Coach

Check with your local chess club or school.  Check out NextLevelChess for good articles, even about how to select a coach.

Before getting a coach, make sure you have well defined goals, then choose a coach that will help you meet your goals.  A coach should work for you, develop a study plan together, help you to understand as you progress. It is not uncommon to change coaches along the way.

Hope this helps.  Good luck.

As a follow-up, you should be able to clearly answer these:

What do you want to accomplish in playing chess?  And why?  What is your experience and rating?  How much time are you prepared to devote to studying?  Why do you need a coach?  This will help going forward 

Dear Pheonix420,

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 analyzing 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 is that it can't explain to you the plans, ideas behind the moves, so you won't know why it is 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. 

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

A good book is better than a mediocre coach.
A $20 book by a grandmaster gives you 200 hours of top coaching.

"you said that you can improve after studying chess for 200 hours"
++ I said I believe Lasker that any young person can reach 2000 in 200 hours.

"Did it help you?" ++ My highest was 2145, that is above 2000.

"Time has gone but you're on the same trash level!" ++ You are at 2100, trash...

Thanks to all of you so much for the suggestions!

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’m a respected  chess coach and chess YouTuber who helps beginners out : 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP5SPSG_sWSYPjqJYMNwL_Q

Send me one of your games and I'll be happy to analyze the game for free on my YouTube channel on Sunday livestream from 1-2PM PST.  Ask me questions in real time!  

This is a great way to improve!

Here’s more  ideas to help you get better.  

-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.  Both books are endorsed by chess masters!  

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

-Also consider all checks and captures on your side and also your opponent’s side. Always as, “If I move here, where is my opponent going to move?”. Do this for every single move!  

-Play with a slow time control, such as G/30 so you have plenty of time to think before every move. 

thank you so much for the suggestions and tips I really appreciate the help!