The Most Important Thing in Chess for a Beginner

The most important thing for a beginner to focus on is not hanging their pieces and pawns, and taking the pieces or pawns that the opponent gives away. All a beginner needs to do to advance to the next level is to do those two things. Don't hang pieces and take the ones that are given away for free.

Therefore, a beginner should always focus on, "Can I win material in this position?" and, if the answer is no, then they should pick a move, any move, then spend as much time as possible asking, "Is my position after I make this move safe, or can my opponent take something for free or checkmate me?"

Once you are certain that you are safe everywhere if you play your move, is it okay to actually make the move. Do not play blitz or bullet, as they do not give you enough time to decide your move.

You are entitled to your opinion. I am not trolling, however. My advice is quite serious. Until you reach a playing strength where you are not giving away pieces frequently, and missing it when your opponents give them away, then you should focus on not doing that. Nothing else really matters, not opening principles, not endgame techniques, and definitely not positional play. None of it is one-tenth as important as not hanging a knight.

Original poster (rated 1802) is right and KarmaTheKat (rated 310) is trolling.

anything else?

Focus on just doing those two things, it's enough at the beginning.

Is this why they say karma is a b*tch?

Also don't hang your queen, karma ...

Overall, I agree with the OP, but I would suggest one modification.

Rather than .... a beginner should always focus on, "Can I win material in this position?" I think the first question a beginner should always focus on is "Can my opponent win material in this position?"

It forces you to look at the board and get into the habit of first consider what it is your opponent is trying to do to you (they are trying to beat you after all). So before you start thinking about how you are going to beat them, you first need to make sure they are not one step ahead. And when just starting out, one step ahead usually means they can take a piece or pawn from you, and you didn't notice. And once they do, most likely all your thoughts of how you will beat them get refuted.

so can they take something from you? If yes, then can you prevent it by the following list. For beginners, in this order, as you advance, you'll know when this order isn't the same as the best option. That will come.

1) taking their threatening piece/pawn first?

2) threaten to take something of greater value than what you would lose?

3) threaten to take something of equal value of what you could lose?

4) moving your threatened piece/pawn?

However, if your opponent can't take anything from you in a way you can deal with, only then should you consider the question of "What move can I make that threatens one of my opponents pieces/pawn?" (in the opening, you probably want to add "what move can I make that gets another one of my pieces into the game/off its starting square").

Get into the habit of first thinking about moves from your opponent's perspective before thinking about your move from your own perspective. If you can do that, a lot of "board blindness" goes away (i.e. the "Oh, I didn't see that") - note I said a lot, not all. We all overlook things at times.

We disagree.

If you look at threats against you first, you end up looking twice, and wasting time. You look at the beginning of your move, then again just before you make your move. Or worse you do not look at all just before making your move, thinking you looked for his threats already, not realizing that the move you are about to make changes the position, possibly creating dangers that did not exist before you moved.

In practice what happens when you see an opponent's threat is that you tend to get "tunnel vision" and respond defensively, often completely overlooking when you have a bigger threat. 

Find your attacking moves first. Imagine making the move, then see if your opponent has a reply that makes you sorry you chose your move. If they do have such a reply, choose a better move, perhaps one that defends against their threat.

It's a bit of chicken and egg problem, really. Obviously one has to evaluate both. In my view, which isn't a "bit T truth", I just think it's a good habit to get into to think about the opponent's options first, and then think about your own. It is entirely fine to start with your own, and then go back and check your opponent's options, since both get covered. I just worry that a beginner will forgot to go back and check their opponent after finding "their best idea".

I guess I think of it this way: Your move follows your opponent's (other than White on move 1 of course), so first work out what has changed and why. Then work out how to deal with it.

Thanks for the advice. This is very helpful for beginners like me.

I have started playing longer games (30m) so that I can spend more time looking for threats and captures, and that has helped a lot. I still play 15|10 (on LiChess) and I notice that my blunders there are way more than the 30min rapid that I play on chess.com (and that is to be expected).

Two things I still struggle with:

1. Reminding myself to look for threats/captures throughout the game (i.e. I start well but by the time I reach the middle or endgame I forget to check before every move, partly because of time pressure and partly due to habit)

2. I'm getting better at finding hanging pieces and looking for direct threats (i.e. hanging pieces that I'm leaving on the board). The part I struggle with is checking if the opponent has a chance to do a pin/fork on the next move. I guess I'll get there with practice.

Pls let me know if you have any other suggestions.

This is quite normal. Chess skill consists of remembering patterns one has seen before, and you have not seen enough pins and forks to recognize them when they happen on the board. What will make you advance in strength is to see a lot of pins and forks. Then you will see them when you play actual games of chess. So, one way to see lots of examples of forks is to do lots and lots of chess puzzles like this one:

White to move:

Thank you - this is helpful (And I think the answer on this one is Rb3+ to create a fork with the N)

Here is another example of the type of puzzle which if you do hundreds and hundreds of them, will improve your ability to spot and avoid blunders.

Black has decided to play 1... Bd6 but before playing it, he does a blundercheck. Is that move a blunder?

Wow, that was a nice one (and no I wasn't able to solve it). Problem is that most of the puzzles that I do (on chess.com) get you into an advantageous positions (i.e. either checkmate or win material). However, what I encounter more often in games is the kind of situations shown in this puzzle that you just shared (i.e. just a normal move developing pieces an we don't even realize that it was a blunder). But I haven't come across any puzzles that help you with these kind of Blunder checks. This is awesome - can you tell me where do you get these from?

@19

To practice blunderchecking, just solve normal tactical puzzles. Normal puzzles start with the blunder already made. So here, they would put the Bishop on d6 then ask you to find the best move. When blunderchecking, you do the same thing. You mentally put the bishop on d6 then look to see if there is a way to win material - in essence you are judging if its a tactical diagram at that point or not. Solving lots of diagrams will help you judge if the move you are about to make, creates a tactical puzzle, or doesn't and is safe to play.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/off-topic/official-otf-leader-voting-forum

Guess changing the op is a unique event

This is not true, I never wrote that, though I will not rule out that you misread what I did write and thought I meant that.

The most crucial aspect for a beginner in chess is to develop a solid foundation in tactics and basic principles. Understanding key tactical motifs such as forks, pins, and skewers, along with grasping fundamental opening principles and endgame techniques, lays the groundwork for strategic growth and improvement. Consistent practice, coupled with a thirst for learning from each game, will pave the way for progress and success on your chess journey.

Let us say you have a chess player who is rated 1000 rapid on Chess.com. They have one hour per day to devote to chess. How do they "develop a solid foundation in tactics"?  What should they do to achieve this solid foundation?

Focusing on not hanging pieces and pawns, as well as capitalizing on your opponent's mistakes, is indeed crucial for beginners.