A little help for (higher level) beginners wanted: What to study first and how?

For me the key to studying tactics is quality over quantity.  Going over hundreds of tactics a day isnt going to help if you cant memorize all the patterns.  Do 5-10 tactics a day, and thouroughtly understand the pattern/idea/etc.  Do them over and over until you know it instantly.

There are alot of differing ideas on what to do after your opponents makes a move--"What is trying to do" "What can i do" Good advice, but kinda broad.  Ask yourself these 3 questions each move:

Can i check/checkmate my opponent?

Can i capture any of my opponents pieces

Can my opponent capture any of my pieces?

This will really help with your "board vision" as it forces you to see the entire board, instead of just focusing on parts of the board.

Agree for the most part with I Am Second although the big center as Fischer and others have demonstrated is a flawed idea since black has enough time to prepare cracking it.  Sure it's playable against the KID and Alekhine's but like he said the main idea is piece activity so why not play 1.e4,Nf6 2.e5,Nd5 3.d4,d6 4.Nf3 instead of going for a big center? 

We can modify do not study openings with, "Study opening principles and calculate to see if the most active square is viable/can't be refuted tactically or positionally and study sensitive spots in our repertoire to ensure we don't lose in one move and refute dubious openings to the maximum".  You wouldn't want to lose to Basman's Defense or 1.h4 as black would you?  Of course not, and people who play 1.e4,g5?! as black know those positions better than you most likely, better to understand the best lines as white than lose to some gimmick.  

So don't study openings unless there are sharp lines in your repertoire and find good replies to dubious openings such as Basman's Defense and the Latvian for good measure. 

The Leningrad Nimzo-Indian is active but white's initiative phases out and black obtains a nice positional advantage in it with his solid pawn wall. 

Thanks for the feedback oogie...always appreciated.

As far as the huge center this is why i said "as your game improves"

I think we pretty much agree on the idea behind studying openings.  Good points you added, which i forgot to bring up. 

Would you recommend me some kind of opening, so that it is one of my "go fors" and learn it's purpose? For black so far Alekhine's defence has served me... well... not bad, but since I have just recently learned it, I am still experimenting with it and learning it's deeper purpose. I hate Sicillian because I also hate it when I have to face it, and I sort of pathologically avoid it. For white... well... apart from the 1:e4, anything else gets me to unknown grounds. Although 1:d4 somehow seems to serve me well sometimes, probably because other beginners of my level don't expect it. 

Looking back to some of my games, I can easily spot many obvious mistakes that even costed me the whole game. So your advices sound REALLY useful, I am going to follow them. But I still can't really get over my love for learning openings, mostly because when I mess up with an opening, my time is already short. A new tactic I have thought it is useful is to spot the weaknesses of the opponents. That is: Does he have a square behind his pawns line that can't protect? Let's throw something there and take it over! Is this tactic correct?

Also, Oogie, what do you mean "sharp lines"? I don't really get it's meaning, my English is not great. Nor is my understandment of chess terminology.

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I_Am_Second, I have to say that board vision is my greatest problem.

My suggestion would be to stick to e4, and d4 openings. 

E4-e5 openings lead to open games and will help with tactics.

D4-d5 openings will lead to semi closed openings, and will train your strategical/positional eye.

But play what you feel most comfortable with.  Remember chess is a game, and the #1 thing is to have fun :-)

I just couldn't believe when I started this post that I would have such a massive response, thank you everybody!

You could start with open games 1...e5 although the downside is 2.Nf3 and 3.Nc3 where entering the four knights is the only playable option. 

Yes weak squares and pawns help you drive the analysis as you should look for targets and revolve play around them.  When there are no obvious targets look at the center and formulate a plan based off it.  If he's weak on the kingside then play there if the center is closed.  With an open center it's all about piece activity more than usual and pawn moves are typically bad in such situations.  A fixed center such as mutual isolated d-pawns typically favor knights since the pawn supports it and open files take on a great importance.  So much depends on the elements of the specific positions however. 

Sharp is basically a tactical situation where careful calculation is the first priority.  In certain king's gambit and Sicilian lines for example you may only have one playable move, but that move might not be an obvious one.  I'd stay away from the King's Gambit as white for now, if ever.  You don't want to play by general principles in such situations and Heisman calls it hand waving. 

I_Am_Second, I am having quite a great time playing chess with some of my friends. A couple of them are really good at it, too. Sometimes we mess around when playing and doing funny moves, you should try it out some time!  Have you ever tried out the "sodium opening" 1:Na3!

Then one of the things you can do to improve your board vision is as i posted earlier, as yourself these 3 question each turn.

1. Can i check/checkmate my opponent?

2. Can i capture any of my opponents pieces?

3. Can my opponent capture any of my pieces?

Also as NM aww-rats posted...he does have some really good videos, and join group.  You will get alot of help there.

I_Am_Second, I did join the group. I am currently checking out his videos, they look quite good!

Youre on your way!

@ Unleash: I have not seen that one. But my first thought is to place them a Knight's move from one another (since Q's cannot move in that fashion). I'll definately try that.

Just a question: 1:d4 is a move I just recently started to take a look at. How would you continue your game after it? Nimzo Indian perhaps? How would you generally play? Attack him? Defend? Make an impenetratable wall of donkeys, bishops and lil' soldiers?

I like aww-rats.

Alot is going to depend on what youre comfortable playing...open positions...closed...semi-closed.  I would suggest open positions, and play something like the Queens Gambit Accepted.  But as i said before...play what youre comfortable with, but learn the ideas/principles behind other openings.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/fun-with-chess/lcp-chess-lessons-part-3-tactics   Here is my best attempt at explaining how to think tactically.

I always liked reading chess books, I found they improved my chess the fastest. Do you want a list of recommended books.