I'm new to chess and I have some questions to ask.

Hello there, I just want to know how chess players improve their skill. I am new to chess.com and I have some questions to ask. Here are them:

1. Can I improve my chess skill without taking a course or solving a puzzle (just play it only)?

2. Is Chess bot worthy to hone my skill (especially, with high ELO bot)?

3. How do good chess players improve their skill ?

4. How many matches should I play a day to improve chess skill?

5.  Is chess.com for non-competitive player?

6. Is it necessary to know the name of the positions in chess (., Sicilian defense)?

If you have any recommendation you can tell me. Thank you

As someone who has been playing chess for just over a month now and is currently 760s ELO in rapid chess, I know my advice won't mean much but I will try my best to answer your question.

1. Depends on what you mean by "improve". If you are referring to rating/ELO then you can reach 1200 Elo in a short span of time if you focus on specific puzzles and learn some solid openings and endgames and analyze your game with the engine. The more engine moves and positional tactics you come across, the more you will improve. Chess courses aren't necessary if you make good use of already available tools on Chess.com

2) Chess bot may or may not help you improve your skills because they are after all a programmed bot and not a human. When you will play an online match, obviously you will be playing against a human. There is a considerable difference in chess moves between a human and a bot. Human moves are obviously more natural but not always perfect and sometimes they are a mistake or blunder. The more human moves you see, the more you will learn to capitalize on your opponent's mistake.

3) Good chess players are those who invest a lot of time in this game, the theory, learn from their mistakes and above all never repeat the same mistake twice. Thus if you find a good balance of the above qualities and rely on your own intelligence, you too would be a good player one day.

4) This question has been answered many times by numerous top players. According to Levy Rozman, one should play only Rapid chess games initially if you want to improve significantly. Try to play only 5-10 games a day because it is important to analyze and recognize your mistakes in each of your games and learn from that instead of playing many games and not analyzing a single one

5) Any chess website is good for a non-competitive player. As long as you find the right balance of having fun and learning about the game then it doesn't matter which website is better or something like that.

6) I think by positions you mean openings. It is of course a good idea to learn some solid openings as they will shape your play style and overall chess persona. Solid openings are the cornerstone to improve in this game.

Feel free to ask anything. I hope this was useful for you. Have a nice day.

Hi there!

1. Courses are definitely not compulsory, but I would say that puzzles are very helpful as they help you learn various tactics, positional ideas, and checkmating techniques and strategies. Playing lots of chess will help you improve, but you also need to be able to analyse your games afterwards to learn why they went one way or another. There are plenty of good guides on YouTube and on this website to help you with how to do this.

2. I personally don't use chess bots to get better because they won't play like people do. For me, playing against people is the better way to improve as they won't think the same way a computer does. You can understand why a person might play a certain move, but for computers, they might recommend a move that a person would never conceive of because the computer can see 50 moves ahead. For general fun though, bots are okay.

3. Good chess players improve by regularly training at the game. This means analysing games with an objective lens, sharpening up on tactics, and learning opening and endgame patterns, and so on.

4. If you're committed to improving, I would play a few games (maybe 3-4) each day and analyse them afterwards. If you play too many games in one space of time, you won't learn as much from them as if you played a few serious games. And don't play Blitz or Bullet chess. I'd recommend 15 | 10 as a minimum time control to give you more time to think about each move.

5. Chess.com is absolutely for non-competitive players.

6. If you're a beginner, it's not so necessary to know the names of openings and such. It's better to stick to solid opening principles (i.e. control the centre, develop your pieces, protect your King etc). However, as you get better, it wouldn't hurt to learn a few responses to the most common openings that you face.

I hope some or all of this has helped!

- Logan

1. I guess you can improve just by playing, but puzzles are really useful and the lessons here on chess.com and a couple books I have read have definitely helped me. So improvement just by playing will probably be slower.

2. I guess bots are OK, but why not play real people?

3. I have no idea what good players do, but I do puzzles, study books, analyze my games, do the lessons here and so on, and I have been improving so far.

4. I wouldn't play too many games a day if the goal is to improve. 1-3 games is enough and then just remember to analyze those games and play longer time controls like 15|10 or longer. Try to learn something from each game.

5. chess.com seems to be for non-competitive and also for competitive players.

6. Knowing the names is not necessary, but knowing the positions would be helpful and when you get familiar with a position to the level that you start knowing something about it, you often already know the name of the opening etc.

I can teach you EXACTLY how to think during the game (opening, middlegame and endgame). Your chess understanding will never be the same and you will improve a lot. I charge €10/h, but if you can’t afford too many lessons, don’t worry. I can teach you a lot in an hour. Here to help if you are interested.

If you want to study by yourself, read ‘Logical Chess’. It is really instructive book. You have it on youtube as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eTB7oHeRgM&list=PLUrgfsyInqNa1S4i8DsGJwzx1Uhn2AqlT

You can not improve by only playing games, you need puzzles

Hi! 1) Yes you can improve without courses and puzzles but they do help and puzzles don't take that much time. 2) yeah it will help you see your mistakes and try different ways of playing.3) good chess players improve their skill mostly through training. 4) I think like 3-4 chess games a day should be enough