Help a chess noob
 

Sup PoG,

So with all the chess threads here, I figured I'd do some googling and see what I could find. I've played chess before, never formally, and can beat all my friends who haven't played much chess but lose to anyone who has studied chess at all.

I searched around for a while and found FICS, got my ass handed to me a couple times, and googled some chess strategy and came up with about 100000 pages of stuff, which is a bit overwhelming.

Where should I go to start learning about chess? is there a good book that you would recommend for beginners? any opinion on the many online references? how did you learn?

Thanks in advance y'all

Re: Help a chess noob
 

I asked this a few days ago and the book "My System" was recommended.

Also, if you need some help dating "The System" is apparently recommended by Amazon.

Re: Help a chess noob
 

link

It looks like a little kid book but I think its a good one.

Re: Help a chess noob
 

Try this one.

It's a classic, you can play through the games over and over, and it's not going to bang you over the head with variations. Great starter.

Re: Help a chess noob
 

[ QUOTE ]
Try this one.

It's a classic, you can play through the games over and over, and it's not going to bang you over the head with variations. Great starter.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have never seen that one. Is it similar to Logical Chess by the same author?? In that book he goes over every move thats made with reasons why.

Maybe I will have to get this one as well. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: Help a chess noob
 

sweet, might head down to the library and see if they have any of these. thanks

Re: Help a chess noob
 

It's all about pattern recognition. Focus on learning theory and playing and playing and playing.

Re: Help a chess noob
 

I SUCK SO BAD AT CHESS I CANNOT WIN A SINGLE GAME

Re: Help a chess noob
 

[ QUOTE ]
It's all about pattern recognition. Focus on learning theory and playing and playing and playing.

[/ QUOTE ]
somebody can yell at me if im wrong, but the first thing that needs to be learned is tactics. discovery, forks,skewers, pins, all that [censored]

Re: Help a chess noob
 

I must say, I have been feeling the need to pretty much start all over again and relearn the game as I am so out of practice that it hurts.

I am going through How to Reassess Your Chess and am finding it to be quite awesome.

There is a .pgn database available here.

Which you can load for free into chessbase light from here.

Re: Help a chess noob
 

DMBFan23,

I've also taken a renewed interest in chess. I say renewed, because I played a little chess in middle and high school, but never on a team or anything.

When I began playing again, I was also overwhelmed by the amount of information on the internet and the sheer number of books about chess. Here's what I've found. Most sources I've read recommend beginners spend a lot of time studying tactics. Yassir Seirawan's "Winning Chess Tactics" is a good book for this since it explains how each tactic works and offers a good number of puzzles to test how much you've learned. After that, you may also want to buy a book full of chess problems. There are lots of these, just check out reviews at Amazon to see what people think of them.

For longer term plans, I looked at several "So You'd Like To" pages on amazon. Some of these list which books are appropriate for different level chessplayers. One that seems reasonable and doesn't list a million books is "So You'd Like to Train to Become a Strong Chess Player."

BTW, is there a chess forum equivalent of 2+2? I've Googled chess forums, but most of the ones I found had low traffic.

edit: Library is a good option. Also look at used book stores.

Re: Help a chess noob
 

I think the 2+2 of chess is on usenet, rec.games.chess.misc

Re: Help a chess noob
 

so on the recommendation of a couple posters, I figured I'd start with tactics...I had looked at openers a little, but found that I was getting manipulated into making huge errors through tactical moves once the openings had developed.

I found this site, http://www.chesstactics.org/, , and it seems to be a good one as far as a quick free basic resource. I'll post updates as I play more or get better or give up or whatever.

P.S. I did get to SCHOOL someone with the danish gambit one time, which was completely worth the 20 times it completely blew up in my face

Re: Help a chess noob
 

[ QUOTE ]
so on the recommendation of a couple posters, I figured I'd start with tactics...I had looked at openers a little, but found that I was getting manipulated into making huge errors through tactical moves once the openings had developed.

