At the very beegining what i think its the most important thing you should get, it's love for the game, so i suggest you to dont worry about ranking, nor win/lose games just play as much as your heart ask you, after that maybe you should get a subscription here on chess.com and make use of the tactic trainer, also if you wish to learn more in form maybe the ChessMentor may work for you.
But for now just play a lot and enjoy the game.
I found that after playing the same friend on a long bus trip we ended up being around the same skill level and instead of playing the game to beat the other player we played and talked about what we were trying to do what we expected the other player to do etc etc...
Granted neither of us had great chess knowledge so we probably often missed solid combinations and made a few weak moves... but after playing a few games like this it really changed the way I looked at the game. Each move I made from that point on had some purpose. The more I played the more I looked into efficeny of moves and from talking to chess players that knew more than me was able to pick up some of the fundamentals. I've never learned an opening or studied any lines. I think I will need to start now though otherwise I risk not getting much better.
Hi Carl, Blue Devil Knight recently graduated from the beginner level and wrote a long post on how to move up... check it out. Wolfe's Idiot's Guide to Chess is one of the new favorites among beginning players. If you want something more basic, check out the lessons on www.chesskids.com; for something more compehensive, check out the "Winning Chess" series by Yasser Seirawan. The idea of all of these resources is to get you some exposure to all of the aspects of the game--tactics, strategy, endgames, openings, and actual play. Good luck with your adventure!
Hi, Agrees, here is a good article how to improve in chess at different levels: http://www.thechessworld.com/betterchess.html.
Here is another good place for learning openings with 1.e4:
http://www.thechessworld.com/openingslist.html
Basically, what I sugest to do is learn a bit theory(check out the 1st article I mentioned) and PRACTICE (!!) playing chess. Over the board chess helps a lot more than online chess, but if you cannot play OTB for some reason play online LIVE chess.
i hope that helps.
Good Luck!
[I apologise if I posted this in the wrong forum]
Hello.
My name is Carl. I am a highschool student. I've known how to play chess since I was a child, but only played it occasionally. I don't know very much at all about the game-- I don't know any openings, lines, or any of the sort. I have problems seeing more than 2 or 3 moves ahead of the current one, and I just try to fork pieces the entire game.
I'm aware I'm pretty bad at the game, but I was wanting to try to get better because something sparked my interest in the game recently. I want to get better quickly, and I really don't know where to start. Should I jump right in and pick an opening to start using with white and black? Should I start memorizing the name of all the squares [like a1 a2]? I really have no idea where to start. So, could somebody please fill me in on what all I should be doing to improve my game?
Any help would be appreciated.