How to IMPROVE my chess game? **BEGINNER**

Hey there!

First off, before I start, let me introduce myself. My name is Nathanael, and I have loved--and have played--chess for many years now. However, I have always just been the average joe. Not exceptional, not aware of all the tricks and moves, et cetera. I want to improve... but I don't care about my ranking, nor do I wish to join any tournaments. I just want to get better at chess by playing online every so often.

Now, I found Chess.com by searching for, well, how to improve in chess. However, I can't figure out how to... well... improve in chess! I do the Tactics Trainer my allotted 3x daily, and I have played a few games, but what I am really looking for is a good guide or collection of guides. Looking at the articles, most assume a good knowledge of chess. I just can't follow any of it! Sure, I can see how the person gets into checkmate, but I wouldn't have any idea how to replicate it in a real game. I don't learn anything from even the "best" articles.

So... what do you recommend? How do I improve my chess to such a degree that I am actually "good"? How do I learn? Thanks for your help. :) I don't know if anyone has ever asked any problems similar to this, but I never found a similar post in my searching.

Also: I am well aware I should just "keep playing." That's a given. I'm looking for a bit more than that, haha. Thanks a lot!

First of all, welcome to chess.com!  You really can improve a lot here, especially beginners in general are able to make good progress in a relatively short amount of time.

I looked at some of the games you've played here, and I think it would be a good idea to try and go over all the fundamentals.  Even if you're pretty good out of the circle you usually play in, it's important to have a good foundation if you want to improve.  This will also help with understanding some of those articles :)

Other than basic "overkill" checkmates such as king + queen vs a lone king (which is a bit tedious to do in a post like this) I'd like to go over 1) Some basic advice 2) Tactics and 3) Opening principals.  Oh, and just in case you don't know them, the relative value of the pieces.  This is handy to know when a trade is good or bad for you.  A pawn is worth 1.  Knights and bishops are 3, rooks are worth 5 and queens 9.  So if you trade your bishop for your opponent's rook, you've won material (2 points).  If you trade a knight for an opponent's bishop, that's an equal trade (3 for 3).

Ok, so some basic advice.  Playing through 2 of your games, I notice sometimes you either leave a piece undefended on an attacked square (your opponent can win the piece for free) or your opponent leaves a piece for you to take for free and you don't.  Every time your opponent moves, check to see what it threatens.  Your opponent probably has something in mind with each move, so look at all the new squares that are under attack.

More important than doing drills on tactics trainer is eliminating these errors in concentration... with practice though, it will become 2nd nature, and it wont take much work.

This is a position from one of your games where white has just moved his king out of check.  What's black's best move here?

Instead of moving the rook, you could have taken the queen with Nxd1.  (Before this, instead of moving your knight, you could have taken white's rook for free... although this is hard to see at first, your light squared bishop is attacking the rook in the corner -- this is actually a common line of attack so a good one to remember).

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In a different game, this position was reached.  Black has just moved his knight to b4, do you see what he's threatening?

Black threatened Nc2+ forking your king and rook.  This may be hard to see at first, but this is a common fork.  Instead you took his g5 pawn which was protected by the black queen.  Black then had the option of winning either your rook or knight.  (Earlier, instead of moving your queen, you could have captured his knight with your pawn for free).

So be very careful!  Tactics trainer won't do you much good if you miss these free gifts (or give your opponent many free gifts).

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Opening principals

The opening is about control of the center and speed (or utility) of development.  The center means the 4 centers squares.  You want to occupy at least one of these squares with a pawn as soon as you can.  The reason is that staking out space in the center gives you the freedom later in the game, to maneuver your pieces to either side of the board.

1.e4 for example, (moving the pawn in front of the king two squares forward) opens lines for both your queen and bishop to come into the game.

To move the rook pawn forward and bring your rook out is actually a common practice among beginners but it's not good!  The rook is worth 5 points, and he's going up against a enemy wall of pawns.  Almost any piece that attacks him will force him to move backwards and lose time...

Which brings us to speed of development.  In the first 10 or so moves only move 1 or 2 pawns, (pawns don't count as development!).  The rest of your moves should be getting your pieces off the back rank and into the game.  1 move, 1 piece... your army is a team, use the opening to bring them all out.

