What’s on the How to Improve poster
A 5-row table: Rating · Spend most time on.
Rough allocation of study time by strength.
- Under 1000 — Not hanging pieces; basic checkmates
- 1000–1400 — Tactics puzzles; simple endgames
- 1400–1800 — Tactics; positional basics; game review
- 1800–2000 — Endgames; planning; a real repertoire
- 2000+ — Deep preparation; specific weaknesses
Opening study is the most popular and least effective use of time below 1800. Games are decided by tactics, not by move twelve.
Questions about the How to Improve poster
- What’s on the How to Improve poster?
- A 5-row table: Rating · Spend most time on. Rough allocation of study time by strength. Under 1000 — Not hanging pieces; basic checkmates; 1000–1400 — Tactics puzzles; simple endgames; 1400–1800 — Tactics; positional basics; game review; 1800–2000 — Endgames; planning; a real repertoire; 2000+ — Deep preparation; specific weaknesses. Opening study is the most popular and least effective use of time below 1800. Games are decided by tactics, not by move twelve.
- Who is the How to Improve poster for?
- How to Improve belongs to the Chess section rather than to a school year, because games is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning improvement can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the How to Improve poster?
- Below 1500, almost all improvement comes from tactics and from not blundering. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so How to Improve belongs on the wall where that games work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with How to Improve?
- Analysing Your Games, The Blunder Check and What to Study First sit alongside How to Improve in the Chess section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Analysing Your GamesThe Blunder CheckWhat to Study First
- Is the How to Improve poster free to download and print?
- Yes. How to Improve downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Chess section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the How to Improve poster print at?
- How to Improve is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of How to Improve loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside How to Improve on the same wall.
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