New player advice?

I am new and loose A LOT what's the best advice you can give to a new player to improve their game?

Have you read a chess book? If no, Chess Fundamentals by Capablanca would be an ideal book for you.

Hi I'm new too! Woohoo!

I have found the "Tactics Trainer" under "Learn" on the bar directly below "Chess.com" to be helpful.  Good luck!

Play slower games.

Go over your old games and see where you could have done better. 

To a new player I'd say:

Learn the relative value of the pieces (pawn =1, knight=3 etc) and use it to know if a trade will be even.  Every time after your opponent moves, yes 10 out of 10 times you have to check what new squares are attacked.  Not just the piece that moved but also if it uncovered a rook or queen for example.  If it threatens an unfavorable trade then don't let it happen.

Likewise before you move check that its destination square is safe and also notice what squares you're leaving undefended.  Doing these things every move may seem difficult at first, but with practice they eventually become second nature so keep at it, they're absolutely necessary to not lose pieces for no reason.

The basis for all tactics is the double attack.  If you threaten two things with your move and your opponent can only meet 1 threat with his move, then you'll win something.  The tactical motiff "fork" is the most basic example of this.

The basis for strategy is overall mobility.  Give your pieces (non pawns) useful jobs on active squares (often this means near or influencing the center).  And this means all your pieces, not just 2 or 3.  When a strong player sacrifices material it's because the pieces left on the board are better (more active) than his opponent's.  Open files for rooks and long diagonals for bishops are quintessential examples.  (Open files are files with no pawns on them).

Solving tactical puzzles are useful for all amateurs, but for beginners especially because they help to improve a number of useful skills.  Other than the tactical patterns themselves you get threat identification, visualization, calculation, and seeing the whole board.

There are many free tactical puzzles you can find online (chess.com included)  Working a few regularly is a great place to start.  Buying a book as Mandy mentioned is another good step.  If you're going to spend money on a book, also consider Chess.com membership as it offers a LOT of material for improvement (including many videos).

And lastly, don't get too discouraged by losing a lot.  We all started there.  Many of the players who seem amazing are only that way because of years of playing and studying and yes, losing thousands of games.  Every game is a lesson.  Look at your games afterwards if only briefly and find your biggest mistake.  Remember it, classify it, and try not to repeat it or that type of mistake again in future games.

hii,waffllemaster

 thanks for good and nessasary advise for biginaers. pl continue that.

Excellent advice.  Losing is only bad if you do not learn something from the game.  If you play a lot of blitz (fast move) games, you don't have time to think about what you did wrong or could have done better.  Slow down and give yourself time to think.

When playing slower games, keep the game notations and go back over the games to see what you could have done better.  Someone once said, wisely, that all wins are the result of the loser's errors.  Minimize your errors and you win more games.

I play all my games as 3-day games so I have no excuse for not having time to look at alternate (candidate) moves and avoid traps.  I get destroyed in fast games but play better when I give myself time.

Thank you all for the great advice

Adding to my earlier post, your diet should consist of mainly slower games. Mix in some 15-30 minutes games to train yourself to think faster. Anything less than 15 minutes is -in my opinion- not a real chess. They are more about time management. Play blitz only for fun.

The next time you play, write down the moves.

After the game is over, even if you won or lost, show it to a stronger player or post on a forum for some feedback.

This will help you improve

Try to solve chess puzzles...... it will help a lot. I suggest YouTube channel "MatoJelic" to see wonderful chess games by top players like Tal, Fischer, Capablanca, Kasparov, Karpov etc. Also be familiar with few moves of all openings, counter openings, gambits. Wish you all the best :-)

Instead of wasting your time reading forum threads, hit the chess books.

It's simply a question of "knowledge acquisition."  So Get With The Program.

Don't neglect endgame studies. People say things such as "all games have an opening, some don't even have an endgame, therefore study the openings"...and it's simply not a good idea. The endgames teach you how pieces really interact, and furthermore, if you know an endgame technique, it doesn't matter who you're playing once you get to that endgame. If you know how to checkmate with a rook and king versus a lone king, a grandmaster can sit down and play against you and you'll win just as easily. 

The opening phase is only meant to get you to a playable middlegame. The middlegame is where most games are decided, and is therefore where much of your chess study should be directed (tactics, strategy, pawn structure, etc) but for those that aren't decided there, the endgame will settle things, and the more you know about endgames, the more opportunities you give yourself to simplify the position during a middlegame to an endgame you know you can win.

I've had many games, both online and in over-the-board tournaments, where I've made some blunder in the middlegame or opening, but saved the game (usually a draw, but sometimes even a win) in the endgame. Endgame isn't vastly more important than the other phases of the game, but I find some people tend to neglect it--don't be one of those people. =)

Play at a whatever speed you feel allows you to PRACTICE.

And make sure you add at least a 5 second bonus to the time controls.

Game in 10/5 up to about Game in 60/5 is plenty of time to PRACTICE and get stronger.

But you must hit the books regularly or your knowledge and playing strength will quickly stop improving.  Nuff said?

From checking your games history, it's apparent that you're already playing long time control games (only one Blitz in it!) so I think that advice is misdirected.

Probably a good idea to stop every time in between moving a piece & clicking on Submit in order to check that every one of your pieces is safe - just go around the entire board. If you can do that, you'll start to see when you're hanging pieces or when your king is about to be mated.

Concentrate on calculating your moves would be a good idea.

Also good planning is a MUST.