Struggling to improve

Hi,

I'm only a recent beginner in chess the last few months and I feel like I'm not improving. My rating is very poor on blitz and rapid, and it's like I'm not learning at all. 

Any advice with improving. What live stream channels are the best? Books to read? Anything at all that will make me enjoy the game more. I have often felt like closing the account because of it. I don't mind the defeats if I was improving but that's not happening. If anything I'm getting worse as time goes on. Then I'm playing games for the sake of it trying to end a bad run and I lose more when I should take a breather. 

Thanks for any tips. 

I spent some time trying to write a nice bit of advice for new players (and really anyone under 1600). You might find it useful:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/for-beginners/the-most-important-concept-for-all-beginners

I also see in some games you're resigning as soon as you blunder your queen.

In one of the games I looked at, after the queen blunder, material was actually equal, so no reason to resign there.

In another game your opponent only had 30 seconds left, so I think you should have kept playing that one too... and actually common advice for lower rated players is to never resign. Even if you lose the game you might be able to learn from watching your opponent's winning technique.

All the tips I can offer for a novice player:

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

I hope it will be instructive to you. Good luck improving your game.

I see you have very little in the puzzle department.
Step 1: Puzzle Rush Survival every day
Step 2: Profit.

I played my first two Blitz games a while back and I was lost at sea. I didn't want to play it again and instead stuck to puzzles. But I realised I have to play some games and not worry about losing. About 20 games later and I am looking that that psychological 1000 mark. Clearly, I am not good, but at least I did feel like I was just a move away from going down anymore.

Also, I always have at least one Vote Chess game and one Daily game going.

Thank you @llama47 and @nklristic for the links. I have read over them there and will bookmark those. They will be very helpful. I must definitely now stop resigning and take the good aspects from my opponents play. The external links in what @nklristic wrote will be very valuable. 

Yes @AngryNaartjie, I have done little in puzzle. Will take up more of it on that advice. Thanks. 

I love the game and delighted to have taken it up. It can be a bit headwrecking when little progress is achieved. A nice tidy rating is all I'm looking for to achieve. If I eventually got in and around 1000, I would be delighted. Accept the defeats and bad runs along the way and learn. 

Anymore recommendations are welcome.


 

You're welcome. Yeah, try not to resign (except when you really feel bad and simply can't continue psychologically). The simplest reason is that you have nothing to lose and you will get a few draws and wins out of "lost" games, but that is only the surface. In essence, you will learn to be more resourceful in those lost games, and finding some interesting moves will transpose to equal games as well, so you will benefit from this in the long run. 

As for external links. Those YouTube channels are nice, but the main thing is to study chess outside of playing games (if and when you have the time to do so, of course). Those channels are just a free resource, but if you prefer books, you might do that as well (of course books cost money), and you have to find something appropriate for your level. 

And the last thing, those essential things I've mentioned... like opening principles, those are of the utmost importance. If you manage to employ them in your games successfully, along with avoiding blunders, you will be much better, you'll go over 1 000 surely as 1 000 - 1 200 rating players only semi follow those, and there are still a lot of games that are lost on that level because someone got themselves into trouble for not developing pieces in due time. 

https://www.chess.com/blog/KeSetoKaiba/opening-principles-again 

Also, don't worry about rating too much. Even chess grandmasters were once beginners

Check out john bartholomews channel. Chess fundamentals is a good one. He has lots of good content. Start with puzzles, basic endgames, focus on that, around 700-800 look up some openings traps and mates in the opening, gambits etc...just so you dont get tricked. 1000 + pick an opening for black an white an just play that for a couple of years. Theres alot of good learning platformes out theres. Just got to look for it. ( chessable ) but you dont need that yet at 400 Thats basically a rating timeline of what i did.

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’m a chess coach based and chess book author based in California. 

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

I recommend playing with a slow time control, such as game in 30 minutes.  You need time to think.  Beginners tend to make a lot of silly moves with very little time.  This makes sense since there’s a lot of pieces on the board.  
 

