I know how all the pieces move and I've learned about castling and en passant. But all I do is play online against other people and get wrecked because I don't know how to "play." I make moves like Knight to h3 on my first move because I have no idea what I'm doing (I only learned this move is bad because a nice person pointed it out to me while I was playing against them). I also manage to mess up situations where the opponent only has like two pieces left and I have like five but I still lose or draw the game. Sometimes I make bad decisions or miss checkmates in one move. But most of the time, I have the majority of my peices taken from me so the opponent has an overwhelming number of pieces more than me (this happens like 80% of the time unless I get lucky). I have been playing on and off leisurely for a few years now, but I still don't know how to "play" properly. What am I supposed to do at this point if playing more games does not improve my gameplay?
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Very simple. Join a chess club and play people face-to-face. |
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The first thing to learn once you know how the pieces move is basic tactics and general strategy. Tactics: In certain positions it is possible to gain an advantage doing a certain move or sequence of moves. This is referred to as tactical motif/pattern and for a list of all kinds of motifs take a look here. You don't need to start learning all of them at once, but eventually you will. The idea is that you recognize the pattern (not a particular position) that enable these tactics and burn the pattern into your brain so that you immediately recognize it when playing chess. As a beginner I'd start with the following motifs:
You can practice your tactics by solving puzzles on many websites like chesstempo, lichess,... Usually (if it is a good website) the problem you are given to solve is adapted to your level. Strategy: This refers to general rules on how you should play in order to gain an advantage in the long term. Most important for a beginner I'd consider the following opening principles:
Your move 1. Nh3 does not do anything to occupy the center (1. Nf3 would be more suited for that) and also knights on the border of the chess board are somewhat limited (as they say: "a night on the rim is dim"). As with tactics, there are also positional/strategic motifs. However these are a bit more difficult to understand than tactics. The best way to appreciate them IMO is to read/listen/watch commentated games of masters or even better to have your own games analyzed. You should still keep on playing games, but avoid blitz or other short timed games. And analyzing your games afterwards to see where you went wrong (or where you made a great move) is also a good way to improve. On lichess (and perhaps other websites) you have a very useful feature that let's you have your games analyzed by a computer which will point out inaccuracies/mistakes/blunders. And yes, if you can join a chess club that would be more efficient and fun than trying to learn everything on your own. |
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I recognize that attitude. Remember, first, that chess is hard. That's why it took so long to get computers to be able to play it well. The rules are simple enough but understanding how those rules fit together to build strategy when the opponent is also building their own strategy, is very difficult. It's not even quite like backgammon, where I like to tell new players that the point of the game is to manufacture more luck than your opponent (and thankfully chess does not have a doubling cube, too!). Because there is no "luck" per se in chess. You will start where you were a few years ago: you know the rules of movement but you are giving up pieces because "oh, I didn't see you were threatening me there." Then you will graduate to where you are now: you are not giving up pieces pointlessly, but you do not really understand all of your possible moves and have a way to evaluate them. Probably the next good things for you to learn are a little opening theory about trying to get this wall of pawns usefully out of your way so that your stronger pieces are doing more useful work in the game, and forks and pins. Opening theory is just something that you should watch YouTube videos on. It seems like a lot of "oh memorize this opening and its variations" but I want to tell you that if you are stuck in that rut you are doing it wrong, learn the principles that make openings good or bad, about "I want to get these knights out and have my bishops threatening more than just the backsides of my pawns" and "ok, I will let you take my pawn so that you can have doubled pawns and my rook can take this open file," and "well if I'm moving that pawn anyway I might as well fianchetto my bishop up there and simultaneously get my bishop doing something useful as well as get one step closer to castling." Those sorts of ideas are just as important as "there is this variation where you give up this pawn to take control of the right-hand side of the board, putting pressure on the opponent's king." Eventually you'll see enough of these videos that some game you will say, "oh, we castled on opposite sides, in this one YouTube video they suggested that those games turn into pawn-storms, let me start pushing my pawns forward and see if I can't get the drop on him first with that" and it'll at least lead to a really interesting game, even if there's no win in it for you. A fork is when you move a piece to threaten two other pieces at once. "I am either taking your queen or your knight, pick one." Look for these and begin to understand when you're vulnerable, for example in these endgames that you have been losing, start thinking "oh, if she's still got her white-square bishop then I shouldn't line my pieces up on white diagonals." A good fork has no defense, but you should be aware that there are two common defenses: either "I take your forking piece, let's trade" (sort of seizing the initiative so that you don't give up a piece for nothing) and counter-threats: "You can have my queen, because I move my knight to __ threatening YOUR queen if you take mine." In the best counter-threat you check the king so that it's not even your opponent's choice. Similarly I would learn about pins. A pin is a threat to a big piece (queen or king, sometimes rooks in the late game) which is blocked by another piece, like a queen or a bishop. That other piece is then "pinned", it cannot move freely. Either it cannot move freely at all (when pinned to the king) or it cannot move freely without giving away the big piece for cheap. Similarly you get out of a pin either by moving the King or putting a second piece like a pawn in the way of the pin or by counter-threat, "I'm moving my knight out of this pin; go on and take my queen with your bishop but I will then take your queen with that knight." Finally I'd recommend that you learn some of how one checkmates others. Keeping someone in check so that they are forced to react, rather than act, is a good start. Understand the threat of back-row checkmate, where pieces start to get into the way of the king's escape from a simple threat from the Rooks or Queen. Both defend yourself against it and use it in your games. If you learn these things your brain will have the "seeds" of thinking strategically, but it will still take years to nurture those seeds into strong trees. |
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As said above, if you have a local club, then go there. If not, and you have a few bucks, get this book: If you do not have any money, then go to your local library. They probably have similar books for beginners. Keep playing, record your games, and look over your losses with a stronger player, or come back here and post your game and ask for a review. |
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Play long time control games. With this it is possible to avoid any sort of blunder like hanging pieces, overlooking a basic threat etc., |
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To complement the other answers, I would like like to recommend a beginners book that was wonderful to me: Journey to the Chess Kingdom, by Yuri Averbakh and Mikhail Beilin. The book is written in a very entertaining way, and covers from the very basics to openings, strategy, and end game. |
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Something I usually do is set a goal what you want to get, like a certain piece you want to take, and then find out a way how to get it, without losing your piece or making the loss worth it. Try to manipulate the chess board to your liking. meaning plan out your moves and sometimes plan another move if something doesn't go the way you like it, also always check before making a move,will your piece be in danger or will they be able to take it. And of course playing in real life and reading books works too, sometimes even playing games where you have to use strategy helps. |
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Recognising that you're lacking somewhere is the first step to improvement. There are two areas you could be lacking in chess - 1. knowledge and 2. application of the knowledge which comes through practice. My suggestions:
Hope you and many others find these suggestions helpful. |
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