Starting my chess journey

Good evening all, I'm just now starting my journey to learn chess at the ripe old age of 37. While I haven't played all that many games yet, I'm really enjoying it. I think I've enjoyed the puzzles as much as playing. Now that I'm at the 12 to 1300 range puzzles though, it's getting to where I can't see far enough ahead to solve quite a few, but I suppose that will improve with time. I started out playing 20 minute games and quickly realized that's not for me at the moment. I found I enjoy having 4 or 5 daily games going. It's fun to take my time and also flip the board around to see it from my opponents perspective. It's kind of crazy how much that can change my view. I've also really enjoyed the lessons. I plan on working through all of them. I've been surprised by the quality of this app as a whole, it's just really well implemented. After seeing how much I'm enjoying it, my has decided she wants to learn as well. I imagine I'll put a lot more time into learning than she will as I tend to become a bit obsessive when first starting a new hobby. Any suggestions on how we can have enjoyable games if our skill level differs? I imagine there could be fun in just teaching her what I learn. I've found that teaching others to program has made me a better programmer, plus it's fun to teach someone something in general. No real point to this post, other than to just to hi to the chess community, but if any experienced players have advice for someone two weeks in, I'd be happy to hear it. I have no aspirations of becoming a GM chess player, I just want it to be something I can have fun with and improve over time. I do prefer learning in the most efficient way possible though, so any advice is welcome. Thanks, Josh

You could give her material odds, for example start without one of your pawns, or other pieces.

 

There are a lot of kids, so... just letting you know, probably not much interaction to look forward to, or maybe I'm just grumpy, who knows.

 

In the beginning the most important thing to do is just play some games. That lets you get used to how pieces move and all that. All new players struggle seeing the whole board. Lots of "oops, I didn't see my opponent could capture that" moments.

If you're going through the lessons then that will give you a lot of good fundamental knowledge. The most improvement for time spent is in solving tactics puzzles and in games trying to develop good calculation habits. By that I mean:

1) After your opponent moves, check if it's a mistake i.e. if you can win something right away. If one series of captures and checks doesn't win something, check whether changing the move order wins something.

2) Before you move, imagine your intended move as if it's been made, and check whether your opponent can immediately punish it (essentially doing #1 before your opponent does on their turn).

It takes a lot of practice before you can see the whole board and be consistent enough to do this on every move of every game, but eventually it becomes a habit and it wont take so much effort.

Anyway, welcome to chess stuff, have fun

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

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

Thanks llama, that advice was really helpful. I'll keep plugging away playing games and working the puzzles and focus on improving my analytics. Thank you for the other posts providing some good resources. I haven't had a chance to look through all of it yet but I intend to.

Best is to start with fewer pieces. You can learn this exactly.
KQ vs. K, KR vs. K, KP vs. K, KBB vs. K, KBN vs. K, KQ vs. KR, KQ vs. KP, KR vs. KN, KR vs. KP, KNN vs. KP, KRP vs. KR, KQP vs. KQ etc.

First of all, welcome. I hope you will have a great time here. As for improvement, I've written a guide on how I approached improvement, and how I believe is a good way to improve from novice level. You might find it useful:

https://www.chess.com/blog/nklristic/the-beginners-tale-first-steps-to-chess-improvement

Now, this was written with the assumption one doesn't have a membership here. It is still good for you, but diamond membership will give you additional options. You have a diamond membership, so it would be good, if you have the time, to use video library from the site as well. It is the major difference between diamond and the other type of membership plans. Of course, try to find videos on basics first, before going through some more difficult stuff.

You want to push your hobby, she is more layed back. The only chance you have is to have fun and only to have fun together.

Yes, you too(at OP) can win better after simplifying the chess board.

Tygxc, where on the board should we set up the pieces to practice like that?

If you go to puzzles-Practice(drills) and puzzles- endgames, you will find those exercises here.

By the way, what @tygxc said is relevant, but some of those exercises will be a bit hard for now. For instance, intermediate player such as myself doesn't know all of those things.

In my opinion, first order of business out of those mentioned would be following checkmates: K+R+R vs K, K+Q vs K and K+R vs K. Along with that, it is mandatory to learn K+P endgames without other pieces, AKA you should learn when those endgames with 1 pawn up are winning, and when they are drawn. Along with that, you should learn rook endgames with 1 pawn up, there are 2 basic positions Lucena- which is winning for a side with a pawn up and Philidor which is a draw.

Everything else is relevant, but it might be somewhat more difficult or will be of lesser value for now. So to sum up, 3 basic checkmates + king and pawn endgames + king, rook and pawn endgames (this stuff will turn up in many games where you reach endgame stage). When you master those, go for something else from the list.

Welcome Josh! There are plenty of people hanging about the forums who are in a similar situation as you. Be sure to post when you have queries or questions, I've found people quite helpful here. 

I don't really have much advice other than what I basically always say to people here. Just focus on building a basic tactical awareness by doing lots of beginner puzzles. Being able to do higher-rated puzzles feels great and all but the main thing is to hammer beginner puzzles so that you actually recognise tactics in real games. Oh and don't play bots ;-)