How to develop strongly as a Beginner Chess player

Welcome to my "thoughts" section about improving as a chess player.

First a bit about me, not played in thirty years = about 50 years old; never a good player, aiming for another 1,000 rating points above my 1200 rating i have now; LoL ;)

So i am a mature adult and i understand myself, my strengths and weaknesses very well. I am hoping by sharing these 'thoughts' with you it will help you improve as i improve toward my quest of "Master" ranking :)

THESE are only MY OWN opinions :

- We all love the beauty of great attacks, well i am not a huge risk taker and its far more important for a player to understand how to DEFEND firstly. This gives a player a grasp of how to see when to launch an attack and how to conduct it; so for at least twelve months i am going to focus upon a DEFENSIVE system.

- I will not use flank openings since i am to lowly rated to understand normal openings even so my openings will be as black the Scandanavian but always the Caro-Kann against White playing anything, even 1. d4 ( you can call it whatever; like Slav etc, but its MY Caro-Kann ).

- I will ignore learning any other openings except my own openings they are proven solid (played by Masters) and not totally fashionable at the moment, so over the next few years i should be able to get very good at them in my ratings quest to become a Chess Master.

- I will play some blitz games for fun and relaxation, some standard games just to learn how others play, but mainly i will play longer time limits so i have time to stop and think about moves etc.

- A word on 'Ratings' i do not care what my rating points are i will play stronger opponents up to 200 points above me and then analyse my games slowly and repeatedly; i will only play a few games for 'improvement' each week and then spend a lot of time dissecting them on a real board.

- I will mainly ignore the internet/computer i will study and read chess books i won and then re-read them and make paper written notes and diagrams. Computers stop me from 'thinking' whereas writing on paper and looking at a real board forces me to "focus" and reinforces my understanding.

- I am happy to lose if i learn something especially long term so my rating does not matter since i will learn something useful from each game anyways.

- I will do puzzle books on general chess readings for relaxation, i will read about strategy and positionals and i know i will not understand it but i will just try and get a feel for the ideas and be opening my mind to such thinking in preparation for the future.

- I will stick to my three/4 openings (as above) [Caro-Kann and Scandanavian] and as White the Veresov system / KIA (King's Indian Attack), i will vary these four openings to prevent boredom and to try and stay 'interested'.

- I am practicing "blindfold-chess" and imagining my openings and my opponents lines 'in my mind' without the clutter of the board. This way i can play chess in the shower or wherever.

- As my ratings improve i will add in two more openings in about a year or two, these openings will be 1. b3 and 1... b6 since they are not totally proven 'solid' but will be solid enough to a ratings level of 2200 if I myself become good enough at chess in general.

- i will devote no more than ten percent of my chess time to my openings since i must work on other things like strategy, my middle games and other areas of chess; more on these areas posted on HobbyDeck.com.

- I will not become 'obsessed' with chess nor talk nor read about it endlessly. I will balance it with work / family / recreation / fitness (chess is for my recreation and mental health).

- Everyone plays chess differently but ultimately for at least one of 3 reasons. 1) Enjoyment: (WC Tal played simply because he loved chess), 2) Reward: This is my motivation; not to become a professional player but to improve myself personally (the disipline and rigor of the game to make me a better person); this will help me at work as well, 3) Prestige: Masters do not spend thousands of Gold and sit at aeroplanes / hotels for days for fun. They do it to contest against other very talented people...

Anyways this is my "recipe" toward becoming a chess Master [and who cares if i do not reach it ? ] i will have a solid good cheap hobby for life and get many benefits from the world of chess. Now i have my "recipe" all i have to do is 'cook' it :) plus i am doing all this solo, no personal trainer nor major computer assistance, just books of games / ideas / puzzles / 'REAL' chess boards and lots of balanced 'hard effort'.

I only place this here so other beginners might come to love playing chess as i hope i might come to 'love chess' and might find ideas in my "recipe" for their own improvement.

ABOVE ALL, do not chop and change your openings nor follow the pack and play things you do not feel comfortable with. You SHOULD be playing for YOURSELF so do not let others 'tell' you you must change, get a 2nd and 3rd opinion (from 'different' sources)...

BUT above all have a plan for your study/ improvement, work out your goals and write them down and why you feel they are important to you at that stage of your chess / life...

There is a King's Indian Attack group, called "KIA inc.", for players of all strengths who are interested in learning that opening.

http://www.chess.com/groups/home/kia-inc

Other than that... for players around 1200 strength, I would suggest that most of your study-time should be spent on tactics, more tactics, model mates, endgames, and on analyzing your own games, especially the ones that you lost.

Opening study should focus on the typical Pawn formations that your chosen openings will lead to, and on the typical plans that these Pawn formations generate.

And gambits, since they will often leads to tactical games. Who cares about postionional chess when you hang a pawn every 5 moves?

Let the GM's play the caro-kann, beginners should play 1: e4!! and get a nice game. Either the italian old style (c3-d4) or kings gambit. 

