New to chess

Hi all - I've not been playing long - I'd welcome any tips etc on how to improve my game.

Cheers,

Gaz

My daughter learned a lot from chesskids.com.  Geared towards kids, but totally free, and covers all the stuff you need to really understand the game from day 1.

Welcome Gaz, the basic chess mentor courses are a good introduction from what I've seen of them

Welcome Gaz. There's plenty of tools, articles and videos here to help you with tactics and training. Under the "Learn" and "Read" topics there's a great deal of knowledge that's there waiting for you. :)

I see you're a diamond member like myself. Definitely make use of it! Watch some of IM Rensch's "Live Sessions" videos to get an idea of how higher rated players think. 

I've personally found the videos more useful than the Chess Mentor courses. Perhaps I don't do enough of them!

Bingo. Being a diamond member gives you unlimited access to this site, which to me, is better than a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Maybe look at one of those "Everything you need to know about Chess" books at the library or bookstore as well to help out  :)

Hi, i just will use this Thread for a 'newby' Question (i play for 2 weeks)

I often try to play Ruy Lopez. And just wonder why this is unusal:

Is it creating an irreperable failure in your piece structure?

Thank you a lot

Sirak

chess in a nutshell , by fred reinfeld good place to start. play , play , play. read play play play.

if you are white you have moved the bishop way to many times in the opening without developing the rest of your army. this will get you killed against stronger player.

Develop minor pieces(Knights, Bishops etc.) and try to remain centralized on the board. That's what I try to do in the opening moves. Just a thought

And why is this so seldom played by black?

Most times they stop after a6. I suppose the bishop stands good down there, because he has an good Position to attack the black king? 

Just play the game pal ;) Feel free to challenge me in a live chess (blitz) and I would be happy to help you out! I would suggest playing unrated if you're interested in Live Chess, Gaz. That way you can practice various openings and whatnot... What I do anyway ^^)

Thanks for the advice everyone!

view my past games, and see my errors. i do that all the time.

This is very inaccurate. It's black who has played incorrectly by playing ...b5 so quick. It's actually white who has the lead in development anyway; white's "loss of tempo" here I guess refers to black's incredibly useful ...a6 and ...b5 moves (if black instead had some developing moves in exchange for ...a6 and ...b5 instead, indeed he would be happy). In fact it's a slight weakness in black's pawn structure, and forcing this advance is one of white's ideas when playing the ruy lopez, hoping that the indirect pressure on e5 (with his ability to capture the knight at some point) gets black to make this weakness. The advanced queenside can have its good points for sure, but white is generally the one more happy with these moves in than black.

This is one of the big misconceptions of the ruy lopez, the other one being that people think it's inferior because it doesn't eye the kingside like Bc4, yet with Bc4, black's center is under less pressure and he can more or less do the same thing with ...Bc5. I'm pretty sure black can equalize in all lines of the italian; with the ruy lopez it's more difficult, which is why grandmasters favor the ruy lopez. People seem to have a tough time understanding that black's gain of tempo with ...a6 and ...b5 slightly harms not helps his position, and that white is actually happy to get black to play the move.

Yes, black would normally prefer to play ...b5 only when it's clear he needs this move, and to avoid allowing Bb3 hitting f7 too early, instead wanting to do this when he's closer to castling.

TACTICS!

use the tactics trainer on chess.com

or

http://chesstempo.com/