Any videos even simpler than John Bartholomew's videos?

https://www.chess.com/lessons/playing-the-game/the-language-of-chess

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf

 

Well... I guess the reason I wanted to improve was because I believed I could, after having advanced from 400 to 800. Back when I was in the 400s, I just believed that I innately sucked at chess and that there was nothing else to it, but I began trying harder after some higher ranked opponents said that I should believe in myself a little more and that I showed signs of at least some potential. (I had some familiarity with basic tactical concepts like forks and pins, apparently beyond that of other 400s) So after hundreds of games and a few phone help sessions I improved to the 700s-800s, but largely stalled after that.

I'm okay with accepting that I may have hit my limit. Well, okay, I guess it bothers me a little, since people here frequently imply that a sub-1000 indicates low intelligence/lack of effort/etc.

Chess playing is not about intelligence; it is about training.

For any one situation, I think a “limit” is a result of various circumstances including individual chess ability (not the same as individual intelligence) and what the individual is willing to do. I think that it is fairly common that some particular sort of behavior only takes an individual up to a particular point, and further progress requires a change in behavior.

Good point.  Attitude is everything in chess

 

Update:

Well, I think I found my answer. It looks like there are some videos hosted by the GM Ben Finegold that I am having an easier time understanding.

Yes, they are primarily for children. No, I do not care at this point.

I have not read all the posts here,but you might enjoy the Ginger Gm videos as well.Personally,I find J.B.'s videos to be fantastic(I like Ben Finegold too,but not as much) and the Ginger Gm videos have much instructional info.....He can also be a really good laugh from his eccentric wit......Love the guy!

Good luck

 

I can't accurately say where I started out at because chess.com didn't exist back when I started playing chess.  I would guess I was at the 400-800 range by today's standards when I started out.  I was just like you.  

 

It's funny because my rating has done nothing but fluctuate between 1350-1500 for several years in blitz.  I feel like I learned a lot more about chess since then.  For starters, I Learned different openings.  I do better against players I play with regularly at Starbucks.  However, I just can't seem to get better on chess.com.  I was 1100 at blitz for a long time, and then bam, one day I went from 1100 to 1400 in blitz.  I don't really know what exactly happened before.  I know my repertoire changed, but, I just don't know why it went up so high at that point in time.

Rating ceilings are a peculiar thing.  I wouldn't say your stupid just because you are sub-1000.  As I said, I was once just like you, and most people don't think of me as stupid.  

Up until you become a 2000 rated player (not online rating) chess is all about improving upon your mistakes by trying to make less and less blunders until you very rarely do any.  

I make blunders just like you, though my blunders, for the most part, are quite different than yours, and I make less of them.  I don't remember if I told you but a lot of chess is about looking at your opponent's last move, and looking for his checks, captures, and threats.  Too many times we get caught up in what we are doing and forget to look at our opponent's resources.  I just lost two games recently because of this, and there were games I had good winning chances, had I of seen the tactic.

I'm not entirely sure why you are having a hard time understanding JB's videos.  I think those videos would be better for you than Ben Finegolds.  Why?  Finegolds videos are not really in any kind of order, however, the fundamental series are in order and build upon each other to a conclusion.  The videos in JB's Fundamentals series are like going through videos in the lesson plans on chess.com.  I'm not saying you can't watch Ben Finegolds videos.  Actually, if you just type of beginer beat down ben finegold on youtube you will get a lot of videos geared towards beginners.  It will be the same sort of thing that you are looking at in JB' videos, however, the rating level will be much higher because the beginners ben finegold plays against higher rated players...  with that said, I'm not exactly sure why you are not having as much trouble understanding ben finegolds videos rather than JB's videos due to the fact that ben finegold is talking higher level chess.   I'm not saying stop watching Ben Finegold videos.  I'm just saying, don't stop watching JB videos.  Like I said before you should not be having problems with understanding the notation because JB has a chess board you can look at to help you with your calculating the squares he is talking about.  Like I said before if you are taking a long time calculating which squares he is talking about just pause the video.  I like watching Ben Finegold to.  I enjoyed a couple of his games that he shared, very instructional.  It's all good to watch videos to help you with your chess, but remember that doesn't take the place of going over games OTB from Logical chess move by move.  

Good luck with your chess!

When I said that the video was for kids, I meant that the video was of Finegold teaching a class of kids aged at most 9. At least in this video, he moved far more slowly than John Bartholomew did in his chess fundamentals and advancing up the ratings ladders series, and... well... the material was less advanced. Yes, some of it was a tad too basic for me, but overall there was more useful material for me than even Jb's videos for sub-1000s. Plus, I didn't feel stupid, which helped a lot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wpe8-09N6E

Learning how to not blunder isn`t a matter of using some special tricks or mental techniques, it comes from habit.  I`m rated 1520 in rapid and at my level people (including me) still blunder just due to inattention. It`s only at far higher levels, let`s say 1900+ that pure inattention blunders start to almost completely go away. In blitz they never go away. there are many videos where  IM John Bartholomew plays blitz and blunders something in difficult positions or when in time trouble.

