Best advice for begginers?

Hey everyone,

I am woefully aware that this post has probably been made thousands of times on this site. However, I am new to studying chess and playing in general. I was not raised on chess and am now starting at age 25. I have bought the premium subscription on here so I can utilize all the lessons, puzzles, and other learning tools Chess.com has to offer. However, in terms of YouTubers or any other mediums I could use to help me learn, I am pretty lost. Can anyone point me in the right direction with other tools that can help me learn? I understand the overall premise, however, seeing checks and checkmates are kind of difficult. I often end my games in stalemates which is getting frustrating to me.

Thanks all,

Ash.

I have been playing since 1996 the best way to do it is play games play play play play play forget to study and forget tactics and play play play play play Just develop your own style and figure out what you like to do gotten when you get a pretty good handle on how all the pieces cooperate with each other in combination of course learning proper checkmates and tactics training makes sense but for now all you need to do is have fun and that's just moving the pieces around just keep playing daily

Do a combination of lessons, puzzles, and - of course - playing!  Focus on enjoying the experience as you will suffer a good number of quick losses as you get more comfortable in chess (and of course enjoy the wins you make!).

There are plenty of chess content creators out there who also have their variety of lessons, instructional play, and overall fun times.  You can always stop by ChessTV (https://www.chess.com/tv) to see who they are broadcasting at the moment to see if it is someone you would like to follow on Twitch or Youtube.

Here are all the tips I have for you about getting better:

https://www.chess.com/blog/nklristic/the-beginners-tale-first-steps-to-chess-improvement

I've written the article with the assumption that the reader doesn't have a membership here, but it is all good for you as well. You will just have some additional options for learning because of diamond membership.

Apart from that article, I will say a bit about your membership. The main point of diamond membership which you have (other membership plans doesn't have this) is the video library. Make use of it. It is an alternative to the free content you have on YouTube (and I presume that it is even better). In any case combine video library from here with some of those good channels I've linked in my article.

This guide on video library will help you to get started:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/video-guide

Make sure to do lessons as well. Diamond membership will give you unlimited lessons per week, but you should do the amount that feels comfortable. In other words do lessons at your own pace. 

Drills are cool for endgame stuff, you should do puzzles as well (you can do them here or somewhere else online as well, there are many possibilities). Puzzles are great in order to improve tactical vision which is important. 

In any case, have fun improving your game. If you need something else, feel free to ask.

Helloooooo!

A little late but what I did to help me relearn chess after a couple of years of not playing was
1. Learn a simple opening (Scotch Game, Italian Game, including fried liver attack, King’s Indian, London)
2. Play with this opening A LOT. If time is an issue I recommend blitz and bullet just to get the opening down. (But still play rapid much more if you can)
3. Learn simple tactics. The best way to do this is DEFINITELY puzzles. Since you have a diamond membership, this shouldn’t be a problem. Training puzzles at first, and then a little bit of puzzle rush to memorize certain checkmate patterns, attacks, and other tactics.
4. Drills and lessons to touch up your skills. All of these should get you to 1000-1200. From there, learn more advanced openings, theory, and keep the puzzles up.

Thank you for taking your time to comment and share this on my post, Niko. Very thoughtful guidance in your blog. I haven't even considered the videos on Chess.com, so I feel a little silly but im going to absolutely take your advice and utilize them.

Furthermore, I am not sure if everyone would be notified as I comment, but I want to thank everyone for commenting on my post. I appreciate it, taking all comments into consideration. <3

Do puzzles. Buy the right books. Don't dive deep into openings, just learn a couple moves. Tactics. Thermonuclear corncobs

You are welcome. Thank you for your kind words. That is why I wrote those. Inside it you may find links to other blogs as well, if you are interested to read in more detail about certain topics I've mentioned in that guide.  
 

watch gothamchess how to win at chess and learn the Kings Indian deefence for black and either the vienna or london depending on wether u prefer e4 or d4

i prefer gothamchess but any chess youtuber is gppd

To be better at chess is like learning a new language. Study and practice and do it again and again.

Select as few and easy to learn openings as possible: London as white, French FortKnox ( and later Rubinstein) against 1.e4 and Dutch Leningrad (+ later Stonewall) against all other frequent white moves. All these openings are pattern openings with repetitions. Learn them well.

Before every move you do ask these questions to yourself:

1.are there any threats? If so neutralize them.

2.is my development finished? If not make a developing move.

3.can I improve a piece or a pawns position? If so, do it.

Sooner or later you will get winning chances.

And play through a lot of games with your openings and with good comments.

Always set up a real chess board to get a real feel for chess and for concentration.

 

Just to state one thing. I see that many people, as always when novice player asks for help, advises London system. London system is of course a viable option, but I wouldn't advise it for a beginner. 

London system is a setup in which you will get mostly the same structure every time you play as white, and you will almost certainly play the same 7-10 moves in the opening. Beginner should expose his/her brain to some different stuff, different structures. 

It is better for a beginner to play something that will provide different positions. For instance if you start with e4, against e5 you can play something like: Italian game, Scotch or Ruy Lopez if you wish. Any of those alone will give you bigger variety of positions when compared to London System. 

Not to mention that you will play against Sicilian Defense, Pirc, French, Caro Kann, Modern, etc. as well if you start with e4. 

And if you start with d4 and play c4 afterwards, instead of London, you will gain experience in Nimzo, Queens Indian, Bogo Indian, Kings Indian, Grunefeld, QGD, QGA, Slav, Semi Slav... in any case, you will get a lot more experience that way than playing London System, which is not bad by itself, but it will give you limited experience and it might become boring after a while as well. 

I understand the appealing of London System. Suddenly the theory doesn't look scary anymore, beginner will have an easier time starting out with chess. But beginner level is actually the best time to gain experience in openings I've mentioned. The opponents are most likely novice players themselves and it will be a level playing field considering theory. 

In short, don't be afraid to not know your openings in the beginning, that is completely fine and expected. Pick a non system opening and slowly build your knowledge while playing games.

When playing games, don't forget to eat plenty of pizzashley.

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

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

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

like arosbishop said, learning chess is like learning a new language. There is no substitute for study and playing games. For studying, I'd recommend watching videos first - many free ones on youtube, and many good ones on chess.com! Especially the chess.com lessons. 

A small bit of advice - once you learn a new concept, try it out in your own games. You can have all the chess knowledge in the world but it means nothing if you can't implement it in your games.

Drink before and while you're playing. enjoy the game don't be so anal or you will become like them

 

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’m a chess coach based and chess book author based in California. 

I have tips to help you improve your chess skills so you can win more games.  

-I  offer a  free beginner’s free eBook on my website, www.ChessByLauren.com in case you are interested. The book is about asking questions before each move.  

-Learn basic tactics such as the fork, discovered attack, pin, and more.  I offer interactive puzzles on my website: https://www.chessbylauren.com/two-choice-puzzles.php  

-I recommend two books for you: “50 Poison Pieces”   and “Queen For A Day: The Girl’s Guide To Chess Mastery.”  Both books are available on Amazon.com.  

-If you are serious about chess, I highly recommend you hiring a chess coach to help you.  

I hope that this helps.