I am a begginner too, only rated 1139 but i was in your shoes once and gradually got better and better by just doing tactics trainer , watching lots of videos on youtube and playing tons and tons of chess,
good chess youtuber to watch
Thechesswebsite
also go to on the top of chess.com click Learn then click study plans and then youll see some good info for begginners.
Thanks for the replies so far. I had no idea the site had that section. Ill go over that info over the next few days.
I see if I can't find those books, I think I have seen the 1001 books before.
I appreciate the feed back so far! :)
I agree with orangeishblue, and do a ton of tactical puzzles. At your level just focus on tactics, you can forget about openings all togther they are not important for you. Maybe go and learn the basic king and pawn vs king endgame.
Thanks again. I have Fritz 10, I believe that has a database. I havn't really sat down and played wiht it beyond a game or two.
Tactics! I have found the website Chess Tempo to be excellent for this. Set aside ten minutes to do three tactical puzzles every day. Ten minutes doesn't sound like much, but that's the point, as it means you then have no excue for skipping your practice.
Books are good but they take a long time to read properly so be realistic about how much time you have before buying a load of books. If I had to only have one book, it would be SIlman's The Amateur's Mind.
Write down your games and analyse them afterwards, yourself rather than with a computer. If you join a club then ask a stronger play to step through one of your games and tell you where you went wrong - at a beginner's level that will take them all of 20 seconds.
Go for quality rather than quantity. Concentrating really hard on one game will teach you more than half a dozen light-hearted games - it's the games where you really sweat that stick in your mind, and that's how you learn.
ChessTempo.com is great for tactics training. I do an average of 60 per day. That will help you. If you want to play an unrated correspodence game, send me a message. No time controls, just a casual game. I'll just set my board up and we can set a goal to make one move within 2-3 days if you want.
And as others have said, waching videos may be a help. But, if you really want to improve, you have to do it over a board. It's kind of like watching an excercise video and actually excercising; only one will give true results.
Also, forget about openings until you first learn end game and mid game tactics. Until then, I don't think openings will make much since to you any way. I've only been studying openings for about three months now and I can tell you will all confidence that tactics training is far more effective for you than openings if you are a beginner.
I just had an idea (I get those every now and then). If you want to take my offer at a game, in between moves you should visit chesstempo and do some tactics and then try to apply what you learn on the board.
Great! Ill check out ChessTempo as well. Thanks for the good suggestions and all the advice. It's greatly appreciated. Might be taking you up on that game soon akafett :)
Just playing is a good way to gain experience and you will progress although you may not be very aware of that.
Do a search for the basic opening principles. They are simple and easily understood. Follow them blindly for the first ten or a dozen moves for a while (a year or two possibly, fifty years if you learn as slowly as me). They will get you into the game most times and give you the chance to build up some experience of how the pieces combine and to make a start at some strategic understandings (what an open file is, what an isolated pawn is, what an outpost is, a hole in your position, a :good" minor piece or a "bad" one, an open position, a closed position etc. etc. etc. etc.).
A nice thing about the game is that - unless you are extraordinarily talented - you will still be learning when you start drawing your old age pension.
Greetings everyone,
I’ve just recently started playing chess again with the goal of making it a permanent hobby that I may one day take into competitive play. However, I seem to have lost my touch and feel quite lost when playing others in terms of tactics and defense.
There is a wealth of information on these forums and site and – honestly- I’m feeling a bit over whelmed. Would some of you more seasoned players have any recommendations on things I should practice, books to read, ect.
I’m not sure how to go about practicing other than to keep playing. I’ve read where some players analyze their games, but I’m not sure how a novice could do that – how would you know what was a good move and what isn’t?
Thank in advance for any help. I look forward to making some friends here and hope to play some great chess!
John