I started playing around the same age as you due to a knee surgury imposed because of my football play. Just needed something else to occupy my spare time.
17 is a VERY late age to get into chess if you want to get to the very top levels. That being said, I was able to tie for first in my state's junior championship within a few years of learning the moves. The first book I read dealt strickly with all the different types of mating patterns that exist. Being the object of the game, obtaining a mastery of these patterns is indespensible to your progress in the game.
After that, learn endgames. they can win you lots of games. they aren't TERRIBLY EXCITING to study, and as a result, not many peoply do study them. But they are a little easier for someone just starting out because there aren't so many pieces on the board. and because few people study them, you will have a serious understand advantage over them that will score you many satisfying victories.
After that, or actually, during, I would concentrate on tactics and a rudimentary understanding of a few general openings. WARNiNG
Hi everyone, for everyone reading this I am a newly interested person who has sparked up a major interest for strategy games of all sorts over the past year.
My name is Matthew, I am 17, and my handle is BaldEagle and what got me interested in chess again was simply the fact I have become a real thinking person ever since I started to play a game called StarCraft II. For those of you who don't know StarCraft II is a RTS (Real Time Strategy) game for the PC. The game has 3 distinct race to pick from: Zerg, Protoss and Terran,the game itself though is highly strategic, fast-paced and in short, a very cut throat competitive game.
Why I love it is the fact how it is not just a means of strategy but a game that forces you to improvise, think on your feet, multitask at a ridiculous rate and just the overall games that can come out of it, as it is the top competitive RTS in the world at the moment. But at the same time can be incredibly stressful, so I think chess is a good alternative to strategy when Im stressed out over the game.
I have come here to learn a few basics of chess, to my understanding, the principles of chess a relatively the same to starcraft II, there are counters, openings/build orders and an overall play style that people have.
Are there any specific places that people could recommend to research a few basic "rules of thumb" or openings, strategies, countering etc? I will be glad for people to ask more questions about me, the game I play, I would also love some great sources of information for chessplay.
I am eagerly waiting a response, cheers.