Hello. I'm new and noticing my flaws. Comments?

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MortenBlunders
chamo2074 wrote:

get gold membership, it's considerably cheaper and not considerably worse then diamond 

Hell yea. Maybe platinum for the unlimited puzzles. Diamond looking a bit steep.

USAuPzlBxBob

 

For someone who's only been playing a few months, you're doing very well.  For beginners, their downfall in games tends to be blundering before their opponent does.  If your younger brother trounced you eight games in a row, it's because he played cautiously while waiting for you to overplay your pieces.  Once you fell behind he had an easy time because he could trade down every chance he got, and win.

Continue with the Puzzles, and don't rush them. (enjoy them)  A Gold membership will vastly improve your experience; no advertisements, unlimited puzzles per day.

In your games, it looks like you're doing well there, too.  Maybe switch over to playing the computer, since it deliberately makes mistakes to give you confidence as you continue getting better.  Look at the Analysis after each game to better understand what you should have done.  Play with the setting of 3 take backs allowed.

Slow and steady wins the race.  Spend more time on your confrontational risky-gambit positions, to avoid making poor moves.  Oftentimes, that's when a conservative developing-move is what is called for.

Not much more I can add… it's been a long time since I was a beginner.  But it is funny that when I read articles on what to do early in a game, the "rules" of what to do are written in stone, seem so obvious, yet how to bring them about "over the board" always remains a challenge… at all levels of experience.

MortenBlunders
USAuPzlBxBob wrote:

… at all levels of experience.

Thanks for all the great feedback! Very interesting to hear comments about my games like this. I've actually really been enjoying working my way up the bots. The 1600 one is the best I've beaten! Hadn't even considered playing with takebacks, but might try that, to take my positions a bit further before they collapse. A little scared it might make me careless.
One sidenote - My brother did not play safe. He mated me in less than 20 moves most of these games, about a week ago. I think like 30-40 moves is the highest it went. Felt eerily similar to the max AI.. But it was in person. Might've trained a bit more than he's letting on..

Marie-AnneLiz
MortenBlunders a écrit :
chamo2074 wrote:

get gold membership, it's considerably cheaper and not considerably worse then diamond 

Hell yea. Maybe platinum for the unlimited puzzles. Diamond looking a bit steep.

No need for platinum;25 per day is more then enough! and if you want to do unlimited go at chesstempo or at lichess!

Marie-AnneLiz
USAuPzlBxBob a écrit :

 

For someone who's only been playing a few months, you're doing very well.  For beginners, their downfall in games tends to be blundering before their opponent does.  If your younger brother trounced you eight games in a row, it's because he played cautiously while waiting for you to overplay your pieces.  Once you fell behind he had an easy time because he could trade down every chance he got, and win.

Continue with the Puzzles, and don't rush them. (enjoy them)  A Gold membership will vastly improve your experience; no advertisements, unlimited puzzles per day.

In your games, it looks like you're doing well there, too.  Maybe switch over to playing the computer, since it deliberately makes mistakes to give you confidence as you continue getting better.  Look at the Analysis after each game to better understand what you should have done.  Play with the setting of 3 take backs allowed.

Slow and steady wins the race.  Spend more time on your confrontational risky-gambit positions, to avoid making poor moves.  Oftentimes, that's when a conservative developing-move is what is called for.

Not much more I can add… it's been a long time since I was a beginner.  But it is funny that when I read articles on what to do early in a game, the "rules" of what to do are written in stone, seem so obvious, yet how to bring them about "over the board" always remains a challenge… at all levels of experience.

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TheBlunderPunisher

I would argue that you can go even slower, like daily, but of course that invites the possibility of cheating. It's true, no matter what, that the faster you go, the worse for beginners. Heck, my friend's strategy for bullet was to spam moves, his rationale being that unless your opponent was Hikaru, no one can mate you and finish a game in just 60 secs.

Not the best way to play if you ask me.

sierrasoltyshak

I just started yesterday and I can tell you right now, I suck at chess!! XD

TheBlunderPunisher

Very few beginners can actually play well. So what? Just play!

