I Suck At Chess.

This thread will hopefully help me learn to not suck at chess. I'm a smart guy. I think through my moves as best as I can. I play pratice games online and against computers. I watch videos and read tutorials. But I feel like I'm at a point right now where I make what I think are ideal moves and still lose games and can't tell what I'm doing wrong. I'm looking for a couple patient souls to play live chess games with where there are no time limits and where we discuss and explain every move in detail so I know what's going on in any given board state. 

Anybody feel like they're up to the challenge? Am I even in the right subforum?

Thanks for the advice, but I'm really only looking for playing partners right now.

I'll play you.. I need the help too!  Just start a turn based game with me.

Play 1000 turn base games, 1000 bullet games, 1000 blitz games and 1000 standard games.

You should play Online chess or Turn Based chess as many call it here. You have several days per move and can analyze and think about each move in great detail. There is a chat window next to the board that you can leave messages to your opponent and if they are willing, discuss the game. It is an awesome feature here. Forget playing against computer players, you need to play humans.

For study material, go to chesstempo.com, its has a free tactics puzzle program there and you can practice your tactical ability and strengthen it. I think they have thousands of different puzzles, you won't run out anytime soon. I also strongly recommend getting The Complete End Game Course by National Master (NM) Jeremy Silman. I think it is less than $20 on Amazon. It will teach you basic end games all the way to master level end games. The way he teaches is exceptional. If you ever buy a chess book, that is the book you should buy. Well worth the money.

Remember that you don't get better instantly, most growth is gained in leaps, so you may study for several weeks and not see any immediate effect, then one day you leap forward and are playing much stronger than before. So be diligent with your chess study and patient with your results. You will get results over time. I have, and continue to!

Thanks for the reading recommendations, but I'm really only looking for playing partners right now.

Sent you a turn based game challenge. I need the practice as black anyway, so accept and we can go. We can use the 'chat' feature to discuss each move or analyze after. 

same here- just send me a challenge

hey, i was looking for a training partner too :)

add me and sent me a challenge as white and one as black 

Keep playing you will get better it takes time, try studying tactics

Sweet. Thanks for the challenges guys. Let's see if this works. If anybody else is interested feel free to keep the challenges coming. I'm sure I can juggle more games than I've got right now.

Hello nammfoodle and welcome to the club, I too suck at chess. The only difference is that I have a study plan and I stick to it because it works. On 4th of July I was rated 597 here, at live standard 30 min games. After only 2 months I'm getting closer to double that lowest rating. 

Here's what I've did:

- 1 hour/day (sometimes even more) of tactical exercises on chesstempo. This will help you to memorize tactical patterns that might occur in your games. Starting September I have reduced the number of minutes to 45/day and in the last 15 minutes I go through the missed problems. I guess this helps to fix the missed patterns better. Also, at the end of the week I'll sort the problems in descending order and I go again through the missed ones (usually the missed ones are the ones higher rated). It's OK even if you have 30 min. The key is to be perseverent and do them daily.

- 1 hour of playing games (30min) and the next day 1 hour of analyzing the games played yesterday. Make sure you have the selector set at +175/200. Playing with higher rated opponents will help your game a lot and you'll be amazed by the progress. If you play opponents close to your rating you'll repeat the same mistakes and you won't get better. Also, it would be great if you find a stronger player to go through your lost games with him. I'm not a strong one but if you want we can go through some of your games. Also post your annotated games on the forums, you'll receive feedback and you'll get better

- If you can afford, buy a subscription here and follow the study plan for beginners. It will take 2-3 months (40 USD) but it's a good deal. The information is very well structured.

This should be enough to take you in 4-5 month towards 1400 chess.com rating.

After that level I guess it's another story. Now stick to tactics and the beginner study plan, play games and review the lost ones with a stronger player. Trust me, it will be much better.

For more details see my 2 blog posts. 

Funny you should say that....