How to Improve at Chess? - Chess Forums

oPAWNo

Sep 23, 2017

0

#1

It's easier to give advice than follow, try an do your daily tactics, understand general opening principles, basic endgame study. In general at your rating, games will be dominated one way or another by this stage. so learn the basics.

Slow_pawn

Sep 23, 2017

0

#2

You can learn traps on YouTube, and you won't have trouble finding them. They're good to know, but usually not what you want to base your game strategy on. When it comes to openings there are tons of books on them, again plenty of YouTube videos, and also apps which can come in handy. There's also an openings explorer here on chess.com. When it comes to endgame fundamentals, you need to know these off by heart and subconsciously to move forward. Basic endgame principles are crucial and will help to more than just improve endgame knowledge, but overall chess knowledge as well. You need to fully understand things like opposition, basic mates, how to stop past pawns, blockades, key squares when it comes to king placement, and much more. I would suggest a good endgame book, a good place to start would be Pandolfini or Silman. Then branch out from there. Drills and lessons here on chess.com might can be helpful as well. I'm sure there are also plenty of places to look the above mentioned endgame strategies online as well. Good luck :)

kindaspongey

Sep 23, 2017

0

#3

Candidate35

Sep 24, 2017

0

#4

Make a 20 minute daily chess study plan. Pick a beginner aimed chess book, almost any will do, and plan to read it each day for at least 5-10 minutes. Once done, pick another book. On Chess.com, set your tactics trainer to unrated and the lowest rating it will go- you want to start at the basic level and master those puzzles until you can rip through dozens in a few minutes. Solve tactics for at least 5 minutes or more a day. Then go to Chessgames.com and review a master game, preferably playing an opening you have chosen to learn, and take note of the basic opening set up and middle game strategy they employed. Do that daily.

Then play two correspondence /daily chess games on here on an ongoing basis, when a game ends start a new one, one as white and one as black. Each day spend no less than 15 minutes per each game's move. White down everything you noted about each position, different moves you considered, and why. After each game do the following:

1) check the opening explorer and see which side deviated from known theory first. Try to figure out why the deviated move is worse.

2) try to identify all critical positions in the game where you felt if you didn't find a good move you were going to either lose your advantage or your opponent gain the advantage.

3) try to locate the losing move made by whomever lost.

4) submit all loses for feedback on the game analysis forum here at Chess.com and note all feedback. Include your notes when at all possible. DON'T POST ANYTHING BUT LOSES. I also urge you to ask questions but don't make excuses for bad moves or worse, argue with those giving feedback.

The key to learning is to 1) consistently study so you continue to add new knowledge and patterns to your arsenal 2) mix learning with practice 3) review to reaffirm good thought processes or replace bad thought processes.

Cheers to your chess improvement!

-Jordan