Help!

I need some help.... bad. I would like somebody to annylize 2 or 3 games of mine and tell me what im doing wrong. Im not that great at chess but a chess tournament is coming up so and i would like to get better. im very serious about this and need lots of help. ive lost to many games and would like my rating higher..... please help.

Thanks, 🙂

How much time do you have before the tournament? How long have you been playing chess, seriously? Have you ever read books or anybody tried teaching you more about chess? Have you had any experience playing over the board?

Look futher down and check out the thread "Tips for Chess Tutors" by Arrakis. I think it's worth while to read through. But be realistic, don't expect to become a strong player overnight! It takes time to improve. You need to read books, analyse a fair number of games -- your own and others'. Then you need to play a lot for the practice and experience. With enough practice, you will come to a point when you have a 'common sense' for chess. You will automatically know that moving the pawns in front of your castled king is not such a good idea, although there are exceptions of course. You will know that the rook belongs on open files or behind (not in front) of your passed pawn etc. There are so many small things you should know to be a reasonably 'good' player. But it takes time.

I would download the demo for the personal chess trainer

http://www.personalchesstrainer.com/

buy the full version if you get through all of the lessons before the tourney.

I just scratched the surface on the endgame lessons and some endgame concepts are obvious to me now. It also has tactics and strategies

i suppose i have time to look over ONE game

Originally posted by Woofman3000
I need some help.... bad. I would like somebody to annylize 2 or 3 games of mine and tell me what im doing wrong. Im not that great at chess but a chess tournament is coming up so and i would like to get better. im very serious about this and need lots of help. ive lost to many games and would like my rating higher..... please help.

Thanks, 🙂

I took a look at your games. Your basic problem is that you make tactical mistakes like failing to spot that your opponent is threatening checkmate or that you have left pieces like your queen hanging. It is neccessary not to fall behind in material so work on checking that you aren't about to lose pieces and pawns for nothing. Try castling early on in the game, it's a lot easier to defend your king if it's not in the middle of the board.

Originally posted by Woofman3000
I need some help.... bad. I would like somebody to annylize 2 or 3 games of mine and tell me what im doing wrong. Im not that great at chess but a chess tournament is coming up so and i would like to get better. im very serious about this and need lots of help. ive lost to many games and would like my rating higher..... please help.

Thanks, 🙂

Start reading my threads.

Need help getting to 1400 -> Page 2 half way down
getting to 1600 -> All of it

Best way to study master games -> All of it.

Originally posted by Woofman3000
I need some help.... tell me what im doing wrong. .... please help.

Thanks, 🙂

Further to what DeepThought said, I think the most important thing you must learn to do is : -
before moving yourself, you MUST look to see what your opponent
is threatening on his next move. If you do not do this you will lose quickly because you overlook simple captures or a checkmate in one or two moves by your opponent, or you will be caught by one of the early traps like 'Fool's Mate', 'Scholar's Mate' or 'Legal's Legacy'. The main point of this advice is that if you can successfully counter your opponent's plans, you will at least draw, and may find a way of winning.

Originally posted by DeepThought
I took a look at your games. Your basic problem is that you make tactical mistakes like failing to spot that your opponent is threatening checkmate or that you have left pieces like your queen hanging. It is neccessary not to fall behind in material so work on checking that you aren't about to lose pieces and pawns for nothing. Try castling early on in the game, it's a lot easier to defend your king if it's not in the middle of the board.

Ill try to do that

Had a look at one or two of your games and your just making basic errors really. Try not to move the same piece twice in the opening, so ask yourself before moving the piece.

If I move it there what is my opponent going to do

What do I plan to do for my next move

Can the piece be pushed away or taken

Moving that piece to that location is it leaving anything undefended.

Same goes for when your opponent moves, ask yourself why did he move it there, what's his plan, what is he threatening, by moving the piece has he left anything undefended. You've just got to look at the moves a little more.

I'd play some blitz games, if you haven't got an account with one of the big ones (playchess, ICC etc) you can always just use yahoo chess which is free. When starting out you want to play against as many people as you can so correspondence chess isn't always the best due to the longevity of the games not to mention the fact people use books/databases to aid there play.

What I see is a complete lack of effort on your part, it looks like you spent 5 seconds at most on each move.... Chess is a thinking persons game, your not going to get very good at it if your not spending any time on it, you get what you put into things, and right now your not putting much into your games and your rating is reflecting that. For your next game, actually take about 5 minutes on each move, and analyze the board, using the analyze board feature, and see some of the possibile moves you can make, and ask yourself everytime your opponent moves what the purpose was for that move.

At U1400 level analysis is not the key. The key is tactics. U1400 players(including myself) make many tactical errors. Practice tactics by getting software(Chess Tactics for Beginners by Convekta is great one) or by getting puzzle books and the book Winning Chess Tactics.