I'm a beginner, Where should I even start?
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im a beginner, but ill give you some good advice, always excpect your opponent to play the best move, so dont make a huge, awesome queen sacrifice that can only be refuted by just one thing, because your opponent will see the best move(most likely).
Memorize moves off books, you will fail horribly. Just think of the best move. Think ahead, what your opponent might/will do, and what you will respond with. Study endgame.
This is a common problem for many chess players, especially beginners. I dealt with this...and I think everyone else has too. The middle game is where tactics are very important. You'll hear players talking about "recognizing patterns" or "combinations". This all comes from experience of playing (which is invaluable) and also learning basic tactics. First one that comes to mind - fork (attacking two pieces with one piece). This type of thing you will hopefully recognize if the opportunity shows up. Or another popular one "bad bishop". This is when a bishops is on the same colour as most of his pawns, thus, he can't move. It's good to stay away from getting one of these, and it's great if you can induce your opponent to have one. It's tough to know when to trade, how pawn moves will impact your game later on, etc...when you're beginning. There's a very popular book called "Weapons of Chess" by Bruce Pandolfini that discusses all this chess strategy. Keep playing, and start learning chess tactics!
p.s. I have a game or two on here I could annotate and explain why I chose certain moves, and what the tactic was. You ask yourself "what move would I make and why"? This is how some chess books are setup. They go through and analyze master games. VERY informative stuff sometimes.
If I could recommend only one book , I would recommend The Game of Chess by Tarrasch. If you are a beginner I dont think MCO or the other opening "Bibles" are what you need as they are reference books for those with some knowledge/experience already. I would recommend Ruben Fine's book : Understanding the Chess Openings. I believe it would serve you much better and then later get one of the popular Openings Bibles, of which I prefer NCO to both BCO and MCO.
just play and study and you should get better, thats what i did. I have been playing for three months
Try playing higher rated players and seeing what they do. That's what I did to get better. I learned about using pins, discovered checks and stuff from my friend and played around with those. I then played a lot of games and payed attention to what my opponents did. Later, I would try them out. If you want to try a book and you're very determined, you can try My System by A. Nimzovich (It's a tough read). It gives really indepth stuff.
Jul 7, 2008
0
#8
Go to Chesscafe.com and read the monthly column Novice Nook. Also look at the archives and read back issues of that column. Also check out www.chesstactics.org. Tactical knowledge is what new players need most.
Jul 8, 2008
0
#9
Just wanted to say thanks for all input! I appreciate you guys helping me out. If any of you guys want to challenge me to a game online, I would love to play just to get some experience. I think what I'm hearing from you guys is what I've heard from my Cross Country coach, "You can study and practice technique all you want, but it's nothing compared to road time." a.k.a. experience is the best teach and it will improve you the most.
Learning 2-3 opening for white and for black one against 1.e4 and one against 1.d4/Nf3. Main variation for each and one most played branch-line for each. Don't learning only moves, ideas behind of them are most important. I think that 10-14 moves are deep enough if you understand the ideas. Begin you learning for black. Try to think what kind of positions are you favour, closed are usually strategic, open; tacktical. And then make choices for your open repertoire. Play a lot of games and solve problems. In addition you have to learn most common endgame principles. Keep up hard work and you will become great player.
Regards -zabe-
I've been playing chess for almost 2 months now pretty regularly, but I'm having some sever trouble. I'm pretty decent at the oppening, but about 10-12 moves in I'm lost and have a hard time finding a direction to go in the game. I need some advice that would help my problem and also if there is any good reading material that might help. Thanks!