How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

Basically I play with friends who know how to play, but not at any type of good level. How can I learn to beat them in a short time, and is it worth getting any good? It seems like there will be tons of people who take this game way more seriously than I would, but I enjoy playing.

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

To beat them, maybe a few weeks of serious study.

To become decent, anywhere from a year to a life time depending on how hard you work.

I think it's very much worth it but I've never done it.

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

i got upto 1600 rating in about 3 months of playing roughly 20 hours per week

This would be good enough to pwn your friends

There are plenty of books to skim
lots of free internet sites as well

i found the unspoken game while looking for a book to improve my chess and never went back

it seemed quite difficult to reach the top levels and there just isn't the same amount of cash involved

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

D-bag,

I was in a similar situation last year when some friends and I picked up chess as a hobby. We attracted a few other players who were mid-level beginners and consistently dominated us. I started reading some books and playing online and within a month I was crushing these players.

With beginning players (i would define this as casual players or even "experienced" players who have never attempted to look into successful chess strategies), all it takes is a rudimentary knowledge of how to play strategically to be a big winner. In a game with inexperienced players, it tends to be a series of traded pieces and accidental losses until one players side is so decimated that a checkmate is glaringly obvious. There is little planning, just a "get all his pieces" mentality.

With any even low-grade experienced players, it will take quite awhile. Basically, even the "bad" players who are aware of correct chess openings, defenses, and concepts will probably beat you for quite awhile.

A great book to pick up is "Winning Chess" series from Everyman Chess. Read the first book in the series and you will beat all of your friends.

As a side note, I enjoy Chess as a side-hobby to poker because of the sharp contrast. There is absolutely NO luck in chess. The player who plays better wins everytime, period. If you lose, its because you played incorrectly. Its a nice palatte cleanser after a session of bad beats.

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

GS,

I firmly agree. In fact, I avoided poker for a long time for exactly this reason: the best player does not always win. What I am looking for is the tools to break into an understanding of the game. For example, I cannot decipher the moves in a text format (i.e. 1) e4 c6), thus I am not able to see what makes game strategies work. If there was the right bridge for someone who basically understands the moves, has played a few games, is intelligent, but doesn't know enough to get into real strategy, that would the my aim. When I play, I feel like I am making OK moves but it's just a matter of time until I make a pretty big error, which naturally I don't like.

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

DB, I highly, highly recommend starting with this book and continuing through the series (from the same author).

Play Winning Chess

Also, most beginners to intermediate books (including this one), have a pre-chapter devoted to explaining chess notation. What I did to become fluent in this was use a sharpie to label my board. This way, whenever I play I can look at the grids and see the notation in my head as the game progresses.

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

do you find it harder if you are the black pieces? I tried to think of the notation this evening, but got confused when the board was turned around. I dunno, this is probably a noob thing.

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

the same thing still confuses me.

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

i am totally far from being a good chess player, but a friend who tried to teach me a bit emphasized that it was a game of conquering territory, and that the middle of the board was very valuable turf.

i think what he was trying to get across was to visualize the board and where the pieces can control as a whole, rather than individually.

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

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I got upto 1700 rating in about 9 months of playing roughly 12 hours per week

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Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

i have an idea

Anyone who wants to play me just pick a room in yahoo

we can play a game maybe G/10 or G/15 then review it and i can possibly help you see some of your errors or try to understand why certain tactical positions exist (underprotected piece, overworked piece, decoy sacrifice etc...), make opening considerations, determine your style (defensive, natural, aggressive etc...)

Anyone down PM me or post here...

And if you want good books the first one i read was chess for dummies...made me a little better since it gives a basic understanding of the groundwork.

From there read something like "The Complete Book of Chess Strategy by Jeremy Silman...pretty good

and get Rapid Improvement for the Adult Tournament Player by some guy i forgot - this book is all tactics it's an in depth personal study course that some guy invented that just focuses on tacitcs because anything under the 2000ish level is usually just a game decided by tactics...prophylaxis and positional understanding etc is good to have and will make you better but it's mostly found correctly implimented in the higher play. if anyone's down lemme know....i'm bored and have an hour or two to kill...

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

Gameknot has a database that includes thousands of games of players with 1600+ ratings (site rating - not real). You can make a move and review the 2-3 most popular moves that follow. Play around with it for a while to develop a good starting strategy.

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

STUPID QUESTION FOLLOWS:

How can you earn your rating? I'm a very casual chess player, but I tend to beat everyone I play, including some people who claim they were on chess teams and the like. I see people throw around numbers and I want one too.

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

uschess.org

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

You could get "decent" in like 2 weeks.

Very similiar to pkoer, 90%+ of people who "play" chess play very poorly, they normally just know the rules and how the pieces move.

If you got a book on the basic tactics (pins, forks, skewers, etc.) and also studied the most common openings a few moves deep and basic endgame ideas, you would be instantly better than all casual players.

And you can get alot of experience relatively quickly online.

You would also put yourself into a position where if you played well you could beat a superior player who makes a blunder, and even really good players (who aren't professionals) make blunders (online especially, due to time constraints)

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

i played rated games on the World Chess Network online and received a rating according to some recognized standard guidelines that they used.

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

[ QUOTE ]
STUPID QUESTION FOLLOWS:

How can you earn your rating? I'm a very casual chess player, but I tend to beat everyone I play, including some people who claim they were on chess teams and the like. I see people throw around numbers and I want one too.

[/ QUOTE ]

Once you get a rating you'll be depressed by the amount of people who are vastly better than you.

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Basically I play with friends who know how to play, but not at any type of good level. How can I learn to beat them in a short time, and is it worth getting any good? It seems like there will be tons of people who take this game way more seriously than I would, but I enjoy playing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Playing any tournaments, once you are registered with us chess, will start working on your rating. This could be a once a year tourney, or a local school or chess club that might hold tournaments weekly. It's much like a golf handicap where the local pro or whover reports your scores to someone who updates your rating.

When I was active online reportings weren't available, but they may be now but I doubt it since verifying who actually played the game would be impossible.

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Basically I play with friends who know how to play, but not at any type of good level. How can I learn to beat them in a short time, and is it worth getting any good?

[/ QUOTE ]

If you want to beat them in the shortest time possible :

Learn the basics, learn how to read notation, practice a lot.
Learn basic strategy and position, some basic moves, etc.

Learn one opening for white and practice it a lot. I'm not sure what the best option is. Ruy Lopez is very common and easy to learn, but you might be better off with something they're not so used to like an English opening.

Learn one defense and practice it against standard beginner openings. Sicilian would be a good choice.

Practice online.

If you work hard you should be able to beat them in 2-3 weeks.

To get actually good takes 2-3 years of study & practice.

This web site seems pretty good :

http://www.chesscorner.com/tutorial/learn.htm

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

A similar subject came a few months ago. After following the links in the thread, recommended books were:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess

and

Everyone's 2nd Chess Book

I haven't bought either book yet, but if I do decide to play chess, they are what I will buy. (Apparently the Complete Idiot book is much better than the Dummies book).

Re: How long does it take to get decent at chess?
 

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I think it's very much worth it but I've never done it.

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Chess is possibly the greatest timesink I have ever endeavored upon.