The past few weeks I’ve taken up learning to play chess. I’ve bought a board and a few books, and play against what foes I can find through the easily-accessible online game sites. But – and here’s my problem – I’m absolutely horrible, and I just can’t seem to get it, no matter what I try. I’ve never been able to maneuver anyone into a position of checkmate. At best it’s been a draw, and that’s only against those who are just as bad as I am.
I’ve gone through most of Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, but it just seems like a bunch of basic endgame puzzles and it hasn’t helped my game much. I’ve played through a few of the games in the book Simple Chess, but – again – I can’t see that it’s improved my skill a significant amount.
Any hints on improvement? I’ve found lists of chess books, but the sheer amount of books available for players of any skill level makes choosing a text just daunting. Any titles that will go over the fundamentals of play thoroughly? Any places online where a beginner can go against people better than he is, lose over and over again, and at least be shown where he might’ve gone wrong?
This I understand. I’m not looking for a miracle - not like one of those guys on television who goes from 300lbs to buff as an underwear model in three weeks with the use of his WeightOffMaster™. I’ve played quite a lot - it’s just that everyone I play against is either as bad, worse, or only marginally better than I am, and I don’t know where to find better players.
And aside from that, I don’t have any good instruction. Thus my asking for any book recommendations. I just aimlessly wander around the chess board every game, try as I might to understand what’s going on even to the smallest extent.
You could get a chess-playing program like chessmaster and practice against it. Another thing that can be helpful, is to write down the moves when you play, then later you can go over the game and try to figure out why you lost.
Most of the chess programs, available for most computers including hand-helds, and self-contained chess player games will let you ask the computer to suggest a move.
Playing against the machine will give you better opponents…like world class better. Decide on your move, then ask the computer what you should do, then try to see why the computer’s suggested move is better than your choice.
Chess skill is mostly just experience and learning to play different types of positions well. It’s been suggested that one of the main reasons good players are better than weaker players is that good players have been exposed to many more different types of positions and hence have a greater toolbox at their disposal with which they can develop a winning plan.
You simply need to play a lot. And yes, you do indeed need to play against players slightly better than yourself so that you don’t continue to make the same mistakes and get away with them. Also, if you’re serious about improving, you need to record and go over your games afterwards to uncover the flaws in your game. For this, it is usually helpful to go over the game with someone much stronger than you in the hopes that the stronger player will be able to more easily identify your weaknesses.
To expose yourself to new ideas, chess books are a good way to go. The Amateur’s Mind by Jeremy Silman is a good book for learning strategic ideas. Silman’s How to Reassess Your Chess is the same type of book but slightly more advanced; it delves into the same strategic topics more deeply. Yasser Seirawan’s Winning Chess Tactics is a good introduction to combinative and tactical play. And Lev Alburt’s Just the Facts is a good endgame primer.
Playing through games is another good way of absorbing new ideas, but the key here is that you have to be active in your studies. It’s not enough simply to play the game over hoping the patterns will sink in. One technique would be to play a study game over one move at a time and, before you look at the next move, try to figure out what you would play as the next move. Then compare your move to the move actually played and try to understand the differences between your move and the game move.
I don’t care much for Internet chess as a learning tool. It’s fine for a quick, fun game, but the problem is that most Internet chess is played at fast time controls. So when you lose, all you really learn is that you’re likely to make lots of mistakes when you don’t think very hard. If you’re having difficulty finding suitably strong opponents, you might try to find a chess club in your area and play there.
Be sure to play against folks online who are willing to discuss the game afterwards, and then go through play by play and get their thoughts on what you did good and bad.
Also, it’s wise to find 1 or a few opening moves that you can play each time to get the game off right. I like the King’s Indian Defence as you can always get into it no matter what the opponent plays, and you can play it as black or white. Also, it’s very stable from the beginning, so after your first 6 moves or so, you’re in a good safe position with opportunity to attack. If you play the same opening consistantly, you’ll learn about it’s possibilities and not have surprises as when you try a different opening each time.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t try different openings of course. Just that learning one well to start off with will take you further towards winning more games right now.