I'm new here and I have been slapped into reality very quickly...

Hi guys,

I'm new here and I have been playing chess for about two months.  On other sites and on my phone app against other players I have been consistently rated right around 1400.  I came here figuring the competition would be a bit stiffer and boy I definitely underestimated it.  I played a 946 or something around that rating and got completely destroyed immediately.  I was quite shocked and embarrased that the sub 1000 player handled me like that.  He completely took away any moves I had, so I got frustrated and starting making blunder after blunder.  I resigned and lost a ton of rating points.  At this point I'm thinking "Gee, either I was completely overrated on the other sites or this guy was completely underrated here."  I had never been so thoroughly picked apart.  At this point he sends in a request for a rematch, so we play again.  He opens the same way, I try something a bit different and I STILL get into the same impossible situation but this time I decided to start sacrificing pieces just to get a little position going.  I was able to mate him the second time around.  Then there's a third game that I was doing well on and my girlfriend threw a fit so I resigned and talked to her for a while.  LOL.  Anyway I guess I came here to ask if the competition even at "lower" ratings is stiffer than other sites in your experience?  I also have another question regarding study.  When you have a book you're studying, do you normally set up each example OTB or do you just figure it out in your head and see if you were right?  I've been doing it the second way but I think I need to switch over to the first way.  It might help me with my visualizations.  Also, I have started the Daniel King powerplay series.  I just bought DVD 1 (mating patterns) as I heard this was a good series to really get started with.  I'm kind of curious how I should go about studying it.  I understand the examples that he shows but should I play them over the board with him or just understand and learn the concepts and then move on?  Or do you have another way to study?  I guess the main question is "How do you study with your book, dvd, or online materials?"

Thanks guys.  I look to become competetive soon.  I would like to be able to be decent enough to enter a tournament early next year sometime.

I have a book by yusupov and he recommends to set up the position and try to solve the problem without moving the pieces for 5 min, then move the pieces if necessary. 

Well i will start off as i always do and say the players here on average are not as skilled as players on other sites. But they know more about playing way more beyond their skills playing the game. And almost everybody here is not going to give you a chance to win it in the opening so you have to most likelye get deep into the Middle Game or End Game to have an advantage.

Real simple you need an opening to play here and need to understand the main line. Even better know how to use your pieces better than your opponent to attack and defend. Find moves where they made a mistake also helps combined with the knowledge of how to exploit it.

Studying tactics is very important. I can see from your first game against the 946 that you knew some patterns and you like to threaten mate, which is good, but to get good you also need to work on forks and pins and so on. 

The best way to study tactics is just to solve problems, lots of problems. There's the chess tempo website that's good for this, or the tactics trainer here. Or you can get apps for your iphone if you have one. Or there's many good books for this - google Dan Heisman to see his recommendations are for books.  Dan Heisman is an expert in teaching adults to play chess, and talks a lot of sense. 

The other very important thing to do is to get your games analysed. You can post them on the forums, or do it yourself with an engine.

Good luck and hope this helps

Think your game was tough then try to play Blitz and Bullet here with the same rank as the opponents you played. In many cases it is just a mouse clicking game and not chess. My problem with Bullet is if i do not keep playing i start to be not as good after a while. It takes me like 20 -30 games to get back into the swing of things.

Thank you for the tip t_taylor.  Royalbishop, you suggest openings.  I have read many times not to bother with them until I am higher rated.  Do you suggest I start building a repertoire now?  I understand opening principles but don't really know any openings except the first 5 or 6 of the fried liver attack which nobody ever falls for.

I have tactics trainer on my phone and go through about 50 problems a day.  I can even nail the ones over 1600 (est rating) with some regularity, the problem is I'm not seeing the results in my play though.  Also, I think it may be a possibility that I'm looking for tactics all the time when there are none to be had in the position.

So when no tactic is present what do you do then?

It comes right back down to know how use the combined force of your pieces for other things including Tactcis. Many players know how to prevent pins and masters of forks on all levels in the opening. Many times you have to force a bad position to be in position to use tactics.

It seems to me like I never put myself in good enough positions to be able to find or execute tactics.  I think the problem is in my opening play.  I'll have to figure that out.

My Online-Stats on "Chess Live" Android-App on my phone:

W46:D4:L13

My rating here:

1123

So yes, the competition here is much more challenging.

I'd firmly place myself right into the pro-openings camp, as long as you do it right. Pick one opening for White and two for Black (against 1. e4 and 1. d4) and when you study them, DO study them. You don't need to spend ages and you certainly should not spend time learning off line after line after line 'till you're 30 moves deep: but you should get a good grasp of opening theory, ie. develop your pieces, control the center, castle etc. I'd recommend doing this simply as a way to not get so demolished in the opening that you never get to put your tactics into practice. Learn WHY each move in your opening is played, and try to refute it yourself in analysis and figure out why refutation X doesn't work. Once you've got that much, LEAVE THEM and work on tactics tactics tactics tactics tactics! I spend an awful lot of my time on tactics and the difference it makes must be experienced to be believed. 

Looking at your game as Black against Elista23, you played 7...Qf6, threatening mate with Qxf2, instead of re-capturing the Bishop. Your opponent let you get away with this, but they could have played 8 Bf3 to block the mate and remained a piece ahead. 

This is bread-and-butter tactics.

I understand your concerns about tactics training not filtering through into your games. I get this too in my games. But the thing with tactics is you have to practice them until they become almost instinctive, so keep at it.

I don't think you should be looking to work on openings beyond the basic principles. But work on the basic principles!

I'd also reiterate that the single most important thing is getting your games analysed. Finding out your own mistakes is the road to improvement.

I think Danny King recommends you set up the pieces on the board (DVD 2 or 3 in the power play series).

Somwhere on this site they have the list of opening principles and basic squares to place pieces for max performance. Most players here have like the first 3-5 moves down in the opening so you to go another 5 moves to start gain an advantage.

Once you know the main after learning how to use pieces to gain an objective you will be fine playing on this site. Most of this is not required at other sites.

Chess.com - Can you keep up with the Elite? 

Welcome OP! I'm new here too! Hope you enjoy your stay.

At first study tactics get a primer explaining the fundamentals then start solving problems lots of them through your minds eyes puzzles mates in 1 2 3 4 5 6 combinations without moving pieces on a board or a computer.

That's what my first Chess teacher made me do when I was learning the game 30 years ago he lent me his copies of Fred Reinfelds books:

http://www.amazon.com/1001-Winning-Chess-Sacrifices-Combinations/dp/0879801115/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1364335408&sr=8-4&keywords=1000+chess+combinations 

http://www.amazon.com/Brilliant-Checkmate-Chess-lovers-library/dp/0879801107/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364335973&sr=1-3&keywords=1000+winning+checkmates

I went over them again and again and again and again until I got sick of them after 8 months of solving my game really improved I definitely felt sharper when I played.

Ok the gathering of new players is about to start.

Welcome all new players.

When you say you study tactics, but they dont show up. It is beacuse you dont cause them. Try to look 3 moves ahead, and see if theres any possible position for tactics, and follow through.

JWSaunders, I'm sorry to tell you, but you have no idea about the opening principles. There's tons of information about it in chess.com. You move your pieces twice in the opening, give untimely unnecesary checks with the bishops and you are punished for it by being kicked around the board. While you only move your bishop your opponent is gaining control.

Exactly as one has to force the opponent into a bad position to use it or the opponent makes a blunder. It is the in between moves that seperates the strong players from the weak players. Make pointless moves and time is wasted leaving to a chance for your opponent to attack and win.