How to not suck at chess

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Avenge890
Ok so I have been playing a lot for about a week. I play a lot each day and watch youtube videos on tactics, but I feel like most games, I get demolished by rank 700 players. I cannot get above 650. What am I doing wrong? I need some serious advice because it's starting to not be fun anymore
lutak22

slow down, think, calculate, double check your moves practise tactics and go over all your slow games to look for improvements.. I'd suggest playing 15/10 or 30 mins games more then blitz and bullet

ArchieBunker03

The first thing you should do is not play any blitz or bullet. You need to play 30 minute games only. I looked at the 3 recent rapid games you played. You are absolutely awful at tactics (no offense) in one game you had a winning attack and blew it. In another you had 2 chances to win your opponents queen and didn't see either opportunity, and the third game ended quickly by you hanging pieces. At the level you're currently at, people will hang pieces constantly. Get better at seeing tactics and you will start winning more games. If you have time, do an hour of tactics puzzles everyday. When you fail a puzzle, review it. Don't just skip to the next one. Stick to opening principles, make 1 or 2 pawn moves then get your pieces developed and castle. Do this EVERY game. Analyze every rapid game you play before starting a new game. I like to do this as soon as the game is finished so everything is still fresh in my mind. Use an engine to see the tactics you miss. After doing this for a while, you will start recognizing patterns. Do these things and you should see improvement. Chess is hard but anyone can improve if they try hard enough. 3 years ago I was a 900ish online player. Now I have a 1900-2000 rapid rating on every site I play on. There's nothing special about me, if I can do it, anybody can do it lol.

lutak22

wow cool Archie! I was an 800 player when I started two years ago.. I'm about to spend a few months and really buckle down and try to get some ratings gains

kindaspongey

Possibly helpful:

Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson (2012)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf

Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev (1957)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev (1965)

https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/

Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1949)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf

Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms (2006)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf

Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014)

http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html

Chess Endgames for Kids by Karsten Müller (2015)

https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/chess-endgames-for-kids/

A Guide to Chess Improvement by Dan Heisman (2010)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708105628/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review781.pdf

spawkle529

ya beginners who are looking to improve shouldn't play blitz or bullet. They should play standard where they have the time to think about each move. Think about what your opponent might do if you play some move. If you see a piece that is hanging, do something.

Ashvapathi

Play blitz games (5 min or 10 min). Play lots of them. You will lose initially if you are not good. If you play longer games, it will only hide your weaknesses. Shorter games will expose your weaknesses and give you a chance to get better.1 rapid game(30 min) takes as much time as 6 blitz games(5 min). But, it won't teach you 6 times more than a blitz game. So, in terms of using your time in best way, blitz games give you more bang for the time invested.

At below 1000 rating blitz(i.e. around 1200 rapid), people drop pieces a lot. So, look out for places where your opponent is dropping pieces(i.e. putting a piece where it can be taken immediately without any problem). Similarly, try not to drop your pieces too much.

Learn basic tactics and basic checkmate patterns and try to implement them in the game.

spawkle529

But playing blitz does not help you much as you are just playing fast chess and trying to flag your opponent. It will help you improve a little bit at first, but it won't help you in the long run(I think).

Ashvapathi
spawkle529 wrote:

But playing blitz does not help you much as you are just playing fast chess and trying to flag your opponent. It will help you improve a little bit at first, but it won't help you in the long run(I think).

no no, it becomes difficult to play faster than your opponent also. And when you try to play faster, you make lot more blunders and your opponent can use that to finish off the game before his time ends. And more importantly, to play fast chess, you need to be really good at chess. Its like: to run fast, you need to be really good at running.

spawkle529

it does require skill but at this stage in the OP's Chess career it would be wise to take the blitz playing down a notch and play some longer games and study.

Ashvapathi

I think people should concentrate on playing blitz until at least 1600 rapid or 1400 blitz.

Happertje

Archie is correct. Play a bit slower, to avoid obvious mistakes like hanging pieces. Learn from your games and tactical mistakes. Practice tactics, not only to use them for yourself, but also to recognize and miss traps from your opponent. If that works you can always increase the speed later. Success!

abc_oxl

i suck at chess and my rating is the worst

abc_oxl

i never hang pieces but i always lose and i'm a coward

 

Tails204

More games and more experience 

TheRisingPhoenixism

i suck at chess

eric0022
ArchieBunker03 wrote:

The first thing you should do is not play any blitz or bullet. You need to play 30 minute games only. I looked at the 3 recent rapid games you played. You are absolutely awful at tactics (no offense) in one game you had a winning attack and blew it. In another you had 2 chances to win your opponents queen and didn't see either opportunity, and the third game ended quickly by you hanging pieces. At the level you're currently at, people will hang pieces constantly. Get better at seeing tactics and you will start winning more games. If you have time, do an hour of tactics puzzles everyday. When you fail a puzzle, review it. Don't just skip to the next one. Stick to opening principles, make 1 or 2 pawn moves then get your pieces developed and castle. Do this EVERY game. Analyze every rapid game you play before starting a new game. I like to do this as soon as the game is finished so everything is still fresh in my mind. Use an engine to see the tactics you miss. After doing this for a while, you will start recognizing patterns. Do these things and you should see improvement. Chess is hard but anyone can improve if they try hard enough. 3 years ago I was a 900ish online player. Now I have a 1900-2000 rapid rating on every site I play on. There's nothing special about me, if I can do it, anybody can do it lol.

 

It might not work all the time.

 

More than 75% of the population can't even get past 1500 (the current average rating is 808.32).

rmc123456

1. Concentrate on getting your knights and bishops off the back row rather than on dominating the centre.

2. Leave castling to last if possible ...

3. ... but do castle.

4. Be as aggressive as you can without being reckless, particularly with N & B supported by pawns. Involve Q. Look for pins and forks.

5. Defend your KB pawn/pawnspace.

6. Consider getting your rooks together on d & e in the back row.

TheRisingPhoenixism

wwhere monkey

sichengao

Ok here are some tips to get better the best thing to do is to look at your games with game review and find your mistakes don't play bullet unless you want some fun you should study chess on youtube from this channel called Gothamchess and learn the Danish gambit if you want to destroy your opponent and have active pieces or the Halloween Gambit. But if you want to win material then tryout England Gambit which I like the most. And here are the best Gambits queens Gambit and King Gambit and also do puzzles and most of the time you should play blitz 5 min or 3 min and some times play 10 min you should play 1-2 10 min game each day or 5-10 blitz games each day and study chess for 2-3 hours every day