In my experience, when people start playing they see that the way to win a game is to checkmate the white king. So that becomes their goal. It is the reason why you see this:
White brings the queen out early to attack f7. Now it turns out that this is not a terrible move. However, if white thinks he can bring about a rapid checkmate on f7, and black is a strong player, there is a very good chance that this will end badly for white. For example:
Now this game is far from lost for white but I much prefer black's position. Because white 'went for the kill' he brought his queen out early. Then the queen started to get chased around. It ended up on f3 which is the natural square for the king's knight. And now the knight has had to go to e2 where it has less influence on the centre. We are talking small margins. But I do prefer black.
It would have been better if white had not gone for the kill but instead had tried to improve his position and the activity of his pieces.
When I play chess I am not trying to mate the opponent's king. Neither am I trying to win material. Not straight away. I am thinking about how can I get my pieces out and develop my position as quickly and effectively as possible. Hopefully I can do this better than my opponent. If I succeed then I will have lots of interesting and tactical moves that just become available; meanwhile, my opponent will have limited possibilities and it will seem like his pieces just can't go anywhere or do anything. If black is a weak player, he won't understand why this has happened. However, once it happens, it is likely I will be able to win material. I will win a pawn, or two, or a piece. And as I gain a material advantage, later, usually much later, I will have the opportunity to checkmate the opponent's king.
I hope this helps. It's just my view.
I've always known how to play chess but never really knew/know how to approach about getting better. I'd like to improve my skills, approach, and thinking when confronted with a board and an opponent. I am an amateur and feel as though sometimes my moves are done without thinking- there's no end goal to them (in a way i'm just guesstimating what the best move is) My thought process is always - get the king. I don't think this helps to try and facilitate the learning, progressing of strategy, and understanding of the underlying meaning and complexity that is chess. So for me and for other new players who are really dedicated to learning and wanting to be better players, drop your tips based on what you know, have been taught, and gained from experience. Thanks so much in advance.