Getting myself an education

"Whenever you see a good move, stop and see if you can find a better one", goes the advice.

The difficult part about looking for better moves is knowing what to look for. I mean, how does one judge whether a move is good or not? What should a player be looking for or aiming to do?

There have been many times when I have made moves with no particular aim in mind, usually when I do not see any weakness in the opponent that I can take advantage of. And that is because of a lack of knowledge of chess theory.

The millions of chess openings and defences along with their variations with exotic names, the concepts of tempo, space, balance and initiative, and other esoteric topics are pretty much dutch to me. I hope that changes soon now that I have decided to start reading a book or two on chess. And as a result be able to understand better the many wonderful articles and analyses posted on chess.com.