Chess Begginer, Knows rules, seeking advice.

I have been to the articles section and found a few useful things, but I am not terrible great at chess, so I was wondering if a few people cold perhaps give me some tips, or openings that I could use??

 Thanks very much.

Here Ya Go:

Opening:

Develp as fast as you can

Develop towards the center

Develop with threats (make sure it doesn't help your oponent though)

Don't move the same piece twice without a reason

Don't push too many flank pawns

Castle

Middlegame:

Come up with a plan to exploit your opponent's weaknesses and activate your pieces

Knights rule in closed positions

Bishops rule in open positions

A knight and a bishop are superior to a rook in the middlegame

Pay attention to your opponent's plan

Think before you move

Endgame:

Study, Study, Study.

That's all I can think of. Try to learn about pawn structures, middlegame plans, piece play, and just play good players.

 

 

 

Play as much as you can and study a good beginner's book. When you finish with that book, go on to a slightly more advanced one. Books and play, play and books; that's the way to progress. Books are superior to what you can find on the Internet. Only books can provide the depth, the scope, the sheer length and wealth of detail for developing real chess understanding. Others may disagree and may provide you with training links online; I may be prejudiced because when I learned to play, the Internet had not been invented yet, nor even the home desktop computer. But I swear by the book.

I think the Chess Kids lessons are a great place to begin. But yeah, once you progress beyond that, a good book is the best way to improve. Popular choices are the Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess and GM Seirawan's Winning Chess series.

Yes, books are a great way to learn to play superior chess.  There's a Winning Chess series by Yasswer Seirawan that's excellent.  You might start with Play Winning Chess.  Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev is also excellent.

There are many good websites which can help as well.  To give you just one, check out www.chessville.com.

And tactics -- practice tactics everyday!  Good luck!

I use the Winning Chess series myself. Very easy to read for beginners.

Here is advice that is GOLD. You can, as I have, gone from novice to Grandmaster with the click of a button. INSTANT 2800 GM status. GO BUY A CHESS PROGRAM. Now you can use Chessmaster or Fritz two ways. The first is to use them by watching and learning from their tutorials (Chessmaster has the best chess tutorials on the planet). The second way, the way I prefer, is to CHEAT at online chess games. You will be powerful, unstoppable, and a force to be reckoned with when you let Fritz tell you the correct move to make and then enter that move. You will mate legitimately tough players in 25 moves with Fritz or CM at your back. And, after cheating a few dozen games, and paying attention to these games, you will become a much better player. You will begin to see the pattern of moves Chessmaster makes in the openings that will drastically improve your game. GO BUY A CHESS PROGRAM NOW.

"You can, as I have, gone from novice to Grandmaster with the click of a button. INSTANT 2800 GM status. GO BUY A CHESS PROGRAM."

 

cheater_1 scored Instant troll / loser status. If Chess_Dragon checks chessbase.com, he'll find pictures of and articles about Anand, but absolutely nada about cheater_1.

It's true though, go buy the newest Chessmaster and do all the Josh Waitzkin tutorials. After you absorb that basic knowledge then things like tactics sets and game collections will help you.

Lol, Cheater 1 is just a troll. Not only is it extremely easy to find computer moves, but sometimes computers are not that great. They take time to analyse the position.

Wow! Thanks so much guys. It has been a while since I logged on last, I have been busy and I  have been practicing lol.

I have a friend who I play often, he is an ok player (He is not great but better than me) And usually I lose but I have been reading articles online (And I will buy a book soon, now you mention it.) I kept on practicing and in the last 2 games we played, the first was a draw - I just had my King and he had his and 1 Pawn which I captured for stalemate. The second, I won.

Mabey If I play another few games with them, and record the moves, some of you and mabey some others could take a look.

Play some games here.  That would make what you are suggesting a lot easier.

Erik,  why is my post to help members improve their games are taken off as soon as I posted them?  I posted a comment on  "gameshowcase"  to explain why we should not follow general opening principle too rigidly and it was deleted almost immediately.  I am only trying to help members to improve, not to grandiolise myself!  If this is going to continue, then  chess.com is the loser for I will not contribute anything more henceforth.

cheater_1, Using a chess engine to cheat online makes you a great chess player. Just like watching alot of ninja movies makes you a kung fu master. Have you beaten anyone OTB, ever?

 

Chess_Dragon, The tips you've got here are great. Chessmaster got some very good tutorials. If you're really interested then you should look into getting some books too. I can't really think of any book that would be good for begginers but when you're familiar with the game and tactics "My system" by Nimzowitsch is a great book that every chess player should read.Another tip would be to study endgames alot if you're serious about getting good at chess. Study alot of openings might help you raise your skill fast but it's pretty short sighted since most opening study is just memorization of known lines. Once you got the basic opening principles down you shouldn't spend too much time on studying openings. At least that's what I think.

