Well ... the bottom line is really: dont play bots. EVER.
They play completely differently than people and they will give you really bad habits, making you play lazy chess.
Other than that, expect to be slaughtered. I certainly have been.
People are simply far less predictable than bots. Against bots, just build a fortress and you can wait until the bot blunders. Because bots are programmed to blunder.
Doesnt work like that against people.
^Worst take ever.
Bots aren't bad.
The power of your argument defeated me.
Except ... you made none. You only said I'm wrong, but not WHY I'm apparently wrong.
Hu !
Playing vs bots is okay to train at basics (like not blundering your queen in first ten moves). But human opponents are stronger and much more fun.
Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond.....
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond
Time, yes you want higher time. 15-10 feels better for me as if you're nearly out of time, semirandom moves still give you time (just don't blunder anything). Either way, should be enough time to think, just don't focus on it too much.
Well ... the bottom line is really: dont play bots. EVER.
They play completely differently than people
It is notoriously difficult to tell if a chess game was played by a human or a bot.
"They play completely differently" is nothing more than a myth.
The most important thing in your first real player games is to not hang pieces, and not miss when you opponent hangs a piece. Without developing this skill, all the fun tactical, positional, opening and end game stuff is pretty much irrelevant. You'll need to check every piece of yours and your opponent every move for potentially a 50+ move game. For this reason, I strongly recommend at least 15|10, a full 30 is even better. If this sounds exhausting, don't worry it becomes entirely second nature quickly, but only if you've done it slow and methodical first.
I stopped playing bots as you can't trick them like humans ,no fun . I found 10 min games was a good start point then move onto 5 mins unless you like long games trouble with 10 min games is some losers will not move if losing and you can have a long and dull wait or other players are just so slow I lose interest and start falling asleep and they win from boring me to death .
I’m thinking I probably ought to try playing some actual people - is there any advice I should know before I try my luck? I’ve never played under strict time controls (but my bot games are always over in < 20 mins in my lunch break), and I don’t know if there is anything in particular I should be aware of before I try playing people…