and men cannot legally compete with one another due to safety risks. but Chess is a grey area because while in some cases they do compete with one another, most invitational events only include male masters. personally i think women are more than capable to commentate on such events (Judit Polgar for example was only worse than 6 other men at her peak).

[@KAI-ph1gk]

And he sacrificed his secrets.

[@jacksarkisian]

just passing on the knowledge of a generation 🤝

[@KAI-ph1gk]

@@jacksarkisian W content mate👏🏻

[@neutrohnn669]

Step 1: C4 Step 2: E6

[@boxing2464]

So basically if i understand corect its opening,tacticts,end game just people who have high rating work harder than others with lower rating on these things?

[@jacksarkisian]

not necessarily working harder, but also working smarter. if my advice to your for building a house was to "work harder" it wouldn't be too helpful. everyone knows you need to improve on your game, but its a matter of how you improve, what tools you use and what you should prioritise 🔥

[@rgm_15]

You should play a match against Hannah Sayce

[@jacksarkisian]

i've played Hannah Sayce on stream before! she's currently up 5-1 😠😠

[@sleepyjoe9386]

1780 was my best result. Can’t improve it anymore. Currently 1650-1750. Depends how much I drink. 2 months with no progress. Anyone above 1800 looks extremely strong for me.

[@jacksarkisian]

the main point I got stuck at (before 2000 Elo) was the 1700 Elo mark, i spent a few months there trying to break it. went all the way back to 1500 at one point, its a super volatile area. how much time do you spend playing Chess per day? sometimes you compare progress to other people when its not suitable, for example if someone else can play for 6 hours per day, they can train way more than you and in turn will become better than you quicker - sometimes progress is not always so linear.

[@sleepyjoe9386]

@@jacksarkisian I play quite a lot. Like 5-10 rapid games per day in average. Sometimes much more when I try to get my rating back :) Useless games. Plus some useless 3 min games. Just an addiction. But when I compare my profile to someone who is above me, they solve a lot of puzzles. May be this is what I should improve. Just to play is not enough for me looks like.

[@jacksarkisian]

@@sleepyjoe9386 playing useless 3 minute games is much better than playing useless 10 minute games. at least with 3 minute and 1 minute you're not damaging the Elo you care about progressing in. puzzles are definitely very important, it can also be very fun to try and continue beating your peak puzzle rating on Chess.com, should definitely give that a go and see if it helps your Rapid Elo at all 🔥

[@sleepyjoe9386]

@@jacksarkisian I will try wth puzzles. Let's see. I will get to 2000 sooner or later. Just a matter of time :) thank you for your channel btw. I watched some other videos too, Great stuff! I have lichess to damage my Elo :) Also you are right about volatility. I see so many opponents who have highest rating around 1800-1900 and they are currently at 1700. Literally every second opponent.

[@prospect8245]

I see you reply to a fair amount of comments which is super appreciated, so I thought I'd try asking you a question for personal research I'm doing. Have you noticed any noticeable positive impact on your overall cognitive abilities/"intelligence" from playing so much chess compared to before playing, and if yes in what way?

[@jacksarkisian]

hey! i wouldn't say i'm less or more intelligent than i was before i started playing Chess, but it definitely has hindered my expertise in other areas of life. that's simply because i've dedicated more time to Chess, and less time to other things though. however, i would say my pattern recognition and ability to learn in general has excelled massively since i started playing. i think the most notable thing would be my general confidence in undertaking certain tasks after playing so much Chess. lots of people (especially Grandmasters) will say "you can't do this" "you can't play like that" "that won't get you far", and then i just went ahead and did it myself anyway. undertaking other daunting things has become a lot easier knowing that i was able to do something in Chess that people who've dedicated their entire lives to said i couldn't.

[@prospect8245]

@@jacksarkisian thank you for taking the time to write such an in depth comment, I really appreciate it! That definitely motivated me to play more!

[@Pitsenberg]

Hate both london & scotch.... Oh wait. It gets better, hate caro too Having said that, nice vid! You got a new sub :)

[@jacksarkisian]

thankyou bro, maybe don't watch my newest upload then hahahahah

[@bartoszmaks1427]

Norma na GM pewna.

