How do I improve in chess.

I try puzzles but they aren't working please tell me how to improve in chess.

For how long have you tried? One week? One month? One year?

I started in 2021 December and I am going slow in improving.

Chessable Courses for improving:
Queens on the Attack (free
Knights on the Attack (free
BIshops on the Attack (free
1001 Tactics (paid

Books for beginners:

My System - Nimzowitsch (general play)
How to Reacess your chess - Silman (middlegame strategys)
Chess: 5334 (tactics)
Silman's Complete Endgame Course - Silman (endgame)

Thanks

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

 

I won't generally expect much improvement in four months of training. There are other aspects of chess you must look at as well (eg. how to develop pieces or to checkmate an enemy king).

 

Tactical training starts to pay off when you are able to use the ideas from the puzzles in your own games. Of course, you can't expect tactical positions to arise in a game. And, more importantly, your opponent has also likely practised tactics at the same time, so he could possibly go for a safe, low-risk game without much tactics present.

Hi!

There is more to a game of chess than solving puzzles will give you, however, how are you solving puzzles? Puzzles train you to look over the board and identify what pieces are interacting with what, and if there’s a benefit to it for you. Additionally, you can learn patterns and typical structures that lend to specific tactical motifs. This means you’ll likely want to take your time to solve them and understand each puzzle you missed, and it’s recommended you repeatedly solve them so over time they become assimilated into your long term memory. This is most commonly referred to as the Woodpecker method. 

Besides puzzles, how is your opening play? Are you getting good positions in the middlegame, and if not, what’s causing that? Knowing opening principles well and utilizing them consistently in your games will often yield good resulting middlegame positions for you. How about your endgame skills? Do you know the basics there, have you studied endgames at all?

Remember chess is a journey, don’t expect overnight results. I don’t know your specific study program but even a good one may not yield significant results for some months. Back some years ago I temporarily had a coach for 6-8 weeks or so in the summer, and I actually stagnated and then decreased in rating some before leaping forward. So whatever you do, give it time to show results. 

-Jordan

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

Here’s some 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. 

-You are welcome to come to my free online beginner chess class on April 9:

-Feel free to ask my question on my live chess livestream Youtube channel, every Sunday from 1-2pm PST.  

I'm trying the 'zen' method. Only play games against other humans; no bots, no puzzles, no books, no theory, no studying, no post game analysis. Try to enjoy the games and don't worry too much about winning or losing or ratings. Hope for effortless gradual improvement as the subconscious learns by osmosis. 

And guess what? I'm not getting any better .  Still, I'm having fun and relatively chess-stress free. 

abandon puzzle then, not everything is about tactics.

Play a lot and learn. 

I only looked at one or two of your games -- and I would suggest, for starters: (a) keep practicing tactics (in a recent game you lost because you hung your knight); and (b) play slower!  In a 10-minute game you had 7 minutes left when the game ended after 24 moves.

Always look for "CCT" -- are there any checks, captures, or threats that I have or that my opponent has?  That takes more than a couple of seconds per move.  Look at your last couple of losses -- what would you say the biggest reason was?  I'd bet for most of them, the reason is: you missed a tactic (that either you had and didn't play, or that you let your opponent play, or you hung a piece).  That, in itself, is the reason for my two pieces of advice.  Tactics and slow down.

If you are diligent about these two items, improvement will come.  It may take a little while, but it will come.

(PS: the books that @Minecraft_Girl2011 recommended are solid books -- but they are way over your head at this time.  Learn to walk before you can run.  The best strategy in the world ain't worth nothin' if you're going to hang a knight).

I'm using the basic Pawn on e4 and d4 and the knights on f3 and c3 to protect those pawns, what should be my next step in defense or offense really.

I feel like all four of those books are for intermediate to advanced players, like 1500+. 

Great question.  Next step is to get the bishop out on the side you want to castle, and castle.  You then want to develop *all* of your pieces (if you're a coach, you wouldn't want to field your football team without all 11 players, right?).

It'd be a worthwhile investment to spend 8 minutes on this video:  Chess Basics: Opening Principles

Here's an excellent 28-minute video that's get a lot more, and better quality advice:  

Play slower, and don’t always trade pieces. Sometimes it’s better to keep pressure on pieces than just removing them from the board. Sholom90’s comment is very useful; I suggest going back to that.

Thanks a lot this really helps.

I have a suspicion that it's not the tactics themselves but how you do them.

For every puzzle, try solving the tactic without moving any pieces, and once you figured out all the possibilities (for both you and your opponent), then you can move. The point of tactics trainer is to calibrate your ability to calculate and identify patterns, and you will get the most out of it if you solve a puzzle before moving.

I am a sub-1000 player right now in rapid. I don’t know my real rating in daily, as I just started there. My puzzle rating has gotten as high as 2,000, but seems to be fluctuate between 1800-1900 consistently right now. I started improving by learning a couple of simple openings and “why” they were being done. Once I find I could get to middle game safely, I just stick with those openings. I have done numerous tactics puzzles, getting pretty decent at recognizing the patterns now. Those things helped a moderate amount. I study externally, mostly by watching some online YouTube content providers. Those ideas are interesting, but it is difficult to know how much that has helped. The biggest impact I’ve seen so far is game time. I recently switched to playing 3 day games. I am currently limiting myself to one game each time. I find I have a lot more time to find the blunders and mistakes before I have to move. Occasionally. I’ll play some other 10 minute games for fun, but find I still mess those up pretty badly. During the Daily games, you can use the icon at the bottom (not sure what it’s called) to study how it looks if you make a particular move. I view it from my opponents POV and basically play against myself for a few moves on each turn. I find this does two things. First, it allows me to find the obvious blunders. Secondly, since I’m spending so much more time analyzing every move, I remember the positions better than before. Not sure how this will help in the long run, but I certainly don’t remember as much when I play the rapid games. I don’t know chess as well as I’d like, but that seems to be helping me for now.