Quickest way to improve my game ? - Chess Forums

Facari

Oct 20, 2019

0

#1

Hey ! I'm new here

I've started playing chess casually this August and i'm forced to admit that's actually pretty funny !

I'm now close to 1000 elo and here's my question...

I've reached this elo without "theorical study" nor too much difficulties.

So, should i continue to play like that before a certain elo ? (like under 1600, everyone as no theory ?) or should i start reading some stuff ? (i'm looking for free stuff)

I'm not looking for the "best way" but for the quickest

Have a good day !

kindaspongey

Oct 20, 2019

0

#2

Quickest and free are not likely to apply to the same "way", and both have disadvantages. Here is some advice that I routinely post without seeking to maximize speed and minimize cost:

"... for those that want to be as good as they can be, they'll have to work hard.
Play opponents who are better than you … . Learn basic endgames. Create a simple opening repertoire (understanding the moves are far more important than memorizing them). Study tactics. And pick up tons of patterns. That’s the drumbeat of success. ..." - IM Jeremy Silman (December 27, 2018)
https://www.chess.com/article/view/little-things-that-help-your-game
https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-to-start-out-in-chess
https://www.chess.com/news/view/a-new-years-resolution-improve-your-chess-with-new-lessons

Facari

Oct 20, 2019

0

#3

Ok i though chess was a kind of game where people share their experiences for free (i've looked and it's actually a pretty big institution so my bad)

So my new questions is ; is it useful to start learning before a certain elo ?

Edit : thanks for all the links

kindaspongey

Oct 20, 2019

0

#4

People do some amount of free experience sharing, but there is not likely to be the sort of detail and polish that one would find in professional materials. I see no reason to doubt that learning can be helpful for nearly anyone, but some people seem to manage to be happy just playing.

By the way, some people think of "theory" as referring to openings. As near as I can tell, you seem to be taking it as referring to any sort of chess reading. There may be confusion in communication if there is not awareness of differences in language usage. I am wondering if you have encountered someone telling you to not study theory until you are 1700 or something. It is hard to say for sure what would have been meant by such a person, but it is quite possible that the idea was to warn you against trying to memorize long opening variations - a common mistake made by many beginners. That doesn't mean that one shouldn't try to learn anything as a beginner. Indeed, there are many books that start with the rules and go on to lots of other material suitable for a beginner.

Facari

Oct 20, 2019

0

#5

Nobody tell me that, it's just something i was wondering ^^ And i wasn't referring only to openings but more as "common" traps or endgame big mistakes too.

I don't doubt that studying is useful too, but what i meant is that sometimes practicing and testing by yourself is more efficient (till a certain level) It was what i wanted to know.

kindaspongey

Oct 20, 2019

0

#6

Facari wrote:

Nobody tell me that, it's just something i was wondering ^^ And i wasn't referring only to openings but more as "common" traps or endgame big mistakes too. ...

Well, if you hang around here for long, you have a good chance of somebody telling you not to study theory. I think it is a good idea to be aware of variations in usage of that sort of language.

kindaspongey

Oct 20, 2019

0

#7

Facari wrote:

... sometimes practicing and testing by yourself is more efficient (till a certain level) It was what i wanted to know.

I think that there is widespread agreement that it is beneficial to play games against other humans and learn from other humans.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/little-things-that-help-your-game

ArtNJ

Oct 20, 2019

0

#8

(1) go to a chess club in person; (2) get beat by stronger player; and (3) they will most likely be willing to go over the game with you.

Even in the internet age, this is the single best thing you can do for free.

Its not necessarily that hard for a smart adult to get to 1000 elo, but you won't continue to improve much by playing on the internet without some additional work. And you know, you are probably not really 1000 elo if you are only playing on the internet. Internet ratings do not equal in person ratings.

cyboo

Oct 20, 2019

0

#9

ArtNJ wrote:

(1) go to a chess club in person; (2) get beat by stronger player; and (3) they will most likely be willing to go over the game with you.

Even in the internet age, this is the single best thing you can do for free.

Its not necessarily that hard for a smart adult to get to 1000 elo, but you won't continue to improve much by playing on the internet without some additional work. And you know, you are probably not really 1000 elo if you are only playing on the internet. Internet ratings do not equal in person ratings.

