Haha 331 wrote
Hey try Analysis this one message I recommend you do not try analysis @emberstone73
I Am God Awful and Completely Lost. Did I Waste My Time/Money?
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haha331 wrote:
Hey try Analysis
I've checked the analysis on every recent game I've played (it's the reason I bought a membership). It's one thing to have a computer tell you what you did wrong and go "hmm yes, quite" and then to play like the computer in your next games.
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#4
Most people have been playing chess so long they've forgotten, but a real beginner's rating could easily be below zero, so don't be too hard on yourself.
I looked at two of your wins and two of your losses. The main lesson for people who feel suck at a low rating is greed. I think it's easier for smart people to get stuck at a low rating at first because they're trying to make it more interesting than it really is, when in reality it's just about greed. By greed I mean generally the winner will be the one who is better at not losing a single piece for free. Not even a pawn!
So there are two main tasks:
1) After your opponent moves check to see if a capture, or series of captures, wins material. If one capture or move order doesn't work, check a different capture or move order.
2) Do your best to imagine your intended move as if it's been made and see if your opponent can exploit it by capturing something.
Here's an example from one of your games.
---
And I notice you're playing a lot of 5 minute games. This is probably not enough time for a new player to practice sufficient levels of greed 
By playing longer time controls you'll have time to make sure your intended moves are safe, and check if you can punish your opponent's last move. This is important because it develops good calculation habits. At first it's hard, but with practice it gets easier over time.
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#5
This guy (an international master) has, I think it's 4 videos, on chess fundamentals, and they're pretty good. You might find it interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao9iOeK_jvU
llama wrote:
This guy (an international master) has, I think it's 4 videos, on chess fundamentals, and they're pretty good. You might find it interesting.
Alrighty, I'll try slower time controls (I'm just sort of afraid of playing folks who have the time to use an engine on the side) and I'll check out those videos. Thanks.
Hi Emberstone73,
I agree with the others, you should give some time for you and practice a lot of tactics, do puzzles! It would be important for you to analyse your games and learn from your mistakes but you can't do it alone and even with an engine because the engine can tell you if a move was good or bad but it can't tell you why, what are the ideas, plans behind a move. You need a coach, who tells you what are your mistakes and how you can improve. I am an official chess coach and I help you with pleasure. 
My name is Gabor Balazs. I am a Hungarian FM, fighting for the IM title. My top ELO is 2435. I have been playing chess for 21 years. I won the Hungarian Rapid Championship twice (U16 and U18).
I love teaching chess and it is very important for me that both of us enjoy the lessons beside the hard work. I have pupils almost all the levels from beginners to advanced players (1100-2200 ELO).
You can see a lot of feedbacks from my coaching services here: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-lessons/feedbacks-from-my-services
Why should you choose me?
- I have a widespread opening repertoire (a lot of openings are analysed by strong Grand Masters).
- I have a lot of chess books in PDF and Chessbase format, so I can teach you the main middlegame plans, the art of calculations, famous chess games and the endgame theory.
- I have elaborated, personalized training plans, which help you to improve your skills effectively.
- I help you analyse your games deeply, so you can realise your mistakes and learn from them.
- I am really flexible and hard-working person, the quality of my work is really important for me.
My hourly rate is 50 USD, but I give discounts for new students if someone start working with me till the end of August, so in this case it is just 35 USD/hour!!!
Please, contact me (balazsgabor1991@gmail.com), if you are interested in working with me, I am looking forward to your message. 
Understand that chess isn't an easy game. After three weeks you probably still have difficulties seeing (in contrast to finding out) where all the pieces can move. This takes time - similar to learning a foreign language.
I suggest you ask yourself why you want to play chess. If the main reason is winning and ego there might be other games/sports where you will progress faster and you might have really wasted your time.
If there is something inherent in the game that fascinates you, you will continue and improvement will come from alone. So I suggest you enjoy your losses (because there are many many to come) and try to find out why you lost.
At your stage you don't need money to improve. There are tons of free resources on youtube, and you can play for free. I suggest you find a good beginner's book though (I am old fashioned), and play slow time controls. Enjoy!
