(Kinda old Newbie) Any chance to help me "unblock" myself?

Hi!, I'm not very good at chess "anymore" (I used to play in school YEARS ago and between my schoolmates I was pretty "medium-good", but I never continued to play and now I'm totally lost in "what should I do now..."

This is an scenario that it keeps repeating to me (playing white):

It is very common for beginners and even advanced beginners to not be able to formulate a plan.  It never entirely goes away, but eventually becomes rare.

It is very difficult to learn chess from books alone.  You really need someone better than you to point out what your doing wrong.  We could help you with a few things just from this sequence alone, but you have to understand that if you've only played a bit in school, a few casual tidbits from veterans won't really take you all that far.

Find an adult chess club in your area and see if it meets at a convenient time.  They usually have players at all strengths.  Its true that you might be the weakest member for a time, but its unlikely anyone would think twice about it; people do start at all ages.  If you have the cash, lessons are another choice.  Or just have fun, dont worry about it, and maybe learn to write down your moves and post a full loss here now and then for help.  

I usually only had books about matches, but I got tired of them because the alternatives in each match were never the "what should I do". I guess because it was a pretty bad move but I never learnt "why". 

So yeah, a chess club would be great but I never found one for my age around here (the ones that are usually active, are the school ones). 

Will try to find one. =)

As for the match, I'd like just a hint in 2 things:

1.- What was the move that according to you, ruined my play. 

2.- *IF* you get in a scenario like after the 8 move, what would you play as the 9?. 

With that, I could arrange myself. =)

As for software, I'm using Lucas Chess with Stockfish 6, but I don't know if I should. =) 

3.  e5 is a bit wrong here; very generally speaking, you need a specific reason to push a pawn a second time before you have completed your development.  

7.  bb5 is also a bit wrong.  Look at how sad and pathetic black's light squared bishop is.  Its going to have a hard time doing anything.  So white's move, which allows black to trade bishops with bd7, can't be right.  Even after nc6, the bishop is misplaced, because white doesnt want to trade it for the knight.    

In the final position, white has to avoid losing a pawn after black exchanges the d4 pawn.  White can either take the knight, play be3, re1 or exchange pawns.  All options get a little complicated.  In general, white will look to keep the pawn on e5 there, and potentially to occupy d4 with a piece after exchanges.  Ideally black's bishop will stay confined, and white will enjoy more active pieces.  It is, however, an approximately equal position with a lot going on.

This is just an opening(french defence). And both sides are quite equal at this stage. This keeps repeating because french defence is a popular opening and is played by many players.

@ArtNJ

Thanks!, a conversation it's always better than just the "!" or "?" signs. =)

3. e5 was exclusively to stop/avoid the black knight occupying f6, I tend to do that a lot here. =(

7. bb5 was mainly to free the row to do a O-O. So it'd be better playing Be2? 

As for 9.-, I'll try to do the Be3 then. =)

@Ashvapathi Thanks!, I didn't look for it, it's just that I tend to play e4 and d4 and advance the pawn according to where it's most probable the opponent will play the knight. 

I'm not sure but Nc3 on move 5 seems a little incorrect, it blocks the c pawn which I really would have liked to push before developing the knight.

To improve and unblock yourself, you need to have intitution, if you don't then you won't get very far. You need to have some kind of idea of where to go.

If the position is dead where you can't think of anything at all, make an average move that improves or stablises your position. It is better you play quickly here and save time so you can use it in some other crucial time.

As for formulating plans: you can see each game as an exercise. Win or lose, t doesn't matter. As long as you think about it that way, you can learn What I sometimes do is say to myself: i'm going to use my tower to checkmate the king. Then, how do i get the tower there? how do i get the defenders out of the way?  and so on. I still lose a lot but it helps

brah you need to do tactics brah. you can climb 1000 points in short time if you study tactics every day. also before you do a move in the future you should reconsider it and look if the opponent has a good answer against your move and if there is a better move for you. good luck.

Well, its not going to "teach" you anything directly, but you could look at 365chess.com and see where you are going wrong in your opening moves.  For example, of about 2100 games in its database with the first two moves of your game, white only played 3. e5 twice. http://www.365chess.com/opening.php?m=5&n=255&ms=e4.e6.d4.c5&ns=3.16.12.255.  If, by contrast, the first moves are 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5, then 3. e5 is one of the normal variations.  The difference is that when black plays d5 (instead of d6 in your game), black loses the option of undermining your pawn chain by d6.  But, as I mentioned, its probably best if you dont move a pawn twice before developing your pieces at this stage.  

Up to this point you have been developing your pieces.  Now the opening phase of the game is drawing towards a close.  Your wondering what to do next is a common feeling to have at this point.

Here are some things to do.  Firstly you have not actually finished your development.  The queen is still on the back rank so the rooks are not yet connected.  So one thing to do is to ask yourself where the queen should go.  It is common in the opening to look for a square not too far foreward where she will not be easily chased away.  Secondly your rooks may be better placed on other files.  So look to see where you expect files to open up.

But you also need to start being very concrete.  So look at where the tensions in the position are.  Try evaluating the position.  You might try doing that in this thread with the position you post.  That will give an indication of how far you have got with appreciating strategic (and tactical) points in a position.

