new player, need some help

Hello guys,

I've recently started playing chess again (played a little bit when I was younger) and purchased a diamond membership to get acces the the tactics trainer and the video lectures on this site.

Now I've started to learn about tactics from the everything you need to know series by Daniel Rensch and I've been spending a lot of time in the tactics trainer(currently between 1000-1100) and playing a couple of friends who introduced me to this site in some online games.

so tonight I finally started playing Live Chess and started some 15|10 games and it all went horribly wrong. in the first game the opponent brought his queen out on the 2nd move because he noticed I never played live chess before, he took a pawn and a rook in the first 4 turns and got mated soon after. the second game (vs someone else) I made some obvious blunders and resigned after he took my queen and I was down around 3 pieces.

after that I got really demoralized and frustrated. now I have no idea what I should be doing to try and play better, in games with a friend I usually dont make big blunders(he's 1600), but tonight I felt like a total chump and I have no idea what I should do now.

do I watch some lecutres to see if I can learn something relevant? do I go to the tactics trainer? do I keep playing and resign to the fact I'll probably end up around 700 rating before I win my first match(890 after 2 games)?

any advice would be helpful and thanks in advance :)

I say you just keep playing. In your last game you moved your knight (the only piece defending a pawn) without any real threat, then you lost your pawn with no compensation. You should ask yourself "why did I miss that?" and improve.

You just have to keep plugging away at it.  While it's generally acknowledged that getting better at tactics is the quickest way to increase your board vision and blunder less, you also need to keep playing.  Everyone is a little different, but perseverance is the one essential quality to getting better.  If you don't get a ton of advice with your post I'd be very surprised, but if you want even more then do a search of the forums for "beginner advice".  Maybe reading about the trials and tribulations of others (and the advice they received) will cheer you up.  If chess weren't so darn hard, it wouldn't be the fascinating challenge that it is.  Good luck.

I've probably played over 10,000 games of chess in 12 years, and I know that I've lost at least 5,000 of those games. The last 4 years I have lost about 40% of my games, so I was losing quite a bit more for the first 8 years. It just goes to show that losing is probably going to be the most familiar thing to a beginning chess player, if I am any example

What does "finfhat" mean, bestovalltime?

Play correspondence games and use the Chess mentor/tactics trainer. It gives you time to think about the moves until you get good enough that you feel comfortable in live chess. I started playing last month and so far correspondence is all I play. I'm just about ready for live chess at this point because I have learned so much by not rushing myself

Mike

As trysts said, everyone starts there.  I had to lose about 100 games (which was a very large percentage of my first games) to get over my fear of losing... actually I'd almost forgotten until I started typing this... neat. Chess used to be about intelligence or cleverness and winning meant I had out-thought my opponent.  Losing hurt my pride, like I was the chump you're talking about.  I got over that after a few months of losing ;)

I like to tell beginners I've lost more games than you've made chess moves... like Trysts was saying, me too.  I've lost thousands and thousands of games.

Anyway, in the highlighted part are you by any chance talking about this kind of opening?

These first 4 moves (up to queen takes rook) might as well be a rite of passage lol.  I remember losing to stuff like this at least twice.  The trick was the 2nd time I told myself I'd never fall for that again (losing the rook like that).  And guess what, I haven't fallen for it again yet... although I have pulled it on new players a few times :)

So just keep at it.  I promise your 1600 friend used to lose games just like that and worse when he was beginning.  It may be painful, you may have to wait a day or two, but look at those losses.  Find your big mistakes and remember them, and try to never repeat them.  And remember we were all there, and no matter how good we get we can still have games where we're totally trashed by our opponent.

yeah those 4 moves were almost exactly what happened that first game Wafflle, I felt so stupid after that xD

thanks everyone for your advice! I'll probably start playing live again when I reach 1500 on the tactics trainer(only 500 more to go I guess xD) 

Just keep playing.  Tactics trainer without playing games won't help you improve much as all.

Use video lessons/chess mentor and play a lot of games. Don't forget to analyse your games! :D

Being a premium member has a lot of resources to study!

Do not do not do not put off playing games until you hit 1500 on TT. That could be a very long time yet, and you won't be having much fun at all.

Better to play lots of games at slow to medium time controls and really pay attention to what you're doing. After all, the TT problems are WAY further into the game than you got after you lost your rook to a simple opening oversight.

Another enjoyable and instructive thing you can do with your diamond membership, in addition to playing, is to watch some well-annotated games on the videos. They're entertaining and really teach you a lot. Plus, you can run through them over and over if you like.

Don't overlook youtube, either. There are thousands of short videos over there on everything from openings to endings. I particularly enjoy the videos my Mato Jelic. He's super enthusiastic, instructive for beginner to intermediate, and his videos are around 4-6 minutes, usually.

Good luck!

Join in with some vote chess, if you can find a good team (your national team is usually worth checking out) and join in with the discussions, you will find lots of good players sharing their thoughts and posting diagrams. This can be very insightful.

I agree with MSteen (and now estragon, simon-b) above me.  It's common advice that when you just start out, the most effective thing to do is make 99% of your traning playing games.

If you quit live chess for now, that's fine.  But keep some CC games going.  Live chess players are pretty brutal for someone starting out, CC games will give you the time you need to avoid gross blunders and opponents who are the same skill as you.  And that's really how live players will win for the next few hundred points.  Nothing to do with openings or strategy, the one who can catch those 1 move blunders most often will win.  It can be a lot of fun, but better to save for later while you're trying to learn the game.

Lol, I got beat by that opening a few times. There are a bunch of trick openings to be aware of, and getting the worst of it is the way to learn them. Check out the fried liver opening, learn it and you'all survive at this level. Tactics help but it takes time. I've put in many hours on tactics and am no where near 1500 in tactics or games. Good luck

well I've been playing some online(and offline) chess and I think im improving, plus I've bumped my tactics trainer rating by 200 (1200 now) :D

my favorite opening is the english opening, although I still have some difficulty setting up good attacks from the position I end up in.

I might be starting live chess again is a little while :D thanks everyone for your help!