Hi, I’m looking for some general tips on how to improve at chess. Here’s what I know about chess very well.
That’s it. No tactics or anything I was thinking if you guys could help me out here 'cause I’ve never won a chess match ever. (Drawn once though) Just general tips on castleing etc.
Thanks.
I’m no chess expert, but I play occasionally, and for me the biggest strategy I use is the ability to sacrifice pieces. Here’s what I mean. Say someone puts your king in check with their bishop. Instead of fleeing, put your bishop in between your king and their bishop, so that if they take it, you get to take their bishop. This stops many many offenses.
You’re asking how to castle?
That’s easy. To castle;
If those three things are true, and there are no peices between your king and a rook, you can castle. To castle kingside (with the rook on the king’s side of the board) you move the king over two spaces and the rook over two spaces, so that they end up next to each other with the rook on the third square from the side and the king on the second. The castle queenside, you do basically the same thing, except the rook moves THREE spaces.
Basic strategy hints:
I’d pretty much agree with the things RickJay said. Basically, I’d say in the first 10 or 15 moves try to:
RickJay wrote
Actually, you do want your rooks on the back row. generally. Put them on files (columns) where you don’t have pawns.
Learn an opening or two.
Learn end games. For starters, learn how to win with just a rook and a king vs. just a king.
A really good sacrifice can even win you the game. One of the sweetest sacrifices I remember playing was when I sacrificed a rook and had the win a few moves later.
Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess is a good book for beginners. It focuses on real game situations, as opposed to complicated strategy. The book is also cheap. 
Thanks for the tips guys, I was also thinking, is there any advantage to being white or black?
Sorry about starting like that - I’ve read so many threads where I wasn’t qualified that I got excited.
Welcome to chess, which is a pool where a gnat may drink and a sea where an elephant may bathe.
As a beginner, you need to play regularly and get helpful advice from books and experienced players.
To begin with, use simple rules so you avoid elementary errors. (Much later, you will learn that all rules have exceptions, but they’re still great at this point. 
)
RickJay, wolf_meister and Bill H. have given sensible advice. I hope you won’t mind if I cover similar ground.
Take the first 6-10 moves of the game (the opening).
You should:
The middle part of the game is the most complicated and the most difficult to teach.
You should have a plan (but until you’re reasonably experienced, you won’t know which one to adopt! 
). (Examples are attacking the king; controlling the light squares; creating and exploiting pawn weaknesses and exchanging into a superior ending.)
You should watch out for your opponent’s threats.
You should learn tactics (like forks, pins and zwischenzugs :eek: )
The various endings are the easiest to learn, because there are far fewer pieces to complicate things.
Learn how to checkmate with a king and queen against a lone king. (You should become able to get this done in 10 moves or less, from any position.)
Then try the king and rook v king.
You’ll want to learn chess notation. This is a simple grid-based way to show your moves. This will help you read books and record your games.
Computers play chess brilliantly, and the Internet is the natural home of chess.
If you like computers, get a chess program. It will play good moves patiently and offer advice.
Join a chess club. Chess is not naturally sociable, but every human has a different style and you can dip a toe into the world of organised chess.
P.S. Yes, White has the advantage because they move first.
Some statistical studies suggest this is worth 10%, i.e White scores 60-40 against Black. It matters little in beginners games and a lot in Grandmaster and correspondence chess.
I’m no expert, but in addition to all of the above, I’ve found it very effective to move both knights inward (so that they’re 2 squares directly in front of the bishops. This threatens all four of the center squares, which are very important. Also, you can use this point system to decide what pieces to trade:
Pawn - 1
Knight - 3
Bishop - 3
Rook - 5
Queen - 9
King - 10,000,000
So, losing a rook in order to capture a knight and a bishop is worth it. 3+3 > 5. This is just a guideline, however. A pawn that is very likely to make it across the board can almost be treated like a queen, for example. The king should be protected at all costs, so it’s worth infinitely more than any other piece.
True (and you could work this out from my simple rules).
Pawns are even better at controlling the central squares.
Once you learn chess notation, you can describe the above moves as Nf3 and Nc3 (which is much quicker!).
Again true.
I find some beginners don’t like to exchange their pieces, so you can continually force them to retreat to avoid this.
To start with, if you can trade one pice for another of the same value do so. Your opponent will have to take the time to recapture and you simplify the position.
Update on how I’m doing:
Well I learnt to castle which was satisfying. 
I still havn’t won a match yet though after playing 4 more times after the tips… It always seems that I have the least pieces left compared to the other player. And also, what happens when the time runs out?
When your time runs out, you lose. That’s why those clocks keep a rundown for each player.
It’s a little advanced, but one my favorites is the revealed attack. Imagine your queen behind a knight, on the same row as your opponents king. Not in check, because your knight is blocking the queens attack. Imagine further his queen is in a position to be attacked in two knight moves. Your first move is a revealed check, by moving the knight. It’s called revealed because you’re not checking with piece you’re moving, but revealing an attack by unblocking previously occluded pieces. Now your queen is checking his king, and your knight is attacking his queen. He’d like to remove his queen from danger, but must deal with being in check first. It’s very sweet when you can accomplish it.
