The evergreen question from beginners: how can I get better?

1.) play longer games!

Lot´s of questioners play only blitz or even rapid -. There is no time to improve, no time to think about the situation on the board, no time to remember general rules... and so on. Take more time and think more.

2.) don´t just play → practice and learn!

There are literally hunderts of possibilities on chess.com (and on the whole internet and book market and cd-market) to learn chess. Puzzles and Videos, Tutorials and Studies, books and learn-CDs. Do you really think, that Grandmasters only learned by plaing games??

3.) Analyze your (lost) games

Have a look and think about your mistakes. Do I often do the same mistakes? In which part of the game do I make the most mistakes? Why is this a bad move (the engine tells you nothing about this question). There are a lot of stages to analyze. Some people say you should take the same time to analyze your games (or even more) as the game itself lasted.

There is a helpful tool now on chess.com for answering some general questions: https://www.chess.com/insights

4.) If you play daily games, make anotations of your actual game in the analyze tool. Write down, why you think the move you play is good or why you play it. Write also down when you think your opponent made a good or bad move. Afterwards you can have a closer look weather the engine agrees with you or not. If not, ask yourself: why?

5.) take a teacher

That´s for those who are really interested in learning the game. I´ve heared it´s the best way. (and very costly).

Here is an overview of the possibilities in chess.com

https://support.chess.com/article/437-how-do-i-get-better-at-chess

But always be aware of the old proverb: nothing comes out of nothing! You HAVE to spend time in learning chess and, yes, maybe also money (for a membership here on chess.com, for books or even for a teacher).

If it is that what you want: do it, if not: don´t complain and don´t ask for a miracle way to get better!

Did I miss something? Please tell me!

And if somebody want´s to know: NO, I don´t do that all, but some of it, sometimes more, sometimes less.

Thanks!

Good luck, 

https://support.chess.com/article/437-how-do-i-get-better-at-chess

Great advice!

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

For me, seems that part of it is to stop defeating myself with newbie mistakes.

- Always feeling like I have to attack. Not patiently developing. Throwing away pieces in senseless attacks. Not waiting for opportunities and blunders to happen.

- Not paying attention to everything that is going on. Or paying too much attention to just one thing. Not looking for forks, pins, skewers, hanging pieces, etc.

- Making bad trades and not calculating exchanges. Trading down or unnecessarily sacrificing pieces. Not realizing that I need more attackers than defenders to come out with a winning exchange.

- Making unnecessary checks or exchanging equal value pieces 'just because they are there'. Not because it would create any long term advantage for me.

- Having a knee jerk reaction to rush pieces to safety when attacked...rather than slowing down and thinking just like I would with any other move. There are so many times where I miss counterattacks available on the board, or fail to see that the attacker is blundering.

- Unnecessarily taking pawns. If the opponent pawn structure is obstructing and holding back their own pieces, might be best to leave it alone.

- Arousing sleeping pieces. This is especially true with rooks or other pieces that are inactive in the back rank. I'm starting to catch when I make threatening gestures that cause the opponent to unnecessarily bring dormant pieces into the game.

@Mikewrite: yes, what you discribe are all problems of beginners and most of it: Of too less time. You know all these things but forget it in the actual situation.

I tried with my list not to mention the spezial problems, but to give some more generall advices to improve in chess. You could longer your list nearly endlessly, but that does not help to change it. It only summarizes the problems, not the solutions.

How about having fun?

May be it’s just me, but if I’m not enjoying it, it’s hard for me to keep engaged and learning.

Life’s too short to play with a 50 item checklist lol

Yes, it´s essential! But you can´t give it as an advice to become a better player. That would mean, you could DESIDE to have fun (like you could deside to take a teacher) and that is not possible for a human beeing. So let´s say if you don´t have fun playing chess or getting better in chess, that here is not a threat for you. (don´t mean you as a person, but in general).

I mean when I’m playing rated games or in sessions with my coach or training partners, I’m drinking bourbon, blasting music, Chessbrah streaming in the background; it’s what I do. Got me to 1400 and now shooting for 1500.

Some of us don’t have titled aspirations.

yeah, think most uf us don´t have titled aspirations! For me that is as far as the dark side of the moon. I made this thread mainly because I´m a bit upset of these over and over and over coming question in the "beginners" section (how can I become better, why is my rating so low, why dropped my rating so badly and so on). And if you have a look at the answers, they are exactly as morror like: see above I just wanted to have something I can copy and paste to answer quickly and I wanted to share it with the community.

That’s very nice of you.

I do know the guys and girls I train with (rated as high as 2300); they are very hard workers. They also own a lot of books lol.

They also use logic and make human moves instead of trying to find the engine moves. Really great at clamping down and exploiting weaknesses no matter how small.

very good tips archaja, I'm lucky you gave me this link so i can read all of these.. i'm learning a lot, i will be a better player

and mikewrite, i earned some of your remarks in the hard way in time. attack means initiative, last option should be to choose a only defensive move. it's best to ask your opponent always a question by your moves otherwise he will make plans and you fall into it

thanks for your reply!

To your reply to mikewrite: Elli Pähtz, the best german woman player has something to mention about candidate moves. She calles it: the algorithm of the candidate moves:

Look for:

1.) Moves that give check and capture a piece

2.) Moves that give check

3.) Moves who threaten something

4.) Prophylactic moves

this was very helpful for me.

I personally would add two more categories:

1.) Moves that prepare something (means: you have a plan and work for it).

2.) Moves that improve the position (i.e. the position of the pieces)

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’m a respected  chess coach and chess YouTuber who helps beginners out : 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP5SPSG_sWSYPjqJYMNwL_Q

Here’s some ideas to help you get better.  

-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.  

-Also consider all checks and captures on your side and also your opponent’s side. Always as, “If I move here, where is my opponent going to move?”. Do this for every single move!  

-Play with a slow time control, such as G/30 so you have plenty of time to think before every move. 

-You are welcome to come to my free online beginner chess class on May 14:  

Hi Lauren! Nice to meet you. What do you think of my advices for beginners? In the "slow time control" we just agree with each other.

Ah, by the way, I´m also a youtuber, but on totaly different topics:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7qr3pxnepTprMOucPhr28A

I was looking for a book to buy yesterday, was checking @Russbell 's blog, but i can read these, there are plenty of choices there and there are just 2 here. This is easier to choose

I was planning to read "silmans's complete endgame course" and "reassess your chess" books.

I liked your youtube Lauren, you look nice.. very friendly smile  

Strange musics you have on your channel @archaja Is that you in videos? I couldn't read "about" section, it's in german. But one thing i noticed, your channel is older than me  you were making music and playing chess way before than i was born lol

Yeah, it´s mostly african and afrocuban drum music. And yes, it´s me in the videos. Most of the time And the channel is older, I´m older: too old for rock´n´roll, too young to die.....