I will defer saying anything more in case you want to have a go at that.

just tactics won't help you climb 1000 points

not true, it will. i can beat the people until like 2000 level by moving my knight from g1 to f3 10 times before playing normal. what means that openings do not mean sh it against chess understanding and good tactical skills.

@BlackMageZeref : Should I had advance the pawn to c4 then?. =). Thanks for the help!. =) 

@elvirais : Lol, I'm used to win and lose... so it's good as exercise. =) 

@IamNoMaster : The problem is how to study tactics when I have almost no feedback T__T, so I asked here. =). Thanks for the help!. =) 

@ArtNj : Will refrain myself to do it! (advancing the pawns). Maybe it's a problem that when I was at school, one of the most obvious plays was the Scholar's Mate, and the main countermeasure to it was to play the knight at f6 (Black), so back in those days, advancing the pawn to e5 was the "winning move". The opponent was so focused on his knight that he/she wasn't aware of the queen at f3. I at some point stopped even trying [to move the queen] because the "outside world" wasn't my "school opponents"... but I think the pawn at e5 didn't really washed away from my mind. 

[Had to do an exercise here thinking "WHY did I started playing the 3.- e5 move", because I really didn't remember xD ]

@johnyoudell : I usually do 9.- Qd2 , but for zero logical thinking after that. (it is a random move just to advance the game... but I really think that I lose my focus right before it. =( 

No, Qd2 is not random.  It gets your queen off the back rank and puts your rooks in touch with each other.

An evaluation.  First you are well ahead in development - your opponent has two minor pieces still at home and has not castled.  Second you have a small space advantage - that is because you have a pawn on the fifth rank while your opponent has not.  Third, for now you have more influence over the centre as you occupy two of the central four squares with pawns and your queen is exerting just slightly more pressure there than your opponents.

The telling point is the development.  There is a principle that when you have an advantage you are obliged to attack.  The point is that waiting often dissipates that advantage.  So here you must be ready to make aggressive moves.  But there is another principle that you should not launch an attack until fully developed.  So if you are going to go with that principle get the queen out (if there is no tactical point to be met) and then start looking for the attacking move.

What about the space advantage?  Well the ideas to get hold of there are that if you can expand further and intensify a space advantage it is likely to lead on to more concrete advantages.  And meanwhile you do not offer exchanges and look to avoid exchanges offered by your opponent if possible.  Lack of space hurts more on a crowded board.

So this pulls just a little bit the other way.  Maybe you don't have to be in a hurry to attack if you see ways to gain more space.

As for the centre, well in this position the very first thing that catches the eye is the pressure on your d pawn.  It is attacked three times and defended twice.  The enemy knight is pinned but if your opponent can unpin that piece your centre will be undermined.

What I like to do once I have an overview of what is generally going on is to adopt a candidate move and see how I think things will develop if I play that move.  Here your candidate move is Qd2.  What is the likely response?  Well both Be7 and Bd7 would be principled moves and each offers something for black.  But what about a6.  What will you do if he or she plays that move?  I suspect in that case you have to take the knight.  Which looks unwelcome.

Having got that far I would hang a question mark over my candidate move and ask myself whether there is another available.  In this case I think there is, Qd3.  What if black still plays a6?  Well now your bishop is defended Na4 will pester the enemy queen and might at some stage allow c4.  If the enemy plays a6 their lack of development starts looking very serious and if you could open the centre with your major pieces as well placed as they are and the enemy king still in the centre the game might be a short one.

OK, now I have not the energy to continue with concrete analysis.  But the point I want to make is that having got this far you will no longer be sitting wondering what to do.  Rather your task will be to focus well on which of your various ideas deserves priority.  Should you be looking to complete your development, to frustrate the enemies plans, embarking on an attack or playing some necessary preparation for doing so, working towards improving the position of one of your pieces or seeking to create a pawn weakness for your opponent or avoiding/repairing one on your side.  Any of those things are worth doing.  What you do not need is some all embracing plan to win the game outright.  Just some ideas to work on.  Here I would spend some time on the Qa3, Na4, c4 idea and if I could make it work that would tell me how to proceed.  If I could not make it work I would not embark on a speculative sacrifice so I would look for other ideas (while remembering the lines in case stuff happens which means that all out attack will work). 

@johnyoudell   Thank you very much. =). My phrase about 9.- Qd2 being a random movement it's simply because I had NOTHING in my mind about what you said. So I lacked the logical both in tactic and strategy point of views to look at that move. =). 

The single reason why I don't play 9.- Qd3 anymore for example, it's that I always got 9.- .... c4 and then I got very serious problems getting away from there. 

Against the some times black move a6, I remember a cousin saying: "Go to the intended place", so I go with Ba4 and then if I get pestered again, Bb3 (usually if black plays the pawn to b5 if there wasn't the queen in the way). 

But again, there isn't really a plan behind, and that's what I'm trying to change. =) 

Thanks for your effort and time. =) 

O and I learned a lot more studying tactics from a good book (Yasser Seirawan's tactics book for example) than from a website or app.

That is a complete lie and SEE you said good tactical skill AND chess understanding.

Iamnomaster you seem kinda fishy

Why fishy? I am neither Bobby Fisher nor living at the sea. And yes chess understanding is most important but tactics is simply a big part of that brah. Dont hate me pls...