Definitely. Daily games with a stronger person who will go over the game with you is a must. And I can happily say that there are several kind, generous and helpful people on chess,com who are willing to spend some of their time helping less-skilled players improve

Facari

Oct 20, 2019

0

#10

ArtNJ a écrit :

(1) go to a chess club in person; (2) get beat by stronger player; and (3) they will most likely be willing to go over the game with you.

Even in the internet age, this is the single best thing you can do for free.

Its not necessarily that hard for a smart adult to get to 1000 elo, but you won't continue to improve much by playing on the internet without some additional work. And you know, you are probably not really 1000 elo if you are only playing on the internet. Internet ratings do not equal in person ratings.

Yeah i understand that but right now i'm speaking about internet elo not real one... The fact is that i'm not planning to go in a chess club since i like to play chess at home in my little own confort !

Plus chess club aren't free in France

Facari

Oct 20, 2019

0

#11

kindaspongey a écrit :

Facari wrote:

... sometimes practicing and testing by yourself is more efficient (till a certain level) It was what i wanted to know.

I think that there is widespread agreement that it is beneficial to play games against other humans and learn from other humans.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/little-things-that-help-your-game

I see... Thanks you a lot for all the links

Facari

Oct 20, 2019

0

#12

arnavgm1758 a écrit :

https://www.chess.com/club/serious-chess-club-for-champs join this club and you will improve

Thanks i will check

startingtoplayagain

Oct 20, 2019

0

#13

At your level, get a book on tactical puzzles and go through it multiple times (like 10x). Go through it until you simply "know" those positions. You don't need to memorize them so much as just be able to solve all of the problems in the book fairly quickly because you're so familiar with them. There are many good puzzle books that meet this criteria. One of my favorites that explains the tactics well is Susan Polgar's book "Chess Tactics for Champions" . Title is a misnomer - its really a book for lower rated players. Tactics practice like this (going through the same set of problems over and over) will improve your tactical vision and that will improve a beginner's ability more than any other method.

Daybreak57

Oct 20, 2019

0

#14

About 17 years ago I didn't have any chess training at all. I am not sure if I even did any tactics at all at that point in my chess life. I was like any other beginner. I played random openings and lost a lot due to opening traps and occasionally won a few.

One thing that I think helped me was that I learned an opening repertoire. It helped to have a set opening with every single thing black or white could bring up against you. My first repertoire, for the most part, was a system geared towards almost a universal setup, which I now do not like, and now prefer an opening that differs depending on what white or black does.

Most people who study chess say not to spend too much time on openings before they get a good feel for the game, but I'll leave that up to you. You decide.

You can just study master games, and play chess as you go, analyzing your games. I would recommend that you try to play games with longer time controls. That's what most people here would tell you anyway, and seeing how no one has told you that yet, I'll be the first, play games with slower time controls. You can still play blitz, but only in moderation, or for opening practice.

Spondgy gave you a good thing to read to know more about what you need to do for your next step, however, a lot of those books in those book lists are for higher rated players, not for you. (I'm talking about the book lists in that article about various chess masters who give their book list recommendations)

All chess is a never ending book list isn't it! Well, you can start with a few good tactics books, and Spondgy gave you one, and here is another, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. That may be beneath you but you can still gain some insight from going over that book. It's the beginner book of all beginner books. After you read that you can do the back to basics written by Dan Heisman. Then you can get Winning Chess by Fred Reinfield.

If you want to go the tactics route that is the way to go, and while your doing this go over a master game every now and again, maybe from Logical Chess Move by Move, or a similar book.

There is a lot to learn about endgames though. I myself do not know where one such as yourself should start. I did a lot of endgame tactics and got decent at king and pawn endgames, but when I opening Dvoretskies Endgame Manual, I learned I knew nothing about king and pawn endgames.

Silmans Endgame book is a good place to go, for a rudimentary knowledge of basic endgames, however, that is not the last stop.

So you see it takes a lot to learn chess. I gave you a few books to go over and that's a lot of books to go over at one time. I'm not saying the plan I have set for you is the golden thing you need to do right now either. All I am saying, is, that this is a "suggestion." In the end, you have to do what you can afford, and what you have time for, and what is most appealing to you.

Take all of what we all said to heart, and practice it, and maybe in a few months, you'll be a better player than I.

FireAndIce

Oct 20, 2019

0

#15

If you are looking for quick, then YouTube videos are pretty quick and on all levels of chess.

