Hi I am new here

I tuned in around move 24. On move 25 your opponent takes your rook's pawn and it looks like your king could be in a lot of danger.

The best move here is just simply to push your pawn on f3 one square. That was in the way of your rook and it means you can move your rook, which is on h3, over to d3 to check your opponent's king. Your Q is doing a good job where it is, stopping his king from escaping. You have a forced win here in about ten moves. That means that whatever your opponent does, provided you play the best moves you have a guaranteed win.

The best moves are hard to find and what you did, chopping off your opponent's bishop with your rook, isn't a bad move. The rook, however, is worth more than the bishop. Each piece is given a rough value in terms of the amount of pawns it's roughly worth. A queen is said to be worth nine pawns, a rook is five and a bishop or knight is about three each.

But what you did there is still a good move. At this point, I disagree with the engine as to what is white's best move but it certainly isn't what you played, which meant that your queen could be taken. The engine doesn't value the move I would make so high but it's the better move. You just jump onto e4 with your knight, checking your opponent's king. It's the beginning of a winning sequence of moves for white and black can't really defend, so you would win. Think of his king as a stray sheep which needs to be herded to a place where you can kill it. Poor sheep but they taste nice.

1. Learn value of pieces - So chess players usually represent values with points, and here are them.

Queen - 9 points, Rook - 5 points, Bishop - 3 points, Knight - 3 points, Pawn - 1 point.

The more points you have, the more advantage you have. If you trade your rook (5 points) and capture your opponents knight(3 points), you will lose more points than him. So you should avoid situations where you lose more points.

2. Beware of traps - It's true that you should look out to have more points, but sometimes your opponent uses traps, where he tricks you into leaving your king unsafe, and checkmate him. So learn about traps and to defend against them. A common trap in your rating is the one named "Scholar's mate", so learn to defend against it.

3. Learn basic tactics and opening principles. Now there are many concepts, so I'll just give a link

https://www.chessstrategyonline.com/content/tutorials/how-to-start-a-game-of-chess-opening-principles

https://www.chess.com/terms/chess-tactics

Now the advice I've given is keeping your rating in mind, so these don't necessarily apply when your rating increases.

Wow ok ok this is unreal! So hmm how many moves realistically do you have to think in front then would you say? Thank you soooo much for all this xxx

Hi thank you sooo much I love these tips as well. I am reading these links now!!! xxx

Realistically, two to three moves ahead. You should learn to recognise situations where thinking longer ahead should be necessary. I remember at one stage in my development I realised that if I was thinking two to three moves ahead and my opponent was too, all I needed to do to improve was to think half a move more. Half a move is like a move for one side only and not the other. I did that or tried to do it and I would say that's when I started to become a strong player. I found I was routinely calculating further ahead than my opponents and that brought me up to 1800 FIDE, which is like about 2050 to 2100 on this site. That meant I was playing much better players than I had been and it was a case of learning again. Being more patient but still capable of killing when the opportunity arose. Since I was 36 when I started playing, I never got much better than about 2000 FIDE but it was enough.

People can disagree on the best way to improve. For instance I think puzzles are bad for us but at your level maybe they're good because they'll teach you to think. There are lots of links and lots of would-be coaches. Don't automatically trust them just because they seem to have a high rating. The best way to improve is probably to join a local chess club. If you live in the Midlands, you might have a choice of clubs depending on where you are. I live in Wigan and that was, at one time, about the centre of the strongest region for chess in the UK, Stronger than London, stronger than the Midlands. My local club was a strong one and I had difficulty making the first team at first but it happened in about three years. Then I was captain of it for many years. Now the local club doesn't exist.

Ok so patience and practice is what I am getting from you and everyone here. I just want to be good and able to win matches and not feel soo blonde at this!

You're blonde but I like you. My wife has dark hair. That's ok too.

This is a game I just played. 5 minutes each. I was black. Notice how I play with zero patience. I find that at slow play, like two hours each person for the whole game, I'm better if I'm patient. But at this level I'm currently playing at around 1500 in 5 mins blitz, I ought to be so much better than most people I play against that it makes sense just to attack. So I'm black and I saw that if I left my king in the centre it would take too long for my opponent to break down the centre to attack it. It was a big risk but see how he lost so quickly in the tactics right at the end.

OPk hmm but theres soo much to watch its really overwhelming my head its where to start with it all!

Thanks I am trying x

This is a game you just played. I think you show good signs of being a very talented player in the future but you commit the main blunders that many beginners make. Notice that you had a checkmate in one move, I think on move 32. A little more attempt to watch for opportunities as they arise will be good. But also you don't bring other pieces into the game when you should, and put them on strong squares where they can help with your attack or defence.

Hmm but my brain doesnt work that far ahead I need to work on it!

If you really want to improve, you should find a player a little better than you are and make friends with them, but they should be willing to play more slowly. Try to play a game in 20 minutes, which will give you more time to look around the board and to understand what's happening on it. I could introduce you to two young ladies right away but they're both Russian and understandably, many people have a bit of a phobia over Russians at the moment. But they can't help what their glorious supreme leader is doing in his madness.

All the best for now ... I need to do some work and find out how Newcastle United are doing. And Wigan Athletic for that matter.

That's ok I have found players wanting to help me who are better than me I think this will really help me I agree!

Good but you do need to give yourself time to think by playing much slower games at first. That's if you really do want to improve fast.

Bye.

welcome to the site - by me reviewing your games i learned a thing or two -- you seem to be a lot better than you give yourself credit -- a better player would see through what you are doing i guess but to me if this is what you consider starter play then well good luck your on your way

Hmm ok why slower though?

Thank you soo much! I keep reading lots but theres soo much to read! I was given a chess board 2 weeks ago so have been playing and I thought I was good until I joined here ha! But to hear you say this has made my day so yay thank you xxx

Because slower games give you more time to think. And the more you think, the more you understand the game.