[@Lol_lets__play_chess]

Hey m from nepal its been like 1 year and 8 months of me playing chess i reached 1800 6months ago but m stuck at this level for long time my ailm is to reach 2k but i cant

[@jacksarkisian]

i could probably help if i knew a bit more about it: - how much time per day do you spend playing chess? - what opening/s do you play? - do you enjoy playing chess as much as when you started? - are you able to review your games extensively? - are you the best chess player you know irl? do you have friends better than you? its hard to pinpoint why someone is stuck at a certain point without knowing them personally, but if you don't think the things i've mentioned in this video apply to you it might be one of the things above.

[@saubhagya963]

Samay raina!!!!!

[@thetransferaccount4586]

puzzles require payment, lichess puzzles kinda suck.. solitaire chess is a good advice

[@jacksarkisian]

Lichess puzzles are fantastic - they take tough positions from real games on their database and set them as puzzles for you to solve, not so much different than Solitaire Chess 🔥

[@mastermind1863]

Best commentary combo: BM Samay Raina & IM Sagar Shah

[@jacksarkisian]

BM always gets me 🤣🤣

[@Joel-vw9mo]

Oh you actually did it?

[@physics2112]

Like or Dislike: Like. But a major reason I stopped losing has been only playing after nights when I got eight hours of sleep. It also helps when I exercise and haven't been sitting at home all day like a bum. I also try not to play when I'm burdened with work and other external pressures.

[@reem_katash8394]

Are you israeli or jewish? 😃

[@physics2112]

@@reem_katash8394 Of course, my blog is about chess in Israel

[@jacksarkisian]

yep this is something i should've mentioned in hindsight. i had multiple days where i was absolutely slumped one way or another mentally and decided to play some chess anyway - absolutely tanking my rating. i usually say "play every game like its a world championship match". only play chess when you really have the time - not when you're squeezing it into your busy schedule.

[@removed629]

I got 2000 in a year stopped for 2 just came back and I’m around 1850 rn

[@jacksarkisian]

yep, that's a pretty rough trait of Chess - super tricky to get back into once you've taken a break. I got 4 wisdom teeth removed when I hit 1700 Elo, had to take a 2 month break and when I came back I dropped all the way to 1500 before I climbed back. not much you can do about it sadly, but one of the main reasons I recommend people play consistently and not take too many breaks 🤝

[@removed629]

@@jacksarkisian I’ve been back for a week so far 💀💀 this also a new acc

[@Victor-dt3kf]

How many hours do u play per day?

[@jacksarkisian]

recently I've only been able to spend 1-2 hours per day playing Chess, if that. but in my first year of playing i'd spend around 4+ hours per day, and in the second year at least 2 hours per day.

[@worldslayer100]

Is the cheater problem really that bad past the 10 minute rapid ? I mostly preferred 30 min games but now considering 10

[@jacksarkisian]

its pretty bad. i think the problem is theres too much time to allow people to pull up an analysis board & cheat. in a 10 minute game, if you tried to do it you'd run out of time. but in a 30 minute game, if you realise the game is losing for you, players (especially beginners) don't want to throw away the 30 minutes they've already been playing for, and just start cheating. this spirals all the way up into the higher Elo levels, so pretty much anyone of any rating has to deal with it.

[@ronin_7777]

I am 1600 elo after 1 year can i be 2200 after another year?

[@rgqwerty63]

How old are you now or when you first started?

[@jacksarkisian]

I was 20 when I first started playing Chess & I'm turning 22 next month 🤝

[@Account-ms3zg]

You didnt recommend Hikaru? Why? Also why is sagar shah surprising?

[@jacksarkisian]

Sagar Shah is massively underrated by people that don't keep up with ChessBase India. most Chess.com viewers don't even know who he is. goated commentator 🐐

[@DanacChess]

Hikaru is okay, I mainly watch his Bullet Brawl videos as it helps me focus. My peak is 2102 and my score is much better when I have recently watched Bullet Brawl compared to otherwise