Play a lot of games , you should be losing 99% of these , if you are not then you are playing against too weak opposition . I would suggest playing online either here or a popular chess server like FICS . Probably for beginner it's better to play long games of 3 days a move or more so you have plenty of time to analyse the position . The good thing about playing online is that you will get a rating and so you will always know where you stand .

Ok thanks.

 Two questions:

• How many moves do most of you plan ahead?
• And do you always plan ahead for every single move in the game?

Also, I am unsure If I cannot spot good moves ahead because I am a begginer, or because I didn't start chess at a young enough age? (It may sound stupid but some people said to me that if you don't start chess early on then you can't get good)

> How many moves do most of you plan ahead?

 

It varies. Sometimes 0 moves, for example when I have only one way to escape a check or recapture. Sometimes 10+ moves, when I'm deciding whether to enter a pawn endgame.

 

> And do you always plan ahead for every single move in the game?

 

No, but I plan ahead most of the time.

 

> I am unsure If I cannot spot good moves ahead because I am a begginer, or because I didn't start chess at a young enough age?

  

Can you visualize your move and your opponent's reply? If so, you can surely rise to at least the 1500 level. It's believed that among humans, pattern recognition is more important factor than how many moves you can see ahead:

 

So how do we explain the considerable ability of chess masters?  Their memory is excellent, but only for meaningful chess positions.  They have the ability to do long calculations in their head (especially in the end game), but they usually don’t do this much more than ordinary players.  The view of many psychologists (e.g. Chase & Simon) is that the greatest difference in chess skill between masters and amateurs is in the realm of pattern recognition.  Just as anyone with a driver’s license can glance at a stop sign and effortlessly realize what it means, highly skilled chess players only need to take a brief look at a chess position to assess it accurately.  They can instantly see positional themes like pawn chains, weak squares, and open lines, as well as tactical possibilities like Knight forks.  Patterns of pieces such as weakened King positions and Rook batteries are recognized and evaluated as the player decides what the best move is.

   -- Psychology of Chess Skill

Ok. Thanks very much, I am able to visualise my moves and my oppenent responce. I was just a little worried, usually i lonly plan about 4 moves ahead lol.

likesforests wrote:

> How many moves do most of you plan ahead?

 

It varies. Sometimes 0 moves, for example when I have only one way to escape a check or recapture. Sometimes 10+ moves, when I'm deciding whether to enter a pawn endgame.

 

I agree.  And sometimes the position is just calling for a move and who am I to question the position(there is a difference between me calling for a move and the position calling for a move.  Don't force things.) .  In addition, it isn't always how many moves ahead you are thinking.  But, trying to reach a position.  Humans minds think backwards. So most of the time I am thinking- this is what I want.  Can I get there? 

 

> And do you always plan ahead for every single move in the game?

 

No, but I plan ahead most of the time.

 

See above notes

 

> I am unsure If I cannot spot good moves ahead because I am a begginer, or because I didn't start chess at a young enough age?

  

Can you visualize your move and your opponent's reply? If so, you can surely rise to at least the 1500 level. It's believed that among humans, pattern recognition is more important factor than how many moves you can see ahead:

 

Agreed, it is pattern recognition(as is almost anything a human does) and focus.  You WILL start seeing things more clearly as you play more and study more.  It is just at this time you probably don't know what the most relevant information on the board is. 

 

So how do we explain the considerable ability of chess masters?  Their memory is excellent, but only for meaningful chess positions.  They have the ability to do long calculations in their head (especially in the end game), but they usually don’t do this much more than ordinary players.  The view of many psychologists (e.g. Chase & Simon) is that the greatest difference in chess skill between masters and amateurs is in the realm of pattern recognition.  Just as anyone with a driver’s license can glance at a stop sign and effortlessly realize what it means, highly skilled chess players only need to take a brief look at a chess position to assess it accurately.  They can instantly see positional themes like pawn chains, weak squares, and open lines, as well as tactical possibilities like Knight forks.  Patterns of pieces such as weakened King positions and Rook batteries are recognized and evaluated as the player decides what the best move is.

   -- Psychology of Chess Skill

 

Just as in above notes.  All things human are about pattern recognition.  This is the way our brain works.  Synapses or connections.  Every time I learn something I either correlate it to chess, weightlifting or billiards(because I have the most connections to these  things) and it helps to solidify my reasoning.  And I whole heartedly agree that gm's are not analzying a billion different variations OTB in most cases.  There are just certain things which indicate which side is better.  As stated before.  You don't know what makes one side better.  As you gain more knowledge you will be able to recognize these key components

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