Where to start - beginner

Hello everyone

My name is Christopher and i'm new on this forum. I'm not new to the rules of chess but i recently realised how new and bad i'm at the game once i started ( last week ) to really dig it.

But i'm getting lost by the amount of information I can find and get. The main source of knowledge I have today comes from youtube videos on the chanel: thechesswebsite.
I started to learn about the different opennings ( mainly the Queens Gambit Accepted/declined, Ruy Lopez, the slop defense and the sicilian defense ). But there are soooooo many more and variations

I could pin down 5 basic but major rules for beginner in chess early games:
.control the centre
.develop minor pieces
.castle the king
.finish developping with the Bishop and the Queen
.I finally start the offensive

( Don't hesitate to contradict or add!! )

But now i'm getting a little lost. Even though my games don't seem as bad as before I continuously seem to make beginner mistakes ( even if i don't see them immediatly or where exactly i messed up ) quite early in the game, but particularly in mid and endgames.

What would you suggest? I don't have friend who are interested in chess so i can't discuss with them.
A book? Specific learning process? How did you do at the time?

Thanks a lot for your help guys and looking to play against one of you very soon :)

I'm a beginner as well - I have less experience than you, I'm sure - but from everything that I've read, It is suggested that you spend less time working on your opening game and more time getting a handle on tactical maneuvering as you start out.

It is easy and fun to memorize openings, but the better strategy is to focus on really learning what each piece is capable of. There are a number of books and apps with tactics exercises that help develop this understanding. I have a free app called ChessTactics that is very challenging for me, but that seems to be helping a lot. 

Chess.com has a tactics trainer available at http://www.chess.com/tactics/ if you want to try a few exercises before delving further.

hallo! please check my blog about the 3 chess phases, its really helpfull for every beginner. Cheers

Thank you both. I'm reading your blog Till_98, the information about the opening were not new to me but like reading the mid and endgame part :)

Am I going to recommend the free Chess Mentor courses?  Yes I am...

http://www.chess.com/blog/webmaster/free-chess-mentor-courses

 Only because I recommend these courses to beginners about every other day.  Really is must know stuff...Good luck!

Don't worry to much about openings. It's much more important to understand the principles of openings than memorizing lines. 

I recommended these videos to someone else a couple days ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD4nYJzr69A and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21L45Qo6EIY These helped me a lot in understanding the opening phase of chess. 

For the rest, the tactical trainer is great and play lots of game to get the practice going. 

Also analyse your games to see where you went wrong or did great things. That helped me a lot. 

I'm also still a beginner and learning a lot. As long as you have fun, you can't really do anything wrong :) 

If you want we can play a few games, although my profile says I'm from UK, I'm actually from Belgium :) 

Thanks for the blog it seems to be very complete!!

And thanks for videos links and tips, always helpfull.
Sure we could play a few games. I already launched 2 online games on this site so we'll see how i'll do.

Endgames and tactics.  Silman's Endgame course is a great start, and is organized by skill level.  

For tactics, chess.com's trainer is good, but there are dozens of others free on the internet.  Dan Heisman also gives a good breakdown of tactical books by skill level.

For openings, don't study lines or theory just apply the basics to each move (is my move developing a piece, helping to castle, or controlling the center) and you'll be fine until you are much, much stronger.  You can also just pick a repertoire book and follow the recommendations blindly, or until you're getting consistently beaten in your chosen line.  There are plenty of good repertoire books out there.

Develop your pieces.

CAstle.

Connect the rooks.

Centralize a rook (From Schiller's Chess Openings)

Crush enemy.

See them driven before you.

Hear lamentations of their girlfriends.

http://www.chesstactics.org/

Well explained tactics.

Thanks for the continuous tips, very helpfull ( laugh hard at hapless_fool's comment ).
i'm a newbie and i feel bad when i see some pro or even just very good players play because it's miiiiiiiiles away from my understanding and i'm super competitive ( i come from a card playing backround as a semi professionnal ).

I have another question not totally related. I intend to play a lot of games to improve myself. If i need help and advice where can i post them on the forum? I guess in the "Game analysis" part, no? And i'll play a lot and so will have a lot of question to come so should just continue posting game in the same topic i'll open or should i create a new topic each time ( afraid to be flooding ).

I would have one thread/forum for all your games.

Even I don't have friends interested in Chess in my locality ;)

My advice for you would be

1.Solve puzzles in Tactics Trainer

2.Lock on to some opening which looks easy for you, and don't learn each of them.

3.Solve endgames - they are easy and help you understand "How to Plan" in Chess

<i intend to get my self a diamond membership on this site ( the 80$/year formula ). So i guess and hope that would help me tremendously.
I also got myslet Silman's endgame book so with all that i should be able to play a decent game. I'm playing someone and i noticed ( i'm white ) that he went for the sicilian defense dragon variation and even though we haven't exchange pieces yet, i feel like i've done some developement mistakes etc... We'll see how it goes :)

thanks again for the help and support ;)

Get a good book =a sugestion=everythig to know about chess

I love to read and study. I also got myself "The beginner's game" by Pafu but since i'm new to chess AND that english isn't my native language ( even though i understand it and speak it very well in my opinion ) i found it quite hard to read ( i only read the beginning of the book ) because it seemed to be too specific about certain openings and moves. I'd like to find somethin a little more litterate

( predator at the chessboard seemed excellent because, like they say in the comments :" f you are looking for a tactics book of the "verbal-explanation" type rather than of the "worbook-with-lots-of-problems-to-solve" type, then Predator at the Chessboard Volumes I & II blow the competition away "  OR "
I know there are lots of people who do not play tournaments, but love the game and art of chess. We don't aspire to become masters, but want to learn and understand the artistry and skills of tactical play. We don't have the time to struggle with deep discussions and try to see further into a masters explanation of high level skills, but we want to 'see' more. So much of this game is about visualization ".

Seems perfect :)

Chess is really easy. Just teasing.

Among other things mentioned herein, read The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess, and then Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. Keep playing games and practicing opening principles and tactics. Then there are a million more books to read...

Yup just bought my 2 first book. And I watch quite a few youtube videos.
I lost all my matches because i got outplayed but i just won my first match and probably going to win the 2nd one in play wich is encouraging since his Elo ranking about 1300 and I'm 1080 ( but didn't play many games so now idea how revelant it is ).
But i'll not play blitz with short clock time anymore, need time to concentrate