In order to build a defense against blundering ,start practicing good chess habits. Always look at the whole board. After every move. You don`t need to try to calculate ahead,  just realize what squares are under attack. This will save you from dropping undefended pieces to long-range pieces like a bishop or a rook on the other side of the board for example.  Keep an eye on your pieces, ESPECIALLY those that are undefended and/or in your opponents half of the board. If possible you want to always keep everything defended, all through the opening and the middle game. If your opponent moves pieces into your half of the board, you should look for ways to challenge it ASAP even if it`s not immediately attacking something. One piece (except for the queen) often isn`t enough to do any considerable damage to your position, but two pieces infiltrated into your position is often decisive. Don`t let your opponent get there easily. 

2. Apart from that , you want to especially pay close attention to the location of your king, queen and rooks. The majority of tactics and major threats target these pieces, so keeping them out of harms way is essential. Are they on the same diagonal, file or rank? If they are there is a possibility that they can be skewered, pinned, or forked. So be on the lookout for that. Again you don`t need to calculate ahead, just ask yourself questions like "if i place my queen/king/rook here, can my opponent attack it next turn? Do I have a response to that attack?" That`s it. 

3. Never play moves instantly, no matter how good they may look.  If it`s your move and you have a good move to play, such as capturing a piece or a pawn, you should ALWAYS have a very good look around before you play it. Keep a mindset that it is better to lose on time than to play a stupid blunder. This is a turn based game, you`re not in a hurry. 

4. Don`t play checks or attacking moves without a follow-up. This is related to the principle of keeping undefended pieces to a minimum. If you start attacking and checking without a clear follow-up threat, you are in danger of leaving a bunch of far-flung pieces around which can be attacked and kicked around while your opponent improves his position. If you play a check or an attacking move, calculate at least one move beyond that move and force yourself to give a reason for the move you`re about to play. 

 

It may sound counter-intuitive but what actually got me out of the 800-1000 and beyond range was trying to calculate LESS, not more. The only exception is if you are calculating a forcing line like a capture, check or threat. That is much easier, because then your opponent in the majority of cases HAS to play a given move in order to not lose material or the game. If you get too caught up trying to always calculate many moves ahead when the game has no tactical blows available, you will start exhausting yourself and get frustrated when your brain starts heating up and your eyes go all criss-cross from trying to visualize fancy variations.  Save that energy for when you need to calculate forcing lines. When I started out I would think about things like "should I develop my knight to d2 or c3.. if my opponent plays there and here then my knight can go there.." and so on.. There is no point in that, only a master chess player would be able to exploit an opening inaccuracy, your knight is fine on any square.. just get it developed. Hope you see what I mean

You don`t need to be a chess genius to win at those ratings. Keep things simple. Develop, look at your opponents threats, keep your pieces active, look at your opponents threats, get your king to safety, look at your opponents threats. After developing and castling, it is time to look for ways to attack the opponent king or weak squares. You don`t need a more advanced plan than that. Just have a look around and identify which squares in your opponents camp are weak and try to attack there .Opening up lines to the enemy king is almost always good, even if you can`t check him or attack in the next few moves. An exposed opponent king is a MASSIVE advantage.  Remember that you will usually need to use pawns to break down your opponents defences. No pawn push, no plan.

You know I told the secret to winning e4 e5 openings and at least how to equalize the game as black to someone before. And you know what? He didn’t believe a word that I said. Not one. He just kept playing the way he was playing, and didn’t improve. Giasira told this guy how to play good chess. Let’s see if he listens.

Also it’s not good enough to just be told things like this. He has to practice this stuff a lot before it can become a habit.

Even so, just saying, “Attack weak squares,” is very vague. He is a noob remember. He might not have as clear of a picture as you of that line of reasoning. When giving advice like that, it’s best to include examples.

I can see why he finds Ben Finegolds 1:00 class to be easier to understand than JB’s videos on the Fundamentals.

I think the reason why you are having a hard time understanding JB’s videos is because you don’t have a good mental board of chess in your mind. A NM friend of mind told me that before he was able to play blindfold chess when he dreamed of playing chess the chess moves didn’t make sense to him, but after learning it, he was able to decipher the boards in his dreams. Now I’m not sure exactly how that fits with what I’m talking about, but at the very least, we can say that the board in your head isn’t good enough to play anything near blindfold chess. And it never will be without training. I’m not saying try and learn to play blindfold chess. What I am saying is play as many games as you can, and keep doing what you are doing, and also play through an annotated game collection like logical chess move by move. Something that forces you to use notation, and do 5 minutes of chess vision exorcises a day. Do that for awhile and see if you can understand his videos then... probably 100 games or so later, with some correspondence as practice as well. By then that board in your head should be better. Also, when you get a tactic wrong when you are doing tactics, cycle through the moves of the tactics 3 times. Then, do it in your head.

