Best/Quickest way to improve as a new player

I'm in my mid thirties, I've been playing chess a few weeks or so. I think my rating right now is 838.I'm not too concerned about my rating since I think my focus should be on improving, whether I win or lose. I've 106 games and my record is 41W/60L/5D. I've been winning more over the last few days.

I will admit to knowing very little about chess theory. I stumbled upon a video on the London system and then watched several more videos on the topic and I am pretty comfortable starting with that(when white).I have been using a kings indian defense(when black).I've been sticking with these two openings and would liek to undersdtand them thoroughly before I move onto others.

So, onto my question. I would like some advice as to the best and quickest way to improve. Are there specific videos I should watch,things I should be reading. Obviously gaining gameplay experience is hugely important to get some experience using different lines. I am a fairly high level poker player,which is how I found chess and I see many similarities between the two games strategically,especially when it comes to thinking and levelling.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated :)

Thanks,

Dave

You won't be able to follow these plans without a premium membership, but at least they'll give you an idea of what a balanced plan for improving is like.

http://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory

And these free chess mentor courses should be like manna from heaven for a beginner:

http://www.chess.com/blog/webmaster/free-chess-mentor-courses

And then of course everyone's favorite advice is to study tactics.  One more link to NM Dan Heisman's web site.  Packed with good articles, book lists, etc.  This is to 10 years worth of monthly articles but you can get to his book page from there also.

http://danheisman.home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Articles/Novice_Nook_Links.htm

Good luck and welcome to the Game!

 I plan on upgrading my membership.Is a diamond membership required, or would you say platinum is good enough to start?

Thanks for the reply!

initially try to play and study the game around 8 hours a day 

I doubt 8 hours a day will happen. The only thing I do 8 hours a day is work and that's not by choice ;)

Since you are just beginning, anything you learn about chess is bound to be of benefit to you. If you go to youtube, there are many videos on openings by thechesswebsite. There are also many good videos by MatoJelic. I suggest that you carefully study all the games you lose and see if you can determine the point at which your position began to deteriorate. A chess engine can help you discover these points.  It is also a good idea to play unrated games with people much better than you. The play will be less "accidental". When starting out, it is important to learn the pitfalls in various openings -- both so you don't succumb to these, but also so you know how to take advantage of them when your opponent falls in. Until I was about 1200 or so, I had excellent luck with the queen's gambit as white. As you get past 1200, the number of players who can play the queens gambit successfully as black will increase, but below that, it is a crusher. Between 1200 and 1400, I had excellent success with the Lolli attack. Playing as black, I noticed that Sicilian was a favorite defense. I never had much luck with it as a beginner - could have been just me. As Black, I like the Petrov defense. It usually leads to a very symmetric game. If both you and your opponent are just starting out, either the game will be a draw, or the one who is slightly more skilled will prevail. In my opinion, Petrov defense destroys white's first move advantage.  Anyway, just some thoughts.

ok well maybe just 8 hours a day on your free days and a couple of hours on your working days

play online chess-turn based

Play against a computer. It goes quick, you can get tips and you have the chance to undo stupid moves.

You would be better putting the opening theory on hold and spending the vast majority of your study time doing tactics. Do many, many tactics, put it together with general opening principles and basic endgame knowledge. This is a much better investment of your time. Do this and play slow games, OTB is best and discuss your games with your opponents/stronger players afterwards. If you read around you will see this sort of advice coming up again and again.

Hey Dave, for me diamond membership is a necessity because I like to knock out around 20 lessons a day.  Those are mostly review of courses I've already done in an attempt to burn in pattern recognition.  I've done some courses over 20 times; never claimed to be the brightest bulb on the tree.  Check out that link to the free Chess Mentor courses and if you find time to do more than 5 lessons a day then I'd say go diamond.  On the other hand you can always start platinum, see how it goes and if you want to upgrade you haven't lost any money since you get credit for what you've already paid.  I'm certainly not a rich man but I consider diamond well worth the money.  One caution; be a little careful with the Tactics Trainer in rated mode.  Awfully easy to get into a "guess and click" mode with the time pressure and that's actively counterproductive.  You can switch from rated to unrated with a couple of mouse clicks so it's not a big deal to change modes.  I'd recommend you spend most of your time in unrated and at a level where you're solving 85% or so of the problems (got that figure from one of Heisman's articles).  You can bump it up 10 points or so at a time.  Just more $.02 from the man with too many pennies. 

know all the rules 

get good at opening, mid game, end game

do tactical puzzles

practice a lot

Pawn endings.  Start with something like Silman's Endgame Course or Averbakh's Essential Chess Endings then move onto Secrets of Pawn Endings, though many of the positions are contrived studies.  Afterward work on piece endings, rook endings, and then queen endings.  Not just queen and pawns vs. queen and pawns (or none) but also queen vs. rook, queen vs. rooks, queen vs. a minor and a rook, queen vs. minors, etc. 

Tactics too for good measure, you may actually have a winning shot in your games too but it's primarily for getting your feet wet with calculation. 

I truly appreciate all of the excellent advice and feel free to keep it coming. I'm sure there are other newbies on here that can benefit from such advice.Will certainly upgrade.I'm putting in 5+ hours a days when possible, considering I have the phone app as well.

Thanks again!

Keep in mind some people put in a lot of time and see no progress.  The idea is to not study things above one's strength and stick to one topic.  Strong players are said to thoroughly read one book at a time.  I'm currently on Comprehensive Chess Endings volume 2: Bishop against knight, Rook against minor piece then will move onto Dvoretsky's School of Chess Excellence 3: Strategy.  My big problem is trying to find the right move not the right plan and I need to work on that.  Planning is much easier in strategic endgames than middlegames. 

In theory I know what to do: look at the center type and pawn structures, see where I have an advantage, see how to use my strengths and their weaknesses, if they're better then the optimal way of consolidating my weaknesses to one side and exchanging off their most dangerous pieces (principles of defense: principle of economy don't defend more than you have to, but don't confuse this with thinking overprotection is bad since more defenders than you need is flexible as one could go perform some other tasks and strengthen lines of least resistence) but in practice finding the exact way of carrying out the plan needs work or I'll abandon the plan in favor of some short term thing. 

Oh what the heck, shake a couple more pennies out of the jar.  Coach Heisman always cautions that you have to be having fun when you're studying, otherwise you'll just burn out.  Only you know what your capacity is but 5+ hours for a beginner is a lot.  On the other hand anyone who tells you that improvement doesn't involve hard work is a liar.  Coach keeps stressing that improvement involves a balance of 3 things: study, playing games, and reviewing your games.  Your progress will be limited otherwise.

Play the Kings Gamibt: you may lose a fair few games but what you pick up indirectly will make you so glad you just battled to try and understand it even one iota!

They say battles are won with indirect attack: i wonder if this holds true for poker? 

I heard Frank Marshall used the London System maybe??

 I would suggest memorising some miniatures to work out the old memory and get it fine tuned to help ya generally also!

 Lastly, at the club, they all warm up... seriously!!  Oh, and the old guys don't play blitz as they reckon it just teaches you to play fast...

do tactics puzzles every day and don't stop each day until you have solved at least 100 correctly that day.

That way you are gaining the benefits of consistency, accuracy and exposure to new tactical patterns.

After just a couple of weeks of this, you can expect your strength to increase by no less than 100 ratings points permanently, since so much chess at our level will always be decided by tactics.

I think anything under 1200 indicates a lack of fundamental opening principle knowledge. Work on that, and you should boost your rating to 1200. Another good idea is to start practicing your calculation. A good way to do this is to think about what your opponent's reply to your next move may be, and why.