Improving as a Beginner

I started chess roughly 4 months ago and have improved from 700 to 1180 Elo rating. I finished reading a basic chess book, am continuously doing tactic puzzles (1270) , and play games daily.

Is there anything else I can do to improve faster? Should I play standard time controls instead of blitz? What is the benefit of this? Finally, at what rating should I consider learning openings in depth?

Sounds about right. I recently posted a link (I'll repost below) to an interview in a different topic where a top player gives his take on these kinds of questions. The people asked about higher ratings, but he wasn't sure, so instead gave general advice and advice for beginners.

The condensed version is: read and play as much as possible. Choose classical openings to begin with, and avoid a lot of blitz if your aim is to improve in classical time controls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jfV9RQrE9Y

28:57
55:00
1:05:40

As for openings in depth, this is my take on it. You must memorize the first few moves of your main openings. There's really no way around it. Even as a near beginner, I think it would be good to work on memorizing a few moves (like 5) of some main lines. It's fast, easy, and lets you start some of your games in a solid way.

Beyond that, openings ARE important, but they're usually not studied correctly. They're usually memorized. This is not good. For example memorizing some line or another 15 moves deep. This is not useful (at least not below master level). What you want (and need) to know are the pawn structures, common maneuvers, and general middlegame ideas. It's basically opening study with a middlegame focus. This is probably appropriate to start doing after some kind of first book on strategy. I don't have a recommendation there. However

An international master (IM) that posts in these forums with some regularity has recommended Reti's Masters of the Chessboard as a good first (or second ) book.

Chess Studying Material:

The Jeremy Silman Books

-Reassess Your Chess

-The Amateur's Mind

-Silman's Complete Endgame Course

I have been asking the same questions to many stronger and better rated players than me. They all have different answers.

Some of them say tactics and more tacics. Others say opening and traps knowledge all day long. Yet another bunch say endgames and more endgames.

At the end of the day it is your talent that sets the limit. Just like two guitarists taking the same initial lessons and practice the same amount of hours, but only one of them learns to play like a pro.

I have a natural talent for music and I improve quickly, but I improve much slower in chess. That's how i decided to let chess be a nice hobby.

Thank you for all your comments! They are very helpful.

No problem :)

I just noticed you asked what's the benefit of standard vs blitz.

The most fundamental, IMO, is that the longer you spend on a move before you make it, the more instructive it will be if it's a mistake. In blitz if you lose your queen because you moved too fast, then that's not really a lesson you can learn something from. In a long game if you lose your queen, first of all you can't excuse it from time pressure, but also you can think about what was distracting you. Maybe you were so focused on your own threats that you missed your opponent's threat. Maybe the piece that captured it was on the other side of the board so it was harder to notice. In any case, it's something you can try to improve on for next time.

But a close second place benefit in my mind is practicing your calculation / analysis. Perhaps the most fundamental chess skill of all is looking a few moves ahead, rendering an evaluation of that future position, then doing the same for an alternate move, and finally comparing those two to see which you like better. This is analysis in a nutshell. There's simply no time to do this properly in blitz.

Although I don't want to be too dogmatic... truth be told, as a beginner I more or less played exclusively 3|0 blitz for years. I improved slowly, but I did improve. I also had some bad habits and misconceptions (and still work on them actually), but it's not the end of the world . Blitz isn't as evil as some may say, and at the end of the day, we play for enjoyment, and playing is better than not playing. So if you prefer blitz and dislike standard then I say go for blitz!

Ablank, I tried 'Silman's Complete Endgame Course' and it really helped. Thanks for the suggestion. :)

please..visit my thread tehn you will improving your experience in bullet automatically!

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/premove-the-funniest-one-on-bullet?page=5

"For many people with little time for chess the default option is internet blitz, in which the players have five minutes or less for the entire game. I cannot warn too strongly against taking this route if you want to improve, the problem being that playing too many games at a fast time limit will corrupt the decision making process. Instead of playing good moves, a player honed on blitz will look for moves he can make quickly and perhaps bring himself closer to a win on time. Needless to say, this is not a good way to play 'real' chess, and the habits acquired at faster time limits do spill over." - GM Nigel Davies (2010)

In Discovering Chess Openings, Grandmaster Johm Emms (2006) introduces opening principles and gives some indication about what one is trying to accomplish.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf

I get the sense that it might be helpful for you to look at some instructive game collections, such as Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson (2012),

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf

Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev (1957),

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf

and/or The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev.

https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/

Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1949) might help with tactical stuff.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf

In Openings for Amateurs, Pete Tamburro (2014) discusses the business of choosing openings and gives some examples of what one might choose.

http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html

I believe that it is possible to see a fair portion of the beginning of Tamburro's book by going to the Mongoose Press site.

Some people find it helpful to look at some of the advice in A Guide to Chess Improvement by Dan Heisman (2010).

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708105628/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review781.pdf

I now prefer online chess a lot more. Gives me plenty of time to think of moves :)

C_Yap

You can take a look at this article if you want

http://chesslessonsfree.com/improvement-in-chess-according-to-elo/