Another common error is to develop only 1 or 2 pieces and then launch an attack... but if your opponent is following my advice above (not falling for 1-movers, leaving things open) what hope do your 1 or 2 attackers have against the whole of black's army?  They have no chance .  So unless the opponent is threatening to win something, go ahead and bring another piece out, and try to have it influence a center square.  Because it's easier to tell where knights can influence the center, it's usually good to develop them first.  This would be an ideal development if your opponent lets you have it:

For some more opening ideas check out this chess.com article: http://www.chess.com/article/view/3-simple-opening-systems

Tactics are also important, but I guess if you're doing tactics trainer you're already familiar with the basic motifs.  This post is long enough already, so I'll stop here.  If you don't know what each of the following are though: pin, fork, skewer, discovered attack, then it would be best to look them up on wikipedia. 

As well as be familiar with the idea of a double attack, which is the fundamental idea behind tactics.  A move that creates two threats will win you something (your opponent only has 1 move to defend!).  A good example of a double attack (called a fork in this case) is in the 2nd diagram from your game, the Nc2+ attacks (forks) both your king and rook -- your king must move out of check and so your rook will be taken next turn.

Good luck with your improvement.  If you continue to play games and work on these things you're sure to make a lot of improvement quickly :)

@ orangehonda - You were very generous with your teaching time while greeting a new member! Well done.

Welcome Dekudude

Many of the words below are simply a repetition of the excellent words in post #2, which is all solid teaching.

In the diagram below Black has neglected the center while White has achieved the ideal center.

I have reached this position as White on occasion when Black neglects play directed at the center. Why is the center important? Place any piece, not pawn,  at the edge of the board and count the number of squares it controls. For example, at the corner of the board a knight controls only 2 squares and in and around the center it controls 8 squares! There's an old chess expression that states: a knight on the rim is grim/dim.

The key four center squares on a chessboard to strive to control are d4, e4, d5 and e5. This can be done most efficiently by pushing one or sometimes two of the center pawns 2 squares each, i.e., d2-d4 and e2-e4. Next, in general, develop your knights, placing both knights on their most effective squares, i.e., Nc3 and Nf3. This will do two things, defend your center pawns while attacking the other key center squares.

Sometimes you will hear knights before bishops. That's because knights move slower, while pushing a center pawn 2 squares opens up a very nice long diagonal for a bishop to control and develop to one of several ideal squares in one move.

So, in general, move each piece only once in the opening, castle, and don't forget to move the queen off of her starting square so that your rooks can be connected,  free to move from file to file along the back rank and placed on their most useful file at the right time, a semi open or open file. Placing a rook opposite the enemy queen is one good strategy.

Development lingo - Pieces are developed. Pawns are pushed/advanced.

Developing your queen early in the game usually wastes time, as she will be subject to attack by pieces of lesser value, and you will be breaking a general opening principle by moving a piece more than once in the opening.  With respect to pawns, move only as many as needed (1-3) to develop all your pieces, then attack. Too many players attack before their army is fully assembled.

Notice the phrase "in general".  As you see other openings played by your opponent, some are completely valid, even though a knight may be moved twice in the opening, as in the Petrov Defense. That's why I use the phrase, in general.

Tempo is a very important word in chess, and it refers to a player having one turn (one tempo) to make a move. Make each move count. Don't waste time in the opening. Make the best use of your time and strive to be faster than your opponent in completing your development. That alone gives you an advantage because every piece has been mobilized and ready to fight.

Wow, these are great responses. Thanks so much! I'll admit I was expecting little more than a link to an article, and an angry face. I'm flattered you put so much time into explaining these things to me.

First off, let me apologize for my delayed response. It's not that I was not interested, but rather my schedule has been very hectic, and, well, learning chess is not always life's priority, haha.

I'll try playing a few games as soon as I get the chance, and then I'll ask for criticism here. Before I do, though, I have a couple of questions. First off, what is the main priority in the game? Capturing pieces? Gaining tempo? Checking the king? I understand that they are all important aspects of the game as a whole, but in general, which is better? I have noticed during all of my times using Tactics Trainer that most of the "right" moves involve simply checking the king without killing yourself. Stealing pieces is less common. Is that simply due to the nature of various tactics, or is that how the game rolls?

Also, I noticed that though you focused quite a bit on building an opening repetoire, neither of you mentioned how I should proceed with my assembled army. Assuming what you explained was a timeline of the perfect chess game, the player can now effectively keep his opponent at bay. However, he is just stalling now, protecting those four squares and his king. How do you recommend I go about breaking the enemy's ranks?

