Confessions of a noobie - the first year.

^yep, I would never recommend the Spanish to a beginner

Ok to listen to me then I don’t know what’s simple anymore XD

Dont*

Here's a tip.

I've lasted 50 moves against a 2100 FIDE, played very well against high leveled players in person. Online people say I'm underrated, so I call myself post-beginner- higher level than beginner but lower level than intermediate. 

My previous account, which I closed, had a blitz rating of 1100. My blitz rating on here is 600. So obviously that's really underrated, as people say I'm at least 1000 playing strength. (My lichess rating is actually 1600) I stopped playing blitz, started playing rapid. Then I started getting much better. 

So let's get to the tips.

1) Try not to play against bots that much. Bots are just plain weird. For example, against me Francis-BOT, the "2300", played theory for like 20 moves, then first move out of the book was a mistake that literally gave away a pawn. 

Owen-BOT, who I think has a rating of 500 or something like that, played an insane amount of theory for a 500 against me, and then started giving away pieces like crazy.

Bots are just that-bots. So play humans!

1.5) If you do end up playing a bot, don't use the engine. That made me get worse at chess. When I created this account, I only played against bots using the engine (which only gives you 2 crowns, but I thought that was okay) which is part of the reason my rating dropped down by a huge amount when I played my first rated games. It causes you to rely on the engine. Your brain thinks, "Imma see what the engine said I should have done, and do something like that next" while it should be saying, "Imma think by myself what I should do." 

2) Do lots of puzzles, but try to do them on a board. That actually helped me more than doing chess.com/lichess puzzles. As soon as I started doing chess lessons (which is helpful, but not necessary) my teacher gave me homework, and told me to solve it using a board. That's also one of the reasons I've been steadily improving.

3) Play longer games. Lots of people say you should play 10+0 if you're a beginner, but I don't recommend that. If you play bullet or blitz that should be only occasionally, just for fun. Otherwise, try playing 30+0, especially if you want to get good at chess- most in person tournaments are classical at the higher levels.

I hope this is helpful for you!

-A Fellow Improver, Wowy

Do not play bots at all.  Not for practice and not for gauging your playing strength.  Play timed games against humans.

Players that are better than you have LOST more games than you have even thought about.  Lose more and learn from each game.  Maybe you have other accounts but from what I see there are 72 rapid games in your profile.  That is literally nothing for someone starting out or looking to improve.  No amount of studying or puzzles will replicate playing experience vs humans.  Chess progress is measured in losses... not in years played or puzzles done.  Someone  could've gotten your "experience" in a few weeks.  After a year, you're averaging 1 game every 5 days.  Need to ramp that up.  At least average 1 game a day c'mon.  Lose 1000 games first then start asking questions.

This is a valid point if the beginner is playing a more experienced player, someone who knows that dense theory.

I do not think it matters between two beginners since it is very unlikely that either of them knows the theory any deeper than the few first moves, which are good developing moves.

So my humble opinion is that it really does not matter if it is the Ruy Lopez, the Italian, The Scotch or whatever, as long as the moves are solid opening moves.

As for the quantum tunneling you were referring to, it must be because the puzzle's beginning position is white to move; thus, you must wait until he captures the pawn, and only then is it your job to find the best move. You're obviously new here

Oops, um.  That king capturing that pawn is a perfectly legal move.  Remember that your opponent advances DOWN the board, thus the king isn't in check after the capture.

And in that first example, it does look like the opponent hasn't had an opportunity to make their move yet (since the puzzles start with the opponent moving.)

I would suggest using Van't Kruijs opening, the French Defense, or the 4 move checkmate against most 200-300 rated players.