Fastest Way to Improve For A Beginner Is ...

...to first learn checkmates. What do you think?

I still see myself as a beginner, with the skills I currently have, and with a rating under 1200 in Live Chess and under 1500 in Correspondence Chess. I think longer in CC chess per move, and blunder less, so maybe that's why that rating is higher.

I have done many tactics puzzles over the past two years,  some including mate in 1-2-3, but I believe that what is netting me more wins on Live Chess Blitz and Standard are the checkmate patterns that I am practicing now, not other tactical patterns, like forks, pins, and skewers. I will still practice those patterns as well, but at under 1200, it is the checkmate patterns that I find most useful.

Checkmate patterns give me a plan (strategy), not a deep plan, but a simple one. Knowing several mating patterns, for example, on f7, helps me in determining where to advance my pieces.

I guess there really isn't that much to chess when one has a rating under 1200, and if I only had time to study and practice one thing, it would be checkmates.

How high of a rating do you think a child on Live Chess would have if he or she is only taught checkmates, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1400...?  After a young child learns how to move each piece, what would be the next thing you would teach them?

And not just bishop and queen mates on f7 (Scholars Mate), but many, including mates with a King + Rook against a Lone King, mate with two rooks, etc.

Has any author, or is there a post and/or article, that names all of the checkmates? How many checkmates are there, and by that, I mean the ones that have a name, like Boden's Mate?

The one thing that has gotten me no ratings increase is the memorization of openings. Even if I knew a few more that I do now, my opponent's won't be playing memorized opening sequences, so I won't get to use them anyway. It's fun now and then to play the King's Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4), it's easy to remember with only three moves,  but I still need to see the possible mating patterns.

There should be a caution sign on every opening book, "If you are a beginner, don'y buy this book!"

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My ramblings for today. Could someone please edit my post, and say what I just said in a few sentences. Geez!

There's a nice video series on the common checkmating patterns.

Why don't you get a diamond membership? 

You'd regret that offer if you saw me trying to play an instrument!

There's a book called The Art of the Checkmate by Georges Renaud and Victor Kahn which seems to be well thought of. Have you read it? 

there's a very interesting mentor course on check mating patterns, improved my game a lot

When I had money, I bought a few chess books, but not that one. It has a 4 1/2 rating on Amazon, with 37 customer reviews. 28 reviews at 5 stars out of 5, and 5 reviews at 4 stars. That is a really good rating!  It looks like a great book for what I want to learn more about.

A sample of an Amazon review, which says what I figured to be true in my first post, that mates are the first thing to learn.

"In my opinion, next to learning the basic endgames (to which too many amateurs don't pay enough attention -- quick, do you know philidor's and lucena's position cold?), studuing mating patterns is the most important step to improvement." Amazon reviewer

Hope your financial situation gets better.

Thank you. Forgetting my membership status for now, there are some things that I would like to buy the two kids that I still have at home, both in high school, but I just don't have the cash.

Musikamole:

You should take Scottrf's advice into serious account. He is one of my favourite gurus here in chess.com. I read the book The Art of Checkmate, by Renaud and Khan, and may assure you: it's an extremely pleasant reading. You won't improve your ratings rocketlike, reading it. I read it entirely, twice, thrice, and I still go on being the very same old patzer. Checkmate patterns are a tiny parcel of tactical competence, even being the most indispensable among all other "tricks". Renaud and Khan were journalists, not chessmasters, and they had the magic of writing. Being a book, you won't need to make appointments of your own, the patterns will be kept inside its pages, ready to quick retrieval at any moment. Unfortunately, there's a little obstacle for youngsters: the notation. It's not the algebraic one, but that old descriptive. Nevertheless, notation obstacles get painless overriden soon after the reading of the first pages. Chess Mentor material on Checkmate Patterns is also wonderful. As Scottrf says, a diamond membership is an effective way to learning. I study my Chess Mentor almost everyday, whenever is possible, always improving my  understanding in chess.

"You should take Scottrf's advice into serious account. He is one of my favourite gurus here in chess.com."

Umm, wow, thanks for the compliment but not sure it's deserved.

About the book, they are releasing it in algebraic soon, not sure when exactly.

He's a better player than me, if I'm a guru of anything it's certainly not chess 

When my finances are better, I will buy the book.

