Starting chess and progressing

Hi Guys,

My name's Bart, 22 years and started playing chess about a month ago. I never even knew the rules, but on a lost sunday I decided to play against my computer haha. I've been hooked since watching games, reading and playing.

I was looking for some advice on how to learn and progress.

I bought a book called ''chess tactics from scratch by Martin Weteschnik''. It has some nice concepts and topics in it such as pinning/forking etc., however it sometimes is hard to apply in your own game.

I also read up on some openings, but I feel like I'm just remembering some moves instead of really getting WHY these moves are playable.

When I play with friends we regularly play moves that aren't in the openings main or sidelines for example. I assume this is for a reason, e.g. that move will be a weakspot later on.

I really want to exploit these things and know what I'm doing , and WHY I'm doing it.

Could you guys please share some good ways to approach improving? I don't want to just mindlessly read stuff and not really being able to apply it since I don't understand the underlying mechanics.

Also, I notice that alot of players use computer programs to analyse positions, how exactly does this work, and would it be benificial to incorporate this in my learning? I know computers are excellent in calculating, but how does the computer determine what is the best move? Does this mean  you can't win against it? And I assume these programs never take crazy sacrifices or combinations like players such as Tal or Fisher played, but rather a very slow and calculated positional approach?

Anyway, in short:
Does anyone have any advice on where to start, or a structured plan on how to improve?

Thank you very much for the help!

This might help: http://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory

That seems nice indeed! Thanks!

I will second the study plan. I would also try studying tactics on the tactics trainer here for about thirty minutes a day. Good luck!