As a former college chess champ, I won't insult you with the usual suggestions but probably intensive tactics practice will most quickly help you regain your board vision. Try wandering around Coach Heisman's site and see if anything resonates. He has 10 years worth of archived "Novice Nook" columns (not really for novices at all 
) that have won all kinds of chess journalism awards. Enjoy!
http://danheisman.home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Main_Chess/chess.htm
You're very welcome. It takes 4 posts to bump a thread into the main forum so this being Saturday, I think you'll get a lot of advice. You might take note of that "search forums" box in the upper right. Everything is archived so if you were to search for something like "best free software", you'll come up with dozens of previous threads. Kind of like this:
http://www.chess.com/forum/search?keyword=best+free+software
Any free chess engine which I can use in my mobile? I am waiting!
I am sad to report that there's been a coup d'état at the World Chess Engine Association. The greedy capitalists have taken over and recalled all of the free chess engines, so only commercial chess engines are available at this time.
Did you have a FIDE rating? Any idea as to what your current playing strength is? Knowing that would be helpful in making a book suggestion.
arul_kumar You have to put in time playing and studying. Thank any of our chess lovers for the game that they give you, win or lose. It is about learning the game and loving the game. Don't let the loses keep you from playing. Some times the fear of loosing can discourage you from playing.
Stockfish is still free, both for a computer and for mobile. Seach on your mobile, I downloaded it a couple of years ago.
After I took to serious Chess, 4 months back, I participated in one FIDE rated under1600 tournament. First time I, played under time control. 1st round, I met one rated player and lost. I got 4 pts from 9 rounds. I drew 2/games which I should have won! I know basic opening principles. My highest rating in chess.com is 1056. I am daily doing 3 tactics lessons provided by chess.com. Mostly I win only when I get an opening advantage! When I enter middle game with an equal position I run in to time trouble. Since I learned using descriptive notation, I find it difficult to visualize using algebraic notation! I think it is enough for now! Thanks for your patient reading!
chess software: Chess Arena (GUI) + Stockfish (chess engine)
get a good tactics book and work through puzzles every night!
and if you also wish, hire a coach to look through some of your games in order to pinpoint your weaknesses.
good luck!
Julian
Read these
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/improvement-in-chess-according-to-elo
http://www.wikihow.com/Become-a-Better-Chess-Player.
Solve tactics here http://chesstempo.com/chess-tactics.html.
Develop an opening repertoire and know the ideas of your favourite openings in the middlegame.
Get the CT-Art software. It'll drill you on tactics, and unlike chesstempo.com and Tactics Trainer here on chess.com, CT-Art will allow you to drill on the same set of tactics over and over again. The repetition is critical to committing patterns to long term memory. Read about the Woodpecker method. I recommend Axel Smith's _Pump Up Your Rating_ and Michael de la Maza's _Rapid Chess Improvement_. Until you get to A player (1800) or Expert level (2000), tactics should be your overwhelming focus.
If you want to supplement your tactical practice, study endgames. I recommend Silman's _Complete Endgame Course_. Pandolfini's _Endgame Course_ is pretty good too for someone under 1600/1800.
Sir .. I got the stockfish4 installed. But have no idea how to use the engine for analyzing moves of my lost game! Help!
Sir .. I got the stockfish4 installed. But have no idea how to use the engine for analyzing moves of my lost game! Help!
You need a GUI as well as the engine. Here's some previous threads:
http://www.chess.com/forum/search?keyword=best+GUI
You can download the chessbase reader which is free.
sir.. any latest book which gives the best opening lines which will help me to understand the idea behind them without the need to memorize scores of variations? In my experience, a poor start gives a lot of problems including time trouble!
As I said chessbase12 reader is free to download and contains a database.
See how to download HERE some free material and see some more suggestions.
I don't know if you are willing to spend some money on your study. Some suggestions here but you are the one to decide
If you are more traditional and prefer books you can find discounts here and here
but it is difficult to suggest only one book because as I said it's up to you to decide.
Hi! Good morning to all! I wish to introduce myself that I was s college Chess champ once but because of job constraints, I was out of touch for a very long .. time! During this absence Chess has really advanced. Now I would like to catch up! please suggest me ways on how to improve and make up for the lost time.Kindly suggest books ,Chess engines ,etc. Kindly help !