I am serious about learning chess. Where should I start?

Hi I started playing chess for fun with my friends some time ago and I think I like it quite a lot. I want to learn how to play for real. Where should I start? Do you have any books/tutorials recommendations? I would like to learn from the ground up to become a good player (good enough to be competitive in tournaments).

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

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

Best place to start is to learn the fundamental of chess, start by understanding opening principles, learn the various tactical motif and practice finding them in positions via solving puzzles, master basic endgame play like queen and king, rook and king checkmates, how to promote a pawn with a line king, triangulation/square of the pawn/ passed pawns/ minority and majority pawns/ elementary rook endgames, and play Daily or other long time control chess so you have time to think through your moves. Use the CCTI (look for checks, captures, threats, and if none of those are viable, then improve a piece) for each position and before you move ask “is my king safe if I move here, and are my pieces safe?”. Analyze your games for mistakes and try to uncover why you made them.

Have a great chess journey!

https://support.chess.com/article/437-how-do-i-get-better-at-chess

 

Maybe doing lessons and puzzles etc 

Here are some ideas for you:

https://www.chess.com/blog/nklristic/the-beginners-tale-first-steps-to-chess-improvement

Good luck on your chess improvement.

Building habits by Chessbrah is a great YouTube series for getting a solid foundation. Play frequently, analyze your games and do puzzles and endgame drills.

The first step - you need to find your own chess book. Then you'll enjoy studying this game using a real chess set.

If you want to get better as soon as possible, you should take chess com puzzles. 

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’ve been a  respected chess coach based in California for over 8 years.  

www.ChessByLauren.com 

 

 

Welcome to the game of chess! I offer resources for beginners to get better in chess. 

 

1) I offer a YouTube channel for beginners so they can get better in chess. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP5SPSG_sWSYPjqJYMNwL_Q 

 

2)

I also offer a  free beginner’s free eBook on my website, www.ChessByLauren.com in case you are interested. 

 

3) Beginners needs to learn basic tactics such as the fork, discovered attack, pin, and more to get better in chess.    I offer 500 interactive puzzles on my website: https://www.chessbylauren.com/two-choice-puzzles.php  

 

4)

If you are serious about chess, I highly recommend you hiring a chess coach to help you.  

 

5)  I recommend reading

Queen for a Day: The Girl’s Guide to Chess Mastery.   This book is for beginners and readers get to play an entire chess game with Sophia, who is also a beginner.  Readers learn winning and basic chess strategy.  This book is endorsed by the 2019 US Women’s Chess Champion.  

 

6. Here are some other general tips to help you:       Before each move, I highly encourage you ask questions before every move such as, “If I move here, is it safe?”, “Can I safely capture a piece?”, and more.  Also consider all checks and captures on your side and also your opponent’s side.  Be VERY CONSISTENT with this.  

I hope that this helps!  

Play some games. Do puzzles. How to Reassess Your Chess is a good book.

Start by playing games face to face, online, or computer. Whatever is available, play. Of course you should try to win each game.

That book is too advanced for a beginner. Once their Chess.com rapid rating gets to around 1400 (after about 50-100 games so it's settled) they should definitely read that book.

"Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" - Fischer

Oh, right. The book says for 1400-2100! My mistake. All the books I have are too complicated. What are your book suggestions?

I don’t honestly advocate a book for beginners. Simply solving puzzles, playing and reviewing mistakes in them, learning the basic endgame and opening principles is good enough to start with. All of that can be done for free.

+1

Indeed. If a beginner is fixated on getting a book, however, Play Winning Chess by Yasser Seirawan is a good place to start. It starts with basic piece movement and then progresses to basic tactics and opening principles.

I prefer getting started on the openings and then you can expand to the middlegames and endgames.

You can learn chess from chess lesson or chess websites or if you really are into learning about chess you can go to a chess conch and see the advice yourself

@#19- that’s actually the most common mistake beginners make in chess to me, focusing on openings initially. You can make 10-15 good moves in the opening (and in beginner games this is very rare) and then once your on your own start hanging pieces every other move. Beginners need to practice thinking through each position and avoid any rote memory of any openings, just let the opening principles guide them.

     Learn endgames first. They are the easiest thing to understand and master and teach you a lot about the use of the different pieces. "If you can't play correctly in a simple position with only a few pieces, how can you expect to play well on a full board?" (Capablanca)

     Don't invest much time learning opening variations. Stick to basic principles and a few moves in openings you wish to play. It's unlikely you (or your opponent) will understand why different lines are considered better or worse, and these evaluations evolve over time. When you get stronger and face good players who are "well booked" it will be time to deepen your opening knowledge.

     Play classical time controls. You need to learn how to analyze positions and calculate variations--something that won't happen if you're only spending a few seconds per move. And try to play the strongest possible opponents--they will demonstrate how things should be done. You will lose more, but you will learn more.

     Chess books are a good resource. You can spend as much time as you need to understand what they are trying to teach you. Books of games by famous GMs can show you a lot IF they are extensively annotated, otherwise you (and most of the rest of us) will miss a lot of what's happening. There are a lot of books for beginners recommended in these forums. One of the best is still Siegbert Tarrasch's "The Game of Chess". The specific opening variations are out of date but opening principles still apply. (Be sure to get the algebraic edition.)