How to practice in chess? - Chess Forums

Alvyyrez

Sep 6, 2018

0

#1

I am at level 630 and I cannot rank up any higher to save my life. I been consistent on this level for 2 weeks now and I am really trying to improve. Any tips for practice? And How many games should I play a day?

Alvyyrez

Sep 6, 2018

0

#2

Btw I’m new to chess.

selkea

Sep 6, 2018

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#3

tactics practice makes a man perfect.

Alvyyrez

Sep 6, 2018

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#4

Are you talking about the puzzles?

selkea

Sep 6, 2018

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#5

puzzle = tactics

brother7

Sep 6, 2018

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#6

I think you need a study plan. Check out chess.com's Study Plan Directory.

ryewhisker

Sep 6, 2018

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#7

play 5 or 6 games per day you can skip some days. Play the computer at the hardest setting .See how far you get before things go sour, then go back to where you were before things got sour and see if you can defend better. A good defense allows you to mount some sort of offense.

selkea

Sep 6, 2018

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#8

1. Try to identify your opponent’s checks, captures, and threats. You intended move should be able to account for these “CCT’s.”
2. Every once in a while, try to take a “big picture” look of the whole board. What is your opponent trying to do? What area of the board is he attacking? Are there any targets that you should be attacking?
3. After each of your opponent’s moves, try to understand the purpose of the move before you consider your move. It’s a bad habit to make your move instantly after your opponent makes a move.

Nellypink

Sep 6, 2018

0

#9

I’m in the same boat. Thanks for this thread. I find playing with a few people that are willing to play consistent games right to the end helps. I’m going to take the advice of thirty minute games once a day. And if you want I’m happy to play. Tactics seems to help too:). Sorry if this is a repeat. I tried to post before and it disappeared. I’m new to posting as well. Good luck.

Nwap111

Sep 6, 2018

0

#10

selkea wrote:

1. Try to identify your opponent’s checks, captures, and threats. You intended move should be able to account for these “CCT’s.”
2. Every once in a while, try to take a “big picture” look of the whole board. What is your opponent trying to do? What area of the board is he attacking? Are there any targets that you should be attacking?
3. After each of your opponent’s moves, try to understand the purpose of the move before you consider your move. It’s a bad habit to make your move instantly after your opponent makes a move. Do this and you will improve. But remember, it takes time. Until you can do these things mentioned above, studying the endgame or theory will not help. See what is in front of you, on the board.

IpswichMatt

Sep 6, 2018

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#11

^^^^

+1 for "Climbing the Ratings Ladder" - this series is also highly entertaining. John Bartholomew is always great to listen to IMO

Nwap111

Sep 6, 2018

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#12

It takes time to improve. Everyone does it at his own pace.

IMKeto

Sep 6, 2018

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#13

Alvyyrez wrote:

I am at level 630 and I cannot rank up any higher to save my life. I been consistent on this level for 2 weeks now and I am really trying to improve. Any tips for practice? And How many games should I play a day?

Opening Principles:

Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5
Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key
Castle
Connect your rooks

Tactics...tactics...tactics...

Pre Move Checklist:

Make sure all your pieces are safe.
Look for forcing moves: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) as this will force you look at, and see the entire board.
If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board.
If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece.
After each move by your opponent, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"

Nwap111

Sep 6, 2018

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#14

Read all the advice these writers are giving you. They all have good suggestions. Then practice doing these things in every game, on every move.

Alvyyrez

Sep 6, 2018

0

#15

Thank you to all the chess vets on here. All the suggestions are very helpful and beneficial for me.

Daybreak57

Sep 7, 2018

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#16

It's a tough call to say what exactly you should do to improve, however all of the recommendations given to you are good here, though it may be a bit much to do all of the things all at once. You have to prioritize. What areas are you good at in chess? What areas are you bad at? Do you want to decrease negatives or add positives?

What I can tell you from your games is that you miss a lot of tactics, and fall to easy motifs due to your not obeying general chess principles.

You don't have a diamond membership, so you can't watch the videos in the study plans. The reason why I mention that is that in the study plans it breaks down your study to parts, opening, strategy, tactics, and endgame. You'd learn a lot of stuff about opening principles by studying those plans, however, since you do not have a diamond membership you out of luck. I still urge you after you finish reading this to at least read the first article on the beginner tab for openings, there is a lot of info there for the beginner that I did not have access to when I was learning chess, and it will help you a great deal.

An alternative to getting a diamond membership would be to buy a book, called discovering chess openings. In that book, you will find a lot of beginner motifs to play in the opening.

Another question is how much time do you have to study? How much do you want to study?

don't say 6+ hours a day

A friend and coach told me to do no more than 3 hours a day. 3 hours is a lot. Do you have 3 hours? In that time, you should do 3 tactics bare minimum, and 1 long game. If you feel like doing other stuff, do it, but at least do those two things. 3 tactics, and 1 long game. Analyze your games.

It's tough to tell you what to do because there is so much you need to learn. There are tons of books that can be good for you. One is Dan Heisman's Back to Basics. But I don't want to swamp you with a ton of stuff to read. Ultimately you have to pick one book at a time.

One last thing, you need to start studying master games. The same coach and friend I told you about got to master by studying over 10000 master games. Start getting to your 10000 games!! Start, with Logical Chess Move by Move. There are better books like that out there for beginners nowadays, but I believe that book still does it job, and for a beginner, will be just as good as any other book.

Discovering chess openings, and Logical chess move by move will be enough books to go at the start. But, don't take my word for it. do a search on this site and about beginner topics and you might catch that king guy posting his jargon about books, but you will find a lot of good books, and reviews. Read the reviews. Don't just buy a book just because I told you to buy it. I don't want to be the person your mad at for telling you to buy a book you don't even like or didn't even help you. I think those books are good. That is my personal opinion, but ask others about those books I mentioned, and read the reviews first. Or, buy a diamond membership. I would get the Bains book someone else told you to get to btw.

Lastly, don't ever make the first move that comes to your head. Check your ideas, to see if they hold to the test. For every move, you think of think of a candidate response for your opponent, and if necessary, look further down the tree, but do not look further down until you have identified what you believe to be your opponents best try. Dan Heisman gets a lot of flake, and a lot of people don't like him, but at least that bit of what he talks about is actually true, and a bunch of other stuff.

kindaspongey

Sep 7, 2018

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#17