What am I supposed to do after the "book move" phase?

I'm not at all familiar with whatever terminology there is, so please forgive me on that part. 

What am I supposed to do after the early game, or "book move," phase of the game? I've been only playing against the beginner bots for a bit and I've only either ended up failing or resigning because... after the early game, the plans that I have just fall apart. It's like every move past the third or fourth turns are blunders or inaccuracies. It's been incredibly demoralizing and unfun to see. 

I'm not keen on getting a membership for lessons so I ask: what medias should I look for to improve past the early game?

Chess can be broken into three general stages of the game (common terms) called the:

Opening: mostly "book moves", choosing a setup and "opening principles" 

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

Middlegame: What you are asking about which is probably the most complicated stage of the game because middlegame positions can be so different from another so there aren't really any "catch all" generalizations that apply. 

Endgame: most pieces exchanged off of the chess board and when checkmate is more likely or the plan of advancing pawns towards promotion is more commonplace. 

Obviously, this is opinionated as a stage doesn't transfer instantly by definition - it is a guideline. A grandmaster might call an "endgame" a position they have well studied with many pieces on the board still and someone else might call moves past 40 "endgame" - it is opinionated for these guideline stages of the game.

As soon as the "opening" stage ends (book moves run out) you usually need to reconsider the position slightly differently. In the middlegame, you might do many things. You might try improving your worst pieces by relocating them to more active squares, you might try to provoke tactics to win material, you might embark positional concepts like getting a Rook to an open file and so many more things. The middlegame isn't always so obvious on what to do...even for experienced players! 

If in complete doubt, then I recommend usually trying to improve your pieces. Try to get everything you have working together towards a common goal (targeting a weakness, attacking the enemy King etc. as every position is unique) and usually this involved developing pieces and relocating them to places where they have an active role. 

Feel free to ask me anything by messaging me if you like because the middlegame isn't easy at all, but I hope this points you into the correct direction

play humans and then after you are at the point where you are winning half your games to equal opponents when some one does beat you ask yourself this: what did I like about the way they played and what don't I just go ahead and play that way? with a computer you can never play like the computer with an approximately equal human you can play like them if you want and that should instantly make you feel less demoralized.

You need to study tactics.

Also, why not try something interactive though. Here is some tactics you can build free and comfortably https://www.chessable.com/the-magnus-touch-free-strategy-lesson/course/40115/ or maybe https://www.chessable.com/champions-chess-tour-2021/course/55884/ 

You start playing chess! Jokes aside, that's where you start to come up with a plan of sorts. 2 ways to go about this...study middlegame strategies and endgame techniques via videos or books and try to implement them in your games or just play, get creative, and analyse your games after to see what went wrong and learn from there. From my experience, the first option is definitely faster and much more efficient but not everyone likes to "study". And of course, consistent puzzle solving is a must. Most importantly, have fun learning!

Google Opening Principles and read a few websites on the topic. 'Book Moves' are moves that are part of a standard opening (sequence of moves at the start of the game) that is well known. The opening phase though can often be 10 or more moves. Generally until you've connected your rooks on the back rank. After the opening, players look to gain an advantage by improving the position and roles of their pieces and attacking their opponents weaknesses. This is a huge subject best learned by experience and study. A good book is Logical Chess by Chernev it is a collection of games by Grand Masters where every move is explained, to teach basic principles to beginners. Try and find a new copy with modern algebraic annotation, the originals used the older descriptive annotation. Nothing wrong with descriptive, just might be a nuisance if you are not used to it.

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

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

The term 'book moves' might give you a false sense of security. I would argue that book moves at your level are not important at all. Book moves are standard responses to opening moves, but they're standard because of the reasoning behind every move. What is important is that you can understand a little bit of the reasoning behind the moves. If you start understanding those moves better, you will notice that it will become easier to play after the 'book moves phase' has ended, which in most cases will be before the opening is fully complete. 

Let's try and understand the book moves a little bit. I will start with a very abstract concept, but it will end with very concrete advise. 

