welcome! I think it all depends on how much attention you would like to give chess. playing games is good, and so is reading books. the main thing is to have fun and approach it the way you would like to. good luck.
Hello from a new member and complete beginner!!
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Hi, welcome to chess.com and the best game in the world! I'd recommend reading one good introductory book and combine this with playing as much as you can, preferably against human opponents right here on chess.com! Try not to be discouraged if you lose a lot, this happens to everyone who begins to play chess.
A really excellent book for beginners is "The Right Way To Play Chess" by D.B.Pritchard and you can pick it up for as little as a penny on Amazon!
freezenyr is spot on, the most important thing is to have fun and approach the game in a way that you enjoy. Good luck!
Yes I think that is the main point. After knowing your moves, I think standard positions and tricks are the best to learn. Like pins and forks etc. It's important to see them coming. You can learn them from playing and analyzing games.
If you'd like I will play an unrated game with comments on moves
I think you learn a lot from "analyzing" your own games. Look over each game you have played and try to figure out what went wrong and/or what you did good. Discussing the game with you opponent is also great!
Daily tactics problems is a good thing if you want to improve!
Hi and welcome to chess.com! The best place to start is to start, just play your games and if u want to improve start by studying your games especially the losses thats where the best lessons are learned and dont be afraid to ask the opponent to add some idea's too. 2nd if your interested in speeding up the skills and willing to take the time and energy, then i reccomend a good chess fundementals book; (Play Winning Chess series by:- Yasser seirawan) His books are good for beginners because its directed at the concepts of chess rather and then major details (i.e; memorizing huge opening lines, major positional studies for eg.)but give u enough understanding in my opinion to hold your own even against more experienced players. But again its up to you if u have the time and willing to study, if not at least learn from your own person games ok.....
Jun 22, 2008
0
#7
http://www.chessdryad.com/education/sageadvice/thirty/index.htm
These are always helpful. They are rules of thumb to follow until you get your "Chess Shoes" so to speak. By "chess shoes" I mean playing a game of chess comfortably, and knowing what you did wrong at the end of your games. Asking "what is my opponent planning or threatening?" and "in what way can I improve my position or gain material?" would also definitely help your game.
After you get a bit more comfortable with the game, you can learn more about endgames, tactics, planning, and analysis of top master games.
Chess books always help, but you need to make sure you get the right ones. Like i said, get your "chess shoes" first i.e. play for a bit.
thanks all for the warm welcome.
I'll see if I can pick up a good book next time I'm out shopping - in the meantime I'm going to play as much as possible.
It seems difficult towards the end of the game to actually get checkmate - I keep stalemating the opponent!
1) Play as much as you can enjoyably
2) Get a good fundamentals book. Yasser's book mentioned above, or Simple Chess,
or Chess for Dummies, then maybe Logical Chess Move by Move (Chernev).
3) Practice your mates against the computer. Set up king+queen v. king, king+rook v. king, etc..
4) Eventualy get a tactics book or program. Very good training as tactics are what will
win you games, and bad tactics will be what loses them for you.
5) If you get bored, switch to another area of study or take a break.
6) You are lucky! You can start with no bad habits!
I think everyone has given you great advice. I agree that this game is addicteing, so it all comes down to how much time you want to invest in it. But don't ever forget that this not like any other game, every loss is a learning experience. Every win is a learning experience, kind of redundandt isn't it? First of all I agree with the above posts:
1) Tactics
2) Analyze your games
3) Take your time
4) Have fun!!!
P.S. I am also a relative beginner, so if you would like a game I am open for a challenge. And last of all there a lot of resources here i.e. Tools, other players, forums, etc. Utilize them and have Fun!!
At your current stage of chess DO NOT try to memorize openings or games by Masters Right now this will only hurt your developement, if you try this as soon as someone plays a move that is different then the one you memorized you will be lost as to what to do next. I have been playing for over 40 years and trust me this is not the way to go. From what i have seen you have gotten some really good advice so welcome to Chess.Com and enjoy.
You want to learn general opening principles, K+Q vs K and K+R vs K checkmates, and then focus most of your study time on tactics. As cuendillar says, at this phase you would also improve just by playing, but books will speed up your improvement. Do whatever feels the most fun and right for you. And I agree with most of the advice above. :)
Jun 22, 2008
0
#13
Take your fun from playing a lot!
If, you will be not boring and sad after beatings, start reading!
i played chess when i was a very small kid, i didn't understand anything, it took me about ten years to finaly start beating my father, then i started learning the heavy weigh after i learned the basics the hard way, (i improved gretly after that), i gues you don't have ten years to spare, so find a friend or teacher that knows chess and would help you learn once a week or so, play games on the site (but think badly on each move, don't play mechanicly only becuase it's on the computer), i'm not against buying a book, no harm can come to it, but wait a little bit, once you feel you understand stuff a little better and can beat opponents of your rating by exploiting thier mistakes then buy a tactics book (book with diagrams that say "mate in two" or so and then you have to see what to move in order to mate your opponent), if you play thingslike a4 or h4 as white in the beggining then i reccomed you to stop and play e4 or d4 in your openings, it frees your bishops to play early, and move knights to f3 or c3 mostly to bring them closer to the enemy king (unless you must move otherwise in order to not lose matereal or something), castle short mostly and earky in the game so you won't get mated in the beggining, after that just play in a way you don't lose peices and you kill the enemies peices.
another usefull thing for bgginers:
pawn = 1
knight\bishop = 3 (but two bishops are better than two knights)
rook = 5 (rook is better than bishop!!)
queen = 9 (but can be equal to two rook or two knights and a bisho, and i personaly beleive that eight pawns are just as good as a queen)
king = infinity
beware of this stupid thing:
and this one too!!
don't ever let anyone do either one to you.
to learn a lot shortly watch some videos of grandmaster games with a speaker talking about it. youtube ._.
Jun 22, 2008
0
#17
Decide oneself' afflictions!
Is it worth of your consideration and your personal time!?
The Chess is a Time Killer, as well!..
Have you nothing to do, beside?
The is a Greatest Mind Trap!
Jun 22, 2008
0
#18
CzarWithinMoons wrote: If someone plays a move other than what you've memorized, resign, memorize that move, and go on to the next opponent. Bam!
Oh, man, that was good :). Now I know you're kidding. They can hear me laughing downstairs.
Welcome, Bauer. All good advice, except for that of Mr. Moon.
What's with this memorizing games? It doesn't work and you are just wasting your time. If you really want to improve then put in the hard work.
Actually memorizing games does infact improve your chess! Thats part of the reason why pc chess games are so good. But mindlessly memorizing is not so smart for us human players unless your a major genius and have a super computer for a brain at remembering all the positions and variations hahahaha.....
Hard study and lots of practice makes a player good fast!
Hi all.
I'd never played chess until last weekend - I picked up chessmaster for the DS and learnt via the tutorials.
As of right now I know what moves each piece can do but I'm struggling to notice weaknesses in the positions of my pieces and therefore keep getting beat - even on the easiest level.
Is it best to just play as many games as possible to get experience or do you really need to study a book as well?
thanks in advance!