Improve · 2026-10-20 · 6 min read

From 1500 to 2500 on Chess Castles: the plan, the numbers, the tools

Our practice account went from 1500 to 2520 in 37 sessions by following the roadmap. Here is the plan it followed, the numbers it produced, and the Chess Castles courses and tools it used, point by point.

Aarav is Chess Castles’ practice account: a player we built to test one question. Start at 1500, follow the roadmap exactly, session after session: what happens? Its moves come from a chess engine set to a beginner’s level and turned up one notch after every session of study, so it improves the way a person does, after the work. Every number below is from its record. A person needs two or three years for this; the account needed 37 sessions. Copy the order, not the speed.

The result in one picture

• Start 1500. Low point 1353 after three sessions. 1619 at session ten. 2017 at session 22. 2520 at session 37.
• 173 rapid games (15+10, never faster): 132 wins, 21 draws, 20 losses. Not one loss after session 18.
• Every one of the 20 losses was decided by a single move, named by the review as the turning point.

The five rules that worked

• Play slow and review every game. Game Report marks the turning point: “19.Qf3 by You, 25% of the winning chances gone in one move.” Say in words why that move was bad. That is the lesson.
• Learn a line before you play it. The first 9 games from a line seen the same session: 1 win, 8 losses. The next 90, after the course page, a model game and the trainer: 71 wins, 14 draws, 5 losses.
• Fix the low number on your profile. How you play showed sharp moments 57 (tactics) as the weak spot; puzzles and reviews took it to 98 while the rating was still 1619. The numbers move first, then the rating.
• Play one game a session a level up. 37 games against opponents 100 points above: 28 wins, 5 draws.
• Add openings one at a time, then many: 3 courses first, then 23 games with 22 different openings from the trainer (19 wins).

What Aarav used on Chess Castles

• Play at FIDE level: rapid 15+10 against opponents from 1400 to 2800, one hundred points apart. Aarav played its own level and one level up, every session.
• Game Report: accuracy, the move badges and the turning point after every game. Used 173 times.
• Opening courses: the Caro-Kann Defence (as Black), the Jobava London (as White) and the Chebanenko Slav (as Black), in turn. Each course: the lines and plans page, model games from strong players, a trainer built from real games, puzzles from the line, and “Play it” to start a game from the line’s position.
• Opening trainer: 28 openings built from the 5.4 million games, from the Italian to the Najdorf, the Catalan and the Grünfeld. One a session, two moves in the trainer, then a game from move one.
• Rated puzzles and themes: the rating road map from Pawn to King; four of four solved, puzzle rating 1508 → 1606.
• Chess Guru: the lessons (opening principles, piece values, passed pawns, checkmate with king and queen) and the Guru review of a game, which tells the turning point as a story.
• 5.4 million game database: Aarav’s own game checked against it after each session. Its position was reached by 15,28,575 games at move one, by 1,908 at move five, by none at move six.
• Endgames with the masters: Gukesh’s rook endgame against Panelo (Gijon 2022), move by move, “what did Gukesh play?”.
• Blindfold Gym: a blindfold puzzle typed as notation each time it came round; the first solved was h4#.
• Watch: a live grandmaster game with the engine on, the evaluation changing with every move.
• Library: Capablanca’s Chess Fundamentals, a chapter at a time.

One session, step by step

• Game 1: rapid 15+10 at your own level. Game 2: one level up.
• Review both in Game Report. Find the turning point.
• The opening course of the day: course page, one model game, the trainer. Only then the line.
• One more thing from Learn: puzzles, a Guru lesson or review, an endgame, the database, a master’s endgame, a blindfold puzzle, a live game, a book chapter.
• Games 3 and 4 from the course’s line. Game 5 with a new opening from the trainer.
• Profile: read the numbers. The low one is tomorrow’s work.

Key moments

• Session 1: a win at 94% accuracy, then three losses from a line first seen that evening (checkmated in 30, 31 and 31 moves).
• Session 4: the same course in the right order; five wins out of five, 1353 → 1454.
• Session 10: sharp moments 98; rating 1619.
• Session 14: the first catalogue opening (the Najdorf), a win; from here, a new opening every session.
• Session 26: the longest game, 269 plies against the 2200, a draw by the fifty-move rule.
• Session 35: a win against the 2600.
• Session 37: a win against the 2500 as White, a win against the 2600 as Black, and 2520.

Start your own road

• The plan above is the roadmap, stage by stage, with each step linked to the page that does it.
• Aarav’s record, one post per hundred points, is at Aarav’s journey; the full case study is at the whole road.
• FIDE ratings and titles come only from rated tournaments; CC Rating measures your games here against FIDE-rated opponents. The road to the real thing starts the same way.