How to Improve Chess If You Only Have One Hour a Day | The 4 Principles

“I have about one hour a day. How should I train and improve my chess?”

This is one of the most common questions I get from adult improvers.

And today I am going to tell you how to use that one hour to become a Grandmaster.

Haha. Joking 😄 

No fairy tales.
No magic shortcuts.
This is not a Grandmaster hack.

This is a guide on how to use that one hour wisely.
How to squeeze the maximum value out of the limited time you can invest in your chess.

So that every minute starts to count.
And your progress does not crawl.
It moves.

Principle 1: Keep the Universal Chess Improvement Formula

There are thousands of opinions on how to improve your chess.
But everything comes back to one simple formula.
And no one can argue with it.

Study -> Practice -> Fix -> (Repeat)

You learn something first.
You practice it; otherwise you’ll forget it.
You fix the mistakes you make.
Then you learn new things, and the cycle continues.

I talked about this in detail in the “How to get better at chess” article.
Nothing has changed since then.
This formula is still the king.

In the long run, you cannot skip any part of it.
But you do not need to pack everything into a single hour.

You can do 15 minutes of study, 30 minutes of play, 15 minutes of fixing.
Or you can study one day, play the next day, analyze the third day.

Experiment.
Find your rhythm.
Just keep all parts of the formula alive.

Principle 2: Skip Useful. Choose the Most Effective

If someone has 8 hours a day for chess, they can waste 3 of them and still make progress.
They have the luxury of being inefficient.

But when you have very limited time, you do not have that luxury.
Every minute needs to work for you.
Your training must be super effective. 

You cannot read 5 books on endgames and then discover that the 5th one was all you ever needed.

You cannot spend hours building a new opening from scratch.
Checking moves with an engine. Searching for games.
When someone already did all of that work for you and packed it into one clear course with explanations and model games.

You can’t manually analyze your games to find your mistakes, when there are tools like FixMood… 

Your training should be 90 to 100 percent effective.
Nothing less.

So keep one thing in mind.
Whenever you see something that looks “useful,” skip it.
Useful is not enough for you.

You do not have time for useful things.
You only have time for the most effective things.

Principle 3: Find Your Why

Why do you want to improve?
Really. Why?

I hear people say
“I want to reach this rating”
or
“I want to beat this friend”
or
“I love the challenge.”

Good.
Now go one layer deeper.
Why do you want that rating?
Why do you want that challenge?

Go deeper and deeper.
Until you hit the truth.

Because what you find will do one of two things.
You will either relax, breathe, and enjoy the journey without pressure.
Or your brain will become creative and start hunting for principle 4.

Principle 4: Make Time Appear From Nowhere

A confession from childhood.

When I was twelve, I got my first computer.
Pentium 2. Glorious machine.

I had some chess programs there.
And I had the racing game “Need for Speed.”

Guess which one I wanted more.

Source: https://pikabu.ru

But I had no time for my yellow Porsche.
So I did what many desperate kids do.
I cheated.

I set my alarm to six in the morning.
Told my parents I wanted to study chess before school.
They were so proud.
They thought their son was a mini Kasparov.

I would set the chessboard.
Open some books.
Make the room look very serious.

Then I would play NFS until I heard footsteps.
Close the game.
Jump to the chair.
And pretend to solve a puzzle.

Worked perfectly.
Until it didn’t.

My dad caught me.
Took me out of chess school.
And I fell behind for one whole year.
But that is a story for another day.

The point is simple.
If you really want something, your brain becomes a magician.
It finds time where no time exists.

If you want to improve so badly…
Or if you simply love this game with your whole heart…

You will create time in places you once believed were impossible.
You will steal minutes from sofa riding, Instagram scrolling, and Netflix wandering.
You will start waking up earlier without even complaining.

Your WANT will win over your CAN’T.

A Little Proof and Inspiration

“Is it really possible to improve with only one hour a day?”

It depends.

On your level.
Your thinking speed.
Your talent.
And a few other factors.

But here is the important part.

Many real people have done it.

So here is a small dose of inspiration.

What follows are real success stories from ChessMood students.
People with full time jobs.
Families.
Busy lives.
Limited time.

And still…
Raising hundreds of rating points.
Becoming chess masters.

Becoming a Fide Master with just 1 hour of daily training | Sando Safar’s story 

How a math professor broke the plateau and crossed 2000 rating

The doctor who only used ChessMood to raise 400 points in 1 year 

Raising 300 points in 6 months, despite having a full-time job 

How Debasish raised 400 points in a year while working a full-time job! 

Karthik raised over 450 points in less than a year, even with an active job

500 points in 7 months: The inspiring journey of Jules Carter 

You can find more such inspiring stories on our success stories page and under course reviews. 

And maybe YOU will become our next hero?

Good luck. I’m rooting for you!

With best wishes and love,
For your growth and fun journey,
GM Avetik (or Avo, as my friends call me)♥️ 
 

P. S. If you still have questions, please share them on our forum.
And when you see how the 4 principles start working their magic, share that too 😊  

P. P. S. I’m just a FedEx guy, delivering lessons from my teachers to you.
If this message spoke to you and you know someone who might love or need this… share the package. That’s how knowledge travels, one package at a time.

Thank you for reading, for growing, and for helping someone else along the way. 🙏

Originally published Dec 22, 2025

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