Beginner question

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quentyana

Hey, after playing some matches against the bots at chess.com(until 1300 I don’t think that matters) Which book is good for beginners? How should I start? Learn openings? Which book can you recommend for me to learn with? (Openings and beyond beginner concepts) because until now I just played with regular logic without pre-think about future moves and concepts, thanks for the helpers!

SenseiWu0513

Do puzzles to be good at tactics

RussBell

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond...

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

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

quentyana
quentyana wrote:

Hey, after playing some matches against the bots at chess.com(until 1300 I don’t think that matters) Which book is good for beginners? How should I start? Learn openings? Which book can you recommend for me to learn with? (Openings and beyond beginner concepts) because until now I just played with regular logic without pre-think about future moves and concepts, thanks for the helpers! https://19216811.cam/

I got this,...

KeSetoKaiba
 quentyana wrote:

Hey, after playing some matches against the bots at chess.com(until 1300 I don’t think that matters) Which book is good for beginners? How should I start? Learn openings? Which book can you recommend for me to learn with? (Openings and beyond beginner concepts) because until now I just played with regular logic without pre-think about future moves and concepts, thanks for the helpers!

bots are okay for occasional practice, but it is better to play human opponents because bots don't "think" the same way humans do and also bots sometimes seem way worse or way better than their rating (reason has to do with how the engine is programed to play different moves at different rating levels because there is some randomization in how it picks certain lines/moves.

Just for beginner level generally speaking, openings aren't super relevant because the small advantages won or lost in this stage of the game tend to be forgiving as the middlegame can be tricky (more chance for either player to blunder) and endgames can sometimes be critically game-changing. For openings, you are probably better off just sticking to chess opening principles than memorizing variations because these principles are fundamental and will teach you how to think for yourself if you come across move(s) you don't know how to face. 

https://www.chess.com/blog/KeSetoKaiba/opening-principles-again 

However, even more important than the opening (as mentioned above) is probably the endgame. Capablanca believed all chess players should start learning with the endgame and work backwards to figure out the game of chess. There is a lot to this because the endgames have less things on the board to focus on and the endgames can also teach valuable patterns and techniques which might be useful to aim for earlier in the game. Worth studying are basic checkmates and basic theoretical endgames. A basic checkmate is what it sounds like: a position where one side has a theoretical win such as King + Rook vs King and a basic theoretical endgame is similar, but a little more technique is required to convert. A powerful example of a theoretical endgame is King + pawn vs King. This is a little more tricky than just a basic checkmate because the player with the pawn needs to utilize the concept of King Opposition to escort the pawn to promotion and then they must know the technique for the King + Queen vs King checkmate (or King + Rook vs King if they decided to underpromote).

Knowing endgames like these when I first started helped my confidence a lot because it is a real confidence boost to know I can (usually based on the configuration) convert even a single pawn into a win (certain King + pawn vs King configurations are forced draws, but often it is a forced win, so studying technique and being able to recognize when a win is there is very useful).

tygxc

@1

"Which book is good for beginners?"
Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess - Fischer
Chess Fundamentals - Capablanca


"Learn openings?" ++ No. Just play for the center, develop your pieces into play, castle your king to safety and connect your rooks O-O.