How do I improve

i'm fairly new to chess tactis openings etc.  Is there a good book i could buy that could help me?  Thanks

Study tactics. And search the fora for book recommendations, there are plenty of threads about this.

Here's a good book for beginners by Frank Marshall: Chess Openings.  And you can download it for free:

http://www.chessville.com/downloads/ebooks.htm#ChessOpenings

Read the sections--- the Ben. Franklin essay on chess is something all chess players should read--- and the openings.  It gives a very good introduction on chess, chess notation including the Forsythe (but I don't remember if this edition has algebraic).  Forget about the specifics of an openings--- theses have changed over the years--- just get an idea of the general principles behind them.  Then choose the openingss you like best and read up on them--- that'll give you the strategic ideas and the tactical methods you'll need and with that you'll develop a repertoire that you can use against opponents. 

Mike

Start at the end of the game! 

Practice checkmates. 

Queen and King v King

Rook and King v King

Bishop and Bishop and King v King

Bishop and Knight and King v King. 

Those are the basic checkmates.  It might seem a bit strange to say this that you need to start at the end but thats the objective of the game. 

Then with just your bishop on the board practice on how you can get to any square on the board within two moves.  (Of course during a game squares might be obstructed.) 

Do the same then but with just your knight on the board.  Practice reaching target squares with your knight in as few moves as possible.  I think its great when you set up a knight fork for yourself. 

It must be frustrating getting completely contradictory advice (I agree with endgame before opening). One way to learn that is not only good, but FUN, is to play over master games and try to imitate how they play. Try google "paul morphy games", and you will learn from a master how to play all aspects of the game. Watching concepts in action is more fun then having them explained to you. If anything you'll want to learn the basic "tactical motifs", and then just watch them being used in master games.

Yoshtodd is giving some good advice but you really need to understand why the player made those moves. While a lot of competitive chess has become rote memory, without knowing the reason moves were made you'll eventually find yourself losing to someone who didn't play the "book" move.  If you don't want to study a lot of openings or build a repertoire of openings but want to get the fundamentals of chess then get Emanuel Lasker's Manual of Chess.  Then, go over a couple of Morphy games if you want.  But, while you do try to find out why that move was made.  

Marshall and Staunton wrote in their books that every effective move or sequence of moves should do three or more of these: attack, bolster (support), control (contain), and defend. I just find it easier to do this with openings and the middle game than with end game studies.

Mike 

 thanks for your help.

 thanks for your help.

thanks for helping out.

Tactical Exercises, 15 minutes a day, works like a charm. Get a book out set up positions over the board, don't touch the pieces and work out tactical problems in your head, write them down, and all their variations.  If you commit to this and be sure to do it everyday, you'll become a very tacticly strong player which should give you C-class strength regardless of your opening or endgame knowledge. After that hit the endgame books and opening theory and study classic games. That's just my personal advice though, all the previous posts are just as effective, good luck!

In my opinion, a very fast way to get to C class is to buy Chessmaster Grandmaster edition and do Josh Waitzkin's Chess Academy. It's excellent for beginners, it teaches you all you need to know. It helped me a lot.

Then try chesstempo.com, it's a site for practising tactics, it will make you a lot better if you practise for, say, half an hour per day.