Next steps after the basics

Hello everyone,

I started playing about four months ago and here's what I've done so far:

• Drilled basic endgames on Chess.com
• 10-15 puzzles every day (Currently rated 1900 in Puzzles)
• Played sporadic rapid games (Currently rated 711 with 50% win rate)

I am still very novice, but what should I prioritize next in my learning? Can you give me comments/advice on these ideas:

• Learn an opening with white
  • Most common lines to 6-7 moves deep
  • Probably learn the London
  • The Catalan also appeals to me because of the fianchetto set-up, is this too advanced for someone of my level?
• Learn basic setups for black to respond to d4 or e4
  • Any suggestions on what set-ups to learn?
• Play/analyze more games (I currently play very sporadically, but could start playing a game every day if that would be better)

Thanks in advance for your input!

Hi, I‘m a beginner around 600 in rapid 30 minutes chess. If I analyse my games I see there is no problem in the opening - I don‘t mimd if my opening has a fancy name. playsr around my level are mostly out of book after a few moves. 

What me helps: Pattern recognition without hints. If you make puzzles a la Mate In 1 you know there is a mate. In real games the situation is the situation and you don‘t overlook am mate in 1. 

So my tip: Get more in basic tactics lime forks or possible forks against you. You can‘t learn swimming by reading books, it‘s about practice. Play against humans not bots, analyse your games and make the recommended lessons. You will see blunders and mistakes in the middle game and if you reach an end game you will see that you needs more move to mate than the machine calculates. Play, play, play. 

Good job on the basic endgame drills and tactics discipline... keep that up

I am a big advocate for e4.e5 and with white and black and then replying d4 with d5 until you have reached some 1200 ish at least.... in my opinion, the e4.e5 tends to lead to more open positions where you can try to more easiyly-ish apply some of those tactics you've been practicing... are you familiar with opening principles? If not, learn those before you start learning opening theory like london, catalan and others, as opening principles are much more important than opening theory...

London is a fine open and is very appealing to beginners because the first 7-8 moves can almost always be played without paying attention to what your opponent is doing, which is a very bad  habit to have and a very unhealthy one for your chess development... but it's a set up that is easy to learn and good to have in your arsenal, although, I wouldn't make it my go to...

Catalan is not the easiest of openings to learn as a beginner compared to, say, the italian, where the plans and ideas are more simple and easy and straightforward to understand, but the catalan is very playable and a good opening (which I sense will get a lot more popular with carlsen crushing everyone with it) that's been played in the elite for a while with great success... it also has a couple of interesting themes with the fianchettoed bishop combined with Ng5 attacking the rook and threatening checkmate in certain positions... but I find it very difficult to believe you'll be able to apply catalan theory at the beginner level, and you'll often find yourself "out of book" (when your opponent plays a move you didn't expect) and having to rely on those opening principles I mentioned...

Playing longer games (15|10 or even 30 min rapid) and taking your time before making your moves and analyzing them after is extremely beneficial to your chess development

I would also recommend, for improving, maybe watching one (or all) of the following:

-Chess Brah Building Good Chess Habits series on youtube;

-Climbing the Rating Ladder with John Bartholomew on youtube;

-Daniel Naroditsky speed runs on youtube...

They go through every rating explaining concepts, ideas, strategies, common mistakes, etc

Other than that, the best thing I can say to you is that no matter what you do with your chess, just have fun with it

@Morfizera

Thanks for your detailed response and the recommendations—I will definitely check out the YouTube series you mentioned.

As far as opening principles go, I know these in general:

• Fight for the center
  
  • Placing pawns in the center
  • Developing pieces to protect/attack in the center
• Prioritize development
  • Getting knights out; ideally not to the side of the board
  • Getting bishops out to good diagonals
• Castling/King safety

These are sometimes at odds with each other though, so I know I still have a lot to learn (i.e. when an aggressive opponent forces me to prioritize king safety and stall development)

That's pretty much it... maybe add "connecting rooks" as a principle...

