I suck at chess. Bad.

Hey all, I'm in a bit of a jam here. Almost every game I play ends in me being checkmated or resigning, and I really want to change that. I can't really seem to get better whatsoever, so if anyone has any tips for a novice? Thanks in advance.

That I will do.

I think my main problem is that I'm completely oblivious to the board. I don't see all the possibilities, and I'm too afraid to lose my pieces.

Does that help at all?

Well, it's quite simple: you must improve at tactics. What I would suggest to you is to spend 20 minutes every day solving puzzles at http://chesstempo.com/chess-tactics.html. You could also use the Tactics Trainer here, though you would need to get a Diamond/Platinum/Gold membership in order to do more than five problems per day in it.

The majority of players also afraid to lose pieces / make sacrifices. So its not a problem for you, for now. As for your 'obliviousness', the temporary solution is simple. Before you make your move, double check your destination square safety (diagonally, vertically, horizontally, and 'L'-ly) for any opponent pieces which can capture you.

Next, choose your first move for white then always play with it. This will help you in understanding your position and simplify the game.

Tactics can help you, in the long term. But first you have to be able to 'see' your opponent next move, which needs a lot of practice.

This one is my bias, especially GM Yasser Seirawan, https://www.youtube.com/user/STLChessClub/videos. A lot of video there, even some begginer class for children worth to watch.

i had this making blunders & obliviousness problem too, but i played a few hundred games online and now the problem's gone.

I would be happy to help you improve your game. I have issued you a challange game. we can chat about each move. What do you say?

Ignore the advice from GM Kramnik. Play lots of blitz until you can see a couple of moves ahead.

Why? Think how little kids learn math. High frequency repetition of simple concepts. That's blitz.

Waiting a long time between moves while your opponent tries to calculate long sequences is time wasted.

So I say lots of games, plus solving problems , plus learning a few basic openings and mates

astronomer999 is right.

Oh yes, i forgot. Learn 2 solid openings by heart for white and black.

Do you know the relative values of the pieces? can you read and write chess notation? If not, that's where I would start.

Well done on winning two of your first four games.

Now you only half suck.

Keep piling on the pressure.

Youtube chessnetwork right now. Stop reading comments and do it!

RIGHT NOW!

Take a look here http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/improvement-in-chess-according-to-elo

and clarify your short term targets according to your level. It helps you to know what to study.

You are a good player who from a strategic point of view has a lot of potential. However your tactics are not good enough! In your game against odnchess you played the opening reasonably well until you ended up blundering and lost your rook. In a game against a stronger opponent he would smash you!

To improve you must:

-solve tactical chess problems on the chess.com tactics trainer. If you do not want a premium membership the tactics trainer on chess tempo is very good.

-Take your time! In a 30 minute game you should think for on average 45 seconds per move. First Analyse tactics then what your plan is.

It seems that you don't have any idea of how to open the game. It looks like random piece movement. The opening is supposed to get your pieces out and project your middlegame into some kind of sensible path to the endgame. Randomly tossing out knights and then not seeing a one-move combination suggests that you should go back to square one and just play e4 & d4 as opening moves and pay attention to what your opponent can do.

Game one was interesting as far as move 3.

Game two ... Big improvement up to missing 17 Bf4 ( or 16 Bf4).

Cheers bud.

It is difficult to tell what skill level you are at. Maybe join an OTB tournament, and post some games from that.

No speed chess until you get better. If the game doesn't last at least two hours, you are moving too fast.

I find that simply playing close attention to the board helps.

All of you guys are being very helpful with all this advice. Wilkes, Sorry for not accepting the game; I was asleep. I would be very grateful if you were to play me and give some tips. LongIslandMark, I'm new to the idea of knight forks, so I wouldn't have noticed that. DrSpudnik: You're right, I really don't have any idea. I was thinking if I could have the knights out there to control a bit of the center, that might help. I don't think it does. Topargo: I'll give that a try.

Like I said, I'm very grateful for all the advice you are giving me. It seems the people on this site are very nice, aren't they? Wilkes, could you please inbox me? I'm basically free all day, so we could play a few games and you could help me out. Thanks guys!