New to Chess

Hello everyone!

Decided to start playing chess as a hobby and thought that this site might be a good start to begin learning the game. I have always known the basic rules of chess, just never put much thought into the game to get anywhere skill wise. Any advice for a beginner? I have looked over the site and a lot of the information on here seems a little confusing. I have been trying to go through tutorials but i guess I just dont understand the point they are trying to make. Maybe chess isn't for me? I have always been a pretty quick learner but some of the terms and language is a bit difficult to pick up on. Any advice?

there are TONS of articles and features for you! :)

The most helpful thing to do if you're just starting out is to play games!  Lots of study without play doesn't help much and can even be confusing.  As long as you enjoy the game itself then chess is for you.  We all started out the same way, where some (or lets face it nearly all) instruction doesn't really make sense yet, so don't let that discourage you.  If something in particular is odd sounding or you think you get the point but aren't sure, you can post a question in the forum (lots of helpful people).  Or if you really want to you could even message me and I'll try to help heh.

That said this site really is (in my opinion) the best site to be on if you're looking to improve.  But yeah, there's tons of material to choose from so it's hard to know where to start.  After you know the basic rules, it would probably be best (and make sense to the student too) to learn some basic checkmate patterns (below), and then some basic tactical ideas.  After that the principals to opening a game, and then play lots of games!

Tactics training by solving many tactical problems is a staple of any improving player, especially beginners.  By solving tactics or mate puzzles you'll be engraving the ideas and patterns in your mind so that in a real game they become more obvious to you.  This site's daily puzzles and tactics trainer are good places to start.  With the daily puzzles, they start out easiest on Monday and the difficulty progresses through the week with Sunday puzzles being the hardest.  With tactics trainer, the more you solve correctly the harder they will get.

A backrank mate is probably the most common checkmate pattern in chess.  In fact because the king is vurnerable to back rank ideas, both rooks often stay on the last rank as important defenders until late in the game.

The basic idea is white will give checkmate and black's pawns actually help him to do it! (white to move, checkmate in one)

Another of the same theme (white to move, mate in 2).  At first it looks like white has sacrificed her queen... but it's for good reason as black is quickly checkmated.

Another way for your pieces to team up -- white to move mate in 1  Notice white's bishop way back on the b2 square supporting the queen.

Here are two other patterns, both are white to move with mate in one:

And finally, here is one a little more tricky, see if you can solve it.  White to move, mate in 1.

I started with chess as a hobby too and all I knew were the basics of play. Every so often I played against my brother and I quickly learned the ins and outs of the game. Soon I got interested in it and I started in tournaments and won :D. If you really want to learn try some free tournaments a little pressure sometimes is all you need.

Yea I will definitely stick with the game. I like a challege and this game is beyond a challege for me so it will keep me interested for quite a while. And if anyone is willing to give me pointers to help excellerate the learning proccess.

Besides tactics be sure to look under this site's "learn" tab at the top.  Chess mentor, the articles, and the computer workout are all great.  If you're already aware of basic tactics and opening principals (besides being sure to play games) this is a good place to start.

Might as well start early on your openings. Start a game, see what moves your opponent plays in response to yours, and then consult a database - the Openings Explorer on this site, or even Wikipedia. The latter has concise articles on each opening detailing the most common responses and the worst pitfalls, which I've found to be a good resource for learning. And if you keep doing this, you'll eventually absorb a variety of different "book" openings.

thanks for the advice can you name a book where i can find the tips you mentioned.

Tactics Trainer is great, although basic members only get three a day.......

 While it can't hurt of learn a few common openings, a common mistake for novices (myself included) is to spend way to much time on opening theory.  Get a grasp on opening principles, but dont try to commit lots of line to memory, at least at this stage.  That will come later.  And dont just memorize openings, strive to understand the reasons behind the moves.  It is far better to know a few openings with genuine understanding of why the moves are made, than to try to memorize a large number with no deeper insight.

The most important thing for novice players is to focus on tactics.  Untill you reach the point where you can see ALL the check and capture threats, and see combinations at least two or three moves deep, games will be determined by tactics, not some subtle prositional or strategic issues. 

You might read something like Yasser Seriwan's "Winning Chess".  It talks about basics like material, space, time, etc.

Best of luck and post any questions.  The community here is great, they have certinaly helped me.

So far I think the tactics have helped a lot. Helps me look at the big picture rather than being single minded.