How to properly learn and study chess?
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I meant don’t worry about memorizing theory openings
dizjuega wrote:
Optimissed wrote:
Chess openings are very much the right place to start but I've a feeling that most books are geared to the next stage up .... how to improve as a player who knows the basics. Also, most good chess players aren't good teachers. There's a reason for that.
What you should be doing is following through simple openings to see how players get to a viable game. One type of resource is books written over 100 years ago, which tended to be for beginners and which dealt with simpler concepts. You can still find them online.
Do not even think of playing blitz. You want to be trying to play at a rate of play you can manage, even for simple openings. Such a rate of play is anything from all moves in half an hour to all moves in one hour. Nothing longer and nothing shorter.
If you ignore this type of advice and try to play faster games, you won't improve, because you need to take time to work out ideas for yourself at the board and then compare them with games already played and so on.
I do watch a couple of games before I go to sleep, I specially look for games where they go through the thought process of why the moves are being made, that actually has helped me a lot when looking at the board, not gonna lie I still miss a lot of things, the main reason is that I tend to focus more on what I'm doing than what my opponent is doing, and that has lead me to making really silly blunders.
Books are helping, even with stuff like notation, I didn't understand it at first , I still struggle reading it, but at least I understand, it can only get better with time I guess.
I started playing 10 minutes because that was the default option, but once I noticed I could switch it, I started playing 30 minutes.
Everything you guys have said so far gives me a ray of hope, although somewhat lost, it seems its not by much, like I just need to organize things up a little bit and eventually things will start coming together, so again, thank you for taking the time to comment and offer insight. Really appreciate it.
You know, there's nothing to beat being at a chess club and getting some helpful guy to play a few games with you and go through them afterwards with you. You can't easily do that here and so it's better to do your own research and play games that give you a chance to think. Nothing ever lasting less than 30 minutes. Also keep it to less than an hour because you might find playing slower than that to be boring. I think 45 minutes each person all your moves is ok. You can't learn anything from blitz because the patterns aren't there to add to and manipulate. You form the patterns by going through games slowly but also by playing slowly and spending time thinking about it. Like WHY did that player make that move? Oh I see, maybe it was to do this or this. Maybe it allows different possible options. Chess is all about giving yourself more and better options if you can. And giving your opponent more options too, so he can go wrong, but you try to make them worse options! It's a long time since I learned chess but after learning to get a viable game from the opening, then I learned very simple endings and then how to move the game from the opening to the middlegame to the ending.
After that I started learning more and more middle game tactics and plans, and more opening ideas, because that's an important way to learn how to move the game on from the first moves, through the part in the late opening when you're kind of building a fortress, to the middle game where you're trying to use that fortress to attack and defend with, and maybe altering it and reshuffling the pieces a bit.
Just always get into the habit of trying to remember to develop all your pieces to good squares. Sometimes you can move the same piece more than once in the opening. Also remember that pawns are NOT pieces. They're pawns and are best left where they are while you learn to use your pieces well. Then try combining moves by pieces with pawn advances, usually in the centre and on the queenside to start with, because at first you should be castling kingside.
Mar 20, 2022
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#24
Capablanca’s book, Chess Fundamentals is great and starts at the very very beginning and Chess Networks beginner to chess master YouTube series is what got me from your level to 1200 along with tactics training.
This thread has given me a lot of useful information, I intend to put it to good use ! ✌️😎
Mar 20, 2022
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#26
Chr0mePl8edSt0vePipe wrote:
Capablanca’s book, Chess Fundamentals is great and starts at the very very beginning and Chess Networks beginner to chess master YouTube series is what got me from your level to 1200 along with tactics training.
I'll definitely check both the book and the series, again thanks for taking the time, everyone has been great with suggestions and offering so much insight, I really appreciate it.
Mar 21, 2022
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#27
books are good, still i like watching videos in general. but finding good books are easier than finding good educational videos.. and it is getting harder everyday (many educational streamers switched to entertainment these days).. anyways.
here is video, i like this guy's videos most of the time. and here he is going over 35 opening principles.. i watched it. it is good 
Mar 21, 2022
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#28
The problem I have with videos is that they’re either not helpful for improvement (Gotham, Eric Rosen, etc) or they’re boring (st louis chess club) or they’re inaccurate/miss vital information (hanging pawns)
Mar 21, 2022
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#31
I’m not talking about lines, but ideas and plans, which can’t be easily explained without someone actually telling you, showing you. He does a good job at this, but does let things slip
B1ZMARK wrote:
The problem I have with videos is that they’re either not helpful for improvement (Gotham, Eric Rosen, etc) or they’re boring (st louis chess club) or they’re inaccurate/miss vital information (hanging pawns)
You want boring. St Louis is ok. They aren't masters but they are good players who put in a lot of thought.
Mar 21, 2022
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#33
Optimissed wrote:
B1ZMARK wrote:
The problem I have with videos is that they’re either not helpful for improvement (Gotham, Eric Rosen, etc) or they’re boring (st louis chess club) or they’re inaccurate/miss vital information (hanging pawns)
You want boring. St Louis is ok. They aren't masters but they are good players who put in a lot of thought.
I’ve always felt that St Louis drags out their videos too much. The pauses when they ask questions to the audience can be edited out- the user can pause the video if they want. The content is good, but online pauses don’t work the same as in person ones.
Mar 21, 2022
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#34
Depends on your rating. I think higher rated players just use Chessbase. If you're a beginner I'd recommend Jeremy Silman or something like that.
Mar 21, 2022
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#36
playonlinesecretly1 wrote:
Play 90 min time control game a day. Trust me you will improve fast even without books. On super free times play all day like up to 6 long games.
You'd probably be too exhausted to improve, spending three hours a day on playing a single game, and let's not forget that analysis of a serious game should be around at least an hour, usually more.
B1ZMARK wrote:
Optimissed wrote:
B1ZMARK wrote:
The problem I have with videos is that they’re either not helpful for improvement (Gotham, Eric Rosen, etc) or they’re boring (st louis chess club) or they’re inaccurate/miss vital information (hanging pawns)
You want boring. St Louis is ok. They aren't masters but they are good players who put in a lot of thought.
I’ve always felt that St Louis drags out their videos too much. The pauses when they ask questions to the audience can be edited out- the user can pause the video if they want. The content is good, but online pauses don’t work the same as in person ones.
Yes they do and also it's repetitive and you get lost in it all.
Mar 21, 2022
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#39
There is plenty of bad advice in this thread from players who know the game, but who have no experience teaching beginners. Of the books you named, they are either not aimed at beginners or were written as a scam by an author who does not know the game (I recognize one title as one I gave a one-star review on Amazon).
Get a copy of Ilya Maizelis, The Soviet Chess Primer and study it carefully all the way through.
If that is too much work, get a simpler and time-tested book: Jose Capablanca, Chess Fundamentals. You can even read it free online: https://chesstempo.com/chess-books/chess-fundamentals/book/165 Capablanca's approach is the right one. Learn checkmates, endings, tactics and middle game planning, then opening principles. Repeat this cycle.
There is some excellent advice and book recommendations from an experienced teacher at http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2021/01/advice-for-beginners.html
Mar 22, 2022
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#40
playonlinesecretly1 wrote:
Play 90 min time control game a day. Trust me you will improve fast even without books. On super free times play all day like up to 6 long games.
I try to play as much as I can, and it definitely helps, each time I see myself analyzing my moves more carefully and recognizing more positions or openings even when I don't fully know all of the main lines but more often than not I can tell the intentions and sort of adapt. Again Thanks you for taking the time to post here!
I never mentioned a book though