im not a bad player but...

Im 1726 right now and that might be some where close to how well i can play but im wondering how do i get better? without to much reasearch of course. Any tips?

Keep playing. The more you play the better you'll get.

:) ok will do

You're gonna have to look at some kind of study material somewhere along the line if you're planning on raising your chess level. A book or two is not too much research if they're well chosen. 

"Keep playing" will only get you so far, and it doesn't seem like a good distance.

ok right i might get a couple of books then. i just dont want to research loads cuz i know that will take the fun out of the game for me. But maybe i could read a chess book in bed that way it will be fine.

Study your losses.  You start each game on equal footing, and in a loss, you end up with the short end of the stick.  So at what point did it go awry?  What move made the loss inevitable, or at least likely?  And what other move could you have made instead?  This might help.

if you're looking for books a really good book that i reccomend is the Chess Bible.

I have a few chess books and most are pretty heavy reading.  So far I've found the best bang for my study hour so far has been "Sillman's Complete Endgame Course".  Outside of that, tactics puzzles are fun and don't really feel like study, and play, play, play.

Create your own openings, gambits, defenses, and even transpositions.

don't go that just go over your games

I just bought Silmans "how to reassess your chess". Haven't come very far into it but it seems like a very good book...

This has been asked many, many times on this site. Do a forum search for the other "How do I get better?" threads, for a ton of information and advice.

In short, for a beginner, the most important thing is tactics.

In short, for a beginner, the most important thing is tactics.

poisonedcoffee is far from a beginner, decent intermediate in my opinion... but I suppose I have to say that after she kicked my butt last time out!

Ok thanx for that help guys. First thing tho Ray is right im not a beginner after all im 1762 on this site right now but i just needed some advice on how to get better than that.

The advice about looking at my losses sounds like good advice and maybe il buy a book or 2 and do abit of reasearch but i wont be doing to much hehe. thanx for them links paul.

Try playing against Chess.com's Computer. It has great moves.

(Highlight "Play" above... then click "Against the computer.)

All the best.

Surprised that it wasn't mentioned, but don't forget to play against players higher rated than yourself.  

How good are you hoping to be anywayz?

I wouldn't say I'm a bad golf player either, in fact, I think there is a swing in my flaw!

I dont know how much better i just want to keep improving and see how high grade i can get. Ok il try playing against the chess computer on here. I do play abit against stronger players why do u fancy a game nimzo?

poisonedcoffee wrote:

I dont know how much better i just want to keep improving and see how high grade i can get. Ok il try playing against the chess computer on here. I do play abit against stronger players why do u fancy a game nimzo?

I'm always up for unrated games, send over as many request as you like.

It might be helpful if you set up some kind of goal for yourself, like getting up to 1800 and then 1900 after that. That way, you can pace your self-study as how you see fit depending how happy you are with your current "goal status". Whelp, good luck.

Actually Nimzo, your profile has been set to unavailable for challenges.