Just play a certain amount of games before anything imo, like 100 games and try not to leave pieces hanging
I'm new to chess. Now what?
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Tactics trainer all the way, best way to get from the amateur level fast.
[EDIT] I mean beginner level.
I'm also new to chess (can beat Chessmaster at 1100 
) and I feel it has helped my chess a lot to do tactics puzzles, like the ones on chesstempo.com or chess.emrald.net. You can sign up for free on both those sites.
The most important thing when starting out imho is to keep your pieces safe. Doing tactics puzzles helps with that.
And don't forget to just keep playing of course.
Re: what vivinski said:
Yeah, I feel like someone just beginning has to lose at least 100 games just to get a feel for how the pieces move and how games work before anything else. As he said try not to lose pieces for nothing. After your opponent's move, look to see what new squares are affected and before you move look to see if the destination is a safe square or if you're undefending a piece your opponent can capture. When you're new this is a difficult process. As you practice it every game and every move, it becomes second nature.
After 100 games or so, solving tactics puzzles are good. They help you learn tactical patterns (which are fundamental to any game) all the while you're practicing calculation / visualization.
Also in your games don't worry about winning or losing. (All good players have lost many thousands of games). If you can learn something from the game then it's a success. So after the game play over the game and look for a mistake (you or your opponent) or a new attacking or defending idea, something like this, and try to use it (or avoid it if it's a mistake) in your next game.
waffllemaster wrote:
Re: what vivinski said:
Yeah, I feel like someone just beginning has to lose at least 100 games just to get a feel for how the pieces move and how games work before anything else. As he said try not to lose pieces for nothing. After your opponent's move, look to see what new squares are affected and before you move look to see if the destination is a safe square or if you're undefending a piece your opponent can capture. When you're new this is a difficult process. As you practice it every game and every move, it becomes second nature.
After 100 games or so, solving tactics puzzles are good. They help you learn tactical patterns (which are fundamental to any game) all the while you're practicing calculation / visualization.
Also in your games don't worry about winning or losing. (All good players have lost many thousands of games). If you can learn something from the game then it's a success. So after the game play over the game and look for a mistake (you or your opponent) or a new attacking or defending idea, something like this, and try to use it (or avoid it if it's a mistake) in your next game.
Many Thousands of games?
This means that Viktor Korchnoi would have lost at least 2000+ games, if you do include him with 'good '.
Korchnoi has probably lost more games than my wins and losses put together. He's been an active player for 50 or 60 years, there's no way he hasn't lost thousands of games. Probably not FIDE tournament games, there's not that many per year, but if you include casual games, training games, and games like this I'm sure it's multiple thousands.
No one is born a grandmaster. Even elite players had years of playing, losing, and studying before they were grandmasters.
I have known chess since I was 5 but never really played it much. And whenever I did play it, I got thrashed. So a few day ago, during our Computer Studies class, me and a friend were playing Chess Titans to pass time and then I decided to play a bit more seriously, at least get better. So I got Chessmaster 10th edition game and played against the computer. I can defeat the computer at 900 rank but I feel that it is less tactics and more random moves and undo. I'm trying to play live here at chess.com but I'm getting owned. How can I develop my tactics and start off well? I don't think I can buy any books but are there any e-books?