Need some chess advice for a player who is bad

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StuffedAnimalSimp

So I have done chess club when I was younger and all I remember was how to move pieces and how to play the game, the basics. Every time I play online I lose cause of time or checkmate.  I need help with tips and tricks and help I guess. Sometimes I play on 1 minute and SOMEHOW I LOSE because I blew 20 seconds somehow??? Which never happened so I guess I played against a hacker idk. But I need help lol.

KeSetoKaiba

You very well might know many of the basics like opening principles (if you don't then here is something worth checking out: https://www.chess.com/blog/KeSetoKaiba/opening-principles-again ), but the main problem here is probably playing bullet chess. Longer time controls generally boosts your overall "chess ability" and understanding, so improving your rapid rating or longer time controls will likely improve your faster time controls a little naturally - this is not true the other way around; getting good at speed chess (like bullet or blitz) will probably not make you better at longer time controls. 

I recommend playing chess games 10 minutes or longer on chess.com and maybe even 20 or 30 minute games if you can afford the time. Whatever time control you mostly play, you want plenty of "extra thinking time" so you aren't rushed and have time to consider new things. New things might be doing a quick blunder check or scan for hanging pieces, it might be seeing a good move but looking for a better one, or it might mean reassessing the position after some key moment of the game. 

There are also some "tricks" to improve at speed chess, but they benefit the experienced chess player, so I'd come back to speed chess only after you've greatly improved with longer games.

Examples of some "tricks" so you have an idea what I'm talking about:

-Knowledge of basic "theoretical endgames" and checkmates. Not exactly a "trick" per se, but it is extremely useful to be able to convert a theoretical win while basically playing in autopilot quickly. 

-Knowledge of opening theory because openings are not that important sub-2000 rating (well to a degree anyhow), but knowing opening moves by memory means you can quickly move with little thought for the first several moves and this saves time on your clock. If you have some opening memorized 10 moves deep and it is played in the game, then that means that about 25% of the game (average chess game is 40 moves long) you didn't even have to think much; you just moved off of memory! This is huge because that means you probably used way less time than your opponent "thinking it through" for the first time possibly.

-Tactical awareness: this is greatly connected to pattern recognition. The point is that better players (especially tactically alert ones) see things much quicker if they know more patterns and this can save time in speed chess.

*There are also "premoves" strategies and chess "systems" and other ways to save time to help the bullet player - however, the best way to improve in chess (speed chess or not) is to learn the game at a little longer time controls and then speed chess will come a lot more natural to you happy.png

laurengoodkindchess

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’m a chess coach based and chess book author based in California. 

I have tips to help you improve your chess skills so you can win more games.  

-I  offer a  free beginner’s free eBook on my website, www.ChessByLauren.com in case you are interested. The book is about asking questions before each move.  

-Learn basic tactics such as the fork, discovered attack, pin, and more.  I offer interactive puzzles on my website: https://www.chessbylauren.com/two-choice-puzzles.php  

-I recommend two books for you: “50 Poison Pieces”   and “Queen For A Day: The Girl’s Guide To Chess Mastery.”  Both books are available on Amazon.com.  Both books are endorsed by chess masters!  

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

I hope that this helps.  

Rfrizale

After you learn of a new tactic (pin, skewer, fork, etc.), set an objective to make that tactic happen in your next game. At first don't worry about the win, just find a way to make that tactic happen. As you find more ways to make your tactics happen, winning will occur all by itself.

MSteen

The time controls you're playing are way too fast. If you want to get better, slow down to 10 minutes per side or more. That's your first and most important step.

 

RussBell

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

schara

Don't play 1 min games if you're a beginner...

Vict6133

get gotter :/

ouchoopscrap

Play slower games!  There is no way to learn the game playing bullet.

EKAFC

Play slow games and analyze them. You can go to Lichess if you want to do that for free. It will show you your mistakes and have you redo your mistakes. If you don't understand why they approve of certain moves, you need to see the variations they are giving with that move and/or see what you would normally play against that move.

 

I would also recommend you study the game. Here is a link to some chess opening books and with these you want to make a study on Lichess and go over the most important details that you find relevant. Here is my French Defense study and my the first part of my Queen's Gambit Study. These should give you an example of what your studies should look like as they have different writing techniques. By creating a study, you can always refer back to it after you bump into some variation mentioned in the book for you to learn from.

daB3an3r

don't let this happen

Kapivarovskic
caelynbaker wrote:

So I have done chess club when I was younger and all I remember was how to move pieces and how to play the game, the basics. Every time I play online I lose cause of time or checkmate.  (Those are pretty much the only two possible ways of losing if you don't resign)

I need help with tips and tricks and help I guess. (Do the beginner lessons here on chess.com. Opening principles, development, king safety, basic checkmates, checkmating patterns, basic tactics, etc)  

Sometimes I play on 1 minute and SOMEHOW I LOSE because I blew 20 seconds somehow??? (Winning/Losing on time is called flagging/getting flagged. It's a legit technique and happens to grandmasters who see moves, tactics, checkmates, etc pretty much anything instantaneously and can memorize a board position just by glancing at it. If getting flagged happens to them, it sure as s*** is going to happen to a beginner and anyone else who plays 1min chess, aka bullet chess.  Play longer time controls. The shorter you should be playing is 10 minutes and it's often still going to seem like it's not enough. If you have the time I'd recommend playing 15|10 or even 25 or 30 minutes chess. This way you have time think, assess and analyze the position, come up with plans and strategies and predicting your opponents move, which is what chess really is about. That's how you get better at faster time formats, by getting good at slower ones. With practice you'll be able to do that faster and play blitz chess, which is 3 or 5 min, usually. After you get decent at it then you should try playing bullet.) Which never happened so I guess I played against a hacker idk. But I need help lol. (It probably never happened because when you were playing chess club you were most likely playing with a lot of time instead of 1 minute. One minute really is nothing to think. Masters, who as I said can calculate several lines in seconds, will often spend 20 minutes or more in one move. Imagine doing 60 moves in 1 minute. That's 1 move per second, pretty much instantly playing every move. If you know what you're doing, it's already hard enough. If you're a beginner it's almost impossible. As mentioned the longer the game the best it will be for you to avoid making mistakes, therefore winning. Of course most of us don't have a whole day to play chess but 10 minute games should be enough to play 2 or 3 games if you have an hour to dedicate to chess.

 

ChesswithGautham

I can teach you tactics if you know all the rules of the game

JoeDodo9
Try to get advantage of the F2 or F7 pawn depending on what colour you are.
Bgabor91

Dear Caelynbaker,

I am a certified, full-time chess coach, so I hope I can help you. happy.png 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. happy.png

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. happy.png

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

IpswichMatt

You've been very busy on the forums today @Bgabor91

StuffedAnimalSimp
Bgabor91 wrote:

Dear Caelynbaker,

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!

Thanks! What is the engine called? I think I forgot xDD

Bgabor91

I'm always happy to help. happy.png The engine is Stockfish here. happy.png

GreenFrog_1450

the easiest is to hire a chess coach.  I can tell you that the price for hiring a coach hasn't gone up much for the last 20 years despite all the inflation that is going on.