Tips for beginner chess players!

I started playing chess again about a year ago, after having been inspired by the Netflix series, “The Queen’s Gambit”. I hadn’t really played since I was a primary school student. On 30 min rapid games on chess.com, my initial ELO rating was probably in the 700s. In the past year, I’ve improved to the beginner-intermediate level with an ELO rating of the mid-1100s. This game was a casual match up with a friend and colleague from the other side of Australia. He’s earlier in his chess journey, and though a little embarrassed, was happy for me to cover this game in a video. As I played and reviewed this game, I realised that there’s a lot of potential learning content for beginner players.

So, some tips for beginners. Be careful with playing or accepting early gambits that you’re not familiar with. They are often tricky and invite errors. The general strategy of trying to control the centre with pawns, and developing your minor pieces early is a sound one. Be careful bringing the queen into the game very early. It can get hassled and chased around. You may lose tempo, and even your queen! And in that, keep an eye out whenever your king and queen are on the same diagonal. In this game, the queen was pinned to the king resulting in an early queen loss. And similarly, keep an eye out whenever your king is on the same file or rank as the opponent’s rooks or queen. Discovered checks are a forcing move and make possible what seems at first glance to be impossible in terms of threats and captures.

I hope this video was helpful. Merry Christmas, and thanks for watching!