The very best first step you could take is to join a chess club, if there is any around the place you live.
The second best step would be to find a trainer.
The 3rd best step would be to find a friendly human chess partner, either around your home, or on the web.
The 4th best step could be to try Chess Mentor : it's quite good 
play live here or at freechess.org
playing is the best way to get better. Go play.
Real time playing worked best for me, too bad you don't know of anyone.
If your really want to improve you can join a chess club. But playing the computer isn't as interesting as playing real opponents. I'd suggest you start playing some opponents here and you can post some games on the game analysis. Or, you can play some unrated games against stronger players and ask for comments.
Either ways just by playing you'll get better along the way, try to learn from your mistakes.
1. Join a Chess Club, or, if you cannot, play OTB on a regular basis.
2. Use Tactics Trainer on this Site, or Chess Mentor if you want to fund this adventure.
3. Stop using Nintendo DS Chessmaster, the Engines are horrible.
4.Read some Chess Books, Such as "Understanding Chess: Move by Move", or "Winning Chess: How to Look Three Moves Ahead".
I will try to find some humans to play with :) It may be difficult where I live in a small college town, but finding people to play online wouldn't be difficult.
But what about software? Is there any good chess software for PC? Is Chessmaster: PC edition any better than DS? The DS is so easy to pick up and play a game or two wherever I am, so I like it. I thought the engine seemed ok, but I don't know much. I just find it hard to win. The only other thing is since I've played about 100 games against Dottie (older lady) and some little asian boy, I know when I first begin a game they always make the same moves depending on mine...the engine doesn't seem to vary at all so I can predict moves for certain at least for the first few moves until I do something different to change the board to something I haven't done (or don't remember).
So I will look for some human players, but am still seeking good software to play with.
My first leap in chess theory was understanding the relative value of the pieces.
Pawn = 1
Knight = 3
Bishops = 3
Rook = 5
Queen = 9
King = "The Game"
This made it a lot easier to calculate if I would come out of an exchange ahead or behind. It also makes it easier to predict what my opponent is likely to do.
The surest sign for me that I was improving came when I found myself being able to talk about what what happening, when I could explain my moves. For this, watch Josh's videos on the PC Chessmaster 10, he's very inspiring.
Watch lots of games! When you're not playing, just go and watch the way high ranked members on this site play.
Also: my buddy Zenchess has a number of videos he's done on google right now - kick back and watch those also...
Here's a link... http://video.google.ca/videosearch?q=zenchess&sitesearch=
Superman859> So far I've only beaten two opponents (and they win as well) - both easy with ELO in the 500s... I have a hard time seeing 5 moves ahead of the current move, which seems to play a huge role in chess.
That's a common misconception. If you want to beat Kasparov, perhaps you need to calculate that deeply, but if you want to beat 95% of chessplayers, consistently seeing five moves (10-ply) ahead is simply not necessary.
To become a 900-level player, you need to really focus on not hanging pieces, and notice when your opponent hangs his. Learning all the rules is also important.
To become a 1400-level player, you need to learn basic opening principles, how to checkmate with a rook or queen, and be able to consistently spot basic tactics like forks, pins, skewers, and discoveries. That measn doing the tactics puzzles in Chessmaster more than once, or buying a book like Heisman's Back to Basics: Tactics or Seriawan's Winning Chess Tactics and doing those more than once.
Chessmaster DS is crippled, but it still plays at the 1800-level, which is strong enough to beat most players here. It's also very convenient. Use it as a sparring partner, and to spot obvious basic mistakes in your games. :)
. Had no lessons in a long time
He's actually on this site, by the way, if you want to contact him.
http://www.chess.com/members/view/Zenchess
Play against humans at a chess club, or online.
Practice positions solve for tactics such as Tactic Trainer or Chess Mentor.
Go over your games to see your mistakes.
Thanks for the help and advice so far. I ended up getting Chessmaster for PC just so I have one other option. I like it and it certainly has many more features than Chessmaster DS. I've only played three practice games and not done any of the learning part yet.
However, it seems kind of easier than Chessmaster DS...Are they on the same scale? For example, the little asian boy in Chessmaster DS (I forget his name) has a rating of about 575 now and beats me 75% of the time. However, I won my last game against someone with 972 score on the PC, and lost (but only because of 'blunders' for my last move that left me open for checkmate) the other two but I actually did pretty well until I messed up near the end.
Anyways, it just seems easier to me, or at least on a different scale...Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Either way, I like how it has more features but there are a few things I'd change. I'd add some optional light background music like Chessmaster DS has, and I don't think that was on there anywhere. I guess I could use my own music since it's on the PC. The only other thing is it does take up resources and doesn't seem to run perfect on my laptop. It's a amd processor (~2.4 ghz clocked I think) with 1gb of RAM, yet some of the windows don't load until I focus on them and such. Maybe it will run better on my desktop (much newer), but it seems the laptop should be good enough for a chess game (whose system requirements are much lower than what I have). Overall so far, I like it. Hopefully the learning section will be much better than that in Chessmaster DS.
I would go buy a book about basic chess strategy - there are plenty of decent books that gently cover the opening, the midgame and the endgame. Don't do what I did at first which is go and buy MCO (Modern Chess Openings) as it is too overwhelming at our level.
Using your book (or some examples off the web) sit down alone with a board and play through some analysed games (games with loads of comments aimed at a newcomer to analysis) and then you'll begin to see how the various elements combine into a powerful game.
Chess Mentor looks amazing (I haven't tried it yet) but it is expensive. I'm going to buy one of the basic versions for desktop first and see how I go.
To get better at chess you must do three things:
Study games of the grandmasters that are well annodated. With the internet being so wide open sites like chessgames.com are available. Personally, a book like My 60 Memorial Games by Bobby Fischer , which is dated on the openings but the middlegames are classic.
And always strive to play better players always, so you can learn. Ask your opponent to comment as you go and go over the game with you afterwards. If you are playing a 500 level then strive to play say at a 700 level in 1 month and then evaluate your progress at that time.
And the single biggest thing is to hold onto your pieces. While the one with most material doesn't always win, I would say it happens most of the time. A good stragedy is avoid errors, capitalize on opponent errors and be patient. While the rush of announcing a 4 move forced checkmate can feel very sexy, the hardest player to beat of all time probably was Petrosian (or Capablanca) and he (they) played what most people would say are "boring" games. They would go after one specific weakness and generally won handily.
I'm fairly new to chess, or at least playing it regularly. I've known the basics of winning and how the pieces move for years, but hardly ever played. Now I'm getting into it and love it.
However, I suck, even when I try to plan moves and be tricky. I usually play the computer and have been playing Chessmaster DS (this got me started with Chess). While I realize it has few features, I imagine the engine should be ok. I just can't win. So far I've only beaten two opponents (and they win as well) - both easy with ELO in the 500s.
So, where should I begin to actually get good at chess? The tutorials in the game are really basic and I've done them and learned pins, castling, en passant, forks, etc. but that doesn't seem to be enough.
Are there any good PC game recommendations that have much more in-depth tutorials? Lately I've done tactics trainer and chess mentor here, but those are hard as well because the moves I think are good usually are wrong. I have a hard time seeing 5 moves ahead of the current move, which seems to play a huge role in chess. This is mainly because I can't predict how the opponent will react to most moves unless there are very limited options, etc. involved...(and usually there are quite a few options).
Anyways, just looking for ways to really start learning. I dont really have anyone to play live (or a physical chess set currently) so software is the best option for now.