You should learn most important principles of a chess game. That will give you a solid understanding of a chess game and you will know what to do in every position. Then, you should optimize your calculation so you don't miss tactics in your games. Your rating will skyrocket. I can help you with all of this. Message me if you are interested.
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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
Mar 7, 2023
0
#4
Hi there!
Learning Chess beyond how the pieces move can be a bit daunting because there is a lot to learn about the game. However, I wouldn't let this intimidate you. Like with learning anything, you should take things step by step. Learn one principle, get it nailed down, then move on to the next, and so on. You also learn simply by playing Chess; you do pick up a lot of stuff just by playing and repeating positions in different games.
In response to the things posted in your comment, here's a few things I can recommend to you in how to properly learn Chess as a beginner, in no specific order of importance.
1. Learn Opening Principles, Not An Opening Repertoire
Beginners sometimes get caught up in learning a specific opening like the Sicilian Defence as Black or the Queen's Gambit as White. The reality is that a lot of these openings have very complex lines that require a lot of study and memorisation to get right, and unless you've been playing the game for a very long time and have a good grasp of all phases of the game, it's not really worth it.
The time that a beginner might spend learning a specific opening would be better spent learning good opening principles. These can be summarised like so:
- Control the centre. As White, play either e4 or d4 as your first move. Controlling the centre with a central pawn is always a good first move. Moving any other pawn at this stage (e.g. g4, b4, etc.) just gives your opponent central control of the board for free.
- Develop your pieces. After playing your first move, you should aim to get your Bishops and Knights into the game as soon as you can. Try to move your pieces towards the centre, or at the very least make sure that they are controlling key squares or sightlines.
- Protect your King. Once the pieces start moving, the King will start to seem quite vulnerable still being in the centre of the board. You should aim to castle your King as soon as possible to get it out of the action.
- Don't give up any pieces. At this stage you shouldn't necessarily be worrying about making any bold attacks against your opponent or sacrificing material. You should focus more on making sure that your pieces are safe and sufficiently defended, either through coordinating them together or by using your pawns to create solid defences.
To give you an example of what I mean, here is an example of good opening principles with some annotations attached:
This is an example of a position that is reached fairly frequently in many games I have played. Both players focus on developing their pieces, controlling the centre, and protecting their pieces and their Kings. None of this requires any knowledge of specific opening repertoires, but rather an understanding of how the opening should generally be played.
To add to this, I have a few other points of advice:
- Steer clear of gambit openings. These openings often involve sacrificing pawns or pieces right at the start of the game to gain positional advantages. Until you have a good idea of how the opening phase of the game should play out, don't play these openings.
- Steer clear of "bad openings". You might have heard of openings like the Grob or the Bongcloud. Fun as these are to play, they do not teach you good opening principles.
To learn more about opening principles, Chess.com's lessons are very useful for this. You can also use the Explorer tool on this website to try out different opening moves and see what the most common responses are to them.
2. Learn How to Analyse a Given Position
You stated that this was one thing you wanted to learn, so I have some immediate bits of advice.
Chess analysis is a skill like anything else, and you will get better at it as you play more games. It's how you spot tactics, avoid losing pieces, and spot quick checkmates. But when you're starting out, there's a few things you can do to build the foundations of your analysis skills.
The first bit of advice is to play longer time controls. A lot of beginner players like to play Blitz and Bullet Chess, then wonder why they aren't improving over time. At this stage, I recommend that you play games with a 15|10 time control as a minimum. This will give you sufficient time to think about your moves before you make them and give you small time increments each time you make a move.
Here are some other things you should be doing when analysing a given position:
- Look for pieces you can take for free. A piece that can be taken for free is called a hanging piece. As a general rule of thumb, if you can take a piece for no particular reason, you should take it. If your opponent just throws an undefended pawn out into the open, or a Bishop, or even their Queen, and you can capture it for free (i.e. without giving up your own pieces), then you should.
- Look for pieces your opponent can take for free. Likewise, look at your own pieces. Have you left any pieces undefended that could be taken by your opponent? If so, you need to deal with that first. Either move those pieces to safety, or find a way to defend them.
- Look for threats to your King, either by you or by your opponent. Remember that when a King is in check, it must be dealt with. Forgetting about King safety is something that can be taken advantage of, either by your or your opponent. Is your King sufficiently defended, or is it sitting out in the open? Likewise, look at your opponent's King and see if theirs is sufficiently defended.
Here is a way to visualise the first point:
Here is a way to visualise the second point:
And finally, here is a way to visualise the third point:
A final takeaway point from this is to never impulsively make moves. When it is your turn, always take the time to look at the board and do the above tips. You might have your own plan for how to approach the game, but so does your opponent. Every time your opponent makes a move, stop and analyse the board. What has changed about the position? Has your opponent threatened any of your pieces? Is your King in check? Have they left any pieces without defenders, or even worse blundered a piece? All of these things should factor into your analysis of the chessboard.
An easy way to get into the habit of doing this is to ask yourself "if my opponent could play one more move right now, what would they do?". This will massively help in getting you to spot threats to your pieces as well as quick checkmates. It will take some time to get the hang of, but once you get it, you won't forget it.
In terms of learning resources, I recommend Chess.com's lessons on Capturing Pieces as well as Finding Checkmates and then move on to Winning with Tactics once you have an idea of the basics. You can also try doing puzzles on this website, although there are other websites like Lichess which offer puzzles and tactics training too.
3. Learn From Your Mistakes
This last point is a really quick one, but it's worth making. When you are learning Chess properly for the first time, losing games is valuable for your development because it will help you to spot where you went wrong in your play. If you can, using Chess.com's game review tool will help you to understand each move you make, and what your opponent's moves meant too. If it helps, take notes about which moves you made that were bad and why, or keep a tally of each time you missed a tactic. This will help to identify key areas for you to work on once you get more comfortable with the above advice.
Of course, don't ever seek to lose a game on purpose. The best way to get better at Chess, in the words of GM Ben Finegold, is to play a lot of Chess and worry less about the result and more about what you have learned. I recommend looking up Ben's beginner lectures on YouTube such as this one because they offer valuable insights and advice for beginners about how to improve.
That's about all I have to say here. Thanks for reading through my doorstop-sized tomb of a post. I wish you the best of luck in your Chess journey and hope some or all of this was helpful!
- Logan
Hello Everyone,
I’m a beginner to chess and am familiar with the rules and how the pieces move/play. I want to improve at chess but unable to find a guide that can help me. Currently i’m 200 rated player and loose a lot of games. Even to other 200 rated players. I tried to learn a few openings but that hasn’t helped me at all.
i would like to know the correct process of learning chess. Like should i learn from a book or follow any youtube series or practice puzzles. I’m totally lost as to how should I start improving. Analyzing my games dont do any good cause I’am unable to see why a particular move is better then the alternative move.
for starters i would like to learn how to analyze a position so that i can see if i’m doing good or not. Currently the only way i know that i am doing good is by having more pieces on my board then my opn. And i know this is wrong. So i someone please help me.
Thanks in advance to anyone who replies. Every reply is well appreciated.