Easiest Strategy to learn as a beginner

I am new to chess and the game fascinates me for how much thinking is involved and so far I am trying to learn the Stafford Gambit but it's just not working are there any other "beginner" strategies in Chess that i should look into?

Dear V1RUS125,

I am a certified, full-time chess coach and International Master, so I have seen it and tried it all.
There are so many ways to get better and I know it can be overwhelming.
You can learn from free videos on youtube, there are books at your disposal that can all help, but they are not tailored to your needs.

One of the most important things you can do is to analyze your games! You must learn from your mistakes! That is a priority. You can't really move on to a new, different topic and learn new ideas if you still make the same mistakes over and over again!

This is where a chess coach comes into the picture. A good coach can show you how to study, what to study, gives you the material YOU need. Naturally, it takes time to use everything in practice, but if you are relentless and persistent you will succeed!
You should learn the main principles in every area of the game (opening, middlegame, endgame).  Don't focus on only one part! You should improve your tactical vision as well as it is part of all areas!  
This how I built my training program for my students. We discuss more than one topic during a lesson so it's always interesting and they can improve constantly. I give homework too and the right tools to make practicing enjoyable and effective!
Don't worry about your rating and the ups and downs! Just keep on playing and practicing!

I hope this helps.  I wish you good games and 100+ extra ratings

browse...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

2 things youre doing wrong:

1. Playing bad openings.

2. Playing speed chess.

If youre serious about improvement.  You need to do the following:

1. Play slow time controls.

2. Learn the basics.

Opening Principles:

1. Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5
2. Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key
3. Castle
4. Connect your rooks

Tactics...tactics...tactics...

The objective of development is about improving the value of your pieces by increasing the importance of their roles. Well-developed pieces have more fire-power than undeveloped pieces and they do more in helping you gain control.

Now we will look at 5 practical things you can do to help you achieve your development objective.

They are:

1. Give priority to your least active pieces.

• Which piece needs to be developed (which piece is the least active)
• Where should it go (where can its role be maximized)

2. Exchange your least active pieces for your opponent’s active pieces.
3. Restrict the development of your opponent’s pieces.
4. Neutralize your opponent’s best piece.
5. Secure strong squares for your pieces.

Don’t help your opponent develop.

There are 2 common mistakes whereby you will simply be helping your opponent to develop:

1. Making a weak threat that can easily be blocked
2. Making an exchange that helps your opponent to develop a piece

Pre Move Checklist:

1. Make sure all your pieces are safe.
2. Look for forcing moves: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) as this will force you look at, and see the entire board.
3. If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board.
4. If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece.
5. After each move by your opponent, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"

Play 15/10 or 20 minutes time control. As you improve by 200 points, you can start playing faster time control.

Play against stronger opponents and see where you have gone wrong afterwards and don't make the same mistake twice. 

Imitate how stronger opponents play.  You don't even have to understand it because you will understand it later if you just keep playing and keep analyzing. 

Gambits are for an advanced beginners. 

This is the Danish gambit. Even though white is down 3 pawns, the position is exactly even by the computer.  If you can't look at this position as white and make a plan, then it isn't time to play a gambit. 

Instead, you should play symmetric games based mostly on opening principals, rather than a set opening.

Gambits are not for advanced players though.  When you get to class A like 1900 USCF, you almost don't see gambits. Queens gambits don't count. 

Gambits are just a way to beat up on players who don't have time to study openings. 

If a person has time to study openings, then the person should adopt sharp openings because in sharp openings, you cannot afford to figure it out but you have to know it flat out. Even advanced players succumbs to gambit or sharp openings although the likelihood is much lower.  In a lot of the sharping openings, the moves are not intuitive so knowing opening principle or having great tactical ability don't always help.

But a person who does not have time to study openings should avoid gambits or any sharp openings. 

Personally I don't play book moves on purpose.

Yeah, at around 1500+ USCF, almost all gambits start becoming declined variations. 

I think that for chess, a strong positional plan is more forgiving than a sharp tactical plan, so that's what gets played at higher levels, when everyone is very good. 

Stay away from gambits. Gambits are good to beat weaker players which you would beat anyway.
Study endgames, first 3 men, then 4 men, then 5 men.

Learn some traps, not just for the trap but to see the attacking ideas, like this:

why is every beginner learning the stafford gambit now? do they look at one eric rosen video and be like "Yeah I'm going to cruise to 2500 with the STaFfOrD GAmBiT!!"

If beginners want to play Gambit, Kasparov recommend the Kings Gambit. I read it from a chess magazine 2 decades ago.

Kings gambit for sure teaches you how to attack

I still think beginners should learn the stafford because it teaches you some attacking ideas

read my comment again

What? Do you really think that the danish has more attacking ideas than the stafford? I guess you're making it clear to me that you haven't learned the stafford yet

Do you think you can do this in the danish?