How to get better.

Jan 19, 2018 #1

I know lots of people have asked this question. I am pathetically sitting around 800-900.

I have ave a few questions

How do I get better?

I currently watch YouTube videos about tactics and practice them, but I have trouble finding them. Don’t reccommend me coaches or books on openings.

Some me tell me to analyse my games and I do, the problem is my games are pretty obvious to find the mistake. Since I keep rushing and blundering, how should I stop that?

In order to win a game you have to do lots of things.

You have to win material in order to checkmate most of the time or get a better position then there’s.

How do you get a better position then them?

What is the rank that I should consider to be good enough to take nationals. I am currently 15.

Jan 19, 2018 #2

One thing that is very helpful, but also hard work, is playing through master tournament games. This will let you start learning the basic opening set ups, and what the good players do with them to play a complete game. You will become familiar with all phases of Chess by doing this. Opening, mid game, and endings. Endless, free tactic puzzles are available on Lichess, if you want to practice tactics.

Jan 19, 2018 #3

Ok thanks. So I analyse master class games?

Jan 19, 2018 #4

ito_san4 wrote:

I currently watch YouTube videos about tactics and practice them, but I have trouble finding them. Don’t reccommend me coaches or books on openings.

Some me tell me to analyse my games and I do, the problem is my games are pretty obvious to find the mistake. Since I keep rushing and blundering, how should I stop that?

Just quoting the parts of your post that stood out to me as the most important.

You say that you're having trouble finding tactics when practicing. What tactics are you doing? They're not all equal, and trying to do tactics that are too hard for your level isn't going to be useful. Start with books of easy tactics for beginners, and go through tons of those. Once you get good at those, move on to intermediate level tactics puzzles. I highly recommend Dan Heisman's "Back to Basics: Tactics" as a great first book of tactics. It has over 400 puzzles, along with plenty of explanations to teach you what to look for, and a few other hints and tips about improving overall as a player. A good second choice would be "Chess Tactics for Students" by John Bain.

You say that you're rushing and blundering. The key there is to play slow games, and take the time to look at all of your opponent's possible moves. Look for checks, captures, and threats on every move. During a slow game, spend your opponent's turn looking at every possible legal move that they could make, just to get used to looking. On your turn, make sure to look for all possible responses to the moves you're considering. I don't know what speed you normally play, but stop playing fast games altogether, until you've done enough slow games to make this instinctive. This comes from experience, and you just have to play a ton of slow games to get into that habit.

If you're blundering a lot, these are the two most important things you can do to overcome it. Once you stop blundering so much, your rating will jump to at least 1200, and you can worry about how to get better positions, and what to do with them once you have them. Keep up the tactics study, but that would be the time to pick up something like Chernev's "Logical Chess: Move by Move", which will help you learn to develop with a plan. Also, I always recommend Silman's Complete Endgame Course, since the first chapter will teach you how to finish any game that gets that far at low levels of chess, when you usually end up with one player having a huge material advantage.

Jan 19, 2018 #5

At first, you don't want to spend a lot of time on one single game. You just spend a few minutes, and play through a complete game. Then, play through another one. Of course, you will have many questions about all the 'what if' moves. But the main thing, at first, is to become familiar with the various patterns, pawn set ups, pawn breaks, coordinating multiple pieces toward a single goal, etc. As you gain a deeper knowledge of the positions, you can start to spend more time looking at 'what if' moves. One thing you will find is that, often, there are at least a few good, or ok moves in a given position. You decide which route you want to take, based on your ability with certain set ups, or maybe even just your mood, to try something different, and see how well you can handle it. ALWAYS, review your own games. Once you get familiar enough with various set ups, and follow through plans, you will begin to better appreciate what commentators are talking about when they are presenting and analyzing a game. You Tube has a lot of great videos, but there's also a lot of time wasting junk. You will need to sift through several commentators to see what speaks best to you at your current ability. Hope this all helps.

Jan 19, 2018 #6

There are a few things that will help you right now. 1) Stop playing blitz. You need to learn a proper thought process, and fast time controls will only reinforce bad habits. Right now, do not play anything shorter than 30 min games. 2) Learn and apply opening principles (control the center, develop your pieces, get your king safe, etc) and apply them in your games. 3) Practice tactics! A lot! right now, your biggest weakness is your tactical vision. you are missing opportunities, and falling into obvious traps. 4) Practice calculating. Endgames are the best way for you to do this, as there are fewer pieces on the board. 5) Analyze your games by hand before you run through them with an engine. Try to identify the losing move. 6) Review master games (the Chernev books are a good start for this). Moves you understand, play over quickly. Moves that confuse you, spend some time to understand. Of these things, tactics and reviewing your games should take up the majority of your non-playing chess time.

Jan 19, 2018 #7

When u play, play very slow time controls. As you make moves keep things VERY simple. Make sure all ur pieces are protected. Only make enough pawn moves to get ur pieces out (pieces are NOT pawns, they're on the back rank). Be super protective and solid. Most of ur opponents WILL lose the game for u, just be ready to take the free pieces. Then simplify after u win material. KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Obviously this is a simplified response. But in short: don't study openings, just PAWN STRUCTURES, BASIC ENGAMES, TACTICS. Definitely not speed chess.

Jan 19, 2018 #8

"..., you have to make a decision: have tons of fun playing blitz (without learning much), or be serious and play with longer time controls so you can actually think.
One isn’t better than another. Having fun playing bullet is great stuff, while 3-0 and 5-0 are also ways to get your pulse pounding and blood pressure leaping off the charts. But will you become a good player? Most likely not.
Of course, you can do both (long and fast games), ..." - IM Jeremy Silman (June 9, 2016)
https://www.chess.com/article/view/longer-time-controls-are-more-instructive
"... tournament play offers that rich, 'all-weekend' chess experience where you congregate with other players, eat and talk chess during meals and in-between games, and benefit from the entire ambiance. ..." - Dan Heisman (2013)
Possibly of interest:
Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson (2012)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf
http://dev.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Simple-Attacking-Plans-77p3731.htm
Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev (1957)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf
The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev (1965)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/
Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1948)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf
Back to Basics: Tactics by Dan Heisman (2007)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708233537/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review585.pdf
https://www.chess.com/article/view/book-review-back-to-basics-tactics
Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms (2006)