I'm still learning to play chess. I'm still growing into openings (on my own - guiding theme is to control the center region w/ multiple layers of protection).

I noticed all these named moves / scenarios. I don't know anything about them. Including the various openings. When learning chess, when does one typically start to learn about them and build them into your strategy? Or to recognize them as being used by your opponent? At the beginning (now)? Or later after one develops some maturity in opening, mid and end games? (I currently have no mid or end game talent; I'm purely defensive at the moment and w/o any offensive talent).

https://lichess.org/training/themes

No need to know any of that yet.

Get “Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess”, and work through that. It’s $7-9 online, will teach you about positions, mating patterns, discovered checks, pins, etc.

Thanks! Is it basically similar exercises as lichess puzzles but in a more structured manner (right now, I'm just randomly going through puzzles on lichess; not sure if I'm really learning anything). But a structured method may be meaningful if it's building layers and concepts.

I just found this list of opening puzzles and it's frankly overwhelming. I don't know where / when to begin. https://lichess.org/training/openings

Sounds like you're saying don't do them yet - walk through the bobby book first.

Yeah, that’s like advanced applied fluid dynamics, and you are still learning to add and subtract.

You want to understand how the pieces move, the points value for each and why that varies for Bishops and Knights depending on the board state, and mating patterns. That’s it for a beginner.

After that, learn a couple of openings, and use them repeatedly.

Okay, thanks. I'll get the book.

Points? There are points in chess?

I've been playing this one lady who is very skilled. I think I give her pause in the opening phase (probably she's either toying with me, trying new things, giving me a chance and/or surprised by my poor moves; or some combo thereof). But I get killed in the mid / end game. It becomes a savage route.

Focus on the interaction between the different pieces. i.e. how do you defend against a knight with a bishop and a pawn, or how do you attack the weak side with just a knight. Understanding this will help you in achieving strategic goals during the games.
Learn one or two openings and stick to them at first. As you get better, add a new one and stick to that one for a while.

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Learn one or two openings and stick to them at first. As you get better, add a new one and stick to that one for a while.

From the lichess opening list (or perhaps one from the bobby book?), any suggestions to start? I opening fairly consistently now unless my opening gets attacked earlier than anticipated. I'm sure it's named something (I can't imagine I'm doing anything unique) but have no idea.

But if you suggest an opening or two, I'll look them up and try them out.

Thanks!

lichess openings: https://lichess.org/training/openings

I played a lot of chess in high school and even won a trophy once. One English teacher often asked me for a game.
The first book about chess I had was a thick tome that just concentrated on openings, most of which had some sort of name attached. I never got much out of the book and certainly never got to the point of memorizing openings by name.

There are a lot of simple basics, though, that can help to have explained before we’re exposed to them in play: E.g., beware of pins, forks, and discovered checks; the advantages to bishops of open diagonals and to rooks of open files; positioning pieces to support each other, such as doubled rooks; controlling the center of the board. Learning chess notation is good (the current not-so-new-now method is most useful, but understanding the old system is necessary if you’re looking at old accounts).

I can’t speak for anyone else, and we’re told that the top players spend much time studying and analyzing past games, but I never got interested to that point to do much of it. The closest I’ve gotten in recent years is watching the videos that pose a “How does white win?” sort of puzzle. I got to the level I did by just playing rather than trying to learn the exact sequence of moves for this or that named opening.

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I've been playing this one lady who is very skilled.

Chess itself blows my mind and is incomprehensible to me, but I've played other games and found that's the best way to learn and gain skill. When you start playing to a draw and even occasionally beating a superior opponent, you'll find yourself wiping the floor with others less skilled.

Honestly, it's one of the things I don't like about chess. Things like named openings. I have no clue what the common openings are and what they are named. But when I play someone, I'll do some move and they'll comment - 'ah, using <xyx> opening' and then seem like they know what moves I'll be making next. And they may not be wrong because chess is somewhat predictable if you've been play a long time.

I actually want to play shogi or go but have no idea where to play around here. Until then, I'll play chess to keep some mental acuity.

I'm one to stick w/ fundamentals and properly learn a subject. But it's a little frustrating playing people who just name my moves / scenarios (when I have no clue myself). But I don't really have a choice. Everybody I play is either really good already or really bad (ie - completely random w/o any strategy or tactic).

To be announcing one’s analysis of the opponent’s play, and especially, “Ah, yes, the Angor-Wat opening used by Krinkhoff against Blimp in 1876,” just strikes me as snobbery. I did, however, read a book that discussed the many ways of screwing with opponents psychologically and which I found somewhat amusing. My favorite was the story of when the author was (supposedly) playing with a very fancy and expensive antique ivory set belonging to his opponent. At one point when a bishop was positioned in a very disadvantageous spot on the board, he bent down to look at it very carefully from several angles and then said, “Is there a crack …?” The set’s owner snatched up the piece in a panic to look at it himself, and the other guy just said, “Touch move.” That refers to a rule that’s often observed that requires a piece to be moved if it’s touched.

One of my frequent opponents in high school was the wife of a family friend and she would blow cigarette smoke in my direction across the board as we played. I don’t know if it was an intentional effort to distract me then, but it would be effective against me today.

My advice is just to play and be happy. If you cannot find a suitable human opponent, there are online sites, and one I used permitted me to set the AI's skill level wherever I wanted from basic to advanced.

Thanks. Yes, I’ll continue to just learn and play for now regardless. I’m not one to get psyched out. There is one player who will suggest a different move for me if I do something egregious to help me learn.

