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Erm, thats a bit of a broad question.
Yes, im sure the people on this site can offer lots of help. It helps us if we sort of know what aspect of chess you are looking for help with.
I'll copy and paste some tip given by the amazing Exeter Chess Club website
Tip 3: Know how to finish off a won game.
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I watched a couple of players spend over 50 moves where a bare King was chased all over the board being checked by an enemy Queen - but the Queen alone cannot mate a bare King. If only the player with the King brought their own King up to box in the bare King, he could have finished off the game in no time. In fact, the less you check, the better!
Tip 4: Play an open, tactical game
erm bring out knights before bishops.......
Hm id thought there would be more......
Um, heres a few from me :-)
Play sexy chess, mix it up. Dont play bog standard moves, give it an edge.
Find a few openings play them to death.
Sacrifce like mad, ok you are going to get totally wasted doing this, but it will highten your chess senses, letting you firstly learn to spot good sacs, secondly getting a tactical work out, thirdly, once they have rebulked your attack you get to learn how to defend š
Learn the basic tactics if you dont know them then nothing can help you
Chat to people on here a lot, theres a few threads of people playing games and posting their moves and analysis of the postion as them move on here. It will give you an insight into different players minds and how they all think.
Challenge a better player, ask them if they are willing to help you learn a little
Im sure other people will have other advice, but that might get you started.
Steel yourself to lose lots and lots of games. Find out exactly where you went wrong after the game, using computer analysis if you don't have a good player to talk to. Learn humility. There's always somebody you can beat and somebody who can beat you. Don't wrap up all your hopes and dreams in chess. She's a fickle mistress.
alexman,
One of the best ways to improve your chess, (and this advice is gonna suck, but I swear it's the truth) is to get your butt whipped more than a few times by better players. It will help you develop "elepahants hide" (And I'm not taliking about the elephants gambit, here!)
Seriously, you gotta be bad before you can become good. It's true of MANY things in life. You know, the old crawl before you can walk, walk before you can run philosophy.
I'm not running yet, but I certainly have reached the walking stage in the game. But my first games I ever played in my life, well, my friends made MINCEMEAT out of me. Literally. I've long since lost track of those friends, but would give ANYTHING to play them now!
I don't know you're skill level, so I don't know what you need help with. Here's my basic set of beginner rules:
*Your priority in the opening (beginning of the game) is to make five moves: One move for each Knight and Bishop, and you need to castle. You want to do this as fast as possible as it's extremely difficult to fight if these things haven't been done. Ideally you should pull these five moves off in the first seven moves of the game, only because each Bishop needs a Pawn to move before it can move. Remember this is by no means an absolute rule...there are many situations where moving three Pawns is good, etc, but it's a good starting rule of thumb.
*Make sure the center situation is under control before you start fighting on the wings (the sides). If you don't think your opponent has either control of the center and the center is not deadlocked, then try to attack along the center if he attacks on a wing. A center attack is generally stronger than a wing attack.
*Know the basic tactical patterns. These are: the Fork, in which one piece or Pawn attacks two other vulnerable pieces at once, the Pin, in which a piece that moves in a straight line threatens a piece or Pawn in such a way that if the threatened piece or Pawn moves then the attacking piece can kill something more valuable behind it. This is an immobilizing tactic, not one that is trying to directly win material, so it's ok to Pin a Pawn that's protected by another Pawn or something. There is the Skewer, which is like the Pin, except both the piece being attacked and the one behind it will result in a material advantage if taken (for example, a Bishop threatens a Rook, which is in the way of the Queen or the other Rook). There might be others I am not coming up with at the moment...I forget. Oh yeah, the Discovered Attack, where you have a straight line piece like a Rook behind one of your other pieces (like a Knight), and when you move the Knight then one of your enemy's pieces comes under attack by the Rook. The Double Check, where you check the enemy King with two pieces simultaneously by using a Discovered Check (a Discovered Attack on the King) and also checking with the piece you moved out of the way. With a Double Check, there is NOTHING the enemy can do but move the King.
*Know the basic positional patterns. These are the Open File, when you have a file (which is a line of squares going from you to your opponent) which does not have one of your Pawns on it (this lets your Rooks attack when you put them on it), the Hole, which is any square that has no opponent Pawns in front of it on the files to the left and right - the significance of this is that any Pawns behind the Hole cannot easily be protected by their neighbor Pawns, and your Pieces can sit in the Hole and never be pushed away by hostile Pawns, the Seventh Rank and the Eighth Rank, where you can safely put a Rook or two on the seventh or eighth square away from you, making it really powerful attacking horizontally in your opponent's base, the Outpost, which is a Hole on an Open File...again there are probably others.
*Start memorizing your openings. Basically try to work toward having your choice of the first three or four moves of any reasonable game memorized, and know what your basic strategies should be if that opening happens. For example, if you're Black, and your opponent plays e4, you should stick to one solid move, like e5, or c5, or whatever. If he plays e4 and you play c5 and he plays Nf3, you should know what your next move is...for example, d6. You don't need to have every opening memorized...only the ones you will use. Since you can respond to e4 with c5, e5 or a number of other moves, if you pick c5, then you don't need to know the openings that follow from e5.
*Know the basic endgame mates. These are Rook and King vs King, Queen and King vs King, Two Bishops and King versus King, Bishop and Knight versus King (these last two are hard, I don't necessarily know them). Also know that it is impossible to force a checkmate with Two Knights and King vs King.
*Of course, know the point system for pieces. Pawns are one point, Knights and Bishops are three, Rooks are five, the Queen is nine.
That was an excellent post. very detailed and basic.
There are a number of books that may be helpful to you, alexman, if you have a budget to purchase them. i suggest you start with books by Bruce pandolfini. He has a way of making concepts easy and ENJOYABLE to grasp.
Some of his titles are Chess Target Practice, the New Chess, The Chess doctor, Chess Opening Traps and Zaps, and many more. Anygood book store will have them, or you can look them up online.
Originally posted by kingisdeadI agree...Bruce Pandolfini writes excellent books...I have some of them myself...
That was an excellent post. very detailed and basic.
There are a number of books that may be helpful to you, alexman, if you have a budget to purchase them. i suggest you start with books by Bruce pandolfini. He has a way of making concepts easy and ENJOYABLE to grasp.
Some of his titles are Chess Target Practice, the New Chess, The Chess doc ...[text shortened]... raps and Zaps, and many more. Anygood book store will have them, or you can look them up online.