I just played this 10 minute game. Very typical of games I play at my level. As you can see, there isn't much of any opening theory by both sides, and when I won a piece, my plan was to trade down, promote a pawn, and mate with queen and king. A real simple plan.  I had more material than expected in the end.

I am sure that I made mistakes in this game. Ouch! I blundered a knight on move 29.

I see the Scandinavian a lot, and it is always played wrong, so in this game I gave up my-g pawn for another gain in tempo. Sometimes I get lucky and trap Black's queen on the kingside.

Water instead of pop. I'm a poor college student and work ~5 days a week and I used to always buy $1 worth of drinks at work. Silly me, as I was always drinking water from the tap at home. Now I bring water with me in a reusable water bottle and fill it up from the water fountain at work. Saves me $5 a week. $5 a week x 50 weeks of work (I get two weeks paid vacation) is ~$250 saved a year, or almost 3 diamond memberships. Plus all the pop I don't buy for home saves $10 a week, and thats $520 there. So if you buy a reusable water bottle and just drink water (with the very occassional pop/beer), you'll probably save yourself $770/year AND be in healthier shape. 

As for chess, I remember on a specific chess server not to be named here they had a portion specifically designed for mates in 1, 2, 3...etc. Also, there is a free chess problems server not to be mentioned here that probably has a lot of short mating problems to figure out. The key with that site is to do the problem and afterwards look at the comments, because they almost always contain some useful information to one's chess growth.

should have downloaded all the videos before dropping the diamond. Best way to learn, study your own games and the Masters.

7. Why chase the queen? It has to move again anyway, and Rg3 doesn't improve the position of your rook. Keep developing.

10. Does dxe5 not win a pawn? I don't think Bb5 achieves much anyway, you've already developed the bishop, why not bring out your queen and castle long?

29. Why leave your knight hanging on f6? And for the next few moves, bit lucky.

That is some good math. Thanks.  My wife really likes Diet Coke, and she puts one in my lunch box. I don't use the soda machine anymore.

I don't think my wife can be happy without Diet Coke. It is her one vice.

I am drinking from my water bottle as I type , and am forcing myself to drink more water each day. Teaching in a classroom with poor insulation with the A/C running constantly can really dehydrate a person. Yep. Gotta drink lots of water!

I have taught a couple of kids the basics and did show them simple mates once they knew how the pieces move.

Working back from where you want to finish up is a powerful technique. It helps with endplays at bridge and, while chess positions are more complex, I have no doubt that it helps a lot in chess.  Besides, you simply can't win unless you can deliver mate.

In the early middlegame I sometimes ask myself where on the board I would place a particular piece if I could just pick it up and put it down.  Then I look at whether, and how, I can get it to that square.

So think sdawkcab.

Scottrf was the ultimate solver of the mistery of the Reserved Passed Pawn, a topic I created, asking for some help. He did it wisely, patiently, pedagogically, and got my respect. Just yesterday I came to read something on Hans Kmoch, and immediately ordered his book Pawn Power in Chess. In that book, the condition now renamed Hidden Passed Pawn among chess programmers, and originally named Sneaker by Hans Kmoch is clearly spotted. Reserved Passed Pawn just meant Hidden Passed Pawn, that just means Sneaker in Hans Kmoch's bizarre terminology. Well: in clear, kind and simple words Scottrf explained everything and closed brilliantly the topic. Simple helps, precisely when they are needed, maybe the most useful feature in chess.com community.

I did mention that I hung my knight on move 29. Soemtimes my brain just doesn't see the board correctly.

I picked up a few tempi pushing the queen around with Nc3 and Nf3.

Yea. It looks like Rg3 didn't do anything. I remember when going over a few of my older games that Rg3 is part of a plan to trap the queen. So I played that move from memory. Fritz thinks that Rg3 is a good move. I don't know. 

8...Nc6 was a mistake, and I could have played 9.d5!, pushing Black's knight back to b8. If 9.d5 Nb4?, then Black drops a pawn after 10.a3 Nxd5 11.Qxd5.

9...e5 was a blunder. I missed that opportunity. If 10.d5! Nb4 11.a3 f6 12.axb4 Bxb4, White wins a knight for a pawn.

As for different types of patterns, here is a good list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkmate_pattern