If you take a knight and put it in the corner of an empty chess board, you'll notice that it has at most 2 moves to play. If you put a knight in the center of the board (e4-e5-d4-d5), you'll notice a knight suddenly has up to 8 moves that it can make. This is the same for every piece, except for the rook. Even bishops have more possible moves when it's in the center than when it's further away. For knights this effect is strongest though. That is why in any game our goal should be to control the center. Ideally, we'd like to put our pieces there immediately, but because the opponent can force our pieces away by attacking them with his/her pawns, that's not going to work. (End of abstract concept  )

The opening moves are all about gaining control over the center. Because pieces get kicked out at such an early stage, either side should try and control the center with their pawns first. White's goal is to create a center with both pawns to e4 and d4. Black's goal is to prevent this. Even if black gives up on the center on the first few moves (which is an advanced tactic!), he'll almost always try and disrupt white's pawn center with an attack of his pawns around move 6. 

If you keep in mind that white wants to get e4 and d4 and black wants to prevent this, you'll start to understand a lot of opening moves. 

Examples: 
1. e4, e5: well, ...e5 is a good move, it prevents d4.
1. e4, c5: well, ...c5 is also a good move, as it also prevents d4!
1. d4, Nf6: ah, this knight move prevents e4, as it would take the pawn!
1. d4, d5 (to prevent e4); 2. c4! Ok, but what if black takes that pawn? 2. ...dxc4; 3. e4! White has succeeded in getting e4 and d4. The book move here is 3. ...e5! which works out tactically, but is not too important. What is important is that you see that black wastes no time destroying white's e4 and d4 center. Pawns on e4 and d4 are strong, pawns on e4 and d5 or d4 and e5 are less flexible and therefore less desirable. 
Some deeper examples:
1. d4, Nf6; 2. c4, e6; 3. Nc3 (white is threatening e4!); 3. ... Bb4! (pinning white's knight, preventing e4, cause black could take the pawn again). etc.
1. d4, Nf6; 2. c4, g6; 3. Nc3, Bg7; 4. e4, d6; 5. Be2, 0-0; 6. 0-0: this is a line in the Kings-indian. Black gave white a big pawn center, so this is not so much of a beginner's opening. But black can't leave it be! Therefore on move 6 black will try and attack it, with either 6. ...c5 or 6. ...e5. 
1. e4, e5; 2. Nf3, Nc6; 3. Bc4, Bc5: black has put all the efforts into preventing white from playing d4. But in stead of the meek 4. Nc3, white can still try and get d4 in! 4. c3 is a possible move to do this. Next move white can play 5. d4, after which white can retake exd4 with the c-pawn and get that e4-d4 center again. If we would continue this old line, we'd see that black can't prevent this, but black can strike back in the center with ...d5 quite early to prevent white from keeping that e4-d4 center.

Because the fight for the center is so important and your pawns can't do it on their own, you'll want to develop your pieces towards the center as well. Because we want to play with every piece, you should prefer to move every piece only once. This is the reason why moving your queen out first is usually very bad. The queen will get attacked by pieces of a lower value and will have to move again, which you want to avoid in the opening. Don't forget to castle and get your king safe, while also bringing your rook closer to the center!

To summarize: what you want to do in the opening is the following:
- white wants to occupy the center with e4 and d4. Black wants to prevent this.
- develop all of your pieces towards the center. Play each piece only once. Don't develop your queen too early.
- castle to make your king safe and to get the rook closer to the d- and the e-files to help out in the battle over there! If there are no open files for your rooks, then putting them behind your central pawns can make you and your rook very happy.

Knowing all of this, it's important to point out that tactics always take precedence. If you can win a queen by moving your knight twice, do it. At your level, you'll find that not losing your own pieces and winning your opponent's pieces will help you win a lot more. Getting better at tactics is therefore almost always the #1 tip for beginners that want to improve.

If you are interested in learning a bit more about what you should or could do after the opening, you could take a look at a middle game strategy book. "Reassess your chess" by Sillman is great cause it will teach important concepts, like bad and good bishops, or what your knights need to be happy. 

Learning tactics and at some point middlegame strategy will be much, much more important than playing the opening well. Don't fall into the trap of studying the beginning moves too much!

For terminology knowledge purposes only, first is the “book” phase.  Next is the “movie based on the book” phase.  Then is the “TV mini-series based on the movie” phase. 

Mostly sound advice, recommended reading...

Irving Chernev's Logical Chess Move by Move - Every move explained in a collection of 33 Master games covering 14 openings.

My suggestion: learn opening principles more.  There's no way you should perceive that an opening is finished after three moves.  If you're dropping pieces on move 4, you are either falling for traps or perhaps advancing your pieces way too quickly.  In most games, people are still developing pieces and focusing on the center for 5, 6, 7 moves.