But that's the thing about chess, your opponent won't always let you do what you want, and you have to adapt, which is what makes chess beautiful

If you like the look of the Catalan, you could start with the Queen's Gambit, which often has the same initial moves 1. d4 d5 2. c4. 

I wouldn't worry too much about settling down on one opening or another. 1. e4 e5 is the best place to start overall and you could play the Italian and the Scotch and have straightforward open games.

lessons they'll teach you a lot... stick with the puzzles & endgames for sure.  daily chess--think hard about each move & once it is OVER analyze it & take the suggestions seriously.    🙂

Also, an easy opening to play in terms of theory that involves a fianchettoed bishop is the Nimzo-Larsen Attack.

Thanks for this tip.

At some point I saw that the queen's pawn openings have a higher win rate—so I assumed that they would be better to learn. 

Are you saying that the Italian or Scotch games can get you to a playable mid-game with less theory or pitfalls than queen's pawn openings?  @SmallerCircles

Queen's pawn openings have a tendency to slowly build up a structure and king's pawn openings have opportunities to jump into tactics and out of opening moves faster. The Scotch is kinda the opposite of those slow structural-build-up openings you see a lot in queen's pawn openings, because the tension in the middle gets broken immediately. So it becomes an open, tactical game.

e4 opening can have lots of theory too, like the Ruy Lopez or Sicilian Najdorf, but you don't have to worry about that at all at this point (me neither tbh). The main thing is it's easy to jump into tactics and the middlegame with e4 e5.

I'll be honest that I like d4 more, though. 

Not all mate in 1s are immeditely obvious. In time scrambles, we miss them too from time to time.

You can also possibly play over-the-board games in chess clubs as well! This will, however, depend on the COVID restrictions in your country, if any.

#1

"Drilled basic endgames" ++ Good

"10-15 puzzles every day (Currently rated 1900 in Puzzles)" ++ Good

"Played sporadic rapid games"
++ Good, play more. You should play about 50% of your time and analyse/study 50%.

"(Currently rated 711 with 50% win rate)"
++ 711 is bad. Always check your intended move is no blunder before you play it. That alone is enough to get to 1500. A 50% win rate is normal. If you win less than 50% it means for some reason you play opponents stronger than you. If you win more than 50% it means for some reason you play opponents weaker than you. For progress it is better to play stronger opponents, i.e. a win rate under 50%.

"Learn an opening with whiteMost common lines to 6-7 moves deep"
++ That is a complete waste of time and effort and will not make you progress.

"Probably learn the London"
++ You can play the London if you want, but you do not need to learn it.

"The Catalan also appeals to me because of the fianchetto set-up, is this too advanced for someone of my level?" ++ The Catalan is difficult to play.

"Learn basic setups for black to respond to d4 or e4" ++ You do not need to learn: just play.

"Play/analyze more games (I currently play very sporadically, but could start playing a game every day if that would be better)" ++ This is key to improving: play, lose, analyse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR1pAj43_Y8

@PorcoRossolini -

You might discover something of interest here...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

In the order of learning:

1. End game

2. Opening

3. Middle game.

No, chess should be learned in reverse order:

1. End game

2. Middle game

3. Opening

“In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else.
For whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and opening must be studied in relation to the end game.” - Capablanca

That order is still wrong... 

OP, take a look at your own games. How are they decided? I think you'll see that all of your games are decided by tactics. The person that didn't make a tactical mistake or the person that took advantage of the most tactical opportunities wins. That's typical for games till well over 1500. You will not see games where one side has a small advantage out of the opening and builds that up into a win, like you see in grandmaster games. You will also not see games where you get to the endgame with equal material. Usually one side has a at least a piece more than the opponent if the game goes that long. Again, that is a typical way the game goes for players at your rating. 

