I’ve been playing chess for quite a bit now, and I seem to be stuck at around 460ish rating.

I know basic mating patterns and some solid, simple openings such as the London for white, and Scandinavian for black. Any general tips on how to improve?

Stop playing speed chess.

How many mins should I play?

You want to giver yourself enough time to go through these check lists on each move.

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?"

I dont expect you to do this, since everyone that asks this question has no desire to stop playing speed chess.

A rating of 460 is a sign of frequent blunders. Always check your intended move is no blunder before you play it. A good time control is 15+10, the FIDE rapid time control.

Wow… thanks for such a specific list! I’ll definitely check for more forcing moves, as normally I just make trades and hope I can win in the end.  Should I play early queen attacks? Since it allows a major piece to be developed. Also I’ll definitely play longer games, 10|10 or 15|10 sound good. Thanks a lot guys

Do puzzles every day. Play rapid games, not Blitz. Rapid games should be as long in time as possible, the minimum length you should do is probably 15/10. Analyze each game (the machine is very helpful in showing your mistake). Go through the lessons offered.

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’m a chess coach and chess YouTuber based in California: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP5SPSG_sWSYPjqJYMNwL_Q

 

I have tips to help you improve your chess skills so you can win more games.  

-I  offer a  free beginner’s free eBook on my website, www.ChessByLauren.com in case you are interested. The book is about asking questions before each move.  

-Learn basic tactics such as the fork, discovered attack, pin, and more.  I offer interactive puzzles on my website: https://www.chessbylauren.com/two-choice-puzzles.php  

-I recommend two books for you: “50 Poison Pieces”   and “Queen For A Day: The Girl’s Guide To Chess Mastery.”  Both books are available on Amazon.com.  Both books are endorsed by chess masters!  

-If you are serious about chess, I highly recommend you hiring a chess coach to help you.  

-Also consider all checks and captures on your side and also your opponent’s side. Always as, “If I move here, where is my opponent going to move?”

I hope that this helps.  

you are making basic serious mistakes. you need chess coach. 

Hi!

There’s a lot of materials to improve your game that’s either free or cheap. The most important part to learning is creating good thought process and constantly weeding out mistakes in that thought process. This can be caused by gaps in knowledge or faulty application of knowledge. Longer games offer more time to think through positions, giving you better chances to make better moves but more importantly allowing you to review the game afterwards to locate faulty thought process and correct it.

You should be working on spotting tactics through puzzle solving, learn basic checkmates and endgame techniques like promoting a pawn down cold, and familiarize yourself with opening principles or if you’ve chosen specific openings, learning their basic theory of ideas.

If you are constantly working on your game and not just playing speed chess to play, you will keep improving, even if your rating stagnates from time to time. Cheers!

Think and attack

What if I don’t have membership? Is it kind of a must for improving?

Dear official_swordofjustice

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, and give you the material YOU need. Naturally, it takes time to use everything in practice, but you will succeed if you are relentless and persistent!
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

play 10 minute rapid, learn some lessons from others, and youll improve

Opening principles and tactics are all that matter at sub-1000. After you reach 1000, learn a few openings.

 

My word! You just joined in March and you have 1,286 games so far--all blitz as far as I can tell. Stop playing so damn fast and learn the game. NO faster than 10 minutes, preferably 15/10. All you're doing at this level and at this speed is hoping for your opponent to make a huge blunder that you can capitalize on. And that's what he's doing too. Two or three games a day while you actually THINK about what you're doing is enough. Then analyze the game--alone or with the computer.

Sorry for lengthy post

1. Don't play Blitz or Bullet when you're a low rated player, it just forms bad habits that you won't be able to remove from your play

2. Do puzzles every day so you can recognize simple tactics and be able to capitalize on your opponent's mistakes in games

3. Learning openings isn't bad for a beginner, but you have to understand why you're making the moves. Since you play the Scandinavian as black, I'll show you a common blunder that people your level make in the Scandinavian

I know someone who's made this mistake plenty of times, mainly because they just memorized the main lines and didn't know why they played that move. In that position, black plays c6 so he can retreat the queen back to c7 or d8 after white unleashes a discovered attack on the queen. Of course there are other examples, but it is paramount that you understand the moves in the opening rather than just memorizing lines

4. Try to play higher rated opponents as often as you can, you'll get more out of a loss against a high rated player than a win against someone your level (if you're interested I can invite you to a club where you can do that but I don't want to club advertise on the general forums lol)