I want to learn

I've long known the rules of chess.  Since the first of the year, I've decided to LEARN chess - to learn to be good at chess.  I've purchased 3 chess boards - have one at home, one at the office, and one Harry Potter one just for fun.  I've read Bobby Fischer's book, "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess", which focuses way too much on back-rank mates.  I'm almost done with all the lessons on here.  I'm part way through watching Gary Kasparov teaching chess on Masterclass.com.

I'm still not any good.  I can beat the computer on here, up to 1100.  But, I've lost like 15 games in a row to actual people on here.  I think my rating is somewhere around 450.

What do you recommend?  I'm a smart man.  Where do I go from here?

umm I'd Keep trying!

What time controls are you usually playing?

If you keep playing bullet you will not improve. 1 minute is simply not enough time to think... 1 minute per move is not enough in many cases, let alone for the entire game. If you wish to improve, you just have to play longer games.

Here are some general tips that will help you out:

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

Have fun improving your game.

@jerrymacdonald - I usually play the games with a 24 hour per move game.

@nklristic - I played the bullet, but don't like it.  I just played that to see what it was.  Mostly that game is just to see who can move the fastest.

Ah ok. Improvement wise, the best are longer live games... like 1 hour per side or 30 minutes per side. The absolute minimum should probably be 15|10 games.


24 hour per moves are daily games. They are fine, but there are certain drawbacks. For instance, you have analysis board which you don't have at your disposal in live games. In analysis board you can move your pieces freely before you decide on a move. Another thing is that you have access to opening explorer in daily chess so it is easier to play opening phase. That is fine for someone who wants to learn some opening without the risk of misplaying the opening. You don't have access to opening explorer during live games so there is that drawback as well.

My advice, daily games are perfectly fine, but if you wish to improve, longer live games are the best practice you can get.

Play rapid., something like 15-10. You'll be able to get the game done in one sitting so your view on the board is always fresh, but you'll have a solid amount of time to go over your moves. You don't need so many bullet games where you don't have time to think at all. Are you looking for things like hanging material before you make a move? At the 400s, it boils down to not giving away pieces for free and taking the free stuff your opponent gives away.

Tactics trainer my friend. I would swear by it - I didn't even know I was learning whilst solving puzzles/tactics.
The more you play TT, the more you will see the same puzzles and patterns. When you get them wrong (we all do), look back at it and see what the answer is. Try to understand it then move on to he next one. I see that you're a premium member so they will be unlimited for you. Every time you feel an urge, do some tactics.

Trying to play games without some form of tactics is like jogging before walking. Learn from TT and try and understand them and stop them happening to you, whilst trying to inflict them on your opponent.

Good luck.

@lampman - Is tactics trainer a part of this app/website?  I did a search for it and couldn't find it.

Well, I've given some recommendations for tactical training in that link I've given you. Basically tactical trainer = puzzles here.

The London System has been popular with begginers lately.  Watch some youtube videos on it.  You need to make incremental progress. 

Study the London system for an hour

Do puzzles for an hour. 3 to 5 minutes per puzzle.  Getting puzzles right are more important than doing them fast. 

Play a couple 10 or 15 minutes games a day.

Do this for a couple weeks, and if you improve, learn an opening as black, like the french or caro-khan.

Got it.  I try to do the puzzles daily.

I want to learn more, any suggestions from where can I learn

The vampire opening helped win some games

 One other way to improve is doing daily puzzles. It really helps to improve. I post daily puzzles. Check them out at https://www.chess.com/blog/dailypuzz

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

Dear Chessnewbie,

I am a certified, full-time chess coach, so I hope I can help you. Everybody is different, so that's why there isn't only one general way to learn. First of all, you have to discover your biggest weaknesses in the game and start working on them. The most effective way for that is analysing your own games. Of course, if you are a beginner, you can't do it efficiently because you don't know too much about the game yet. There is a built-in engine on chess.com which can show you if a move is good or bad but the only problem that it can't explain you the plans, ideas behind the moves, so you won't know why is it so good or bad.

You can learn from books or Youtube channels as well, and maybe you can find a lot of useful information there but these sources are mostly general things and not personalized at all. That's why you need a good coach sooner or later if you really want to be better at chess. A good coach can help you with identifying your biggest weaknesses and explain everything, so you can leave your mistakes behind you. Of course, you won't apply everything immediately, this is a learning process (like learning languages), but if you are persistent and enthusiastic, you will achieve your goals.

In my opinion, chess has 4 main territories (openings, strategies, tactics/combinations and endgames). If you want to improve efficiently, you should improve all of these skills almost at the same time. That's what my training program is based on. My students really like it because the lessons are not boring (because we talk about more than one areas within one lesson) and they feel the improvement on the longer run. Of course, there are always ups and downs but this is completely normal in everyone's career.

I hope this is helpful for you. Good luck for your chess games!