Emberstone73 wrote:
Hello. I've been playing for around three weeks now, doing the lessons, doing puzzles, and trying my best to win games, but so far all I've realized is that I'm a complete punching bag even for objectively bad players. I've put in as much time as I can spare, but I'm just not getting anywhere.
I'm sort of at wits end here, since I don't feel like I've made any progress whatsoever in the last three weeks. I don't expect to be a GM in this amount of time, but at the very least I don't want to fall into the 200s, and yet it seems inevitable. I just want to see some modicum of progress.
According to what I've read, I have a week or so left before I can no longer refund my membership. What last ditch efforts do you recommend before I try to get my $50 back? On paper I feel like I would've enjoyed the game since I mainly play strategy games like Starcraft in my free time, but all I'm encountering here is frustration. It almost feels like I lack the brain power; like I stepped somewhere I don't belong.
Falling into 200s is not tragedy.
We all in childhood started from this low point.
Emberstone73 wrote:
haha331 wrote:
Hey try Analysis
I've checked the analysis on every recent game I've played (it's the reason I bought a membership). It's one thing to have a computer tell you what you did wrong and go "hmm yes, quite" and then to play like the computer in your next games.
"it's the reason I bought a membership"
That was the wrong reason. The analysis isn't very good and is usually bad. Use your time as member for the lessons/drills/videos while you can. I'd make this a goal and a priority.
The best way to learn is from your mistakes and loses. 3 weeks is nothing and with limited time less than that.
The slower time controls are to give you more time to think. But you don't know to think properly, yet. Llama pointed you in the right direction. If your opponent is a good player, it will help you learn faster, so don't worry about engjnes.
Forget about your rating. It means nothing. If you had won all of your games so far, would probably still be just as good as you are now, but you wouldn't think so and would continue to do the same things. You can see some 1600-2000 rated blitz players on here that don't really play all that well.
What it boils down to though is what your goals are. Don't say a rating is your goal. Once your rating goes up, you'll play better players and start losing again. You'll have to continue to learn in order to improve.
play games that go over an hour and force yourself to see the whole board and what EACH PIECE can do. u cant cant better playing 5 min and 10 min bruh gl
unfort. emberstone73 chess is game that takes a long time to get good at. When I first started going to my first chess club (at a local bookstore) it took me almost a full year, (yes a year!) of almost weekly meetings before i won my first game/ If u really enjoy the game dont let yourself get down by slow progress, and remember look at all captures and checks on every move, this will become 2nd nature after enough time... ps (If the money thing is becoming an issue for u there several sites that are free u can check out.)
Alrighty. I guess I had unrealistic (maybe impossible?) expectations for myself. I'll slow the time control, and order to limit the potential for tilt, I'll keep myself to around five or so games per day for now and focus more on lessons and tactics; see if I can't put myself into more situations where I'm forced to see things I often miss.
Thank you for the advice and encouragement.
Oh c'mon....You are not awful!
I guarantee serious improvement(and better understanding of the game) if you read......
"The Complete Idiot's Guide To Chess"......Great and enjoyable book that helped me greatly.
Good luck-
3 weeks is a blink of an eye in the life of a chess player. Don't be too hard on yourself, keep your chin up and play play play.
At the same time practice and study the basics of the game.
You will get there!
Richie
Chess Coach
http://www.richardchristie-chesscoaching.mozello.com/
magictwanger wrote:
Oh c'mon....You are not awful!
I guarantee serious improvement(and better understanding of the game) if you read......
"The Complete Idiot's Guide To Chess"......Great and enjoyable book that helped me greatly.
Good luck-
It will be okey reading for me also
As mentioned, play slower time formats... look at every possible move and how your opponent may reply to it. Also watch out for discovery attacks, it works wonders <1000... that is... when a bishop, rook or queen is aiming at a piece (whether it's yours or your opponent), look also at what's behind that piece. For example, your bishop is x-raying your opponents queen behind your knight. If you move the knight, the bishop will attack the queen, and more often then not beginners will ignore the bishop and pay attention to the knight you just moved.