Reviewing each game immediately after playing is a must and can be done quickly, although I don’t think much of chess.com’s analysis. I prefer copying the PGN and going to www.chesspractice.com and analyzing there it at least gives you several alternate moves.

Amazon Kindle ebooks on chess have free e-book samples for a quick read. Some are pretty good. And some are bad....

RussBell

Oct 20, 2019

0

#16

A few tips (for quick improvement)...

In the opening, be sure to develop ALL your pieces as rapidly as you can - this is extremely important. You are already behind if you have fewer developed pieces than your opponent!

On each move, first try to identify immediate threats to you (are ALL your pieces and pawns protected?!). Once you have developed your pieces, begin the process of identifying if there are any useful threats you can create for your opponent to deal with - that is, after ensuring the safety of your pieces and pawns, strive to try to create problems for your opponent to solve as much as possible - if you don't, you're just giving him free reign to do whatever he likes. Better to put him in the position of having to deal with your moves and threats, as opposed to the other way round. At the same time, be cognizant of improving the position/placement of your pieces and pawns, not only for ensuring an adequate defense, but equally important to put them in a position where they can support and/or quickly participate in an attack/tactic/combination - i.e., offensive operations.

Opening development includes connecting your rooks on the first rank (i.e., this means that your other pieces are no longer occupying the first rank, and that you have castled). And if files become open (clear of all pawns) or semi-open (i.e., only your opponent's pawns are on the file), or likely to become so, it is generally a good idea to post your rooks such that they have influence on, and command of, these files.

So once you have developed ALL your pieces, begin to think of ways that you can open lines (files and diagonals) as required - consistent with your offensive plan - for your rooks, bishops and Queen. The point is to give your pieces more potential for "activity" and for them to be able to influence more squares on the board (called "scope"). All other things being equal, the player with the greater activity and scope for his pieces generally enjoys an advantage. Other than a material advantage, this is probably the single most important advantage to strive for in a game.

For file opening (for the purpose of increasing the scope and activity of your rook(s) which are, or soon will be, posted on it), this is accomplished generally via pawn exchanges (a file is not open for you if your own pawn is on it).

The aforementioned pieces also require open lines so that when the time is right they (along with the knights, which don’t require open lines to be effective) can quickly participate in an attack. The greater the number of pieces you can bring to bear in an attack, the more likely it is to succeed. Insufficient attacking force in many cases will not only end up needlessly wasting valuable pieces, but also increases the likelihood that your opponent will be able to fend off your attack, turn the tables, and gain the initiative..

The following very instructive video makes the point (revealed at minute 15:10) that "activity is the underlying principle which governs all chess games"....

Chess opening principles for beginners…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ugDFOoevyI

When deciding upon a move, think in terms of….

The Principle of Maximum Usefulness…

https://www.mark-weeks.com/aboutcom/aa06b18.htm

The 10 most common chess mistakes among beginners...

https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-10-most-common-mistakes-among-chess-beginners

Pandolfini's 64 Commandments of Chess...
https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-64-commandments

Spend some time studying the following instructive game with the goal of understanding the reasoning (i.e., the principles) behind each and every move White makes…go over the game (slowly) as many times as it takes until you understand White’s decisions…

5 most important principles of attack in chess…

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

Also check out some of the articles here. In particular Dan Heisman's "Novice Nook" column articles...
https://web.archive.org/web/20140625052220/http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/archives.htm

From your profile you play exclusively bullet and blitz games. Try to play mostly longer time controls, including "daily" chess, so you have time to think about what you should be doing. It makes sense that taking time to think about what you should be doing would promote improvement in your chess skills.

This is not to suggest that you should necessarily play exclusively slow time controls or daily games, but they should be the greater percentage of your games, much more so than speed games (rapid, bullet, blitz, etc.) which do almost nothing to promote an understanding of how to play the game well. Speed chess tends to be primarily an exercise in moving pieces around faster than your opponent while avoiding checkmate, in hopes that his/her clock runs out sooner than yours.

Here's what IM Jeremy Silman has to say on the topic...
https://www.chess.com/article/view/longer-time-controls-are-more-instructive

And the experience of a FIDE Master...
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/how-blitz-and-bullet-rotted-my-brain-don-t-let-it-rot-yours

Finally, playing without a good foundation in fundamental chess principles and understanding how to apply them will do little to help you become a good chess player. In order to understand these principles it takes study - there is no easy, quick solution to playing good chess....you have to put in the effort to learn...

