Four bishops on white squares is a good start.

This move is brilliant but why?

Found this at 1130 elo somehow

I was playing 3+0 Blitz, and black resigned after I moved my h pawn.

He had 1m24s on the clock, I had 1m32s.

I think if his rook was on f8, then resigning would make sense, because of bank rank mate. But I can't see back rank mate with his rook on e8, because his king had too much room to run back and forth.

And his pawn was about to promote too, then it would be 2 rooks vs rook + queen.

I started playing this July and finally made it to my dream rating. I only used the fried liver for white and some Sicilian knowledge for black. I think I’m going to quite playing chess forever as I take it seriously at times and just wanted to prove to myself that I could make to 1000.

I'm happy. that is all.

Would this move order work/be a decent idea?

If they play c5 then playing an English could be a nice variety. Most of the time they’re gonna play d5 so I could play my London (I know I know)

I’m starting to feel a bit conspiratorial… I have been using the membership for about a month having been stuck at ~400 for over a year. In this short time I’ve risen to 550.

I suppose I’m just in disbelief after reviewing all of my games that I’m actually improving.

But I also feel like now I’ve paid, there’s incentive to give me easier games so that I feel like my money has been worth it.

Either way I’m enjoying chess so much

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Hi everyone!

I want to seriously improve at chess, and I'd appreciate some advice on how to train effectively. I play on Chess.com and currently have a rating below 500 Elo. I know the rules and can play games, but I'm not entirely sure how to structure my training to become a stronger player.

My goal: I want to build a solid foundation, reduce my mistakes, and gradually improve my rating. I don't just want to gain Elo points; I want to genuinely understand chess and become a better player.

I'd especially appreciate advice on the following topics:

1. Tactics and puzzles: How many chess puzzles should I solve each day? Is it better to solve them under time pressure or take my time and fully understand each position?

2. Game analysis: How should I analyze my losses? Should I try to identify my own mistakes before turning on the engine? How should I categorize my mistakes so I can learn from them?

3. Openings: How much time should I spend learning openings at my level? Is it enough to focus on basic principles such as controlling the center, developing pieces, and castling instead of memorizing long variations? Which openings would you recommend?

4. Time controls: Which time control should I play? Would 10+5, 15+10, or something else be better for improvement?

5. Endgames: Which basic endgames should I learn first as a beginner?

6. Learning resources: Which YouTube channels, free courses, websites, or books would you recommend? I'm also happy to use English-language resources.

7. Daily training routine: How would you divide a 60-minute session between tactics, game analysis, lessons, and playing games?

8. Tracking progress: Apart from Elo, how can I measure my improvement? Are metrics such as blunders per game, accuracy, and puzzle ratings useful indicators?

9. Common mistakes: What habits tend to hold players below 500 Elo back the most?

If you've climbed from a low rating and made significant progress, I'd also love to hear what worked best for you and what you would do differently if you were starting over today.

I'm particularly interested in practical, actionable advice rather than generic tips.

Thanks in advance!

I’m an old man on here I’m 51 and picked up Chess probably over a year ago after playing a bunch as a kid

I’ve worked my way up to the mid 1300s with a lot of studying and practice, which is cool

The thing that’s really helped me is not rushing in games and just looking for small advantages that add up over time. Especially at my current level.

Small things like improving, my weakest piece, focusing on an opponents backward pawn and applying pressure until they crack.

I will obviously look for a big tactical moves that have a big impact or a big sacrifice, but I think my biggest breakthrough was realizing that that doesn’t have to happen every single game and a lot of my recent wins aren’t because I did anything significantly big in terms of one move, but I slowly broke the opponent down until I was able to apply enough pressure to checkmate them.

What's the point of trading EVERY piece? you end up in an endgame-like situation in so few moves and gets boring as hell.

Though I was already ahead, I got triple forked before this with their knight and lost my rook :/ 800elo

Definitely did not expect to get humbled like this today… oh well

This must be my best run (accuracy wise at least). I know that those 80-90% accuracy games aren't something I can sustain.

Through my beginner eye, I'm trying to understand where I've improved and where I should put work in next. Any advice or feedback is welcome.

Something I've noticed is my early game improvement. I can usually play book moves for 4-6 and generally I play good moves for the first 7-8. Often as black ill have an advantage after 5-6 moves, but I don't know what to do to realize that advantage.

I look at game review after games with the goal of improving 1 move from the earliest move I can. So if I had an inaccuracy for instance:

e4 - d6
Nf3 - Nf6
d4 - Nxe4
Qd3 - d5 [good]

Opponents hang the e4 pawn 5-10% of the time and while d5 is good, Knight back to Nf6 is best and I know that for future games.

White I always play e4, NF3, d4 (when I can). People often pause after d4.
Black g6, Bg7, Nf6 but whenever they play e4 I respond w d6.

Any advice on where to put my energy to work towards improving?

Hi all. new to chess and i do puzzles on lichess and like to play on chess.com but don't want to pay 20$ a month for features that i can do for free. i'm also just wondering if theres any good 3rd party sites for a analysis my profile and all my games together

I was playing against this guy and he just dropped a brilliant move and left. We're both beginners. I just wanna know how is this a brilliant move. Cuz after I took his rook nothing happened. Or maybe if we continued playing he would've cooked me. Idk I want someone to explain.

I’ve been studying chess for about a year.

I’m still afraid of playing real people, so I study tactics and openings, and practice against bots.

I usually play against Maia1 (Lichess bot) and Lorenzo.

And today, I beat Lorenzo for the first time!

I’m so excited!

I mainly play the Giuoco Piano with White, and I really like it.

It’s positional, tactical, and a very classical game, so I learn a lot from it.

Tonight I also used the Giuoco Piano and won.

I’m really happy!

I even got a Brilliant move for the first time!

I’m really, really happy that I beat him.

Now I have a little more confidence. I feel like I’m getting closer to playing a real match. I want to study chess more and more.

How much did you prepare before you started playing real games against people?

Please share your experiences.

I’m about 850 rapid right now and trying to get to 1200, a lot of the material i’m trying to learn from uses the standard chess nomenclature like ng6+, b5, etc. I understand how the system works and what everything means, but I cannot visualize for the life of me where each square is. Like if someone says to move the knight to b4, I literally have to count out the squares like some kind of primate

How do I get better at this? Is there an easy way or do I just have to brute force it into my brain

I am around 1400 rapid on chess.com right now.

I want to study some more Openings, what Website would you recommend?