I'm Stuck

Hey all, I'm a new chess player and in an attempt to strengthen my game these last few weeks I've been exploring resources  (Books, YouTube, Chess.com etc.) and the problem i'm having is I don't even know how to learn! It seems there is just so much information, and most of it is dependant upon my opponents order of moves. for instance one book I'm reading (How To Think Ahead In Chess) advises to always play the stonewall attack as white and the dragon against E4, however it seems only logical that I can't just blindly follow a preconceived pattern without regard for my opponents moves. And every book I read simply says "white does this, black does this, so white does this etc. and surley I'm not expected to remember every exact scenerio in them. I feel like there is some basic concept right in front of my face that i just can't grasp. Has anyone else been where I am? Any help would be much appriciated!

Opening theory is just such a seductive area of study for beginners.  It seems that if you could just find the right openings, chess would almost solve itself.  Alas, such is not the case.  The chance that your opponents will follow theory at your level is very low.  No, what you need to do is to follow the standard opening guidelines so you can get into a playable middlegame.  Right now it's all aboutincreasing your board vision so you stop dropping pieces and start recognizing the opportunities your opponent gives you.  Most feel that the study of tactics is key to that.

Lots of great courses on the Chess Mentor.  I'd start there.  We live in an age of information overload.  It's all out there; basically everything you need to become a class A player or even an expert, even without coaching.  As you've found, it's all just a little too much and it can become discouraging.  You need to study, you need to play, and you need to review your games.  Some folks find that correspondence chess (what Erik calls online) is real helpful because the time pressure is eliminated and you can use books, videos, and databases to reach a playable middlegame.  You don't get killed right out of the opening.  Of course you still have to come up with and execute a good plan; no one said chess was easy.

You might  want to check out the study plans here (Learn in the green ribbon bar).  I'd recommend some beginner tactics courses on the ChessMentor and just hang in there.  You'll get better with time.

Openings.  At your level the Opening Principles are all you need to know.

Learn and use the opening principles.

Control the center - e4-d4-e5-d5.  The center is the most active part of the board.

Develop your minor pieces toward the center - count how many squares a knight controls on its initial square, and howw many it controls on f3-c3, as oppposed to h3-a3

Castle - King safety!

Connect your rooks - simply means you have moved your queen.

Study basic tactics:

KQ vs. K

KRR vs. K

KR vs. K

Mate in 1

Pins, skewers, forks, etc.

Anayze your games, and dont worry about how good, and bad your analysis is.  Post the games on chess.com for others to review. 

Good luck!

You start with the fewest pieces and learn the endgame first like Tarrasch taught then you study the Middle Game and the Openings in relation to the endgame when you study Chess the right way (not in a very rushed disorganized way like many bad players do online) you'll see Chess as a unified harmonious complete whole then with alot of work you'll become a real player have a beginning and spend the rest of your life improving finding truth in Chess perfecting your technique.

When you play Chess you need a solid plan and have a very clear direction right from the beginning  of any game where your going every move you ask what for and why? when you train at Chess you need a plan and a clear direction of where your going why? what for? otherwise your all over the place just a big mess going nowhere.

This paragraph deserves an award. 

I am not sure this is the best advice for a lower level player as often they might not reach an endgame. Many lower level players often drop material and lose the game much earlier. If they do reach an endgame, it's often at a larger disadvantage.

Wing it... but I'm a horrible player LOL. 

I've been going through similiar books that only talk about move by move sequences... Unfortunately, my opponents rarely seem to follow the openings I read about it books. After 1.e4 ...e5, it's often out the window from there.

Something that has begun to help me is keeping a journal. Write down what you did right, what you did wrong, and your reasons for thinking so (especially what, and where, you did something wrong). After a while you may begin to see a pattern.

It seems you want to learn everything about chess all at once. Choose a topic, learn what you want from it, then move on.

I would start with a miniatures (games 25 moves or less) book so you would get a start on openings tactics and themes.

