What does encumber mean?
Best things to learn first as a beginner?
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Feb 4, 2022
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#23
Don't encumber your eggs. Diversify. Create many small threats all over the board and use them to your advantage.
MelvinGarvey wrote:
@magipi is right, except it's the pre-beginner stage. One becomes a beginner once they can play games without distributing free candies around.
I understand that this is a half-joke, but still it is too harsh. A player is ready to play chess when he/she knows how the pieces move and knows most of the rules (but not necessarily things like en passant, that is too hard). Playing without 1-move blunders come many-many games later. It is not very hard, but neither it is trivial.
A good hint to start the game is to play with a friend for example this game
This allows you to have endgame notions , so you try to win this and slowly you add pieces, one
game with only pawns and rooks , and so on.
I would have loved to learn the game like that when i started , i would be a stronger player now
Learning basic checkmates (like Queen + King vs King) or basic theoretical endgames (like King + pawn vs King when winning or when a draw) are really useful and good confidence builders because then you'll have a better idea of what endgames you can aim for during the rest of the chess game.
As for openings, chess opening principles is enough "opening study" for 1000+ chess.com rating. https://www.chess.com/blog/KeSetoKaiba/opening-principles-again
What defines a "longer time control" is different for different people because some people naturally think faster than others (for better or worse). I'd experiment a little with a few time controls and see what you are fairly comfortable with, then maybe play that or slightly longer. The important thing is to not feel rushed during the game and giving yourself enough time mid-game to consider other moves, or what happens if you move here and opponent there etc.
For "longer games" I wouldn't recommend anything shorter than 10 minutes. Some people like 10 minute games (which could last up to 20 minutes as it is 10 min. per side), others like 15/10, others like 30 min. and so on. A friend of mine used to play 30 min games only and they said that switching to 1 hour games (60 minutes per side) was one of the "best things they did for their chess). However, that personally wouldn't have worked for me because extra time doesn't always increase quality - especially if you don't know what to look for.
You just have to experiment to find the balance between a game being too long and too short, but if completely unsure, try 10 min to 30 min range games to begin with I'd say. Some may disagree and believe a beginner needs longer than this, but it is just my own opinion and it is fine if some disagree; when I was starting out, 10 minutes was plenty of time for me as it takes a different type of focus and mindset to play longer games (as skill I didn't have when first starting out).