can’t seem to get a win.

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Avatar of jon25270
I’m very new at chess, only been playing for about two months. Watched lots of You Tube videos that I could find that deals with beginning chess. I seem to start out OK developing my pieces and trying to get control of the center but when I make the transition into the middle game it seems that everything falls apart.
I do puzzles every day to try to improve upon my tactics. Just starting to get frustrated. Any advice? I am doing mostly daily games so I’m not rushed and can study the board better.
Avatar of sande585

Jon. Learn 2 openings for white and 2 for black. Also, think about what the oppositions response to these moves might be. It is essential to have two good solid openings for each colour and when you shift into the middle game lines will become clearer and you can play solidly. Take some lessons as well if you have time.

Avatar of MarkGrubb

Hi Jon. Regarding the rapid games, 10 minutes is too fast to help you improve. Try to play longer rapid games. One 30 minuter is better for improvement than 3 x 10 minute games. I looked at your last daily loss. It looked like you completely missed your opponents threat of mate on h7. Try and develop the habit of asking yourself 'what is my opponent threatening?' after every move. Another way of framing it is asking yourself 'is my next move safe?' where safety includes missing your opponents threat which may be elsewhere on the board. I also saw that you moved your knight a few times while your rooks did nothing. Once you've developed your minor pieces, try and get your rooks in the game. This will mean advancing and exchanging off pawns to open files. If you are behind in development then you may want to delay opening up the game until you've caught up. You'll learn this from experience. But try to get all your pieces developed then tactical opportunities will start to appear and the puzzle training will payoff.

Avatar of MarkGrubb

Hi Jon. Another thing to think about is your exchanges. Watch John Bartholomew's Chess Fundamentals Series on evaluating exchanges. In eli1488 you exchange off the DSB straight away. This gives your opponent a half open file for their rook and an extra central pawn. You dont have to take straight away. Often it's better to hold the tension. When equal material is going to be exchanged off, often it is the position after the exchange that is important not the material itself. If you had played Bb6 and exchanged bishops on b6, taking back with the a pawn this would give you a half open a file and an extra b pawn with improved control of squares on the c file. Maybe only a small advantage but better than giving it to your opponent. But the point is critically evaluate all even trades. Ask yourself the question 'what's in it for me?' and look for ways to improve your position from the exchange.

Avatar of LeiJChess

As some others have suggested, find decent openings that you are comfortable playing and leaving you will a good position when you transition into the middlegame. When you are out of the opening, the main challenge is to improve your position and improve your pieces, to squares where they will do better. Every opening gives you a plan of what you will be trying to achieve in the middlegame to get an advantage. Then just try not to blunder anything, which your tactics and practice will definitely help, and let your opponent blunder and make mistakes first so you will be on the way to winning. 

Avatar of JackRoach

Man, I have the opposite problem. I can't seem to lose. (Just kidding, I tilted 50 points yesterday.)

The Danish Gambit is good, that's a fun opening you can try.

Avatar of jon25270

I am sticking to mainly one opening, the London.  I mainly play daily games and every once in a while I will play 10 or 15 minute unrated games to try out openings, I'm not aiming to win those just see where it takes me and that I'm not blundering.  I usually resign after a big blunder or two..  As for black, I'm trying to stick to the kings Indian defense or e6 b6 and then develop from there.   I also check the analysis for each game and move I make.  I had a cousin that was good friends with Bobby Fischer and was his second when he played Spassky.  I guess it doesn't run in the family.  

Avatar of Laskersnephew

To improve at chess, you have to do two things: 1)Blunder less, and 2)Take better advantage of your opponent's blunders.  And it isn't that hard to accomplish these goals. When your opponent moves, before you start considering your own moves, you need to ask yourself "Does he have any checks or captures?"  In other words, is he about to hurt you? You need to do this at every turn. No more he grabs an unprotected piece or delivers a crushing check and you go "Oh, I didn't see that!"  And when it comes time for you to consider your own move, you need to ask yourself "Do I have any checks or captures?" and look at every one of them!  Now you will be snatching his unprotected pieces, or you will be delivering the crushing check. And your opponent will be saying "Oh, I didn't see that!"