MortenBlunders
TheBlunderPunisher wrote:

Not the best way to play if you ask me.

I could imagine that turning into a very painful exercise. But to be fair, someone who does that a lot should at the very least end up being decent at bullet and time tricks. Not my kinda chess, but if someone wants to play that way.. Its a meta i guess

sierrasoltyshak

Ya chess is for fun tongue.png

TheBlunderPunisher

My point is that if you're naturally geared towards split-second decisions and like extremely fast chess, go for bullet. But if you just spam moves without thinking, that kinda defeats the purpose of chess, doesn't it?

sierrasoltyshak

I think so 

MortenBlunders

I'd still say it depends, some people prolly play chess mindlessly to just "tune out" a bit. It's a thought intensive game at its core, but one might still be able to slowly improve at mindless pattern recognition chess, if that's all they care to do. Extra rating might not be worth the headache to them!

catmaster0
TheBlunderPunisher wrote:

I would argue that you can go even slower, like daily, but of course that invites the possibility of cheating. It's true, no matter what, that the faster you go, the worse for beginners. Heck, my friend's strategy for bullet was to spam moves, his rationale being that unless your opponent was Hikaru, no one can mate you and finish a game in just 60 secs.

Not the best way to play if you ask me.

Meh, people can always find ways to try and cheat. My issue with daily is that you usually play chess in one sitting, so I find it's nicer to just stick with that. It's also easier to keep your thoughts together rather than looking at the board anew later. I prefer having a time limit for your opponent's move that is reasonable. 

catmaster0

Another advantage is that you get games done faster, so more to review. You don't want to just blitz out games for the sake of having them, but I find 30 min or 15-10 gives a reasonable amount of time to think no your moves, though slowing it down to 45 or 60 is always an option. Just make sure you have enough time. 

catmaster0
MortenBlunders wrote:

Hey there! I've only been playing/following chess for a couple months now. My little brother came home from boarding school and traumatized me 8 games in a row, so now I'm naturally on a secret mission to improve. I'm noticing some specific flaws with myself that I'd like to ask about.

One - Something about sacrificing pieces doesn't click with me. I manage to analyze positions fairly well, but consistently miss aggressive tactics. Are there any specific tools, especially lines, that encourage this type of play?
Two - I'm slow, and feel like playing fast barely gives me time to see what's going on. I hear people talk about pattern recognition, but as a newbie, I barely have any yet. I calculate everything. Am I gimping myself by playing slow formats for now, or is this okay for forming basic understandings?

Disclaimer: I realize my openings are not top tier. I don't mind being "that guy" - I enjoy dictating the style of the game, and often don't mind sacrificing an eval point or two for it. All comments welcome, though!

This was weird. You let 1 pawn waddle in there and take 2 pawns, a bishop, and after queening a knight for free and it later put in work to checkmate you. Your opening game was a bit weak with all the pawn moves, at low level play you'll be ok, but the material handing to that 1 pawn was a major mistake you need to watch out for. Don't let your opponent just take your material for free. This is one of the first things to fix in your game. Make your opponent have to do things to outmaneuver you to get your pieces, don't let them just eat them up without a fight. 

MortenBlunders
catmaster0 wrote:
 
 

This was weird. 

It's an unrated game against a vastly better opponent, we were discussing some stuff. I don't know if you noticed, but that's my only D5 game on record, and actual first time playing it. I didn't know what to do. My structure was cluttered garbage.

catmaster0
MortenBlunders wrote:
catmaster0 wrote:
 
 

This was weird. 

It's an unrated game against a vastly better opponent, we were discussing some stuff. I don't know if you noticed, but that's my only D5 game on record, and actual first time playing it. I didn't know what to do. My structure was cluttered garbage.

D5?

sierrasoltyshak

IDK

MortenBlunders
catmaster0 wrote:

D5?

Oh, that's the other game I played against her lol - I meant e4 (in my game as white), it's close to my bedtime hah. That one i went to sleep immediately after.