How to start chess? - Chess Forums

aureliustzar

Dec 16, 2017

0

#1

I understand that this question has probably been asked a million times, but I felt the need to ask it again. I suppose starting from openings is a natural point of starting, but after I learn an opening, I try it in a game and find that I'm clueless in the mid game. Then, after I begin learning tactics, I find that I've made it impossible to use them because I screwed myself over in the opening by lack of understanding. It's also difficult to tell when I'm wasting my time or not utilizing it enough. For example, I'll do dozens of chess puzzles, but never really feel like I'm getting much better at them. It doesn't seem like anything I've done before. I'm usually an extremely quick learner. Take a video-game like League of Legends -- I was Silver (sort of like 1000 elo in chess), and over the course of a couple of months, got into Platinum 1 (equivalent to roughly 2000 elo), and then managed to sneak into Diamond V (almost the same). I did this by watching videos and then growing a greater understanding of the game through play-time. But it doesn't seem like there is any reasonable way to do this in chess. I'm getting stomped so hard, and there is such a vast, vast, vast amount of things that I'm unaware of, as well as thousands of years of information that I am without, and it all seems so defeating.

I made this post so long as to see if someone could relate, and tell me how they managed to improve and learn. Chess is a game that I love, and have always wanted to play.

kindaspongey

Dec 17, 2017

0

#2

sammy_boi

Dec 17, 2017

0

#3

aureliustzar wrote:

I understand that this question has probably been asked a million times, but I felt the need to ask it again. I suppose starting from openings is a natural point of starting, but after I learn an opening, I try it in a game and find that I'm clueless in the mid game. Then, after I begin learning tactics, I find that I've made it impossible to use them because I screwed myself over in the opening by lack of understanding. It's also difficult to tell when I'm wasting my time or not utilizing it enough. For example, I'll do dozens of chess puzzles, but never really feel like I'm getting much better at them. It doesn't seem like anything I've done before. I'm usually an extremely quick learner. Take a video-game like League of Legends -- I was Silver (sort of like 1000 elo in chess), and over the course of a couple of months, got into Platinum 1 (equivalent to roughly 2000 elo), and then managed to sneak into Diamond V (almost the same). I did this by watching videos and then growing a greater understanding of the game through play-time. But it doesn't seem like there is any reasonable way to do this in chess. I'm getting stomped so hard, and there is such a vast, vast, vast amount of things that I'm unaware of, as well as thousands of years of information that I am without, and it all seems so defeating.

I made this post so long as to see if someone could relate, and tell me how they managed to improve and learn. Chess is a game that I love, and have always wanted to play.

Yeah, in league or SC I would alternate between watching a lot and playing a lot, and like you said, you can get good pretty quickly.

Hmm, what would be a similar method but with chess? I'm trying to think.

I guess with chess, the hardest thing to know is what your most relevant mistakes were. Like you said you'd get in a position where you didn't know what to do (very common) and so it's not as if there's one big mistake it's more like your reach a position and you're just confused.

First of all, for openings, be sure to learn the opening principals and push yourself to follow them.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-principles-of-the-opening

By push yourself I mean, often new players develop only 1, 2, or 3 pieces and then try to attack with those pieces. Or they get afraid of an opponent's move and decide to prevent it unnecessarily, and when they do, they violate an opening principal. A common example:

Another thing to push yourself to do, when new, is never ever ever give up material for free. Not even a single pawn. Maybe you think this isn't worth mentioning, but some beginners feel like pawns, and even knights and bishops, aren't important because (more or less) they believe only the queen can checkmate. And maybe they see a GM game with lots of fun sacrifices, and they want to do that too.

So when looking over your games for how to improve, these are the first two big areas for beginners:

1) Did I follow the opening principals?
2) Did I lose any material (even a single pawn)?

A beginner should also learn the basic checkmates (K+Q vs lone king, K+R+R vs lone king, and K+R vs lone king).

This guy has good intros to many openings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKCMXf4g1HU&list=PLPT2Ux0iNpmhU_g9ya9gNb1E_n1MJjPCH

As for puzzles, IMO online puzzles like chess.com's are not good for beginners. They often have "puzzles" like capturing an undefended piece. This is not actually a puzzle. What you need to see are the common tactical themes (like forks, pins, and discovered attacks).

I recommend this book

https://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-Tactics-ChessCafe-Chess/dp/1888690348

And every puzzle you fail, make a mark by it indicating you need to try it again. After you get maybe 10 wrong, then those will be the puzzles you try the next day. Any you get wrong again, you'll try them again the day after that, and so on.

Completing a tactics book is often what gives beginners their first big burst of improvement.

As for games, you can post your games in the chess.com forums for feedback. The longer the time control the better. You want enough time to make sure your intended move is safe, make sure your opponent's last move wasn't a blunder, and to try any new ideas you might have seen. You can't do all this in speed games.

It's also good to look at GM games to get new ideas and be introduced to openings you didn't know existed. http://www.chessgames.com is a site with tons of games.

This channel has instructive videos by many grandmasters (I'll link the beginner playlist)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpXtK-Erym8&list=PLVWaFpMwtaGj-HHi0t8bHxFzNtDwLoWon

sammy_boi

Dec 17, 2017

0

#4

aureliustzar wrote:

there is such a vast, vast, vast amount of things that I'm unaware of, as well as thousands of years of information that I am without, and it all seems so defeating.

Sometimes I feel the same way, that this game is ridiculously hard, and every move is a struggle just to not screw up my position.

The saving grace is that it's just as hard for our opponents. They face the same difficulties, and ratings help pair us with players of similar ability.

RookSacrifice_OLD

Dec 17, 2017

0

#5

What is fee day?

kindaspongey

Dec 22, 2017

0

#6

FIDE - world chess governing organization