How do you get good at Chess?

Evidently getting locked up is a good place to start.
 
Study a few of the games played by masters at different points in history (the strategies over time drastically changed). Try to understand why each player did what they did. I had a book but I'm positive you can find it archived somewhere on the net. You might get better playing games over and over (especially with people better than you) but not nearly as quickly as if you were to just look at a few games and think about the moves.

Generally the two most important things when you're starting are learning the importance of trading (giving away your weaker pieces for opponent's stronger pieces) and controlling the center of the board (will enable you to crush anyone who's not an advanced player). Once you hit a certain skill level you won't be able to use those strategies anymore, opponents will use the same gambits over and over, and many of your games will end in draws. If you're prepared for that (rather boring) eventuality, then have fun.
 
time and memory man, your probably not gonna get worse if you just keep playing so theres that.
 
At your level the one thing that will get you the most bang for your buck is learning openings. If you don't know openings and opening theory, you will put yourself in a bad position which you can't correct and will ultimately lead to you losing the game(as you describe).

It really depends on how good do you want to get, but knowing the 5-10 most common openings(for black & white) and the counters to them would be a good start.
 
rE said:
At your level the one thing that will get you the most bang for your buck is learning openings. If you don't know openings and opening theory, you will put yourself in a bad position which you can't correct and will ultimately lead to you losing the game(as you describe).

It really depends on how good do you want to get, but knowing the 5-10 most common openings(for black & white) and the counters to them would be a good start.
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Thank you, good advice!

Getting destroyed in the first few moves is so demoralising, feel like a dunce!

Gonna learn them openings, just to survive the beginning game. Once I'm in the mid-game (and not completely exposed), I usually win.
 
Battlechess :p

Chess kinda infuriates me since I was a teenager since I (apparently) used to be really good when I was a kid (as I've been told - I do know I used to play a lot with my older brother)
 
Just practice. Years ago, I played all summer long and got good. I went from knowing nothing to pwning the guy who taught me. But.... haven't really played much since then.

You should watch two chess masters going at it. It's nuts.
 
the more youtube videos I watch with advice on openings etc. the worse I get.

lol, my rating is now 931 ... I think I need a break from this game.
 
I play a couple of games a month and I'm not particularly good, but what has been working for me recently is playing ultra defencive openers. I spend my first 10 or so moves just playing it very safe and waiting for my opponent to make a mistake. It's been working out a lot better for me than instantly going on the offensive.
 
I've never done it, but I was interested once and it seems to me the best way would be to write down your moves and your opponents moves for each game, practice a lot, and study patterns that emerge for success or defeat.
 
I have a plat account on chess.com

There are tons of lessons on openings, end game, and everything in between. I spend most of my time using the tactics trainer but it only makes sense because I studied the theory and strategies first. Once you have an idea of what you "should" be doing at certain points then you can get into tactics and learn from them.

You can also search for specific openings and the counters such as the King's Gambit, Sicilian, French etc. Most importantly though is knowing the underlying strategy (or theory), and there is a large beginner section on strategy.
 
You just learn all the set moves. It's a game of tactics, some which describe a whole game and some that describe sections therein.

It suits people who like to put time in preparing so they can know all the parameters and not be scared by any requirement to react and be in the moment. It's basically perfect for borderline autistics.

I don't know what it is but I detest and loath any idea of trying to get good at chess. I do however love playing it as a meeting of minds. For me it should be a game played and through playing one improves, any research of strategy cheapens the whole endeavor.
 
Phlog said:
You just learn all the set moves. It's a game of tactics, some which describe a whole game and some that describe sections therein.

It suits people who like to put time in preparing so they can know all the parameters and not be scared by any requirement to react and be in the moment. It's basically perfect for borderline autistics.

I don't know what it is but I detest and loath any idea of trying to get good at chess. I do however love playing it as a meeting of minds. For me it should be a game played and through playing one improves, any research of strategy cheapens the whole endeavor.
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Pretty much agree with that.
 
When you play chess online against other players, you get cheats who use programs that tell them what moves to make. I used to play against a guy from another forum and the fcker always cheated with a program. If he started struggling in a game ,all of a sudden he would start making perfect moves. Thats when I knew he had switched his program on.
 
Phlog said:
You just learn all the set moves. It's a game of tactics, some which describe a whole game and some that describe sections therein.

It suits people who like to put time in preparing so they can know all the parameters and not be scared by any requirement to react and be in the moment. It's basically perfect for borderline autistics.

I don't know what it is but I detest and loath any idea of trying to get good at chess. I do however love playing it as a meeting of minds. For me it should be a game played and through playing one improves, any research of strategy cheapens the whole endeavor.
Click to expand...
None of this is accurate or helpful.

The best answer was the first. As far as any sort of chess university goes, without paying a master instructor for lessons, nothing I ever found trumps the old Chessmaster 9000 program on WinXP. The 11th edition was the most recent in the series, released in 2007, but Chessmaster 9000 was the one I owned. There were literally hundreds of lessons that would take you brick by brick from the ground up, covering all aspects of the game, and there was a huge database of the major openings and their most common lines with tens (or hundreds?) of thousands of archived professional games where you could study how those openings might unfold as played by the best. It should run on Windows 7 or 8 in 64-bit mode.
http://www.amazon.com/Chessmaster-Grandmaster-Edition-Linux/dp/B000SL4ANE
The lessons in the last several versions were actually put together by Josh Waitzkin. He was the kid featured in the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. He went on to become an International Master, then retired from competitive chess while focusing mostly on a career in instruction and general education. He actually holds a black belt in BJJ under Marcelo Garcia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Waitzkin
IIRC, his old mentor Bruce Pandolfini (played by Ben Kingsley in the movie) did the tutorials for the openings.

220px-Joshua_Waitzkin.jpg


Chessbase is the largest computer archive I know for professional games, and the greatest tool for studying a certain interest or tactic by searching this database for a history of similar positions. Their latest software version for exploring their database is Chessbase 13. This is a an expensive program and a serious tool used by chess professionals:
https://shop.chessbase.com/en/categories/40
It's more of a reference tool, though, for people who know how to play and study. The Chessmaster program actually teaches beginners and intermediate players how to play.

Otherwise, there are tons of free databases similar to this, and plenty of free sites/apps that let you play against other players over the internet.
 
Phlog said:
You just learn all the set moves. It's a game of tactics, some which describe a whole game and some that describe sections therein.

It suits people who like to put time in preparing so they can know all the parameters and not be scared by any requirement to react and be in the moment. It's basically perfect for borderline autistics.

I don't know what it is but I detest and loath any idea of trying to get good at chess. I do however love playing it as a meeting of minds. For me it should be a game played and through playing one improves, any research of strategy cheapens the whole endeavor.
Click to expand...

This is one of the most absurd things I've ever read. How is getting good at chess any more deplorable than getting good at anything? How is getting good at anything detestable and loathsome?
 
Lots of study and practice, yo.
 
Phlog said:
You just learn all the set moves. It's a game of tactics, some which describe a whole game and some that describe sections therein.

It suits people who like to put time in preparing so they can know all the parameters and not be scared by any requirement to react and be in the moment. It's basically perfect for borderline autistics.

I don't know what it is but I detest and loath any idea of trying to get good at chess. I do however love playing it as a meeting of minds. For me it should be a game played and through playing one improves, any research of strategy cheapens the whole endeavor.
Click to expand...

[YT]uq-v1TTUyhM[/YT]
 
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