Yes well thats my novice plan to study the pawn structures (whatever that 'truly' means; since i do not know yet) but my readings suggest the Scandanavian and the Caro-Kann have similar pawn structures so hopefully if correct that will be one more thing i can cross off my " list of 1,001 things i need 2 learn"... :)

It means that looking at the pawn structure (in this case black pawns on c6 and e6, while either the white e-pawn gone (caro-kann) or the c-pawn gone (slav), and then looking general plans for both players, and typical endgames. Another idea is to look at alot of GM games to get a feeling for the positions. Karpov played the Caro-Kann alot, and his games in often quite instructive. The caro-kann motto is: If white can't sacrifice his way to succes, black will win the endgame!. Karpov used this as a very strong defender and endgame player. But giving white space and attacking chances is generally a bad idea for the club player, since it's more difficult to defend.

Regarding the proper understanding and play of the Pawns, I would recommend "Pawn Power in Chess" by Kmoch and "Pawn Structure Chess" by Soltis. You may be able to get them on inter-library loan, if you cannot buy a copy.

I think one of the WORST things beginners can do is play over 'Masters' games. Masters usually do not make "logical" moves in some positions but play the 'best' move, so while this is the "best" move it might very well confuse a beginner who has little understand why that move was the strongest for this position.

I know chess concepts and ideas that the masters have long forgotten since they have moved well above my knowledge level and learnt advanced ideas. So i feel the only thing i would get from Karpov or Miles or Tal would be one of two things 1) = a headache trying to understand their plans OR 2) = smile for the rare times they make an obvious blunder...

Low rated players should try and avoid becoming just another "groupie" trying to play like a MGM or SGM (MegaGrandMaster or SuperGrandMaster) try and learn chess in a way YOU understand and enjoy instead of just "following the pack"; just my opinion, it just seems 'common-sense' 2 me ;)

Time is better spent playing over your own games and low ranked amateur games with explanations, forget the greatest and esp what they are doing since you are more likely to harm your own game than learn some winning ideas. Only three great players worth reading about 1) = Tal, 2) = Tal / or (Capa...), and 3) i forget the name. [ the rest were / are great ] but hardly worth spending your 'free-chess-time' on; oh yeah, thats it 3) = Judit Polgar...

Purdy's method assumes that in the given position, only the move chosen by the GM is any good.

Example:

Suppose I am playing over a Grandmaster game from the 1950s or 60s, as White. After a standard sequence of moves in the main-line Petroff Defense, the following position is reached:

Have the beginner read the entire books "how to beat your dad in chess" & "chess fundamentals" by Capablanca 10 times or until they start crying to you about haivng dreams that there rook wasnt on a open file then have him play a person/engine rated 100 as white and black (if he wins go onto someone rated 200 and so on going over everygame in the best detail you can muster){if he loses keep playing opposition in that range till he/she reaches that nest hieght} all games should be 25min or longer games.HIRE a lifelong psychologist to watch his off the board development mentaly. BAM after 1 year the kid will be exxpert 2 years a LM 4 years a IM 7 years a GM and by year 10 or a little more hell be world champ lol

This sounds remarkably similar to the backyard professor.

i think the plan is good even assuming an amateur can understand a "Masterz" thinking. this is solid since it encourages or 'forces' a player to ? what is really occurring.

the worst thing u can do is not play nor think abt chess if u r workin 2 improve yr chess; u must think chess or play... The 2nd worst thing u can do is "simply just play" and not review or analyse what was 'good' or 'bad', simply did you lose b/c your opponent was a "retard" but still u made 4 'blunders' ???

u hv 2 stop n ? why things happen'd as they did; (or NOT) but truly if u refuse 2 seek learning opportunities as thy preznt thn may yr "rating" nvr go higher ;)

u can play 4 fun or improvement, it's yr call; 2 me i wanta get much better & am not afraid 2 take some hits 2 learn...

according to one 2300 FIDE rated player I know, there was a theory in the late 19th century that 'the side that attacks, always wins'. then the concept of counterattack came and this theory was brushed aside. needless to say, you cannot win without attacking, whether early or late.

I use the Chess.com 'tactics-trainer', look at the 'study plans' and try to follow an organised system 2 learn. With the tactics trainer i always 're-try' the problem five times b4 i seek the 'solution'. 

What i do not like is training where things tell you a "position requires an answer" so this prompt type of training does not help me much. What iwould like is sumthin that lets me "play" and then AFTER a few moves say ' u retard, did u really not see that fork tactic or forcing combination u miss'd ' this way i would learn to look at each position better.

Plus i play my openings a bit in blitz 2 learn them but not a lot since i do not want 2 just move my opening pieces but look as well even in the opening. BUT more importantly i run them against the computer here at chess.com, heck i even play them against my 2nd unpaid account n then ask 4 the computer replay analysis...

Above all i do not just play chess but i try n read widely; but i try n not  waste time on 'forums' lol ;)

Endgames.  Tactics/checkmates.

Later on, position.

Expand upon this if you feel the need to pass 2500 down the road.