1000 ELO rapid after 1 year
After almost a year, I finally managed to reach 1000 ELO as a 29 year old man.
I learned to play chess as a kid, but I always played with classmates and never knew much beyond how to move the pieces and that controlling the centre is important. I then stopped playing once I graduated from high school, but last year I started again after some college classmates challenged me for fun and I began to get into it, watching a lot of YouTube content, mostly GothamChess not unlike most of us here.
I learned to play the London System because I first started watching Chess YouTube content with IWantCheckMate and that's all he really plays as white. I found this opening quite comfortable and quickly understood that it allowed me to take my opponents to scenarios I was more experienced in. Of course, now I know those are called lines and that it's part of the idea behind learning an opening. The London became my main weapon, and even though it lost some effectiveness as I went up the ladder, it is still my first choice. I also learned the Italian, and in Lichess I found much success with it (I got a higher win rate with it), but the traps and having to face the Sicilian made me wary of using it.
On my opening of choice for black, at first I tried the Caro-Kann and the King's Indian, but I wasn't knowledgeable enough to use them well. In September or October of last year I decided to go with the Scandinavian instead, and this opening carried me through to 1000 ELO. In the last 90 days, I have a win rate of 71% playing with black, almost exclusively with the Scandinavian. Of course, given that the Scandinavian doesn't work on D4, I added the Dutch as my latest resource, with the Leningrad as my favourite variant.
I've read a lot of people telling beginners not to learn openings, but I must disagree. I think learning openings is very important to have a strong start. You don't need to memorize every line, but to try to understand why you put each piece where in the opening, and why your opponent does the same. It helps a lot with building confidence as well. I've also seen people disregard some openings for beginners such as the Dutch because they can be risky for beginners, but I think letting beginners make those mistakes and then learn how to use those openings properly is for the better.
I'll try to see how far I can go just by consuming YouTube videos, and once I get stuck I'm surely going to start reading theory instead of whatever I'm doing now. If you have any advice, feel free to comment!