Best advices for beginner

Hello everyone! I am a complete beginner at chess. I feel terribly bad when playing with other players, making a lot of mistakes and not knowing how to checkmate.

Currently, I am doing tactics every day, around 50 of them. I am also doing the lessons and it is very interesting! I learned many things that I apply in my games. I also play a lot with real people, and also with bots (I am able to easily beat 600 Elo bots but it becomes hard above it).

So basically, what would be your best advices for me ? What are the small improvements or training I can do to feel a difference in my level? Thank you!

1. Remember to enjoy the game. Chess should be fun.

2. Look up for unprotected pieces, both your own and your opponents. Below 1500 most games are decided by the one winning the most material.

3. Do not play to much bullet or blitz as you will not learn any chess by that (but of course you will get a bit better at bullet or blitz). Play games where you will have time to think.

4. Choose classical openings. A rule of thump is, that a chessplayer should develop in the same way as the game has developed (but of course faster). So it is a god idea to begin with romantic openings from the 1800th century. Try to play like Morphy, Andersson, Zukertort, Steinitz etc.

Play 1.e4 with White, and if 1..e5 follow op with 2.Nc3, 2.Nf3, 2.d4 or 2.f4 (try them all and compare your games with the theory = learning some moves of teory game by game). With Black answer 1.e4 with 1..e5.

If your opponent play something other than 1..e5 on your 1.e4, or if they play something other as 1.e4 as White, then play by your feeling and don't bother learning opening teory in these lines.

Here are some general tips you may find useful:

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

Dear DimitriBien,

I am 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 general way to learn. 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 analysing your own games. Of course, if you are a beginner, you can't do it efficiently because you don't know too much about the game yet. There is a built-in engine on chess.com which can show you if a move is good or bad but the only problem that it can't explain you the plans, ideas behind the moves, so you won't know why is it so good or bad.

You can learn from books or Youtube channels as well, and maybe you can find a lot of useful information there but these sources are mostly general things and not personalized at all. That's why you need a good coach sooner or later if you really want to be better at chess. A good coach can help you with identifying your biggest weaknesses and explain everything, so you can leave your mistakes behind you. Of course, you won't apply everything immediately, this is a learning process (like learning languages), but if you are persistent and enthusiastic, you will achieve your goals.

In my opinion, chess has 4 main territories (openings, strategies, tactics/combinations and endgames). 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 really like it because the lessons are not boring (because we talk about more than one areas within one lesson) and they feel the improvement on the longer run. Of course, there are always ups and downs but this is completely normal in everyone's career.

You mentioned that you solve a lot of puzzles. On the one hand, of course, it is a good thing because you can improve your calculation and visualization skills by solving puzzles. On the other hand, doing too many puzzles can be dangerous because you can lose your patience quickly and you won't think on the right way. The quality is more important than the quantity! It's much more useful for you to solve only 10 puzzles per day with at least 80% accuracy than solving 50 puzzles per day with 60% accuracy.

You have to think ahead without moving the pieces and make your move when you see the solution from the start till the end. This is very important! That's how you can improve your visualisation and calculation skills on the most effective way!

And that's why I would never recommend you to play too many Puzzle Rush or Puzzle Battle games because they are time-limited, so you have to make fast and superficial decisions. And this is very harmful if you really want to improve at chess.

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

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