My suggestions for a good miniature book would include 1000 Best Short Games in Chess (by Chernev, in DN, but there might be an AN notation somewhere), any of Bill Wall's 500 Miniatures series books (all in AN, you can find some used editions on Ebay), my own book, 2000 Sozin Miniatures (go to www.TheNewChessPlayer.com and click on the Buy A Book button), and 666 Kurtpartien (in German, but still readable, although you might have to look for a copy, it's been out of print for years).

Other miniature books may be of value; the ones above are my suggestions.

Don't be afraid to highlight the games and make your own notes and suggestions in any book you might buy and use. Use a seperate notebook to keep track of your questions and try to answer them by yourself. Know that a loss of a single piece, without compenstation (such as a mating attack), is enough for most players to resign.

Hope this helps!

barefoot_player

I'd recommend Laszlo Polgar's "5334 Chess Problems", and reading/printing out the Wikipedia article 'Checkmate Patterns'.

Most players are going to lose a lot of games unless:

1). they are so good that they can get a high proportion of draws

2). they only play much weaker players

because as a player improves they will be (generally) playing increasingly strong opponents.

Learning checkmates won't stop you from losing games in the opening or middle game, but it will allow you to

1). win some when the possibility arises

2). know what you are aiming for when you reach the end of the game.

What worked for me personally was just to play.  I did read a few basic chess books at first (how to reassess your chess, the art of attack in chess), and found Silmans work to be good for beginners.  However, I personally believe that experience is what is needed for improvement.  The only way to gain that is just to play games.  Like everybody else, I was absolutely terrible when I first started, but over time (as with most hobbies) I got better.  As far as studying goes, I don't have any suggestions.  Studying (unless you're passionately devoted) can take the fun out of the game.  

A lot of beginners look at rating as the ultimate definition of whether or not somebody has succeeded, or if they're a true chess player, or whatnot.  Even with a rating of say, 1100, to beat a 1400 player is quite an accomplishment.  Just keep at it, and as long as you're enjoying yourself, you're improving.

Chess is very frustrating at times.  The better you get, the less of a margin for error you have, and consequently, the harder it is to improve.  Enjoy where you're at, and when you play a strong game and beat somebody better than you, just remember that you are capable of acchieving the next level.  

Good luck with your chess.

I am not a good player but I can safely recommend "play winning chess" by Yasser Seirawan as it will help you understand the most important concepts.

Chess.com really should have a filter that can detect these types of threads and direct them to all the standard answers to the other 1000's of such thread posted.

What I did was played played then kept on playing then started playing bullet which got me Better

Van Perlo's book might be great for you to get out of a rut.  The book beat out even Kasparov's book for book of the year when the first edition came out... and there's a much improved edition out now.  I started endgame study with his and Dvoretsky's competing book Basic Chess Endings (Averbakh, another competing author wrote the forward for BCE and cites it as an inspiration for writing CCE).  Back in 2003 I bought Basic Chess Endings because I was starting out and the book had so much praise on it (Pandolfini, whose Ultimate Guide I was reading at the time, said it was the one indispensable endgame book) Guess which modern classic on the endgame was released that year...

Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual could be good too it is a quality of study and notes that is most important rather than quantity of positions and variations (Averbakh has your back there)

The fact is studying the endgame will give you dramatic improvement.  Don't just study the theory but play positions out against an engine.  If you have a winning position then you would beat even Carlsen from it, or if there's a forced draw and you follow the drawing method then not even Carlsen or Komodo could defeat you. 

Wow! Thanks for all the excellent responses. I wasn't expecting so many replies, and you all (with the exception of kleelof) had something helpful to say. Chess.com is turning out to be well worth the money:)

Anyways I'm gonna go get some of the recommend books and start learning the recommended topics.

I aways thought it would be kinda silly to analyze my own games would be pointless but I'm gonna post some and see what kind of feedback I get.

I love playing chess, but I love reading and just the whole journey of trying to unlock the board equally, so I hope that serves me some porpse.

Thanks again!

Tactics trainer can be helpful.

Look for simple stuff at this point. Pins, skewers, and forks are huge in beginner games -- maybe later, but I wouldn't know. Pay attention so you don't give away (hang) pieces.  Watch for your opponent to do so.  Don't get so absorbed in your attack that you overlook what your opponent is doing.  Try to ask, "why did he do that?  What is he trying to accomplish?"