Confessions of a noobie - the first year.

I've been a member of Chess.com for just over a year.  I didn't want to start by playing other humans on-line until I took the time to understand the basics. I figured that by playing bots and puzzles I could make mistakes without causing human players to suffer with my admitted incompetence.  My chess time has been about 60% puzzles and 35% computer bots - and only recently, 10 minute games against human opponents on Chess.com making-up the remaining 5%. PUZZLES: I play puzzles on two websites; chess.com and lichess.org. I've played over 5,000 puzzles on chess.com and about half that number on lichess.org. In my humble opinion the puzzles on lichess.org are significantly better than chess.com. For starters, the "rated" puzzles (blue icon) on chess.com contain frequent errors - I've saved dozens of puzzles that are either laughably wrong or even violate the rules of chess (see one sample of what the computer thought was the "correct" move, below) I have problems staying near my peak puzzle rating of 1398 because by my estimation roughly one in six puzzles are 1) stupidly wrong or 2) give away high value pieces for no perceivable gain or 3) violate the rules of chess. I have yet to find a puzzle on lichess.org that violates the rules of chess and my rating  is slowly improving into the 1400 area. BOTS: I have played several hundred games against BOTS. Note that these games are played without a clock so I can take all the time I want to consider my next move(s) - this turns out to be a HUGE advantage which I do not enjoy in the timed games I play against human opponents. I beat BOTS rated 600 and under roughly 90% of the games, roughly two out of three for BOTS between 600 and 1000, one out of four or five for BOTS between 1000 and 1400 (Nelson BOT) and have only beaten a BOT over 1400 twice (Mateo BOT). As far as playing human opponents in timed (10 minute) games, of the roughly 20 games I have played I don't do well, even though no one I have played is rated over 400.  The two reasons I attribute this lack of dominance over low rated players are the 10 minute clock is entirely new to me and sometimes I lose on time and the approach to the game exhibited by newer players is unfamiliar to me as compared to higher rated BOT players I play. And yes, just to check I played BOT Juan (400) and dispatched him rapidly - but I still lose to human players in the 300 range.  However my BIG frustration is the lack of face-to-face contact with other, more experienced chess players. Largely because of covid all the chess clubs here near the Illinois-Wisconsin border have been inactive for a long time. I was excited to see a local community college offer a chess class - but it too was canceled. I even  got the contact info for the instructor and sent him an email - but no response. I would be grateful if you would share your experiences in your approach to chess by adding to this topic. Thank You! 

I suggest you pick a longer time control. You can try 15/10 (which is 15 minutes per player plus 10 seconds added to the clock on each move) or 45/45 (45 minutes per player and 45 seconds added each move). That should solve the clock problem.

I have solved a lot of puzzles on chess.com and have not found any to violate the rules of chess in any way. Sometimes you do have to sac a queen or some other valuable piece in the puzzles, but always for a good reason. You always end up either check mating or winning material in the puzzles.

Thank you for your timing recommendation - I'll give it a try. As for illegal moves here's another one of my favorites where the "correct" solution is to violate the rules of chess. As you know the most fundamental rule of king moves is that they cannot move into check...am I missing something? And as far as sacking a high value piece - well yes of course - my only hope of winning against a 1300+ player is to trade queens early...I'm sure there are better ways, but I am a noobie.

Stop deceiving yourself with bots and get more experience with human cause bots play is quite not real.

Now that I feel I know the nuts and bolts of the rules of the game and a few openings I am doing exactly that - a real eye-opener...

Now I just realized that I started playing roughly a month after you and if you compare were am at now with your at you realize you are missing out on the experience if playing with humans which explains why are where you are.

The white pawns are moving downwards in the image. The king will not be in check if it takes as the arrow shows.

you have a point...I guess the tipoff was the movement of the a pawn...but still there is no explaining the black queen using "quantum tunneling" through a bishop in the previous example I gave...

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That is not true at all, and two of the puzzles you posted demonstrate that fact pretty clearly.  Many puzzles I do on my phone and on the site present either black or white at the bottom.

First, the last pawn move by white is highlighted and shows it moving downwards.

Second, h-file is on the left and 8th rank on the bottom in the picture. It is clearly from black’s perspective or in other words, the board is upside down.

Maybe for the first example, the move is for after the bishop takes the pawn, in which the solution would be accurate, and you screenshotted it at the wrong time. As for the bots, after a certain level, they are not very helpful, because they make either unreasonably bad or good moves that your opponents won't make.

Try some 15 |10 games versus humans. While it does not sound like you have a lot more time you really do have a good bit more time since each move adds 10 seconds to the clock. Do not worry about losing, just review the game win or lose and look for the suggested area of study that Chess.com will provide in the after game analysis. 

I made my account in march but have been actively trying to get better since November/December. I’ve improved from a starting rating of 850ish to 1420(still rising, probably), and yeah, facing real opponents is much better than facing against bots due to the fact that the bots are programmed in a way where they rarely choose the best move unless your facing a much higher level one, so I would recommend playing against real players, 15|10 or 30|0 are decent and you won’t run out of time easily. For the puzzles shown they aren’t violating the laws of chess, if your on the site it will say how many times it’s been playing and the rate at which people get it right, and if it is a bugged puzzle (unlikely) then you could report it to staff. If you want to improve your ratings significantly than just learning nether basics (basic checkmates, castling, knowing when your opponent is threatening checkmate, knowing en passant and basic openings) will get you a far way. 

15|10 is an excellent time control indeed if you have the time.

"Chess Basics" is a free course at Chessable.com that will help you. Designed for beginning players.   https://www.chessable.com/chess-basics/course/27081/  If you want to spend a little money then "Everyone's First Chess Workbook" is solid.

Thanks!

The Ruy Lopez is not a good opening for beginner level. The Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez leads to rather dry positions. Black's doubled c-pawns really mean nothing, as Black has the bishop pair in compensation. Other mainlines of the Ruy Lopez may lead to complex closed positions where both players must maneuver their pieces to the optimal squares. All in all, the Ruy Lopez is far too complex of an opening for a beginner. The dense theory and complex ideas behind the opening is best played by masters. Just saying

Idk I played it for a bit, don’t know too much besides for its simple to remember lol