The Struggle of Being a Beginner Chess Player: Overcoming Self-Doubt and Improving Your Skills

As a beginner chess player, it's common to feel overwhelmed and inadequate compared to more experienced players. This feeling of being the "worst chess player known to mankind" can be discouraging and lead to self-doubt. However, it's important to remember that everyone starts somewhere, and improvement comes with time and practice.

One way to overcome self-doubt is to set realistic goals for yourself. Rather than focusing on winning every game, focus on improving your understanding of chess principles and making incremental progress in your games. Analyzing your games, whether you win or lose, can also help you identify areas for improvement and build confidence in your abilities.

Additionally, seeking out resources such as books, online courses, and chess communities can provide valuable learning opportunities and support. Joining a local chess club or playing online can also help you gain experience and connect with other players who share your passion for the game.

Ultimately, the key to improving as a beginner chess player is to remain patient and committed to the process. It's okay to make mistakes and lose games, as long as you learn from them and keep striving to improve. With dedication and perseverance, you can overcome self-doubt and become a better chess player over time.

A nice post.

The mindset of accepting loss is the hardest hurdle in chess in my opinion. Nobody likes to lose!

 

great post! I‘m struggling a fair bit with anxiety in playing online which has turned into an annoying cycle of feeling bad about my playing strength -> being afraid to play at all -> not improving since I don‘t play -> feeling even more inadequate

I have been trying to view games more as a chance to learn instead of life&death affairs, but it‘s a struggle at times. After weeks without a single game (except for dailys) managed to play a few blitz games today, not proud of my play but proud I played at all.

Thanks for the reminder to focus on incremental steps, I‘ll just try and focus on blundering less for a while and not let the clock hurry me into bad moves.

When you are on the very bottom tier of the most devilishly complicated crazy game ever invented to confound the days of Mankind, and Womankind, you can only expect to lose. You have to become the salesman who loves the word No, because every No that he hears is one more step towards the Yes. The best part of playing online is that you can get matched with equal players and you will win every once in a while which can give you some confidence and a little incentive to keep going. Before this I beat my head against the wall and literally lost thousands of games to a chess computer for years because it was my only chess companion. I'd beat one level and then go immediately to the next. It may have toughened me up, but boy is it depressing. I'm having a lot more fun on here because I've actually won most of my games. I know I'm approaching my actual level of play (1300?) because I've started to lose finally. The only way forward from here is to keep studying. You have to study this game in order to play it well. There's just no other solution, there's no magic formula. Learn the fundamentals. Get a book. Get a coach. Join a club. Thank the guy who just beat you by saying thanks for the lesson. Learn something from every game. Stay cool and always be polite. Losing your temper is a sure fire way to lose a game. I have to remind myself of all this every day as I vow to quit playing.

Quitting also helps

Thanks for the post. I ended up saying pretty much the same thing as you. This is good for me in that I was able to put that paragraph together. I really do need to remember that every day and I pretty much quit at least once a week. Even in the 1200s I'm still a beginner.

Attitude will win more games than anything. When I was a salesman we wore little gold Attitude pins on our pinstripe lapels.