For most beginners I'd recommend 1. e4.  After that develop both your knights and move out your king-side bishop (to d4 or c4).  (Pretty much the same plan for black, except there are times when after you bring a knight out, bring the bishop out before the other knight).  Then castle.  That's already five safe moves that shore up some center control.  Eventually -- ideally if your opponent is not already attacking -- you want to bring both bishops out, and both rooks towards d1 and e1.

A good investment, I think, is a book such as Emms, Discovering Chess Openings.  (The goal is not to learn specific openings, but to learn general opening principles). Also, if you are dropping pieces and making blunders so early in the game, take some of the beginners courses here (and on other sites) to practice avoiding that.

Hope that helps!

Emms' Discoveting Chess Openings +1 (it teaches opening principles. Also if you are on Chessable (google it) look up Smithy's Opening Fundamentals which also teaches opening principles (exclusively e4).

You're supposed to just play the game. Don't have the bot showing you how accurate your plays are when you move. No one plays perfectly, especially not when they're still working on the basics. Win, lose, learn. Your opponent is going to screw up plenty too, that's what makes it an interesting game in the first place. One of the strongest skills to acquire in chess in the ability to accept that you will make mistakes and push on. There are a lot of things to learn as you improve at the game itself, but it will be very difficult to do that without being willing to play out the game and do badly first so you can improve. 

Play some games against the bot, finish them, no matter how badly you feel like you're playing, and if you want advice show us some of those games. This gives us specific details to look at in order to provide you more specific things to look at in-game to improve. 

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Play chess

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I'm a chess coach based in California.  You need to come up with a specific plan, such as I want to move my pawns and do a pawn storm to attack my opponent's king.  You want to try to force a winning line, so you can win material.  I hope that this helps. 

If I may, I've seen a couple of your posts here, and I can feel your frustration coming through. I can tell you that I have been in your shoes and in many ways are still in your shoes. I get that you don't feel you want to pay for a membership to take the lessons, but there are many other resources out there. 

One resource is your local library. With any luck a) it is open, or b) if it's not open it offers you the ability to borrow electronic versions of books. I did that with the book Chess for Dummies (part of the Dummies series). I don't think of myself as a dummy in general, but when it comes to chess I feel like one often. A few months after reading it, I realized I still had a lot of basic learning to go through. So I decided to buy a copy so I can re-read portions whenever I feel like I need to. 

Someone on this site told the story that he was having an experience similar to you and me, and then he realized something. Many chess masters start learning at a young age. When it comes to chess, all of us beginners are like kids in a way. So he ordered a couple of chess-for-kids books that he said made a huge difference in his understanding and improvement. 

YouTube can be a great source, but there's a LOT of chess channels there that are aimed at people way beyond you and me. I enjoy watching Gotham Chess, but his game explanations move so fast that I'm quickly left in the dust. I've found that Chess Boot Camp takes a much slower approach, and there are a ton of videos out there where he uses actual games and walks you through his thought process as he considers his moves as well as the moves of his opponent. 

Learning chess is kind of like learning a foreign language or a musical instrument. It takes a lot of time, practice, and mistakes to learn. The only analysis I do (I saw your other post about that) is the Game Report and the key moments. Those show the blunders and mistakes I made, so I look at those and see what the theoretical best move is. And then I try to make sure I understand why my move was weak and the recommended move is better. As far as all the other analysis stuff, it's way over my head.

I will echo the advice to play longer games. I'm playing mostly 1 day games now. I don't need 24 hours to consider what to do, but I often do not have the hour or so to set aside in one block for a 30 minute game. I still lose plenty, but I'm at least able to better see the game come to life and realize mistakes that I might make. 

The Chess Boot Camp guy has a couple of videos called "Slow the Hell Down" and "Slow Down, You Move too Fast." He's right, and I have to remind myself that I'm not in any hurry. Beginners who hurry lose quickly. Beginners who take their time lose too, but they also pull out a win from time to time. 

Finally, I think the advice about playing humans is spot on. Bots play the "best" move as determined by an algorithm. Humans don't always do that, so your bot opponents are going to do things that humans often don't do, and vice versa. 

Don't give up (easier said than done--my wife has heard me express the desire to rage quit a couple times in the last week alone). You'll get better. And remember what Nelson Mandela once said: "I never lose. I either win, or I learn something." 

TACTICS