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond....
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

A good site to inexpensively (i.e., cheaply!) gain access to lots of chess books is Scribd...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/scribd-com-for-online-chess-book-reading

Kraig

Oct 20, 2019

0

#17

I've been playing chess for a little over 6 months now, and I started out with a 670 blitz rating after week 1 and I reached 1500 blitz after about 4.5 months and I've never touched a book (yet).

I have had some coaching online focusing on tactics and endgames, and I've watched a lot of YouTube content too. I recommend both the St Louis lectures as well as John Bartholomew's climbing the rating ladder series.

PhysicsLearner0008

Oct 20, 2019

0

#18

I believe for one to learn quick, there must be someone/something to tell whether the moves are good/bad and why, what are better moves.

Playing: If you play normally, you win or lose, you get a tough or easy position, and that tells you how you are doing. If you lose, or even if you win, go through your game and try to figure out which part you might have improved.

In chess.com, after your game, you can click analysis, click run report, then basic analysis. keep an eye on moves labeled "blunder" or "mistake", figure out why they are such, and take note of the suggested moves. but don't mind much the "inaccuracy" or playing "good" instead of "best", because the engine is not that deep in free version, and u have to develop ur own style and not always imitate the engine.

You can also ask an expert to evaluate your game.

Tactics and Tactics Puzzles: Why they are good, because it tells you immediately if your move is correct or wrong, speeding up the learning process, learning from mistakes.. Also, at begginer-intermediate level usually many blunders are made, and knowing how to take advantage of a blunder, as well as avoiding doing such, is a good thing to learn. However, if you make a bad move, i suggest u figure out the correct move first before proceeding.

Here are some good sites for tactics practice: https://www.chess.com/puzzles, also chesstempo.com

Planning, Ideas, and Strategy, Positional Understanding: This is not easy to learn if you are still a beginner where usually blunders are made, you cannot easily determine if the reason you win/lose is because your plan is good/bad or because you/your opponent made a blunder. it takes repetitive application of your ideas to figure out if it really works or not, also, if u get used to inaccurate planning, you might acquire bad habits which might hinder u from improving. It is good to follow basic principles like controlling center, piece development, king safety, etc. You can also learn basic chess principles here: https://www.chess.com/lessons. Ultimately, it is good to have a book on strategy, but if you are like me, and have no time, i just watch youtube videos which are targeted to my level (even a little higher or lower).

Some concepts are: Attack, Defense, Tempo and Initiative, pawn structure, piece activity and positioning, Open or Closed position, pawn breaking through, space advantage, controlling key squares, weaknesses, which pieces are valuable in a given position, positional sacrifice, strategies for an opening middle or end game position, accumulating advantages, converting advantages, etc.

Opening and Endgame: Imo, study the ideas in those phases of the game which are fitted to your level, else you will use considerably large amount of time studying things which u will not immediately encounter, apply, or put to practice (which, imho, is the best way to learn). Example, memorizing too deeply into the opening, if both of u are beginner, your opponent will likely not follow the book moves anyway since his opening is not that deep. So, you should know what to do in case your opponent (or even you yourself) diverges from the book, that is, you should know the ideas behind the opening you are studying. Same with the endgame, and i also like Silman's book for endgame.

If u become interested, u may check for opening database, where u can find winning percentages as well as usage frequency for each opening move.

Having Fun: have fun playing

CM Cyrano-Lossi

Oct 20, 2019

0

#19

Hi! Instead of suggesting one specific book,what really helped me improving my chess in +200 fide rating points in one year was the algorithm method. Sadly there is not so many reasources about it, only little fragments in many books, nothing complete, but I´m always explaining it to my students and getting good results with it. It sounds complex, but really isnt, it´s more a way of thinking, which is basic in chess and most players (including me) usually forget about when starting. Please feel free to write if you have any questions.

Facari

Oct 21, 2019

0

#20

Thanks everyone for all the good tips !

I've writed everything in my notes and will try to go through each method before choosing which one is the best for me

I've started do some puzzles yesterday and now on, i will review each of my games ^^

I've started "Chess fundamentals" (algebraic version) as well