How I study chess (beginner, 29 yrs old, 900 ish)

I would say contrary to what someone else posted, do NOT play lots of 5 or 10 minute games. Memory works by thinking over something, so keep playing this 30 minute per side games.

Guys, thanks a lot for your answers. In 6 month or as soon as I hit a plateau I'll come back. I saw some nice videos and articles on the study plan directory.

@Lucidish_Lux: I'm aware of this and I say to myself: "Just do it daily, the progress will come sooner or later"

@satxusa: that's what I'm reading right now.

@Sokrates1984: I know I should study endgame, I'm planning to incorporate it in my study program.

@Adrenalyn: I can't play that fast and I don't want to improve this skill. I don't like it, I'm in chess for longer time frames. 

Basic Tactics Book: Chess Tactics for Champions by Polgar. She explains each tactical motif and then there are 25-50 examples you do with each motif, after the explanation. The examples will drill in the tactical idea and help develop chess vision and pattern recognition.

Basic Openings Book: a lot to pick from, but I think the best of the bunch for a novice player is "Discovering Chess Openings: Building Opening Skills from Basic Principles" by John Emms.

Silman's Complete Endgame Course is a must have IMHO. Its a very thick book, but it breaks the chapters down into sections based on chess ability: you only study the material relevant to your chess level.

An important thing worth stressing too, is the improvement you can make when you simply stop hanging pieces (which I do now and then, as I'm very rusty still after an 8 year break from the game). Every move its important to ask yourself:

1. What does my opponents last move threaten? And if there is a threat, how do I meet it?

2. Are any of my pieces hanging for my opponent to pick off?

3. Are any of my opponents pieces hanging that I can pick off?

4. What is the most logical move I can make here (later on, as tactical ability increases, you learn a new process that involves completely illogical moves which may form the basis of a tactical shot or combination).

And lastly, a nice bit of chess wisdom I picked up somewhere years ago: in a quiet position, where you can see no obvious threats, nor make any of your own, and where you are really stuck for a plan, look at your pieces to see which is the worst developed (or doing the least work, controlling the fewest squares, etc). Then choose the best square to put that piece on.

Its worth pointing out that, because the endgame is so often completely neglected, there is a tendency in the chess world (IMHO) to try compensate for that by placing too much emphasis on it.

The fact is, that endgame knowledge is of very little value to a player who never sees an endgame that he has even the remotest chance of winning or drawing. To wit, its of no consequence when you consistently are lost before an endgame can even arise.

Though once you do beging seeing some roughly equal endgames, then some study time spent on it can go a long way simply because many of your opponents won't have (and believe me, its incredibly irksome when you lose a simple ending that you willing went to because you had an extra pawn and thought you would win it - and should have if your endgame technique was better). 

The fact is, that endgame knowledge is of very little value to a player who never sees an endgame that he has even the remotest chance of winning or drawing. To wit, its of no consequence when you consistently are lost before an endgame can even arise. (Scandium)

True in a short-term perspective, but what many people neglect is that studying the endgame is a very good way to develop overall chess skills such as :

- raw calculation ability

- taking into account what the opponent is going to do (very important even in basic endgames) => prophylactic thinking

- planning (through schematic thinking and targeting standard positions)

It also helps to develop a feel for what every piece can do or not do.

Best is to study 32 piece endgames even though they can be a little

drawish.

All valid points, I agree. My post was more aimed at providing some balance, or a counterpoint, to those who (again, IMHO) place too much emphasis on it.

Personally I take a holistic approach to studying the game; although my study of it only began again last month, as I'd taken an 8 year hiatus from the game. I also needed to start building a chess book reading list again, as all of the books I'd aquired when I was active in the game were lost in a move.

So my current regimen is:

Polgar's Tactics for Champions (for tactical study, of course); this is also supplemented by some light (but daily) use of the tactics trainer here;

Chess: The Art of Logical Thinking, by McDonald. That one is to work through well annotated master level games (I'm half way through it).

Silman's Complete Endgame Course for endings.

I have a good collection of books on the main openings I play, but have them set aside until I've brushed up enough other aspects of my game to begin working them into the regimen.