Also, as a side question, do either of you have a link to a good article with common openings and weaknesses? I think reviewing a list of those could be a great way to help me better know exactly what I'm doing right and wrong, but I could be mistaken.

Again, thanks a lot! I look forward to hearing back from you, and playing a few games using your advice!

First off, what is the main priority in the game? Capturing pieces? Gaining tempo? Checking the king?

The goal of the game, obviously, is to checkmate the opponent's king. The way to get from the opening to achieve the goal is to gain and accumulate advantages.

There are three basic categories of advantages: material, positional, and temporal.

A material advantage -- having more and stronger pieces than your opponent is almost always a significant plus. (I've seen many games won or lost because of a single pawn!) Consequently, look for opportunities to win pieces, pawns, or exchanges. (Winning an exchange is capturing a stronger piece at the cost of a weaker one, i.e., winning a rook for a knight.) Guard your own pieces so as not to lose the material advantage. Look for ways to increase your own advantage.

The point value of pieces isn't a perfect indicator of who's winning, but it is of some value. Position, of course, will be the final determining factor. However, as a general rule, it works much of the time. Consider an endgame where you have two rooks and a knight vs. one rook and a bishop for your opponent. You have 13 points vs. 8. You have the opportunity to trade your knight for his bishop, leaving 10 points to 5. Should you trade? Usually, yes! Your advantage builds from 1.6 to 1, to 2 to 1. (13/8 to 10/5.) If you're behind, you probably don't want to trade if you can safely avoid it.

Barring blunders or positional considerations, a material advantage is often the most enduring.

A positional advantage is also quite important. If the side with the material advantage has his pieces badly placed, while the weaker side is poised for a serious attack, the stronger side may be forced to relinquish some of the material to defend, and in some cases will be unable to defend. Even with material equal, a better position will afford more opportunities for successful attacks leading either to mate, or at least the accumulation of other advantages. This is why you want to fight for position starting in the opening. Seek to strengthen your position and weaken your opponent's.

Some positions will occur where you don't know what to do. The oft quoted advice here is, "improve the position of your worst placed piece."

A temporal advantage is also helpful, though often the most difficult to maintain. Often it's used to try and gain some other advantage -- attack gaining material when the opponent lacks adequate time to defend properly, or at the very least, improve one's position before the opponent can do likewise. Sometimes a surprise move by the side behind in time will involve a threat (like a check) which must be countered, and the advantage of tempo will be lost. Be wary of these when ahead, and look for opportunities when behind.

Beginners will often take any opportunity to check that they see. This isn't always a good thing, as the result may be loss of tempo if the opponent can easily defend against the check and improve his position as a result. Other times, the check will benefit the one placing the opponent in check. Before checking the opponent, consider what his defense might be. Does the resulting position benefit him or you? If you, you may want to go ahead. If him, look for a better move.

Hmm, thanks Bur_Oak. That's a good explanation.

I played two games today with the same person. The second one I made a lot of bad decisions, not paying attention to all of my opponent's pieces, which is responsible for what should have been a loss, but ended as a stalemate. The other did too... which was my fault, as I should have definitely won. The second game, as my position was compromised fairly early, I didn't do a very good job of focusing on controlling the center. In the first game, I didn't either, but I really couldn't, as my opponent had his queen there.

From what I can tell, my main problem is that I don't pay attention to all of the pieces very well. That should be an easy fix though: just practice and patience. Do you guys see any other major flaws? The second game was littered with stupid mistakes, but do you see any huge, overencompassing problems in my playing?

Thanks for your input!

Wow. There's food for some lessons through analysis in those two games. Copy them down and play through them yourself looking for improvements. Spend several hours, though not necessarily all in one session! After you've gone as far as you can, if you have any questions about specific positions, ask them. Do this for other games as well.

In the first game, for part of the opening you did well to develop pieces while harassing his queen, and got a good lead in development. Mistakes on both sides let things get pretty sloppy after that. The mate should have been easy, especially after he dropped the queen. That's something you could practice on your own. Place king and queen (and second queen?!) vs. king on a board, and play both sides. Practice checkmating in as few moves as possible. Learn the method until it becomes almost instinctive. Do the same with king and two rooks vs. king, and with king and rook vs. king. These are basic mates, and you should know what to do almost instantly. Do this from time to time to reinforce what you learn.

The second game was much as you said, though he gave you a chance. Look at the position after his 22. ... Kf7. You had a forced mate in (at most) five moves! See if you can find it without anyone's help.