Getting better at Chess ...

the_djoker

How does one get better at Chess ??


I play on my Ipod but i can't seem to improve, I remember years ago
I used to play good players on real boards and that seemed to help,
so I might get a board..


My Dad plays and is pretty good, he is coming to visit me soon
and I joked that we could play - but I'd never beat him - he sends me via Amazon this book "How to beat your dad in Chess" http://www.amazon.com/How-Beat-Your-Chess-Gambit/dp/1901983056
and it's CRAP ... there is maybe one diagram for 5-10 moves and its hard to follow ...

jcf

practice practice practice !!

fenris

Play against people - online or in real life at your level or slightly above, computers are savage when it comes to tactics and will punish any error on your part bringing the game to a very premature end, people are different and actually fall for traps and miss tactics.

Review your games and try and see where it all went wrong/right

When playing against a computer, if you get whipped, rewind to where the game was almost lost and swap sides and see if you can bury the computer instead, if not have a good look at how the computer got out of what you though was a lost position.

Forget about fancy openings, their purpose is to get you to a middle game that has a chance of getting you to a winnable end game, it is really easy to get sucked into opening theory and not play out full games, this means that you don't get to practice middle and end games very often.

Do lots of tactics puzzles to develop awareness of frequently occurring situations that you can spot or setup in your own right.

Try to visualise the next steps in tactics/combinations, first while looking but without making the move on the board, then for bonus points without looking at the board - this will hurt your head at first, especially when there are knights involved!

Play games with longer time controls (15 mins is good) not just blitz games.

/V\etalfish

I think it also really depends on what stage/level you are at yourself.

When i was younger, I was able to keep progressing just through playing different people and constantly improving.
The problem came when I got to college and started playing again.
I found myself remaining at the same level, and doing as above, trying to learn on my own from playing people and computers and the like.

The only thing that really got me past 'the hump' was actually learning the theory behind why I was playing like I was.
So I knew what a good position was but ultimately not the 'why' behind it.

There was a series of books I found very helpful, one dealt with openings, one with the middlegame and then of course endgame.
I'll try and see if I can find them.

Do you play on sites like Gameknot.com or Redhotpawn.com?
If so what rating range of people would you play against?

namenotavailablE

Also, try the daily puzzles at the home page of www.chessgames.com

brilliantboy

Play real chess http://icu.ie/

When analysing games, only use a computer when you've stretched your own analysing capabilities to the limit and can't see anymore.

Chess books are hard, but struggle through them (with a board/app at hand) and you will notice a vast improvement.