I also 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.  
   Before each move, I highly encourage you ask questions before every move such as, “If I move here, is it safe?”, “Can I safely capture a piece?”, and more.  

Also consider all checks and captures on your side and also your opponent’s side. If you are past this stage, then find a forcing winning line.  

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  (endorsed by America's top chess masters) for you: 

1)  50 Poison Pieces  

2) Queen For A Day: The Girl’s Guide To Chess Mastery.

  Both books are available on Amazon.com.  
If you are serious about chess, I highly recommend you hiring a chess coach to help you.  
I hope that this helps.  

Thanks to everyone for the replies.

Hi Lauren, I will sign up and check out your free ebook. Much appreciated. 

Check out openingtree.com (free).

I've taken a look at your games as white in March. Out of 153 games you played e4 137 times.

These are the moves you have faced:

You can check how you perform against each move.

The move you face most (58% ) is e5, as is to be expected. Out of these 79 situations you play Qh5 74 times! 

It's not a good move. Even though you'll get a couple of g6 responses.

Most popular answer is Nc6 and you're already behind. All games considered you score a 50% after playing this (tricky) move, at your current rating. At higher rating, your winrate will drop significantly if you keep trying this way. Learn how to develop and build a strong position.

edit: As an additional suggestion
I've looked at you last game

One thing I'd like to point out is the following sequence:
Move 13. Qh6. Engine considers this a mistake. Not important, at your rating, going aggressive is okay
Move 14. Ng5. Bringing in the Knight. Engine considers this a mistake. Again, not important, you're threatening mate!
Move 14. ... exd3 Opponent doesn't see it! Good game. Oops, instead of mating your opponent you responded to your opponents move, even with 2.43 on the clock.
I think it's important to think about how you want to play. If you prefer going aggressive over building a solid position, then you have to go for the kill when possible.

Anyway, GL!

You don't have to worry. I have stopped Qh5.

Thanks for the feedback in analysing that game. I was kicking myself after that. 

Yes, that is one of my defeats earlier so a good one to learn from. Overall today, I had a much better day with far more wins. Took on board some early pointers in games which are reaping benefits. I'm trying to control the centre early in more games and then develop my pieces from there. 

A lot of work still to do of course. Hopefully, I will get there. This has all been very helpful. I have downloaded Lauren's ebook and started to read that.

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

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

@PGriffinFC - I'm a relative beginner, so my opinion perhaps carries little weight, but I'm finding it very useful to play some daily games, so I can really spend a lot of time studying my games, examining all options, without any time pressure. Real deep thinking! And then analysing your games afterwards, turn by turn so you can learn from your errors, and your opponent's moves too.  Alongside that I've been watching youtube videos like John Bartholomew and the Beginner to Chess Master playlist on ChessNetwork channel.  I also do lots of tactics exercises, read online articles, and slowly study from books (currently going through Capablanca's Chess Fundamentals) with the aid of two boards, one for the main likes and the other for variations.  I probably spend a lot more time studying than playing at the moment, and I enjoy it as I'm seeing what I'm learning beginning to improve my game play.  Good luck to you!

At your rating level I recommend using chesscom's training resources. Learn all the basic tactics and practice them every day until you memorize each one. Learn everything from common tactical piece combinations to mating patterns. From there learn how your pawns should be set up to get an advantage. That alone should get you a few hundred points minimum. Doing puzzles is also great but focus on simple puzzles as it will be a better use of your time. Good luck! 

Hi I need a lot of advice bc I'm terrible soif and one could help it would be appreciated! xxxx love you all!🥰🥰🥰🥰

Hello all.

I am an active Chess Coach!

If you are looking for ways to improve your game, then feel free to contact me! I will try my best to help you realise your mistakes and hopefully solve as much as possible!

I am looking forward to working with you!

We will talk about the payment!

You can challenge me at a daily game (3 days, unrated) and I can give you feedback along the way.