Noone follows the principles on my level

I have this problem that I've been playing very actively for at least a month an a half. I've watched a whole bunch of DVDs, read a couple books and solved tactical positions at least an hour every day.

But it just feels useless. Every beginner DVD starts with explaining the basic principles such as controlling the center, developing minor pieces first and the importance of castling.

Lately I've also given some time studying d4 openings for white. Which also seems like a waste of time and I am about to tell you why.

My problem is that on my level of play noone follows these. Players get their queen out early. They start trading their bishops for knights (which is not supposed to be a good thing). They move their minor pieces more than once. etc.

Yet I who follows the principles usually loses.

Openings is another useless thing, because people don't really follow those either. 

So can you give me some tips on what should I focus on? Or how can I take advantage of my opponent not following the principles?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hi I am doing free coaching for everyone. If you are interested just ask me:) . My Fide rating is 2012.

Just some words to your thread: Its good to use These principles because if you want to get better you will have to use them anyway at some point. Your problem is that you dont know how to use the mistakes of your opponents. Thats where I can help you with coaching.

Cheers, Till

Because you play blitz and bullet almost exclusively.

You probably need to work on the basics. People at my level know all these openings and all I go by is memory from games I've played, I probably make up for it by being better in the middle and end game.

I honestly don't think chess theory is much help to a beginniner. Your opponents probably don't even play positionally and wont follow any of the moves you expect them to respond with in the openings you study. 

Sadly, there is only one way to surely improve your play

Luckily, it's very easy to follow this way

Chesstempo.com

Neither do you, or else you'd blow through the competition.  You try, but they likely also think they're following principles.  Sometimes one principle is more important than another, sometimes you need to play a seemingly unprincipled move that's revealed as principled after some calculation. 

Mate trumps everything, I reference you to Anderssen's Immortal Game.  Even a huge material advantage isn't real because a forced mate renders it irrelevant. 

Look at my bullet games. I play junk all the time :D I even founded some new openings like the Trash opening :D

Ahh yes!  The queen out early silliness! Here's a recommended line as black:

People should take a look at the OP's profile...he is playing nothing but blitz and bullet.

For better or worse, tactics trump principles. Yes you can solve problems with principles but some problems can only be solved with tactics.

Here is a nice example of a player using tactics to take advantage of overly-aggressive play:

You can find more great annotated games in the Scotch game here:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ezsearch.pl?search=scotch+game+annotated

You are 754 blitz and 591 bullet.... advanced theory is of no use until you know how the pieces work together. Just keep playing games and don't waste time looking at openings that are only helpful to intermediate+ players.

I am playing blitz (5|2) usually.

The only time I am playing bullet is when I am having fun and I do not care. I am not even remotely serious when I play bullet.

Btw is there a problem with playing blitz?

yes. you should be playing standard chess and thinking more, if you are trying to improve. Playing blitz at your level will keep you at your level. Play standard, or turn-based only.

It amazes me how these little blitz and bullet kiddies absolutely REFUSE to acknowledge that they're doing absolutely NOTHING to help improve their game. If anything, they're crippling their foresight, visiusalization, and calculation since there isn't any in 3/0. 

No there isn't, some people are blitz haters because they can't play under time pressure. Playing blitz/bullet on this site is way better because at some point people cheat in live standard / correspondence.

Hello OP. Have you read my post about coaching? Are you interested or not? :)

...smh. It's truly unbelievable how utterly stubborn and ignorant some of these little blitz trolls are. 

Notice how most of the titled players on this site only play bullet or blitz. Its the only thing worth playing here.

The titled players play blitz and bullet because they spend most of their time playing OTB. You're not a titled player. You're a noobsauce. You don't belong doing the same thing titled players are doing. 

As for "playing here" - Right. This site is attrocious for live chess and has virtually no anti cheating measures in place. If you go onto ICC or FICS you'll see tons of titled players playing long standard games. They just don't play them here. 

I am not a hater. I play only bullet, but I am not trying to improve anymore.

You are either irrresponsible to give this bad advise, or ignorant to not know that bullet and blitz are bad for beginners.