I should probably mention, too, that chess books are something I love in and of themselves (particularly books on the classical era in chess, when Capablanca, Lasker, and Alekhine were the masters of the day). So there's no real ratings goal or anything in mind; that's a definite bonus, but I've always found intrinsic value in a well written chess book for its own sake.

@TheGrobe

Silman's Endgame Course covers very necessary rudimentary stuff like basic mates, very basic pawn endings, etc...

Its absolutely essential for a beginner to study that.

I'm not talking about studying a complicated rook vs knight and bishop or something..

There are 5 visualization pattern memory banks that you must acquire thru hard work and study.  2 hours per day is good enough, but it will take 2 to 3 yrs. to reach a USCF rating of about 1850 (B player.) 

The 5 visualization pattern memory banks are:

1. Basic endgame checkmate visualization pattern memory bank

2. Tactics visualization pattern memory bank

3. Endgame Technique visualization pattern memory bank

4. Opening Repertoire visualization pattern memory bank

5. Middle Game visualization pattern memory bank

If you would like to know more, please let me know. 

I don't agree with "no need study".

I'm also a beginner and I read as many as artikel I can found in chess.com and it helping a lot, at least you must re-read to remember what have you read. 

Try to find many basic patterns in opening, middle game, and end game. Study plan helping a lot. 

I wouldn't mind knowing good ways to improve on #5. Seems easy to find books/videos on all kinds of openings and the same for all types of endings but not so much for the middle game.

15 months ago, i heard all of the useless advice. then, i was rated 1300 icc rating. study endgames, study this or that positional book, read annotated games. i was excited, so i studied my butt off. so i returned with lots of chess knowledge. i even took lessons fron well known coah. i wasted lots of money buying a whole libary with books that helped everyone else but me. i had all this new chess knowledge. i got my butt kicked still. then came my glory moment , the day i search and search and found the well known book called RAPID CHESS IMPROVEMENT!!!!! i did the 7 circles suggested with only 2 tactic books and today my rating is 1707 icc. icc stands for internet chess club. so tactics, tactics, and tactics will give you the most bang for your bucks in the shortest time all the way to Expert. dont get me wrong, studying other areas is ok if thats what you like, but all games in the class level are decided by tactics. studying those areas will only hinder your improvement. i bet you that anyone that's studying other areas besides tactics, and they are rated below 2000 uscf , i bet you its been hard for them to see the improvement they think they shoud have even though they have gained more KNOWLEDGE. go ahead and read your 201 book and lose to the guy that is better tactically!

ChessSponge wrote:

I wouldn't mind knowing good ways to improve on #5. Seems easy to find books/videos on all kinds of openings and the same for all types of endings but not so much for the middle game.

_____________________________________________________________________

The book you are looking for is: "500 Master Games of Chess"

It can be purchased online: Amazon.com, or Barnes & Noble .com

Yes timothysmall56, amateur games are decided by tactics. Tactics will get you the most improvement the fastest...until they don't. At some point, positional play comes into its own, and if you've been doing only tactics, you'll plateau for awhile.

The reason I don't think people should work on tactics, tactics, tactics, is that a small amount of time devoted to tactics on a daily basis provides a good amount of improvement, whereas many hours a day only provides a little more. You get the most for your time by doing some tactics every day (15ish minutes, maybe more if it's really fun for you), and studying other things as well--basic endings, refining your openings, positional concepts that will help you put your pieces on squares where they're more likely to give you tactics to spot. All the tactical knowledge in the world doesn't help you for all the quiet moves in a game--positional knowledge helps you position yourself so that you have tactics to execute.

I like the chess mentor lessons. they tell you why a move is good/bad.

I'll help you if you like. 

Meanwhile, get yourself a copy of Chess Master Grandmaster Edition and start working through the academy lessons.

Same here. When I went with the free 10 day trial, Chess Mentor was the biggest draw toward keeping my diamond membership (not the only reason of course).

tactics tactics ... why my chess.com (908) rating is lagging my chesstempo rating (1212) with 300 points?