How can I improve my game?

I'm just a beginner at chess, and this was my first game.
Game 6266311

I think it went too long and that I just got really lucky with that win. Was there anything I could've done better? Thanks.

Hold on to your pieces. You gave away your knight around move 10. You should have moved it, but you didn't and he took it with a pawn.

Originally posted by ThatZeroGuy
I'm just a beginner at chess, and this was my first game.
Game 6266311

I think it went too long and that I just got really lucky with that win. Was there anything I could've done better? Thanks.

This was your very first game of chess ever?I'm impressed!

To improve study tactics,learn the opening principles and try to apply them.

Hi

Good first time effort.
Yes you are leaving pieces unprotected and missing that they can be taken.

Keep playing the game and through time and experience this bad
habit will disappear.

It won't take too many games and you will suffer a few bad losses.
This is part of the learning process.

Look at each pieces before you move, is anything attacking it?
Look at the square before you move the piece to it. Is it protected?

Here are a few tips.

One aspect you must become good at it is visulistaion.

You must, and this will develop through time and play,
be able to see what will happen on the board after a series of 'forced moves.'

'Forced moves'
These are good. You make a move and you know how your opponent
is going to reply so you can then plan ahead what to do next.

Hopefully this will be something nasty for your opponent.

You can force your opponent's pieces onto squares that make things good for you.

An opponent's piece may be guarding another piece or an important square.
If you can lure that piece away from it's guard duty with a forced move,
then you can take the unguarded piece or put a piece on an important square.

Removing the Guard from an Important Square.

Here is a postion from your posted game. Look at it.



If the White Queen was not on d2 then Black could play Qe2 checkmate

(The Knight on c3 would be pinned to the King so cannot move)

e2 has beome an important square.

So you now think like a chess player.

"How can I remove the White Queen from guarding e2."

1...Bxc3! forcing White to play 2.Qxc3 Qe7 checkmate



(in that position White would have to give up his Queen else be mated)

White too had his chance.

Chess has a habit of biting you back if you do not take your chances.

In this position from the same game. you are threatening checkmate
on e2 as in the above diagram.

It's White's move. White played 1.Bxg7+



A good move. It wins a Rook.

Here is a famous piece of advice that you must now remember forever.

If you see a good move, don't play it, sit on your hands and look for a better move.

OK over to you. Same position. Find the better move for White.

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Hi

Good first time effort.
Yes you are leaving pieces unprotected and missing that they can be taken.

Keep playing the game and through time and experience this bad
habit will disappear.

It won't take too many games and you will suffer a few bad losses.
This is part of the learning process.

Look at each pieces before you move, is anythi d the better move for White.

[fen]7k/R5rp/2Bp1B2/2q1p3/6bP/1Pb3P1/3Q4/4K2R[/fen]

Why so many diagrams 😕

You can never have too many diagrams - never.

We play chess on a chequered board with chess pieces.



NOT with words.

And I often use the same diagram again because I know all chess
players are lazy and won't be bothered to go back and look
at the previous diagram. 😉

Great posts, greenpawn. Also, after 19. Bg5, attacking Black's queen, Black had the chance to win at least a bishop. Instead of moving the queen away from the attack (19. ... Qd7), Black could have simply captured the attacker with 19. ... Rxg5. Black maintains his own attack on the White queen and continues to protect his bishop.



One of the lessons here is to look for alternate moves to accomplish the same objective.

There were lots of instructive points in that one game but
I did not want confuse the lad by going through everything.

If he comes back I have just one more piece advice and then
we have to leave him alone for a while till he gets his chess eye in.
6 months?

I've just thought of something....

I'll be back with a new thread.

Originally posted by ThatZeroGuy
I'm just a beginner at chess, and this was my first game.
Game 6266311

I think it went too long and that I just got really lucky with that win. Was there anything I could've done better? Thanks.

Excellent posts by greenpawn34, lots to learn there. I would also recommend "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" for a beginner. You can find it just about anywhere for cheap, and it's highly instructive for basic mating patterns. Those patterns will help focus your strategy and tactics, giving you "something to shoot for" with your combinations.

Once you're comfortable with that material, I would recommend books like Jeremy Silman's "The Amateur's Mind" or "How to Reassess Your Chess", both of which I found extremely helpful and enjoyed immensely. They delve into evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of your (and your opponent's) positions and developing a plan based around those imbalances, which is really the heart and soul of chess. After that, I would recommend at least one book on openings and one book on endgames. I hear Yasser Seirawan's "Winning Chess Openings" and Jeremy Silman's "Complete Endgame Course" are excellent resources (in fact, I'll be purchasing one or both this week!).

