How to start learning chess?

I'm totally new to chess(just learning the rules). I have no one to learn from/with in my area, so i'm going to learn on my own.

After some research i found these 3 articles with "study program" that is based on books:

http://www.chess.com/article/view/creating-a-study-program

http://www.chessville.com/instruction/instr_gen_suggestions_for_improving.htm

http://www.chessville.com/instruction/instr_gen_path_to_improve.htm

The other method i saw is Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition. The advantage of Chessmaster is that it is interactive which might be more easy and convenient at the beginning. But, i'm not sure if the material is as good as i get from books(for beginner to intermediate level).

What do you think will be the best way to start? Feel free to suggest other "study program"(books or software) if you think there is a better way.

(Cost is not an issue at the moment, if we'r talking on tens to few hundreds. I just want to learn in the best way).

You know, with chess group or something like that. My English isn't perfect but i think you can understand what i mean.

MagerX: Welcome, שלום־עליכם !

As well as the things you've mentioned, chess.com has some great training tools:

Tactics trainer - You're given a position where there is an immediate advantage to be discovered (how many points you get depends on how quickly you find it). 

Chess Mentor - This is a mixture of tactics (as above) and strategy: how to gain a long-term positional advantage.

Live Chess - The ability to play games online against players of all levels.

Some of these tools may require premium membership but I believe you can try them all for free.

I'd recommend trying out these tools and playing as many games as you can in Live Chess. You will get killed at first (don't worry it happens to all of us, I've been beaten pretty badly today, several times!) 

Replay your live games and see where you went wrong. If you want help there are several chess programs you can download for free (GNU chess/Winboard etc) or you can buy Fritz (my favourite) or Aquarium with Rybka. Programs like Fritz (and the chess.com computer analysis) give you natural language explanations such as, "With this move you went from a better to a roughly equal position, much better was ..."

Hope this helps

Nick

I learned by reading books. And a LOT of them :)

so the books one isn't that bad.

Shalom magerX!  I believe NickYoung5 covered the benefits of Chess.com membership pretty well.  I would add that there are also video lessons as well as Chess Workout that are good for education and practice.

I believe that the material you would get from Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition would be good for beginning studies.

As silly as the title may sound, a book that you might want to see if you can locate at your local library would be "Chess for Dummies."  It covers many aspects of the game in a general way, and subjects that it touches on that interest you could then be explored with a more detailed book (or books) after reading it.

In any event, I wish you success and fun with your chess! 

Could they not at least have called it, "Chess for Patzers" ! 

Thanks everyone for the info.

My main question remained unanswered. If anyone tried Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition academy and can compare it to the books "study program" it will be very helpful.

MagerX - I completed the Chessmaster 10th Edition Academy. The Grandmaster Edition one is almost the same. You do learn basics about Chess. My girlfriend got the GM Edition and she is doing the academy on it. But 10th/GM Editon is good if you want to learn the beginnings and basics of chess. It will help you in the overall if you keep at it. You can never learn too much about basics. All the work you do will pay off trust me. 

chessmaster academy is very good to get you started in chess.  I think it has good material for beginners and novices.

I agree, Chessmaster GE has some good material.  At the beginning, however, I preferred learning with books, it was easier for me to process quickly.  Two books that I thought were very good were "The Right Way to Play Chess", and "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess".

Pick a basic strategies book, one that contains opening principles, middle-game tactics and checkmate patterns, and finally some basic end-game knowledge. Have the book chosen with you at all times for 3 months, no more, no less. You will see improvement within that time period. Read it a thousand times if you have to.

When your not actually leaving your pieces hanging 90% of the time and are applying what you've learned in that time period, you can then move on to more intermediate strategies about opening, middle, and endgame strategies.

i just started learning and I don't know if I'm going about things in the best way possible, but here's what I'm doing:

1. After checking out almost every chess book from the local library, the one I like best is A World Champion's Guide to Chess by Susan Polgar. The core of the book is the chess problems that demonstrate various concepts. The exercises don't seem too difficult or too easy, unlike most "chess puzzles" that I've encountered.
2. After looking at a number of chess tutorial software type things, I'm still not sure which one is best but I decided to sign up for one month of service on here so I could try out Chess Mentor for a month. To me spending $13 or whatever to see what I can do with it in a month seems better than spending several times that on the Windows software or some other similar software.
3. I downloaded the free version of Shredder Chess for my iPhone and ended up buying the full version for my iPad. It has a "tactics trainer" type thing which is currently a bit too difficult for me (I only get like 25%-30% of maximum points on average.) but will hopefully become a little more interesting and helpful later on.

I'm kind of getting the feeling that Chess Mentor is better for more advanced players. So far the lessons for beginners don't seem as good or as well organized as the ones in Susan Polgar's book, so I suspect that I'll like Chess Mentor more as soon as I get past the absolute beginner level and stop making so many stupid tactical mistakes. Even if I decide that it isn't helpful I can just cancel my subscription and I'm only out $13 or whatever.

After looking at some books on openings I've decided that for now it seems kind of pointless to memorize openings until I stop making so many stupid tactical mistakes.

Someone please let me know if I'm on the right or wrong track here.....

 Excellant tips here. Don't go buying books yet, get it from the library first so you can get some general ideas. Start playing some games here so you can see how well you are playing.

Here's what a stronger player asked me before:

1. How are your checkmate skills? This includes mate in 1, 2, 3 and 4 problems.

2. How are your tactics skills? How fast can you solve tactical problems and puzzles?

Well, not very good but these are the areas that I'm focusing on. So I guess I'm on the right track?

As far as I am told by stronger players, solid tactical knowledge will be the basis of your further chess education. In my example, tactics that lead to checkmates.

You've got to be able to "see the move" when you proceed with your chess studies such as openings, middle games, strategies and the endgames (ugh).

An easy way to learn is find a good coach like.

http://www.chess.com/coach/pep

I speack english and of course spanish.

Hi mager x

I have only been playing for a couple of years, but here is my learning route:

Buy a decent set that feels nice to play with. Read an introductory book that covers the basics of openings, tactics, endgame etc. Play in the real or virtual (chess.com) world a lot. Get a book of puzzles. Check out other books and online material such as 'Novice Nook' series by Dan Heisman. There is loads of stuff on the web.

I liked Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess initially and then Logical Chess Move by Move and the puzzle book by Laszlo Polgar. I use and enjoy Chessmaster too. Of course you also need time and effort, and to enjoy the learning experience.

For online chess coaching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7HDBXCGDhk&t=21s

join a club if you can. play a lot and learn from your mistakes. if you're a nerd read books or watch vids