I need to get better at chess..?

Question

How do i get better at chess? Any ideas?

Answer 1

It depends on what level you're starting from, but I'll assume you're relatively low level based on the ambiguity of the question.

The first thing you need to do is be sure you know all the rules. It sounds dumb, but are you positive you know all the details of castling, en passant pawn captures, and the touch move rule? A good beginner's book, such as The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess or Teach Yourself Chess in 24 Hours, is a good place to start. Those will also give you some history and basic strategy pointers, as well.

Next, you need to get good at tactics. Tactics are specific moves that will help you gain an advantage, as opposed to strategy, which is more long term ideas. Having a long term goal of controlling the center of the board or attacking on one side won't help you much if you overlook a specific move that allows your opponent to win your queen. So study tactics before strategy.

The best way to practice tactics, besides just playing a lot, is to get a good book of chess puzzles. There are many out there, so I'd recommend going to a book store and looking through some of them. Go with an easy one first, and just go through the whole book several times, until you can spot the solutions instantly. The goal here is to be able to spot common tactical motifs INSTANTLY every time they come up in your games. Just being able to see them after looking for a minute or two isn't good enough when you're playing a game with a time limit. So repetition is key. Work your way up to harder books, and apply the same method to studying all of them - go through them over and over until you can spot every solution instantly.

The other key is practice, practice, practice. Don't fall into the common trap of thinking that you can get better just by reading lots of books. I had that problem. I like doing puzzles more than playing, I think, but I know that I should spend roughly equal amounts of time on both if I really want to improve. Also, be sure to review the moves of your games afterwards to see what you did wrong and how you can do better. Get better players to help review them with you and give you advice on your moves. If you don't know any better players who can do this, post your games to chess discussion groups on the internet (or here!) and ask for analysis.

Once you get good at tactics, endgames should be your next area of study, before moving on to openings and middle game strategy.

Also, if you're serious about improving, play on a really good online site like FICS (freechess.org) instead of something cheesy like Yahoo! Games. No offense to those who play on Yahoo, but there are just a lot of very immature people there, and the interface really isn't very good.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Answer 2

like some program once said chess is a deviant game, where the bishop goes sideways(nothing new there), knights go off to the left and the king goes in all directions, and if a pawn goes all the way he can become a QUEEEN!!!.

Answer 3

The obvious answer is practice. You could read some books for guidance on classic moves. Playing online is good too.

Answer 4

buy a pocket chess game and a book. then practice...

Answer 5

practice &practice &practice &practice &practice &practice &practice &practice &practice &practice &practice &practice &practice & there's no short cut to anything, play with your friends discussed stratigy after the game, see at which step of the game you've made the wrong move, play with online player,

Answer 6

practice makes perfect

Answer 7

play on FICS,
also get a couple of bruce pandolfini books, and a huge book of openings

Answer 8

Some people are naturals, the rest of of are not. Bon chance !

Answer 9

WELL OK THEN GET BETTER>>> JUST PLAY MORE ITS PRACTICE THAT IMPROVES YOU R GAME