I found this site, http://www.chesstactics.org/, , and it seems to be a good one as far as a quick free basic resource. I'll post updates as I play more or get better or give up or whatever.

P.S. I did get to SCHOOL someone with the danish gambit one time, which was completely worth the 20 times it completely blew up in my face

[/ QUOTE ]
Cool, I like to bust out the Fried Liver Attack whenever I can.

Re: Help a chess noob
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
so on the recommendation of a couple posters, I figured I'd start with tactics...I had looked at openers a little, but found that I was getting manipulated into making huge errors through tactical moves once the openings had developed.

I found this site, http://www.chesstactics.org/, , and it seems to be a good one as far as a quick free basic resource. I'll post updates as I play more or get better or give up or whatever.

P.S. I did get to SCHOOL someone with the danish gambit one time, which was completely worth the 20 times it completely blew up in my face

[/ QUOTE ]
Cool, I like to bust out the Fried Liver Attack whenever I can.

[/ QUOTE ]

well now I have a new thing to try for 20 games until I own [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Help a chess noob
 

[ QUOTE ]
I must say, I have been feeling the need to pretty much start all over again and relearn the game as I am so out of practice that it hurts.

I am going through How to Reassess Your Chess and am finding it to be quite awesome.

There is a .pgn database available here.

Which you can load for free into chessbase light from here.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks amplify for posting that link with the pgn databases. I just dug out a bunch of chessbooks from my closet now that they will be easy to read. Just click chessbase and your on it. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Help a chess noob
 

"Play Winning Chess" by Yasser Seirawan. "World Champions guide to Chess" and "Chess Tactics for Champions" both by Susan Polgar - great books on tactics. Then the other books by Seirawan

Re: Help a chess noob
 

DMB,

I recommend ChessMaster 10th or which ever is the latest. It is a great program that has voice + interactive lessons, 100+ of these, along with tips from pros, quizes, e.t.c Plus a powerfull chess engine that can analyze. Its $20 (or "free" if you look around) http://www.amazon.com/Ubi-Soft-Chessmast...9290304?ie=UTF8

Re: Help a chess noob
 

The Seirawan/Silman series of "Winning Ches X" books are very good for starting to study. Easy to read, fairly well laid out and written, and good.

"My System" is a bit more advanced and I'd probably hold off for a while. If you want an introductory version of the same thing, pick up "Weapons of chess" by Pandolfini.

My personal favorite books are:

60 memorable games, by Fischer (original, not the bastard Nunn version)
Road to chess improvement, by Yermolinksy
Grandmaster Achievement, by Polugaevsky
My great predecessors (all 5 volumes), by Kasparov

Re: Help a chess noob
 

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60 memorable games, by Fischer (original, not the bastard Nunn version)


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LOL, whats wrong with Nunn? I have a few of his books and they seem pretty good. Does he rewrite older books and mess them up or something?

Re: Help a chess noob
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
60 memorable games, by Fischer (original, not the bastard Nunn version)


[/ QUOTE ]

LOL, whats wrong with Nunn? I have a few of his books and they seem pretty good. Does he rewrite older books and mess them up or something?

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I think this has something to do with an issue over Fischer not giving a permit for the Nunn version. Mr. Ottosen is obviously on Bobby's side [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Bookwise it's fine.

Re: Help a chess noob
 

In the mid-90s, Nunn/Batsford re-released the book (with all acceptable permits) but he made numerous numerous changes. It now reads like a book written by a university educated British person rather than a high school dropout from Brooklyn. Bobby's grammar was horrible, but when you read the book, it sounded like him talking. Now it doesn't.

For once, Fischer was reasonable in his complaints.

Re: Help a chess noob
 

I signed up at chesslecture.com

It was $12.95 and worth it IMO. Lots of video lectures and the ones I seen so far were pretty instructional.

I used the "Fried liver attack" after watching one video but ran into time trouble as the game was only 5 mins.

They have a free video if you want to check it out before signing up.