Hi, I'm new and I need the next step

Hi.

I learned chess as a child and asked for a computer chess game for my 10th birthday, which I received over much protest.  I reached level 4 of 15, but had difficulty progressing further.  Still, I was pretty much unbeatable among my highschool friends until college, but I didn't compete or anything like that.  

Later, at GA Tech, I met this guy who was the smartest nerd on campus.  As the second smartest nerd in his immediate vicinity, we became instant friends.  I went to the GT Library and read up an Capablanca and a bunch of other chess related stuff, and tried to present a sufficient challenge, which he shrugged aside with aplomb.  Soon after, the authorities sought him for hacking, and I haven't seen him since.  That was 20+ years ago.

Some years later, in law school, I caught one of my dorm mates playing computer chess, and challenged him to a match.  He confided in me that he was rated 1500+, and finished me in short order.  To my credit, it was not quite the 4 move checkmate.

More recently, I've grown bored with dominating sudoko, solitaire, and spider solitaire on my iphone, and I have recently downloaded a couple of chess apps.  I have clearly lost any skill I ever had, but Shredder still tried to assign me an initial rating of 1400, which is BS.  I'm actually having trouble defeating it on 1000 elo without taking back moves during end game.

I think I need a reading list.  What do you have for me as the most important chess  tutorial books to read?  Are they available on Kindle?

I think you were made to play chess, since it keeps coming back in your life! A very good overall book to start with is The Idiot's Guide to Chess (NO INSULT INTENDED). It is an unfortunate title! Written by Patrick Wolff (3 times U.S. chess champ) it is humorous, easy to read, thorough and has tons of exercises. From that solid basis you can decide what more specialized books you want to read. It may well be on Kindle. Also, some public libraries have online copies that you can borrow on your computer.

Good luck!

Check out Coach Heisman's site at danheisman.com.  He has an extensive reading list and hundreds of award winning articles.  Basically you need to do 2 things.  First of course is to increase your board vision by learning tactics;  absolutely the most "bang for your buck" thing you can do.  Not super complicated "puzzle" kind of tactics but the simpler mates and tactical motifs.  There are lots of good tactics books or you can do it digitally. Second, you need to learn how someone who actually knows how to play chess, plays chess.  A heavily annotated "move by move" anthology would be just what you need.  Coach Heisman again has lots of advice.  I'm a neoLuddite so I don't know squat about the Kindle, but all of the forum is archived so a quick "forum search"  (the little box in the upper right) should bring up something.   Good luck and welcome back to the Game.

OK, I already ordered the idiots guide for kindle.  It is 2nd edition instead of 3rd, but thems the breaks. :-)

Meanwhile, I will def check out Coach Heisman's site.

Thanks for the replies! :-)

I made it through the first six chapters of the Idiot's guide. I knew most of it already so far, but I learned chess notation and picked up the "skewer" tactic.  I already used the skewer in a computer chess game and finally won a 1000 elo match without having to take back any moves or use the coach function.  I'm starting to get my threrat visualization and fork opportunities spotting abilities back, but I'm very rusty.  

There is a lot left to read.  I also bought the "positional evaluation" book listed on the heisman site.  It looks like I have my work cut out for me.

The fastest way to improve results is probably to learn basic endgame technique.

John's Nunn's 'Understanding Chess Endgames' is on special offer in Kindle Store and is very good indeed for the money. It breaks into 100 different building topics (although many are linked) , each illustrated by 3 or 4 examples, so you can work thru it at your own leisure.

Given where you are at, Deliberate practice may be far more efficient to get you to an "intermediate" level than just books (some excellent recommendations given so far, though).  Play games against stronger opposition ... and have them (especially losses) reviewed under a microscope / critiqued by stronger players if you can find those who are willing + friendly enough :)

90% of lower-intermediate players need to spend more time "not doing stuff" than "doing stuff" and once those bad chess behaviors are corrected,  you end up playing reasonably decent without much "book" knowledge.  I've seen kids at the club who are allergic to books but sponge so much "yelling/advice/criticism" from stronger players around them that they've gotten strong purely by osmosis. 

Also getting the bugs out of your chess thinking well ahead of time gives you a cleaner + well fertilized "mental garden" to grow + nurture ideas you've absorbed from books later on.

the mentor program on this site would be ideal for your progress.

It tells you what and why after you guess.

Could you tell me more about the mentor program? I've been doing puzzles on shredder and sometimes it isn't clear to me why my move to force mate isn't as good as the correct answer, which also forces mate in the same number of moves. But I think the puzzles are helping. Here is a game I played today on shredder where I achieved mate in only 15 moves.

