Any tips for a noob?

I'm enthusiastic to learn to be better in chess, however my attempts seem to get stuck with this simple problem: I cannot -see- the combinations / mates, even if they are right there staring at me. Many times in puzzles or games I'm confused when the game ends in checkmate, and I'm like-- what, that's not anywhere near a mate, and then after meticulous thinking and pondering I suddenly see it and it slaps me at my face like -- dude, it was right here all along! And then I feel stupid for not noticing it.

So, my question is.. are there any tips for someone wooden-eyed like myself, how I can start learning to SEE the mates and other moves on the board without going through the slow as heck process of thinking? How could I make it easier for myself? Does it get better through more played games? Or does this just mean my brain is chess-intolerant? xD

If you are over 12 years old, it will take the brain a bit of time to structure itself for logical thinking and specifically for chess. But, as QueenofsevenKingdoms said, you will get there with a bit of patience. If you are preadolescent, then your brain is still quite plastic and it can happen very quickly, depending, of course, on your genetics.

In the following, search term checkmate...

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond…

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond…

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

You've only played 8 games (not counting bots). Play more games. Same with puzzles. You've done around 100, which isn't enough for your brain to start recognizing all of the different patterns. You need to give yourself more time to get the hang of it. Be patient with yourself.

Thank you for the encouragement. It's just very frustrating to notice all the times I fail to see the obvious, and I was wondering if there are any exercises or practices to get better at it, outside of losing games, that is xD

Well, I, by no means, am anywhere near 12 years. I have actually thought that maybe my adult brain (40+) is one reason I struggle to learn it. You're also very right with saying that learning the logical thinking with chess' seemingly endless possibilities is very time consuming. I guess I am just being impatient, as usual xD

Correction. I have only played 8 games -on this particular account-. I have had other accounts on this platform, and others; and I have played plenty real life games too; so please don't be too quick to judge. Anyways, you're right. More practice for me. However, I was asking tips for making it easier to see, to actually -spot- the things on the board before making my foolish moves. But I guess there are none, and trial and error is the only way.

I am aware. However, again, my problem is not noticing it before it happens.

Thank you, I will look into it.

Daily Puzzles: Solve a few tactical puzzles every day. This sharpens your pattern recognition and decision-making under pressure.

Time Control Practice: Play games with shorter time controls (like blitz or rapid) to force yourself to make quicker, more intuitive decisions.

Review with Engine: Use a chess engine to quickly analyze your games post-mortem. It highlights missed opportunities and suggests improvements.

Focused Study: Target your weaknesses. If you struggle with certain types of tactics (like pins or forks), dedicate extra practice to those areas.

Stay Positive: Don't get discouraged by mistakes. Every game is a learning opportunity, and even top players miss tactics sometimes.

Thank you, this is actually really helpful! I do some of this already, but there certainly is room for improvement. I will save these for further use

Think a little before each move.thats it

One thing that was recommended to me recently for game reviews is to go into the interface and turn off, "show best move". Then when you are reviewing your game and the engine says you made an inaccuracy or mistake, pull out a notepad and try to calculate the correct line. Then after you've calculated, make those moves and see if the engine agrees.

I think that nobody should bother with inaccuracies. Those are almost always okay moves, they don't change much. Don't waste time with these. Every game has some serious mistakes that are worth investigating.

Oh, that's actually a pretty good advice! I have used it in a way to try to understand why the engine suggest something else, but I can see the benefit of trying to figure the best move myself before seeing the suggestion.

What you need is Puzzles!

This might be the first time in a very long time that I have come to a forum thread and read what the OP had to say. Most people explain the problem they are having and majority of the time it has nothing to do with puzzles which is why I rarely tell people to study or even do puzzles.

The “problem” you have is actually Puzzle Related. You are probably 1 of the first forum posts I have seen in the last few years which genuinely have Puzzle issue.

The problem you have is Lack of Danger/Awareness.

You need to study Puzzle Themes with Defensive Motifs.

I would say just do more puzzles. Besides that Mika Karttunen has wrote a book I think is good, you should give it a try since it’s in finnish.

You're not "chess-intolerant"—your brain just isn’t trained to spot these ideas instantly yet.

Dear Ravenlander,

My name is Gabor Balazs. I’m a Hungarian FIDE Master and a certified, full-time chess coach, so I hope I can help you. Everybody is different, so that's why there isn't only one given way to learn and improve.

First of all, you have to discover your biggest weaknesses in the game and start working on them. The most effective way for that is analyzing your own games. There is a built-in engine on chess.com which can show you if a move is good or bad but the only problem is that it can't explain to you the plans, ideas behind the moves, so you won't know why it is so good or bad.

In my opinion, chess has 4 main areas (openings, strategies, tactics/combinations and endgames) and if you want to improve efficiently, you should improve all of these skills almost at the same time. That's what my training program is based on. My students enjoy the lessons because they cover multiple aspects of chess in an engaging and dynamic way, keeping the learning process both stimulating and efficient. Of course, there are always ups and downs but this is completely normal in everyone's career.

If you would like to learn more about chess, you can take private lessons from me (you find the details on my profile) or you can visit my Patreon channel (www.patreon.com/Bgabor91), where you can learn about every kind of topics (openings, strategies, tactics, endgames, game analysis). There are more than 27 hours of educational videos uploaded already and I'm planning to upload at least 4 new videos per week, so you can get 4-6 hours of educational contents every month. I also upload daily puzzles in 4 levels every day which are available with a FREE subscription.

I hope this is helpful for you. Good luck with your games!