My resources:
chess.com Helped me enormously in my improvement of the game, I can thank this mostly to the tactics trainer feature on the site which saw me on it constantly around December 2012-February 2013 and really helped me come full circle with tactics. chess.com was where I also formed the base of my chess learning, it was where I played constantly from September 2012 onwards till now.
Books, Oh man, did these help me a lot, I'll recommend a few:
How to Reassess your Chess 4th Edition (Jeremy Silman) (Still haven't finished it!)
Silman's Complete Endgame Course (Jeremy Silman) (Still haven't finished it!) (MUST GET!!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
The Amateur's Mind (Jeremy Silman) (Covered most of it)
Better Chess (David Norwood) (Finished, excellent book for tactics, though there are some better ones)
Tournament Play- I participated in various tournaments throughout the year, mostly in the rapid format with only three being in standard time control, these tournaments helped me gain lots of experience which overall helped me to improve my play, especially the standard tournaments.
If you, beginner, really want to improve your game, then I must give you these extremely essential tips and excellent resources.
1. Openings aren't your concerns, tactics are.
Most beginners make the grave mistake of concentrating far too much on the openings, they get obsessed with these exquisite systems which they really don't know that much about. They make the mistake of trying to memorize these systems, which simply cannot be done and is a waste of time, I have heard stories about kids talking about how they like the Sicilian Dragon yet they cannot play a simple King and Pawn endgame.
Luckily, I didn't get so caught up in this trap and during my critical improvement stage, was concentrating far more on tactics, I played what I felt comfortable with in the opening and stuck with that, not concentrating too much on the theory behind it until i got stronger.
Tactics are essential to your improvement in the game, they allow you to either deliver an instant blow or to whip the result of the game heavily in your favor with the snap of a finger.
So do NOT make the mistake of trying to study the "openings," because that simply will not suffice to much and you will find that tactics will improve your game infinitely faster and will create the chess enlightenment you, beginner, so long for.
2. Endgames
Improvement in your endgame is extremely important in chess improvement overall, if tactics is for deciding the game in the 'middle-game' phase then Endgame knowledge and skills is for deciding the result in the Endgame phase.
If you don't know how to finish a game, then how will you ever win? For example, if you don't know the Rook and King vs King Endgame then how will you be able to checkmate the opponent's king?
You will find that improvement in your endgame will result in improvement in your game overall, at the beginning of the game there are 32 pieces, so if you "start" in the endgame with fewer pieces, then you will better learn how the pieces really work and how they co-operate together, and this Endgame foundation will affect your overall level of play in Chess.
3. It Takes Time!
If you've read this and done all this within a week or so, and still haven't noticed that you've gotten better, then calm down! These changes don't come immediately! I myself took about 7 months until I truly saw that I was improving!
Don't worry, the time will come!
Resources:
chess.com- Fantastic website for playing Chess and anything Chess related, excellent and very active forum and lots of informative and interesting articles
chesstempo.com- Very good website for practicing tactics, problems and various other chess things.
thechesswebsite.com- Contains lots of videos about openings, tactics, endgames, and pretty much every part of chess, also has lots of cool puzzles
chessgames.com- Good website for going through chess games and player profiles, with Grandmaster annotations and lots of experienced members.
And most importantly...Have Fun!
Books, Oh man, did these help me a lot, I'll recommend a few:
How to Reassess your Chess 4th Edition (Jeremy Silman) (Still haven't finished it!)
Silman's Complete Endgame Course (Jeremy Silman) (Still haven't finished it!) (MUST GET!!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
The Amateur's Mind (Jeremy Silman) (Covered most of it)
Better Chess (David Norwood) (Finished, excellent book for tactics, though there are some better ones)
Tournament Play- I participated in various tournaments throughout the year, mostly in the rapid format with only three being in standard time control, these tournaments helped me gain lots of experience which overall helped me to improve my play, especially the standard tournaments.If you, beginner, really want to improve your game, then I must give you these extremely essential tips and excellent resources.
1. Openings aren't your concerns, tactics are.
Most beginners make the grave mistake of concentrating far too much on the openings, they get obsessed with these exquisite systems which they really don't know that much about. They make the mistake of trying to memorize these systems, which simply cannot be done and is a waste of time, I have heard stories about kids talking about how they like the Sicilian Dragon yet they cannot play a simple King and Pawn endgame.
Luckily, I didn't get so caught up in this trap and during my critical improvement stage, was concentrating far more on tactics, I played what I felt comfortable with in the opening and stuck with that, not concentrating too much on the theory behind it until i got stronger.
 |
| Silman and a pretty decent tactician hanging out at Disneyland (Picture Courtesy of Jeremy Silman) |
Tactics are essential to your improvement in the game, they allow you to either deliver an instant blow or to whip the result of the game heavily in your favor with the snap of a finger.
So do NOT make the mistake of trying to study the "openings," because that simply will not suffice to much and you will find that tactics will improve your game infinitely faster and will create the chess enlightenment you, beginner, so long for.
2. Endgames
Improvement in your endgame is extremely important in chess improvement overall, if tactics is for deciding the game in the 'middle-game' phase then Endgame knowledge and skills is for deciding the result in the Endgame phase.
If you don't know how to finish a game, then how will you ever win? For example, if you don't know the Rook and King vs King Endgame then how will you be able to checkmate the opponent's king?
You will find that improvement in your endgame will result in improvement in your game overall, at the beginning of the game there are 32 pieces, so if you "start" in the endgame with fewer pieces, then you will better learn how the pieces really work and how they co-operate together, and this Endgame foundation will affect your overall level of play in Chess.
3. It Takes Time!
If you've read this and done all this within a week or so, and still haven't noticed that you've gotten better, then calm down! These changes don't come immediately! I myself took about 7 months until I truly saw that I was improving!
Don't worry, the time will come!
Resources:
chess.com- Fantastic website for playing Chess and anything Chess related, excellent and very active forum and lots of informative and interesting articles
chesstempo.com- Very good website for practicing tactics, problems and various other chess things.
thechesswebsite.com- Contains lots of videos about openings, tactics, endgames, and pretty much every part of chess, also has lots of cool puzzles
chessgames.com- Good website for going through chess games and player profiles, with Grandmaster annotations and lots of experienced members.
And most importantly...Have Fun!