And sure you'll play an engine user every now and then but that will also happen at 5+0 , but don't stress and move on, ..they`re only fooling themselves and they`ll get caught eventually.... Rating will come with time, if you're not having fun or making money you should be doing something else. Everybody, including GMs have good days and bad days... some days you just unexplainably play better (obviously within your level of play and knowledge).... Tilted players are never playing their best chess
As mentioned there's ton of resources online for beginners, try and learn basic opening principles, basic endgames... basic ideas, basic tactics, basic checkmates, try and understand the basic themes and ideas in the opening of your choice (I recommend 1.e4)
All of that is going to help you a lot, but the thing is, at your level, if you stop hanging pieces you can easily get to 1000ish , because your opponent will eventually do so and give you a free piece (sooner or later it always happens, especially with beginners), so just don't give up free pieces... and then you have to know how to convert that winning position.
For example, if you're up material, as a general rule you want to trade down as many pieces as possible (think of a ball game... if youre playing 5 on 4 you already have an advantage, but if you're playing 2on1 your advantage is even bigger, same with chess). If you can trade down the pieces (of same value ofc) , then it's easier to collect some of your opponents pawns and/or promote yours... so make sure you know how to checkmate the following endgames by heart as you'll often see them if your opponent does not resign
Queen & King vs King
Rook & King vs King
2Queens or 2Rooks or Rook&Queen vs King
Other than that... get used to losing because you're always going to be playing people your level no matter how high your rating gets. Same with blundering, the types of blunders you make might change, but one way or another they're always going to be there, in some form, whether it's a hanging pieces, or a missed tactic, etc... so laugh and learn with it.
Two extra pieces of advice I like giving:
1) Never resign, no matter how terrible is your position, it's a good practice to learn how to play worse positions and it's a good feeling to win a game in a comeback... Also people make mistakes all the time so you always have chances
2) When you see a queen move, remember it moves horizontally as well (you'd be surprised how often people forget that)
Best of luck! 3 weeks is nothing.... Take your time and Enjoy the Journey, not just the goal! =]
llama wrote:
Most people have been playing chess so long they've forgotten, but a real beginner's rating could easily be below zero, so don't be too hard on yourself.
I looked at two of your wins and two of your losses. The main lesson for people who feel suck at a low rating is greed. I think it's easier for smart people to get stuck at a low rating at first because they're trying to make it more interesting than it really is, when in reality it's just about greed. By greed I mean generally the winner will be the one who is better at not losing a single piece for free. Not even a pawn!
So there are two main tasks:
1) After your opponent moves check to see if a capture, or series of captures, wins material. If one capture or move order doesn't work, check a different capture or move order.
2) Do your best to imagine your intended move as if it's been made and see if your opponent can exploit it by capturing something.
Here's an example from one of your games.
---
And I notice you're playing a lot of 5 minute games. This is probably not enough time for a new player to practice sufficient levels of greed
By playing longer time controls you'll have time to make sure your intended moves are safe, and check if you can punish your opponent's last move. This is important because it develops good calculation habits. At first it's hard, but with practice it gets easier over time.
Very wise post.
I am sure that the best way for the begginer to improve his (her) chess game skills.. is to learn to not blunder during the game.
I said it on the base my personal experience when I increase my rating from 1100 up to 1450.
Unfortunately after that my raiting stopped again. (
)
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Hello. I've been playing for around three weeks now, doing the lessons, doing puzzles, and trying my best to win games, but so far all I've realized is that I'm a complete punching bag even for objectively bad players. I've put in as much time as I can spare, but I'm just not getting anywhere.
I'm sort of at wits end here, since I don't feel like I've made any progress whatsoever in the last three weeks. I don't expect to be a GM in this amount of time, but at the very least I don't want to fall into the 200s, and yet it seems inevitable. I just want to see some modicum of progress.
According to what I've read, I have a week or so left before I can no longer refund my membership. What last ditch efforts do you recommend before I try to get my $50 back? On paper I feel like I would've enjoyed the game since I mainly play strategy games like Starcraft in my free time, but all I'm encountering here is frustration. It almost feels like I lack the brain power; like I stepped somewhere I don't belong.