How to play a simple game then move up.

I am 62 years old. I first learned the rules of chess (How to set up the board, how each piece move, what constitutes a win e.t.c) 58 years ago when I was 8 years old. I continued to play until I was 14 and got interested in girls. Now I want to take it up again and I have both Lucas Chess version 11.15 and Arena 3.5.1 Build 2861 on this machine.

The problem is that you guys are too sophisticated. I just want to start out with a basic game against a computer opponent and then when I can beat that consistantly move up to another slight harder level.

I have searched for that type of answer on this forum but every time the person answering starts talking about "Engines", "Clocks", "GUIs" "Mate in 5 moves or so " or "Enging ELO rating" Whcih I am sure all of you understand but I just want to play against the computer  without having to worry that my time is up (when I first started playing my school club did not have clocks, probably could not afford them) then move up.

Can someone give me some SIMPLE step by step instructions.?

the computer is using a set of code and neural networking which is how it plays. we call this an engine.

Clocks is the time you have in a game. Basically you have a set amount of time to play a game, when it is your turn, your clock will tick down and if it reach 0 you lose. If you end your turn then your opponents clock will start ticking down. something tied with this is called increments and delay. increment is everytime you make a move you gain a certain amount of time on your clock. delay is occurs when your turn just starts, basically your clock won't start ticking down until a certain amount of time has passed. 

GUIs ive never heard of this so i wouldnt worry about it too much. 

mate in 5 so this is a term when one play can force a checkmate in said amount of moves, in this case it would be 5.

engine ELO. lets start with what elo is. elo is a way to pair up players of similar strength. if you win you gain more elo, and if you lose you will lose elo. so stronger players will have elo that is high, while weaker players will have an elo that is low. engine elo has the same idea as it shows the strength of the engine(computer)

Chess_Player_lol Thank you for the explanations BUT that was EXACTLY what I did not want. I was using those as examples of the responses that people give to the beginner question of "How do I start Lucas Chess or Arena Chess and play a simple game and then move up as I get better" The experts tend to devolve the conversation into those topics that you just explained.

I did manage to find this page:

https://www.devtome.com/doku.php?id=lucas_chess

Which looks like it might explain what I need after a LOT of reading. I will let you all know.

ELO is important to what you want. If you want to face computers of varying difficulty, you will want to start with a computer of low elo, then slowly increase it.

I don’t have a “Lucas chess” because I have no idea what it is, so maybe I’m wrong and it works differently there, though.

I don't know about the specific programs you mentioned, but for the most part engines are used to analyze games, not to play against them.  It may well be possible to set them up for play, but that would be dependent on exactly what you are using for both the GUI (the interface that you directly interact with) and the engine (the underlying computer program that calculates the chess positions).

However, what you want sounds like it exists elsewhere on this website, specifically at https://www.chess.com/play/computer

It has multiple different "personalities" to play against and a range of levels, from beginner to expert.  No clocks, so you don't have to worry about that, just pick a "person" to play against and start up the game!

Omnipual. I Will keep that in mind. But I do not have 24/7 internet access so I have the two programs that I can fire up on my laptop at anytime plus one on this phone.

OP, play obvious openings like french and caro kann. Just move a pawn ONE square.

62 years old and no longer interested in girls....this man has been burned a time or two. Lol the chess board will not take you to court for half of your salary. Lol

@KMWS: Oh I still like girls. But at this point I prefer women over girls. There is a major difference. As and aside. My step-father bought a pool table and put it on the patio when I was 13. I would go out there and practice every day after school. He would play me UNTIL I got to the point that I could beat him consistently. Then he started entering my in 12-15 tournaments. Most likely making side bets on me. I was ranked #6 12-15 in California UNTIL I started noticing girls were more fun to hold onto than a pool cue.