Chess.com is a good resource. I use the free iteration but have considered subscribing.

Thanks. I'll check it out - local people recommended lichess.

I went down the same road learning chess in 2019 and fell down the chess rabbit hole hard. I wasted a lot of $ buying unnecessary books (too advanced) and time focusing on knowledge I could not fully understand to leverage at my current level.

If I were to do it again, I would start with the fundamentals of how to play chess. I recommend A First Book of Morphy by Frisco Del Rasario. It looks and sometime feel like a child's book on chess but it gives you the foundational primers on opening development rules, middle game and end game guidelines. This allow you to understand and appreciate the next level of knowledge pertaining to tactics, strategies, and endgames.

For this next level, I recommend How to Reassess Your Chess 4th Ed. by Jeremy Silman. An alternative is the Winning Chess Series by Yasser Seirawan if you want a more in depth coverage of roughly the same material. I recommend reading the following 3 books in that series in this order first before any of the others in the series - Play Winning Chess; Tactics; and Strategies. The material in both aurthors' books are the same even though each uses different terms to describe the concepts.

As for openings, I personally feel it's a time waster if you are under 1000 ELO rating. Under 1000 ELO, it is just a memorization contest of X moved into the opening, its branches and transpositions. I think you will be better serve spending that effort mastering the information in those books I mentioned earlier.

After that mastery, you will begin to understand a particular opening's strengths and weaknesses when concepts of open vs closed positions and pawn structures begin to coalesce into patterns.

If that lack of opening knowledge still bothers you like me, then My First Chess Opening Repertoire by Christof Seilecki should scratch that itch. He has 3 other books that delve deeper into 1. e4, 1. d4, and from black's perspective. My First Chess Opening Repertoire should be enough to hold you over till 1000 ELO IMHO.

Take advantage of the free learning courses from Lichess and chess.com. Use them to reinforce the concepts you are currently reading about. Also, do the puzzles. I had the paid chess.com account my first 2 years. I think is is worth it. The courses are very well done.

I have been playing for a few years now on Chess.com. It is my second favorite hobby after firearms, and far cheaper.


I have several courses from Levy Rozman on his platform Chessly. Shoot me an email if you would like to play on chess.com We can chat about the games, opening theory, and various general principles as we play.

I'm not qualified to be a chess coach but I would be willing to help out where I could.

My rapid rating has been hovering around 1000 for a while now.

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Originally posted by konata88:
Thanks. Yes, I’ll continue to just learn and play for now regardless. I’m not one to get psyched out. There is one player who will suggest a different move for me if I do something egregious to help me learn.

The courses offered with a paid subscription on chess.com are a tremendous value. Very easy to understand and in an interactive format.


I really struggle with books because I am not able to see the game in my head just based on chess notation, I have to put it on a board. Online makes that super simple.


I agree 100% with the person who suggested doing puzzles on chess.com.

A few years ago, I would see half of them and have no clue what to move first. Now I solve probably 80% of them quickly, 10% of them slowly, and fail 10% of them.

Always look for checks! Then see if they make sense. Avoid one-movers. Develop a plan.


Check out the GothamChess channel on youtube. Great content, relatable, and he helps teach as he reviews his own and other people's games.

Guess the ELO is a fun series.

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Originally posted by konata88:
Honestly, it's one of the things I don't like about chess. Things like named openings. I have no clue what the common openings are and what they are named. But when I play someone, I'll do some move and they'll comment - 'ah, using <xyx> opening' and then seem like they know what moves I'll be making next. And they may not be wrong because chess is somewhat predictable if you've been play a long time.

I actually want to play shogi or go but have no idea where to play around here. Until then, I'll play chess to keep some mental acuity.

I'm one to stick w/ fundamentals and properly learn a subject. But it's a little frustrating playing people who just name my moves / scenarios (when I have no clue myself). But I don't really have a choice. Everybody I play is either really good already or really bad (ie - completely random w/o any strategy or tactic).

There are so many different openings, if you find yourself playing a named opening you should be a little bit encouraged, because that means you aren't blundering in the first five moves, and you are playing at least a fundamentally solid opening.

It is helpful to learn a few openings for white and black that address the most common opening moves. After 5-10 moves, you are almost always on your own. The middlegame is the most enjoyable part of the game for me.

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Originally posted by konata88:
Okay, thanks. I'll get the book.

Points? There are points in chess?

As a general rule:

Pawns are worth 1
Bishops and knights 3
Rooks 5
Queens 9.


In practice, it is constantly evolving and rarely that simple. A protected bishop that is pointed at your opponents king or queen on an open or mostly open diagonal is probably worth far more than three. A passed pawn that is one square from queening is definitely worth more than one.


I haven't played on lichess personally but it is a very popular platform. I started on chess.com and have stuck with it.

I prefer lichess.

As far as the openings go, start by playing 1. e4 as White, and 1. ...e5 as Black. Develop your pieces, Knights before Bishops is ideal although not written in stone. Castle early, control the center and try to avoid obvious mistakes. You would be surprised how many of my students, at the first time assessing their skill, would start the game by playing 1. h4 followed by Rh3. I would quickly disabuse them of the notion that that was correct play.

As far as books go, I would recommend "Chess Fundamentals 100th Anniversary Edition" by Jose Raul Capablanca." The original of this book was in descriptive notation, this one is in algebraic notation which is almost universally used in this day and age. Another good book was Lasker's Manual of Chess, however I am not sure you can find it in algebraic notation.