I haven't shilled for this site in a few weeks, so here goes. Pony up $100 for a diamond membership and immerse yourself in the educational resources available on site. Chess Mentor has all you need to get a solid grounding in chess principles but when you get tired of "studying" you can kick back and watch some videos. I especially recommend IM Danny Rensch's "Live Session" videos to get an idea of how a titled player thinks about a position and comes up with a plan. "Edutainment" at its' finest. Sure you could probably do a similar thing with books as Chess Mentor but the digital approach is much more efficient IMHO. Good luck with your chess!
Restarting from zero?
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At your stage you should mainly focus on tactics and forget (for now) those other concepts.
Until you reach about 1600 in online chess or 1300 in live chess it is useless. You don't lose your game usually for a weakness in your pawn structure or something like that, but most for overlooking tactic tricks.
I'm 16, I can't buy a premium membership. I wonder if it's possible to "delete" the wrong study I have and replace it with the correct study.
Of course it is. Get yourself a good endgame book and bookmark a good site for tactics problems, and immerse yourself.
Karura91 is certainly not wrong. Tactics study is absolutely the quickest way to get better at chess. That said, it's best to complement your study of tactical problems with the study of tactical motifs. Hard to pick out the correct answer to a problem that involves deflection or interference or an Xray attack if you don't know what those things mean. Chess.com hates when you give links to competing sites but I'm going to anyway: Only a few hours of study material here, but it's well done:
http://chesscademy.com/courses
Dan Heisman's articles are award winning and the back issues are free. Be careful you don't try to absorb the whole lot at once and confuse your self, but that warning aside his whole site is a treasure trove:
http://danheisman.home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Articles/Novice_Nook_Links.htm
Xeelfiar wrote:
Hi, I'm not completely new in chess, in fact I was already registered here. I started to play chess about a year ago. I registered an account, then I stopped playing for some months and now I want to restart, so I created a new account (I don't remember my old username and pass). My biggest problem is that my chess skills are very bad, and I think that's mainly due to my bad study and instruction. I never understood concepts like control of the center, central pawn, pawn breaks, planning. Now I want to start from zero, hoping that a correct study would fix my weakness. Unfortunately, wrong informations and knowledge I have on chess are hard to fix. What should I do?
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Start at the beginning.
If you are not familiar with the 2 theories of chess, now is a good time.
The 2 theories of chess are:
1.Classical Theory- Control the center (d4, e4, d5, e5) by occupying it with your pawns and pieces.
2.Hypermodern Theory- Control the center with the power of your pawns and pieces. With this method you do not create targets in the center for your opponent to attack.
Yaroslavl wrote:
Xeelfiar wrote:
Hi, I'm not completely new in chess, in fact I was already registered here. I started to play chess about a year ago. I registered an account, then I stopped playing for some months and now I want to restart, so I created a new account (I don't remember my old username and pass). My biggest problem is that my chess skills are very bad, and I think that's mainly due to my bad study and instruction. I never understood concepts like control of the center, central pawn, pawn breaks, planning. Now I want to start from zero, hoping that a correct study would fix my weakness. Unfortunately, wrong informations and knowledge I have on chess are hard to fix. What should I do?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Start at the beginning.
If you are not familiar with the 2 theories of chess, now is a good time.
The 2 theories of chess are:
1.Classical Theory- Control the center (d4, e4, d5, e5) by occupying it with your pawns and pieces.
2.Hypermodern Theory- Control the center with the power of your pawns and pieces. With this method you do not create targets in the center for your opponent to attack.
You want him to start by making sure he understands hypermodernism? You'll go far as an instructor.
Most coaches suggest for your level drilling yourself heavy in tactics, play for fun and to get the chance using the stuff you learned. I also second the suggestion of learning tactical motifs, which may not appear necessary as you can learn them without knowing their names by doing many tactical exercises, but knowing the names will probably drill them better in your mind.
I do not recommend totally avoiding strategy. Seriawan's strategy book is a good strategy primer. But don't get too hung up on applying the concepts there, it's early for that and chess is complex. Strategy books tend to simplify things as if doing one thing will win you the game. Typically many strategical motifs are at play every move and the good player learns to compromise. It's still early for you to reach that level.
For endgame, definitely get Silman's endgame book. And only learn up to the part that matches your rating. From time to time solve basic endgame tactics.
My first real breakthrough in chess is when I bought Fred Reinfeld's 1001 brilliant ways to checkmate. I recommend solving it all and then resolving the ones you missed and so on until you can solve 90% of it quickly. The book is available online in PGN format. I'd normally recommend buying the book like I did to benefit the author but then the author is dead so I'm not sure what's the right thing to do here. You probably should still buy the book so it's not stealing. It's well worth it.
To sum it up: Tactics and their motifs, very basic strategy, some basic endgame, play.
Yaroslavl wrote:
Xeelfiar wrote:
Hi, I'm not completely new in chess, in fact I was already registered here. I started to play chess about a year ago. I registered an account, then I stopped playing for some months and now I want to restart, so I created a new account (I don't remember my old username and pass). My biggest problem is that my chess skills are very bad, and I think that's mainly due to my bad study and instruction. I never understood concepts like control of the center, central pawn, pawn breaks, planning. Now I want to start from zero, hoping that a correct study would fix my weakness. Unfortunately, wrong informations and knowledge I have on chess are hard to fix. What should I do?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Start at the beginning.
If you are not familiar with the 2 theories of chess, now is a good time.
The 2 theories of chess are:
1.Classical Theory- Control the center (d4, e4, d5, e5) by occupying it with your pawns and pieces.
2.Hypermodern Theory- Control the center with the power of your pawns and pieces. With this method you do not create targets in the center for your opponent to attack.
Wow, not only are those not a theories of chess, but this false dichotomy is about 100 years old now...
Wow, not only are those not a theories of chess, but this false dichotomy is about 100 years old now...
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Yes, in practical play it is a combination of the 2 theories that gets applied. But, the OP is just starting from the beginning. Didn't want to confuse him with too much information concerning the 2 theories and the static and dynamic characteristics of every move made. And, that there are static/dynamic advantages and static/dynamic disadvantages to every move ever made on a chessboard.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Keep it simple stupid (KISS)
Hi, I'm not completely new in chess, in fact I was already registered here. I started to play chess about a year ago. I registered an account, then I stopped playing for some months and now I want to restart, so I created a new account (I don't remember my old username and pass). My biggest problem is that my chess skills are very bad, and I think that's mainly due to my bad study and instruction. I never understood concepts like control of the center, central pawn, pawn breaks, planning. Now I want to start from zero, hoping that a correct study would fix my weakness. Unfortunately, wrong informations and knowledge I have on chess are hard to fix. What should I do?