Finally passed 500 elo
A while ago I was afraid of facing opponents with an elo around 400, I was oscillating between 300 and 400, but I studied a bit, and although I am not good at finding solutions I think I got good at opening well enough so that my pieces have good standard positioning.
Currently on 523 elo I am afraid of playing and falling down (can't fall down without playing LOL), but I know it is natural. The chess league helps because I need to play a lot to get those trophies and advance the league, even at the risk of losing a few matches and lowering my elo.
Luckily I reached the 500's with a 5 win streak, which was great for my confidence.
My friends who are good at chess tell me to just keep playing, and I will, because according to them within weeks or months of practice I start to understand the patterns and it makes more sense.
It is also curious that I reached the elo 500 and it was exactly 500!! Now I am a bit over that and I hope I keep learning and improving. My friend who introduced me to chess was around elo 600, and I am sure he is underrated because he doesn't play often, and then I have some 800's friends to match and even some 1000+ but those are a challenge for the future. One step at a time. I'll keep playing with them though, will be nice to ine day win, would be unexpected for all of us!
Keep on going! And join our tournament on Hive (starting on the 18th).
I recommend that you not only play, but after each game you check what were you errors and try to avoid at least one in your next game. I know, boring, but with this you will for sure improve fast!
If I can watch the tournament I'd love to, I don't think I am good enough to compete, but I can definitely learn by analyzing other people's games
congrats on 500 elo
dont forget to solve a lot of puzzles - it is good for checkmate pattern recognition
I think the puzzles have definitely helped a little bit, I used to just give my pieces away left and right, I still do but much less often than before