I was around 1600 bouncing up and down on chess.com (which I think has somewhat inflated ratings?) and I felt like refusing to study openings was holding me back a lot. That's the upper end of mediocre I think?
Like at the absolute beginner level to maybe sub 100 games played I agree I guess. Good tactics will destroy people, I feel like when studying end games though you learn good tactics because you often have to capture a couple of pieces on the way.
Once you start playing against people into chess though everyone has done the same tactic puzzles and it's no longer enough to bounce back from a shitty board position.
But as noted I was never amazing so I'm probably talking out my arse :)
Eh I don't know what my actual rating is on chess.com I only have the courage to play when I'm drunk really, I don't like losing lol. But I think my tactics rating is like 2000-2100( I'm aware this is meaningless) so when I play someone in the 1400 range I don't give up no matter how hard I blunder and usually win. But that's anecdotal.
My take is it's mostly tactics. I'm not very good at chess but I'm better than most and it's mostly tactics.
I was around 1600 bouncing up and down on chess.com (which I think has somewhat inflated ratings?) and I felt like refusing to study openings was holding me back a lot. That's the upper end of mediocre I think?
Like at the absolute beginner level to maybe sub 100 games played I agree I guess. Good tactics will destroy people, I feel like when studying end games though you learn good tactics because you often have to capture a couple of pieces on the way.
Once you start playing against people into chess though everyone has done the same tactic puzzles and it's no longer enough to bounce back from a shitty board position.
But as noted I was never amazing so I'm probably talking out my arse :)
Eh I don't know what my actual rating is on chess.com I only have the courage to play when I'm drunk really, I don't like losing lol. But I think my tactics rating is like 2000-2100( I'm aware this is meaningless) so when I play someone in the 1400 range I don't give up no matter how hard I blunder and usually win. But that's anecdotal.