Weakness

I have only been playing seriously about two weeks. I am realizing that openings are my weakness. Any suggestions on where I can get some advice,pointers, any help would be appreciated. I feel totally lost until about the 3rd or 4th move, no matter what plan of attack I start with.

Hi Chessdad, welcome to Chess.com. The reason you're losing games has nothing to do with openings. You lose because you and your opponents hang pieces and pawns. I know it's not a sexy area of study, but learning to hold onto your pieces and to take your opponent's hanging pieces will take you to 1200 or so. And no amount of strategic or opening knowledge will take you past there if you continue to hang pieces or ignore your opponent's hanging pieces.

I annotated one of your games so you can get an idea of what I mean:

The truth is, we were all at your stage, or thereabouts at some point in our life.

A. The simplest way to improve are to do these two tricks:

1. After your opponent makes a move, ask if any pieces are hanging. Focus on your opponent's piece--where it came from, and where it moved to.
2. Just before you make a move, ask if the move will leave any of your pieces hanging. Look where the piece's coming from and going to.

B. Another thing you may want to work on are tactical exercises. Not hanging pieces may get you to 1200, but you will need special tricks like "forks", "skewers", "discoveries", and "mates" to make 1400. These also happen to be fun.

A couple great books are Winning Chess Tactics by Yasser Seirawan and Back to Basics: Tactics by Dan Heisman. You want a book that contains puzzles, but you also want a book that first explains all the funny-sounding tactics.

C. Finally, there's a "Novice Nook" column on Chesscafe that's published monthly. It's free, entertaining, and informative. At least I think so. If you like them, get in the habit of reading them, and you will slowly acquire more advanced chess wisdom.  

Good luck!  :) 

Oh, and in the opening the rules are (1) get your bishops and knights off the back rank, (2) castle, and (3) only then begin your attack. That should help you with your first seven or eight moves and put you ahead of silly opponents who try to memorize moves or attack too soon. But even in the opening, stay alert for hanging pieces and pawns!

You can always rely on likesforests for decent advice on anything in chess, especially endgames!

If you want repeated advice I've already recieved, ask me.(My first thread was asking for help)

chessdadx2,   likesforests advice is sound!   In addition,  watchout for your opponent's move!  Is he threatening anything?  Why did he make that move?  Usually we are so engrossed in what We are going to Do, we forget to attend to our opponent's THREAT!  This  is always  Fatal!   Remember that chess is a 2 player-game .....not One!