So what does this mean for the way you could be improving? Endgame study is not efficient for you. Endgame study typically means learning how to win king and pawn versus king, how to win pawn races etc. You don't reach these endgames, so how is this going to help you out? Yes, endgame study will be important, but do it once you regularly start playing those types of endgames. The same goes to opening study. Opening theory aims to give white a small advantage, black's aim is to equalize. But in your games, small advantages will be exchanged all the time. One side makes a mistake after which the other person has the advantage. Then the other person makes a mistake and it's equal. Then another mistake and someone is winning. The small opening advantage you could get from studying the opening won't have much impact on your games, because the mistakes after the opening are so much bigger. 

What you should focus on is making sure you don't give away pawns and pieces, and that you take advantage of every tactical opportunity there is. The biggest difference between 1000 OTB players and 1500 OTB players is that the 1500 just doesn't make that many tactical mistakes. Not missing tactics is the number 1 thing that will make you a much stronger chess player. So, tactics are by far the most important area for you to focus on. And that will be for a long time to come. Strong players spot multiple move tactics in fractions of seconds because they've had so much tactical training. It's like playing the piano, you just need to keep doing it. 

The other thing that you should focus on is being able to play normal moves. This is almost as important as tactics, because if there is no tactic, you need to be able to play a normal move. That way you can give your opponent all the chances of making a tactical mistake, that'll win you the game. Normal moves are putting a rook on an open file, bringing a knight to an outpost, making sure that your bishop is not looking at its own pawns. In other words: normal moves are moves that make your pieces happy. And that's something you can learn by studying the middlegame. That doesn't mean studying the Carlsbad structure or understanding the initiative etc. That's way too difficult for now. Just some easier stuff, like how to use an open file, rook on the 2nd/7th, outposts, bad bishops versus good bishops (not how to play them, but be able to recognize them and know how to make a bad bishop into a good bishop), playing actively and making sure your pieces are working together, what weak pawns are and how to attack those kind of simple weaknesses. There are many ways of studying this: typical middlegame books like How to Reassess Your Chess by Silman is great, if you make sure to not try to understand too much at once (leave the dynamics for later). You can also learn by watching stronger players play blitz. What are the moves they make almost instantly? Chances are, these are normal moves like putting a rook on an open file. 

This attitude of studying tactics and learning about playing normal moves, will also help you in other aspects of your chess. Chess openings can be played well by using the opening principles, a version of which you've already described in one of your comments. Understanding that a rook needs an open file, means you can already plan out how your rook will get there and how to get the other pieces out of the way of the rook during the opening play. Think: "I will want to do X later, so that's why right now I need to do these other things with my other pieces to make X happen or better". And your endgames will also improve: if you strive to keep your pieces active, you'll hopefully also play with your king in the endgame. That's already one of the most important lessons and it comes straight from the philosophy of keeping all of your pieces happy. 

To summarize, the right order for you to study would be:
1. Tactics
2. Middlegame strategy or the art of making your pieces happy

@RAU4ever

Thank you for your insight. I looked at a few of my recent games and this proves true. I've won lost games because of a timely tactic and I've also lost won games because I blundered an enemy tactic. 

I am growing an eye for tactics as I complete puzzles. But I know I need to work on "the art of making my pieces happy." Does this come with just playing/analyzing more games?

@tygxc

1. End game

2. Middle game

3. Opening

I also heard this priority to be the best. I think @RAU4ever has a point that those simple endgames don't often materialize in most of my games. However they were helpful for me to see basic piece coordination and the power of simple moves.

No, I don't think it'll work like that immediately. It is something you need to see one time, before you start seeing it as it were. I've just tried a google search, but it's not overly easy to find some material without knowing specific words. Try searching for topics like "Good bishop", "bad bishop", "outposts" and "rooks on the 7th rank", that might generate some information. After reading up on it, you could get better at it by analyzing your own games. It requires that you look at positions (maybe at first every 5 moves) and look at every piece individually and ask yourself if it really is as happy as it can be or whether you could find a place on the board where it would have been happier ("if I could pick you up and put you down on any square, where would I put you"-exercise). If you do find a place where it would've been better, you can then analyze your moves and see if you could have put it there if you had played differently.