New player and many questions.

First let me say I’m frustrated because I’m reading that the average beginner is rated on chess.com as 600-1000. 1000 being a beginner. I am rated at 390-330. I am a 36yr old that has played chess my whole life, but typically play 3-5 nights a year at the max.  A week ago I decided to get chess.com and try to play.  I have spent time in the past week watching openings although I can’t recall the names I have studied a bit.  So what is normal? It bothers me because I feel like I’m be much below average as a “beginner.”  Also if it’s late mid game and I am whiling to sacrifice material for position what piece work best together and what pieces do not agree without another in the late game?  Thank you for the help and the replies. 

I have increased about 80 points on my rating the last week but I’m at a point I can’t progress past the point I’m at.  

One idea is to go through the lessons.  

2nd, try reviewing each game afterwards.

50kittens.. i did not realize you could watch games of others (score)  lol  and im going to watch all of everyone that replied recent games just to learn.  but i have a few questions kitten,  your match against HOUSMA.  it was very boring for me to watch until move 19.  dark squared bishop went to A7.  i may get this wrong  but i did take notes on the game.  so fingers xed.oo that looked like notation.  fingers crossed.     why on move 20 did you allow black to take pawn on A7?  i couldnt find a benefit.  then you guys traded around a bit and around like move 24 the fight starts and you had the board imo  what did i miss?  it seemed you had a plan but waited like a panther.  but what did i miss? 

also thank you so much for the replies.  snook and empty.    im going to watch some of your games too.  i didnt know i could and im at work tonight so i picked the highest elo to start. 

Even the world chess champion had to start as a beginner.

Openings are a popular and fashionable study topic, but probably not the most urgent area to improve. I suspect that you lose most of your games for one of two reasons... (1) poor situational awareness leading to one-move oversights (giving away pieces, etc), and (2) not knowing how to proceed even when you have gained the advantage.

I suggest that you study tactics (pins, forks, skewers, overloads, decoying, etc) and model mates (Lolli, Greco, Morphy mates, corridor and smothered mates, etc) in order to improve your situational awareness; and study endgames (especially King-and-Pawn endgames and Rook-and-Pawn endgames) to improve your sense of how to proceed and what sorts of positions to aim for.

Just try not to blunder :laugh thats enough to increase your rate.. I think.

The only way to be rated that low (no offence intended obviously) is to have next to no board vision. So yeah, focus on taking free pieces when your opponents blunder, which they frequently will, and keeping your pieces safe. No need to worry about how to sacrifice, or openings, or any of that stuff. Tactics + board vision is key as well as making sure you know the basic checkmates. You should easily be able to get to 1000 before too long if you work on it.

The biggest problem for begginer.. like mine, were the blunders. when I focus on not to do it, my accuracy increased.

Thank you all for the comments  I’m just getting up but I do plan to read them more.  Also. I can handle the honesty of how bad I am.  I won the Brazilian jiu jitsu pan americans in LA in 2017. “Benjamin ferguson bjj on google and I’ll come up in gracie magazine in the first page” but human chess and chess do cone to work me.  I actually know very few good bjj guys that play chess. 

Not that I have much improvement to show for it, but I like to use the Key Moments feature (your diamond account can access) to channel the "energy" of a loss into something constructive.  It turns your mistakes and missed wins into basic puzzles, some of which will be illuminating (most of mine, from blitz play, are just d'oh though).

It's gonna take a little work to be an average beginner.

Everyone starts out the way you do. Try to learn tactics, basic endgames, and basic openings.

Hi

I will give you some different ideas.  

in 15 days you have played 215 games.   This means you MUST be playing high speed games, rather than taking your time to think about moves and consider.  It probably means you have not reviewed each loss carefully to see what you missed and did wrong. 

play slow games.  30 min per game or more, or even 3 day per move type.   Review your games for mistakes. 

Yes, your score is low, but its highly tied to trying to play fast chess IMHO. 

as for the rest... sacrifices for position are tricky.    If you do not get immediate rewards your opponent will often equalize the position and your advantage vanishes to a deficit.  

as for piece coordination, it depends on the pawns a lot.   Consider... bishop and knight and 2 knights cannot force mate. 2 bishops, one rook, knight and bishop (extremely difficult for beginners) or 1 queen all can.  So try to avoid being stuck with 2 knights or knight and bishop endgames.   Consider also whether your pieces can assist in walking a pawn home.   But the pawns are going to rule the board... if you have 2 bishops, but one can't move anywhere due to deadlocked pawns, you are not really gaining much in the short term.  And a bit of what the opponent has...  you don't want to end up with opposite colored bishops (draws a lot) or a knight/bishop against 3 connected pawns.  

Learn the fork, the pin, and the skewer.  Very helpful tools at the beginning.  And Lev Alburt's series of books helped me. 

Two opening books I recommend:

1. Starting Out:  The Ruy Lopez by Shaw.  At your level do NOT go beyond the third or fourth move and play a ***t ton of games.   (stars are my own and I hope that I did not cross the line.)
2. Starting Out: the Sicilian by Emms.  A bit more complex and again do NOT go beyond the third or fourth move at this point.

BUT FIRST: start out with Pandolfini's ENDGAME COURSE or BASIC CHESS ENDINGS by Fine.  The endgame is where all beginners end up and these books will give you basic tools that you'll use for the remainder of your chess career. 

Strange, I thought Charles Babbage invented the computer. I read it in a book.

No need. He was being ironic. It's humour but doesn't always translate within a global community.

Now it's tokyo joe.  I'm POLISH.  Just get him outta' here.