With all that knowledge under your belt, the next step is to start examining tactics and strategy. An excellent online resource is www.chessgames.com, which has daily puzzles and an extremely large database of master games with user commentary (with the occasional annotation by the masters themselves), and also provides chess news and views. There is a wealth of knowledge regarding tactics and strategy to be mined here. I always have fun with tactical puzzles from http://chesstactics.org too, a great little puzzle site that explains the tactics in plain English. Eventually, you will also want to purchase a few games collections from the great masters like Alekhine, Capablanca, Tal, Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov, where the tactics and strategy are discussed in great detail.

Of course, the most important thing is to play as much as you can, but be sure to go over your wins and your losses with an objective eye to see where you can improve.

Good luck, and have fun learning this wonderful game!

One problem with "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" is that he says that a bishop is worth 3.5 points / pawns and a knight 3. What a load of rubbish! No wonder he never got anywhere.

Although "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" sold incredibly well in the USA (I wonder if it is the best selling chess book ever?) it's not really that good.

Thanks for the advice, everyone! Especially you, greenpawn!

As for the better move you're saying, I can't really see it. I originally thought White could move that Rook to mate me, but he didn't, for some reason. So I can't really see a better move than that, since it mates ends the game in one move. Also, can someone explain to me that chess notation thing? I've read what Wikipedia has to say but yeah.

@HolyT: I didn't do it because there was a pawn, and the trade-off just isn't worth it.

I'll look for those books when I have the chance, thanks.

On an unrelated note, how do you guys do those board things? Heh.

Thanks again!

About what HolyT posted, the pawn doesnt matter. If Black plays Rxg5, and the pawn takes the rook back, then black plays Bxd1, winning the queen. However, don't worry about not being able to see that at first; it takes years to become a good chess player, and soon you will be seeing ahead 2 or 3 moves without any difficulties.

Originally posted by Fat Lady
One problem with "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" is that he says that a bishop is worth 3.5 points / pawns and a knight 3. What a load of rubbish! No wonder he never got anywhere.

Although "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" sold incredibly well in the USA (I wonder if it is the best selling chess book ever?) it's not really that good.

Bobby Fischer liked his bishops, that's pretty common knowledge. He was good with them, too, and played well enough to back up weighting them however he wanted. He never got anywhere? I think that's pretty unqualified, considering he was arguably the greatest chess player ever.

Originally posted by mrjonesvich321
Bobby Fischer liked his bishops, that's pretty common knowledge. He was good with them, too, and played well enough to back up weighting them however he wanted. He never got anywhere? I think that's pretty unqualified, considering he was arguably the greatest chess player ever.

Hi mrjonesvich

I agree Bobby Fischer was arguably the greatest chess player ever.

But Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess is not the greatest chess book ever written.

'it's not very good.' sums it up for me.
I found it very disappointing.

Originally posted by ThatZeroGuy
Thanks for the advice, everyone! Especially you, greenpawn!

As for the better move you're saying, I can't really see it. I originally thought White could move that Rook to mate me, but he didn't, for some reason. So I can't really see a better move than that, since it mates ends the game in one move. Also, can someone explain to me that chess notation s.

On an unrelated note, how do you guys do those board things? Heh.

Thanks again!

I'm not very good at explaining this stuff but since the others seem to have ignored it here goes.

Short algebraic chess notation:
a chessboard is made up of ranks and files,at the bottom of the board you see letters (a to h) to name the files (the a file,the b file etc....),at the side you see numbers (1 to 8) these name the ranks (1st rank,2nd rank etc...).You always start with the file(a letter) then the rank(a number).

The pieces are named K for King,Q for queen,B for bishop,N for knight(can't have 2 K's) and R for rook.Always use capitals for pieces,never for anything else.

Pawns aren't mentioned in notation.These peasants are not worthy 😉

Example: in the below diagram the knight (N) is on the c-file (c) and the third rank (3).That would be Nc3



Some more symbols are used:
x for a capture
e.p. for en passant
+ for a check
0-0 for castling kingside
0-0-0 for castling queenside

Example of a capture with a check:
In the below diagram if the white knight captures the black knight the black king would be in check.Thus,knight (N) captures (x) on the f-file (f) and the sixth rank (6) with check (+)
That makes Nxf6+


An example of a pawnmove:
In the below diagram the pawn is on c3.Pawns aren't mentioned so if white moves it up the board we simply write: c4.You know it's a pawn that moves because there's no designated letter in the notation.


An example of en passant (if you don't know this rule it's in the FAQ):
in the below diagram if white plays f4 black could capture the pawn en passant.That would read exf3e.p.


Think that pretty much sums it up.Others will come along to correct any mistakes or add anything I've forgotten.
Hope it helps 🙂