B08 - Pirc/Classical Variation

1.e2-e4 d7-d6 2.d2-d4 Ng8-f6 3.Nb1-c3 g7-g6 4.Ng1-f3 b7-b6 5.Bc1-f4 b6-b5 6.Bf1xb5+ c7-c6 7.Bb5-c4 Qd8-b6 8.Qd1-d3 Qb6xb2 9.0-0 Qb2-a3 10.Rf1-d1 Bc8-a6 11.e4-e5 Ba6xc4 12.Qd3xc4 d6xe5 13.d4xe5 c6-c5 14.Nc3-b5 Qa3-b2 15.Nb5-c7#

A coach would probably work wonders for you, it did for me.  They can be expensive, but don't have to be. 

No doubt, the best way to learn chess is to play LOTS of chess!  I am also from the Atlanta area and there are clubs - organized and informal - all around where you find people at every level who would be interested to play you.

I definitely subscribe to this philosophy -- endgame study was the single biggest source of improvement in my game.

However, don't forget that it's a game and it's supposed to be fun.  Just get out and play, try to take a lesson or two away from each of your games -- understand your losses and vow to avoid duplicating mistakes (even though you will...).  You'll get better and hopefully continue to enjoy the game as you do.

What he said... No matter how gifted you may be, however many books you may read, however many computers you may beat, you won't be able to beat people who play lots of daily blitz/bullet games here.

Hi! I would recommend "Capablanca's Best Chess Endings", by Chernev...it gives 60 complete games by Capablanca, emphasizing the endgame..and it is available dirt cheap...

http://tinyurl.com/kgm6r5x

I'll second bcoburn2's suggestion.  There are just a ton of beginner and beginner intermediate tactics courses that would absolutely improve your game.  There are courses on just about everything; it's a virtual encyclopedia of chess but those tactics courses would greatly improve your board vision.  The trick is to do each course, whether it's on pins, forks, mates or whatever a few times to make sure each lesson has been brought up to a 100% score.  Now go study some other courses for a week or two.  Come back to the original course and try it again.  Oh what happened to those !00% scores?   It will be a little embarassing to find just how much has slipped away, but you'll find out in a hurry what you need to work on.  There are literally several thousand patterns that need to be absorbed before you can play anything approaching high level chess (or so I've read-no personal experience yet with it ).  Nailing down your knowledge of the tactical motifs is a great step towards that goal.

Getting a diamond membership here will also give access to the video library and IM Danny Rensch has a series of videos that cover the same ground as well as his famous (and sometimes infamous) live session videos.  I know it sounds like I'm just schilling for the site, but I really do think a diamond membership is a great way to improve. 

I would have to agree that a diamond membership here would be quite helpful.  There are tons of good courses and videos available on this site.

Hi chess is really fun if you will learn more things about it. So you want to improve your game? To improve in chess you need to study endgames,tactics and middle games.

I suggest you buy these 3 books if you have money. They are worth for the knowledge that you will gain. For endgame study buy Winning Chess Endgame by Seirawan, for Strategy buy Winning Chess Strategy by Seirawan, for tactics buy Chess Tactics for Champion by Polgar. I think the Seirawan books has kindle version, I am not sure with the Polgar book.

Study well these books, and you will notice a good improvement in your game(but it takes time to improve). I suggest you instead try to play against human for an actual game. You can try playing here at chess.com. Avoid blitz play atleast 15 minutes games. 

I believe tactics are a great way to improve your game. This is the advice I give whenever I see these kind of questions. Mostly because it helped me so much. It's something I've  been studying for a few years and it has helped my game tremendously. A two volume book set I have did the trick. It has simple explanations and practice diagrams and best of all is totally free online. In basic language, with tons of examples, you will improve your tactics. I did and before I was frustrated with chess. I was always wondering how other people managed to get up material on me. Anyway, here's the site: 

Don't know who Ward Farnsworth is but he certainly helped me.

Also, like your username and Avatar. Disc golf is my favorite past time, chess a close second.

Sorry, here's the link to the tactics site.

http://www.chesstactics.org/

The books are called "Predator at the Chessboard"

I have this book by Nunn and do NOT recommended for a complete beginner.  It is a complicated book once you get over the basic stuff which there isn't too much.  I would start reading that book once you get to 1400-1500 ELO rating.  But that is just an opinion

I recommend a book by Susan Polgar: Chess tactics for champions

Great book!