Avatar of bebinca
Same
Avatar of jon25270

Laskersnephew, that's what I've been trying to do.  I'm getting better but I still feel like I'm spending the games being chased rather then doing the chasing.  Need to work on giving myself better positions rather then looking at my pieces and realizing I have no good moves that will put me in a position to either exchanged my pieces for an equal piece or one that will put me in a place where I can make a move to better my positions.   I'm always looking for the unprotected pieces, possible checks and good exchanges.  

Avatar of Ishouldntbevenplayin

add me. I do 1 hour games, you will win all the time lol

Avatar of jonnin

Lets look at one..

your recent loss against firefly.  I see you ran the site's analysis. 

12: bb5+ is a blunder as the computer said, but bxf5 is the move here, do you see that you have a free pawn?

when you retreat that bishop to e2 after the pointless check (lets talk about that: what did you hope to accomplish?  you wasted 2 moves and allowed black to develop pawn structure at no cost ... and if you look, there is nothing you can do with that check to improve yourself) -- anyway, you retreated too far, should have re-attacked that same loose pawn (f5). 

The sequence costs you the f5 pawn which was a major thorn in black's position (it was likely doomed eventually anyway, but at least punish him for it), center control and space and all those kinds of ideas.  It exposed b2 to an attack as well.  You then play e4, giving black even more center / space/ pawn structure when he captures it.   A few pawn moves (unclear what you were going for) but you drop the ball with b4 and lose another pawn and then the rook.  

That was not awesome, but you also missed your shot at equalizing and coming back. 20) RxR + and his only logical move is KxR, allowing your queen to drop in, check, and then nab the h pawn, followed by Bxg4 and you are sort of back in the game.  Still behind but you have SOME compensation.   (The computer found a way out of this, but you were 7 points behind and going bold is all you have left to try). 

What  I am seeing here is standard beginner problems, but weird and less than usual.  You are missing free pieces (pawns = pieces in this regard), and missing attacks against you (losing that rook to the bishop, etc) and while you have studied, its not all hitting home yet on pawn structures.  Those weak pawn moves hurt you, a lot.  You should look at a study on pawns, what it means when one is weak, backwards, etc .. when to move then, when not to.  Pawns can't go back: if you move one, its a game changing event every time, and learning to use them correctly to control the board, survive to endgame, and allow yourself mobility while limiting your opponent... it takes some time to get a handle on that.  As you noted, you have a REALLY good start.  Keep doing that. 

 

 

Avatar of nklristic

Here are some general tips you might find useful:

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

Avatar of Laskersnephew

I don't know if it will help, but let's look at a couple of recent games

 

Avatar of jon25270

Thanks for the review of that game.  I went into that game to work on my opening, when he started to push those pawns on the king side it threw me off. I need to stay away from the 10 minutes games.  

Avatar of sopps421
analyze your game so you s
Avatar of Wits-end

@jon25270 If you started two months ago I’d say you’re doing alright. (Of course how would I know right?) But yes, playing less 10 minute games (which can fun and addicting) will help. Go to 1 day games. You’d be surprised how many accept them and then play quite a bit in just a few hours. You get to think things through without having the clock working against you. Go for it!

Avatar of Misplle

Speaking of learning two openings for white and black, you should probably learn the London System. It's suitable for beginners. Also, GothamChess has a great video on it. (Of course, he does.) It's is favorite opening, so you'll learn a lot.

Avatar of SamiBlue116
Keep on keepin’ on Jon! 👍🏽
Avatar of Novocastrian4
jon25270 wrote:
I’m very new at chess, only been playing for about two months. Watched lots of You Tube videos that I could find that deals with beginning chess. I seem to start out OK developing my pieces and trying to get control of the center but when I make the transition into the middle game it seems that everything falls apart.
I do puzzles every day to try to improve upon my tactics. Just starting to get frustrated. Any advice? I am doing mostly daily games so I’m not rushed and can study the board better.

I'm only new as well. Your stats look like my previous account. Chess.com can sometimes give an exaggerated rating to beginners if you win your early matches against other opponents with exaggerated ratings as well. My rating was 1200 and it took about 30 loses for few wins to get to my real rating of 600-650. I started a new account as a result.