I agree with Batman (I feel ridiculous saying that).
Those 2 principles should be the first things learned after knowing how the pieces move. It's the 2 things new chess players usually do wrong and a bad opening quickly evolves in a very difficult game.
I been playing chess for 40 years and can't past 1500 here you got nothing to complain about.
Play chess for so long with no improvement? Can't imagine that.
You should work on your games by analyzing it afterwards. There you can point out your weakness, the mistakes have been made and to never repeat them again. Look on the things that make you overestimate your attack and underestimate on your opponents. Then you can vastly increase your playing strength as it helps you know deep of your strength.
Many training methods are possible, but I suggest the most basic and effective way of improving your game.
Improving at slow chess below OTB 1800 is all about blunderchecking. You just have to constantly blundercheck every move - I would try Tactics Trainer for practice
Analyse your games!!
Hi I am giving free coaching and have my own coaching group called " Improve Your Chess" (IYC) which you can join if you like. The coaching includes analysing games, building up of your own opening repertoire, help to improve your endgame knowledge, help to find plans and get better in the important middlegame and playing games with me( with live comments if you like). The coaching sessions normally take place in live chess, where I am online very often. You can also check out my blogs, where you can learn something about openings endgames and the middlegame. Finding of plans is one of my most important topics.When you have any questions to me then just ask them here :).2 books I can really suggest for players in your rating range are:1. Max Euwe : Amateur Vs Master - A really brillant book which helps you to learn from your mistakes and to avoid blunders.2. Bobby Fischer teaches chess- The perfect book to practise tactics and to get a better understanding of chess in general.Cheers and think about my offer, Till :)
Improvement is about moving past your comfort zone. In chess this requires mental effort.
If it was easy then every game of chess would be drawn. Last I checked even players in the top ten lose occasionally.
Think deeply about your games and you will improve. it is as simple as that.
Thetrouncer Online Rating 1505
Nevermind with my post. I thought you were a newbie when I posted via my iphone. I'm in your same boat.... seem to have peaked at 1500-1600.
However, I have no desire to put the work in to get to the 1700-1800 level. Something tells me my endgame is a big part of my problem, which I find the most boring to study.
I have made my greatest leaps in chess strength when I either had a coach, or a (very devoted) study partner, roughly my sterength or stronger.
The second one is tough. They have to love studying chess A LOT. Helps if they are different backgound, or at least a different style than you.
I been playing chess for 40 years and can't past 1500 here you got nothing to complain about.
How old where you when you started?
Whoa - thank you everyone for your input! Batman thank you for your comments. I sometimes let my son use my account and you may have picked up on some of his games although both of us have some opening theory and we both avoid bringing the queen out early and moving pieces twice. I have some of my games on my blog at but I hope they are free of these kinds of mistakes. I'll re-check my playing. Dodger thank you for your comment, its reasuring for me - I wonder if this is a common problem with minds over 30 (that we have settled into a way of thinking that inhibits improvement). nyLsel and thegeneral I think you're onto something. You'll see from my blog that I do some analysis but I'm guessing that the analysis I do is not at a deeper level than before. Akal blunderchecking is the bane of my life - I have a post about blunders examining just this. I wish there was an easy way of getting away from blunders. You'll see that my blitz rating and online rating are different and I think this is largely due to better blunder checking with slower games. Any tips on getting rid of blunders is mightily welcome. Jgambit yes you are right! And you are advocating deeper analysis of my own games along with Batman and nyLsel - I will devote blog space to this! Varelse I am playing more humans and I will see if any want to catch up and study more. I have a regular opponent on Tuesdays and we have close games, I will suggest that rather than playing a series of games we play one game and analyse it (My sons teacher - who is an IM - often analyses one of our tuesday games after his class but perhaps we should do the work first and then get his input). Till, what a kind offer! I'll check out your group and the books you suggest. Finally thank you everyone so far for your input - its very kind of you to take the time to answer my post! I'll blog about this at www.chessluddite.com
You should work on your games by analyzing it afterwards. There you can point out your weakness, the mistakes have been made and to never repeat them again. Look on the things that make you overestimate your attack and underestimate on your opponents. Then you can vastly increase your playing strength as it helps you know deep of your strength.
Many training methods are possible, but I suggest the most basic and effective way of improving your game.
Seeing and realising one's mistakes is no guarantee that they will not be repeated.
Skakmadurinn - I started at 8, played for a year, then again at 20 for two years, then at 24 for one year. These were all with friends who played at a similar level - no lessons, books, etc. My rating would have been about 1150. At 42 I started again in order to teach my son - at this point there was info on the net and I started to play and learn online more seriously. In the last few months I have been shifting offline but my rating is barely shifting.
If you haven't already, go ahead & get into OTB tournaments with your son WHILE you study. You both will instinctively take all your games more seriously & these will give you great study materials. At these tournaments you will meet & learn from stronger players & some will analyse your games with you.
Study this: ENDGAMES. TACTICS. PAWN STRUCTURES. GM GAMES with easy to understand explanations about their thoughts. Don't pick annotated game books where the GM just gives a bunch of variations, you want to know WHY he chose the plans & moves. A GM that talks in simple, easy to understand language. Or a good IM, it doesn't have to be a GM.
Thetrouncer, the easy way of blunderchecking is tactics. They are essentially two sides of the same coin -finding tactics and stopping them. Sadly, the only way to get better at Tactics is Tactics Trainer, chesstempo, tactics books - practice over and over and over. It is just pattern recognition. (Try to ignore the time limit!)
Mr Damon Smith thank you for your feedback. I am taking part in regular over the board tournaments and you are right, the games in tournaments are taken more seriously and these are the games I have been looking into. Those and correspondence games (which give you the chance to analyse before committing to them). I guess my problem is that I'm not looking into them hard enough. AKAL thank you for the tip, I'm on chess tempo and its a great tool.
I have one off the beaten path. To become better at chess, you must be a critical thinker:
http://www.criticalthinking.org/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpyvWfo9diMIMi_wX5LUbSQ
I started playing chess 4 years ago on chess.com and I am not improving. In the last 3 months I have made a more concerted effort but if anything I am getting worse. I am writing about this recent quest to improve my chess at my chess blog www.chessluddite.com and I would love suggestions about what might work. I think computers are perfect training tools for chess but ideally I would like suggestions that don't involve computers (a lifestyle thing). What training methods have worked for you? Do you have a chess routine or workout?