Strategies and Tactics

So, I finished some of the tactics and lessons on chess.com and dived into some chess books...and still suck

What I can't understand about all these classes and so on, is how you can use them in plays. They always refer to a specic situation and as far as I realized, up until now, my opponent hardly ever seems to stick to the tactics I already reviewed. So how does this work? Do you learn all of these openings, and other strategies by heart, so that you can us them in the given situation? Or is it more of a general overview and just gives you hints?

I'm kind of at a loss here.

thanks.

Stop playing bullet, blitz, and rapid.  Play Daily chess, and take your time. 

Opening Principles:

1. Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5
2. Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key
3. Castle
4. Connect your rooks

Tactics...tactics...tactics...

The objective of development is about improving the value of your pieces by increasing the importance of their roles. Well-developed pieces have more fire-power than undeveloped pieces and they do more in helping you gain control.

Now we will look at 5 practical things you can do to help you achieve your development objective.

They are:

1. Give priority to your least active pieces.

• Which piece needs to be developed (which piece is the least active)
• Where should it go (where can its role be maximized)

2. Exchange your least active pieces for your opponent’s active pieces.
3. Restrict the development of your opponent’s pieces.
4. Neutralize your opponent’s best piece.
5. Secure strong squares for your pieces.

Don’t help your opponent develop.

There are 2 common mistakes whereby you will simply be helping your opponent to develop:

1. Making a weak threat that can easily be blocked
2. Making an exchange that helps your opponent to develop a piece

Pre Move Checklist:

1. Make sure all your pieces are safe.
2. Look for forcing moves: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) as this will force you look at, and see the entire board.
3. If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board.
4. If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece.
5. After each move by your opponent, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"

Thanks for the quick advice. I do play some daily chess, but since I usually find the time at night and don't want too wait too long for my opponents moves, I also play the quicker/shorter games.

What about playing against the computer? I play level three at the moment. Is that an ok level for my skillset? I got a 432 score at daily chess at the moment, tending to go south

Yes, you're playing daily chess.  But you're still moving way to fast.  26+ moves in 2-3 days? 

From your statement: ..."don't want too wait too long for my opponents moves..."

I dont understand how you expect to improve when youre moving fast? 

How do you expect to implement what youre learning into your games, when your playing fast?

I do get your point, however by playing slower, I have the feeling that nothing is happening at all...on the other hand, nothing is happening (development-wise) so i probably should skow down a bit

thanks for the advice!

Ultimately, the point is to have fun.  If playing fast means you're having fun, theirs nothing wrong with that.  But i see this question asked all the time, and i don't understand how people expect to improve in something when they aren't giving themselves time to learn, understand and use what they are learning in actual play.

When you learned how to read, did you start by speed reading?

Did you learn to run before you crawled?

Did you start school directly into college?

Did you get a drivers license when you were 2?

You get my point :-)

Certain ideas and patterns show up again and again, in many different types of positions or from many different openings. Good lessons are giving you these common ideas and patterns even though they're using a specific position to talk about them.

You have to play a lot and analyze your losses to start seeing how some of the missed opportunities were ideas you weren't totally unfamiliar with.

For me it seems to usually take at least 3 times. First I see it in a book, then I see a missed opportunity in one of my games, then I'm on the look out for it... but I miss it again in another game... and finally I start to catch on.

But if you just study without playing it's not going to be super useful. Also as Bacon said it's better to play long time controls. When I talk about missing it in a game, I'm talking about tournament games that last many hours. Blitz is mostly just for fun.

Pre Move Checklist:

1. Make sure all your pieces are safe.
2. Look for forcing moves: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) as this will force you look at, and see the entire board.
3. If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board.
4. If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece.
5. After each move by your opponent, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"

I think both blitz and daily chess are good for players. I don't think bullet is because that doesn't teach you to use time properly.

Daily is very good for learning to analyse everything by second nature and blitz is excellent training for seeing tactics quickly. Both are essential in otb play.

Agreed, but not when your rated like the OP is.  Blitz at the OP's level will not help him yet.

It's alright to have fun playing bullet and blitz for beginners. Just don't expect improvement. Chess is a game of logic not speed . Better to play slower time control until you reach target skill level like intermediate.

I think maybe it should be stressed that chess is a creative game, unlike draughts (chequers or however you spell it).

So we can look at games and learn typical plans and combinations but the trick is to put combinations into effect by adapting them to specific positions. So this requires the ability to calculate. An ability to calculate requires the ability to spot possible moves, combinations and plans, so we're back to square one.

I think it takes the average person two or three years even to begin to make sense of chess.