FYI I’ve seen games even played at the 1000 level where players when they are white usually, will just wait to see which side their opponent castles, then they will castle on the opposite side. This will usually translate to you as black castling on the Kingside and him as white castling on the queenside. Even at a low level ive seen games where black defending against white like this had no real chance to defend just because black castled too early. I also have experience with playing against 3 different very good attacking players who are specialists at just waiting for their opponent to castle and then castling on the opposite side. I’ve lost a lot of games just because I castled kingside, because of these attackers. A GM can yell at you until he’s blue and say there is always a defense, but, you are not a GM...

Never do anything by rote.

Don’t trade pieces blindly.

Don’t “always” castle early.

This advice may not matter much at your level, but it is something to think about.

 

I don't have anything specific but...

So in short, the secret to e4 e5 openings is to prevent black from playing d5 for as long as possible, and blacks job is to try and play d5.  If the Italian is played, at the lower levels like your level, you may score some wins with Fried Liver attacks, or other tactics, that involve the Light Squared bishop, but at the higher level most people find a way to deal with all those threats, and it involves proceeding into a game where the dominate pieces get traded, and it just becomes more of a game with the knights with no bishops later.  Certain variations to this might exist, but that is the main thing that happens in most e4 e5 openings when white plays the Italian.  Black is trying to play for a central pawn break at d5, and white is trying to prevent this.

I can dig through my archives and try to find some illustrative examples from when I was climbing the rating ladder around 1000-1200 rated. It will be good practice to go through those older games and look for missed tactical opportunities etc. I have a thread where I post  rapid games I`ve played which I analyse myself so you can try to see if you can derive something from my thought process in those games. Here is the thread: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-analysis/road-to-1600-rapid-trying-to-improve-after-every-game. Take it with a grain of salt, I`m no chess coach, but I started with 800 and made an effort to climb to 1500+ so there is something to be learned hopefully . 

There is a marvellous channel on youtube which i can reccomend, called TheChessNetwork. They have a series called "from beginner to chess master", where they go through the concept of weak squares, mating patterns, tactics etc. To understand what I mean by weak squares, take a look at their videos on pawn structures and holes. In fact look at all the videos in that playlist, it is an absolute goldmine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKUG7qm4ZkM&list=PLQsLDm9Rq9bHKEBnElquF8GuWkI1EJ8Zp&index=13

Great posts so far.Greatly appreciated!

 

 

I just do it here on chess.com. Take a game up on an analysis board, then just click the moves to add comments to them. If you want to add a variation, play a different move and it will appear in brackets under the move that was actually played in the game. Once all comments have been added you can download the PGN which will give you the annotated game. Copy the whole thing then use the "insert" function above this writing field to insert the game with comments.

I would suggest you try one of these https://www.chessable.com/the-fundamentals-build-up-your-chess-1/course/19145/, they are interactive video guides that you might find quite useful. 

The key takeaways from the game I posted I would say are these:

1. I never calculated more than at most 2-3 moves ahead, and the calculations I made were based on simple observations about piece placement. This was true for 1100-1200 level and it is still mostly true at 1500+ level. The only difference is that opponents will make fewer exploitable mistakes on average and pure 1-2 move tactical shots become rarer. Learn "calculation shortcuts" such as piece counting and the rule of the square. The first calculation shortcut is that you need one more attacking piece than defending piece in order to capture safely. If a pawn or a piece is defended twice and attacked twice, then the defender has enough resources, if not, the attacker can usually take it. This realization saved me a TON of calculation energy. The rule of the square is harder to explain, it has to do with whether or not a king can catch a passed pawn, look it up  

2. If there is no obvious tactical shot or forcing line (such as a capture) in the position, think about how you can develop any undeveloped pieces (such as the bishop I still had on the back rank), If all your pieces, including the rooks are developed, think about the pawn breaks you have in the position. In this game It didn`t apply so much as tactics arising from piece play decided the game, but if you can imagine the opponent not accepting the bishop and instead hunkering down in defence, you can imagine that pushing the a, b and c pawns could be part of a plan forward. Correct pawn play can be confusing because it is hard to calculate the long-term ramifications of pawn exchanges, but at lower ratings all you need to think about IMO is that "if this and this pawn weren`t there and there were open lines, would I or my opponent be best situated to take advantage of it?"

The finer points of pawn structures are better left for later, in the vast majority of my games I never get to a king + pawn endgame because the ultimate result of the game is decided in the middlegame. It is ok to give up a few pawns for a strong attack. Remember that it is hard to win an endgame one or even two pawns up even for many grandmasters if the opponent has a rook and an active king to defend with. Winning pawns isn`t everything.