I always use the term “discovered” as opposed to “revealed”, but I kind of like revealed better.
I highly recommend using reveals, and also pins. They are almost the same thing. Basically, imagine that you have a bishop placed to attack the King, except there is a pawn in its normal starting position that is blocking the bishop’s attack, so that the opponent is not currently in check. When in this position, you are free to move any other piece into a square that would normally be protected by that pawn, because it is pinned by your bishop. It cannot take your piece, because that would open the King up to being in check from the bishop.
Even better than reveals and pins are forks. This is when one of your pieces is either a) not in danger, or b) protected by a weaker piece, and also has a direct attack against two different pieces. When you land this, your opponent must choose which piece to save, leaving the other to be your bitch. For examples of classic pins, set up the normal starting positions, and just put a rook in the opponents pawn row, directly in front of the queen-side bishop. Notice that this knight has a fork on the king and rook, and since you have to get out of check, it is a free shot at the (5 point) rook with your (3 point) knight. If the queen happens to be two spaces in front of the king, then you have a triple fork against the king, queen, and rook, which is affectionately known to me as a royal fork. Anyway, identify good fork attack positions against the normal starting positions, and try to get your pieces to them for quick forks.
The center squares, obviously, are very important. More important than the center squares are all lines that go through the center squares. If you find yourself without any good moves, instead of just advancing a pawn for the sake of it, try moving a bishop so that it cuts across the center squares.
My basic strategy advice to you would be as follows:
Develop (or learn) your opening book that will allow you to castle in as few moves as possible, while still getting some kind of presence (usually pawns) attacking the center squares. In other words, always castle as soon as reasonably possible.
Once castled, attack with waves of pieces. Queens coming out early is a fine tactic, but she must have a bishop or a knight to help her out. Two bishops is an excellent group to attack with as well, and two knights can be effective. Three pieces can be devastating, but you run the risk of making things so complicated you lose track of what you’re trying to do, and end up accidently losing pieces because of it. So stick to two piece attacks, using pawn backups as necessary, and attempt to set up pins, reveals, and forks.
Pins are the easiest, forks the next, and reveals are the hardest. One tip: when you set a pin, you can safely ignore whatever piece is pinned, but every single move you need to verify that that piece is still, in fact, pinned. Don’t accidently get screwed because you forgot that they castled, removing the pin that was safeguarding your knight.
By “opening” a piece, I mean you moved it off the back row. This advice won’t win you games against good players, but it will get you jump started toward getting a better feel for the game.
As a beginner, I encourage you to memorize the point values for the pieces and make as many fair exchanges as humanly possible as quickly as you can. The moment you can swap a bishop for a knight, or vice versa, or a bishop or knight for the same piece, do it. The logic being that since you aren’t a master yet, you will have a better chance when the board is less crowded.
Good luck. If you wanna play an email game, my addy is in my profile.
The disovered attack is indeed a useul weapon. If the piece moving away and the piece unleashed both give check, this is very powerful (because the only defence is to move the king away from both checks.)
Have you mastered chess notation yet?
If you have, bung a game of yours onto this thread and I’ll annotate it for you (free! :eek: )
My Achilliles Heel has always been paying too little attention to my opponent’s pieces.
Don’t get so hung up on your brilliant plan that you ignore Theirs.
The most useful advise always sounds stupidly simple.
If possible, do seven things in your first ten moves:
Advance your two center pawns.
Develop both knights.
Develop both bishops.
Castle.
If you manage to do these things you’ll probably be in a reasonably good position by the 11th move.
Sacrifices are a key factor of the game. You should not try to defend your pieces at all times. If losing a piece is the price you need to give yourself an advantage, do it. Sacrifice a pawn to take a knight, a knight to take a rook, a rook to take a queen.
This is especially true if you get a piece ahead; if you are a piece ahead, exchanging equal pieces should become a goal in itself. As an example, if you capture a pawn, you’re one minor piece up with 31 pieces on the board. But if you now begin a campaign of equal exchanges your position will improve with every one. If you follow the pawn capture with 12 exchanges, you’ll end up with a pawn advantage with only seven pieces on the board; with the piece count that low, a one pawn advantage is big.
Forks are another important concept. Look for moves you can make that threaten two pieces. Move a bishop to a position where it can capture a rook or a pawn. Your opponent will save the rook and you’ll be able to take the pawn. A small victory but they add up.
Study how to play end-games. With six pieces left on the board, everyone knows that an advantage of say, a king, a pawn, and a rook is better than a king, a pawn, and a knight. But many players don’t know the specific details of how to force a checkmate in a situation like that. Learn the mechanics of the basic end-game situations.
Look ahead for moves that can give check safely and try to keep one looming over the enemy; if he pulls something dastardly, he’ll often be counting on you to react to his evil plan. If you can give check instead, you force him to move his king or possibly one of his attackers to support his defense instead of his attack. He may still have you in a bad spot, but as long as you can keep giving check, he can’t ever capitalize on it.