this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025
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Chess Beginners

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What are good ways to get better at chess? (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 2 months ago by Sadbutdru@sopuli.xyz to c/chessbeginners@discuss.tchncs.de
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I learned the basics as a kid, just like how the pieces move and what is legal. I don't feel like I have ever managed to develop a sense of strategy, and I both think that I need to think for too long about each move, but also still make obvious mistakes like not noticing a threat and losing a piece for no gain.

What would be the best way for a player of my level to improve? Read a book about openings? Follow through games by great players? Obviously part of it will be play lots of chess, is there a particularly good website/app for this? Is playing against humans better than bots?

I'm not likely to have access to much in person games like a club or anything, this would be something in looking to do in my spare time, as and when possible.

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[–] CrimsonMishaps@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I got a random app and just increased the difficulty as I start winning consistently. That helped train up a bit.

Chess.com is a pretty great resource.

[–] ozymandias@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 months ago

chescom is corporate garbage, all of the paid features on there are free on lichess
and people cheat on there CONSTANTLY

[–] ozymandias@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago

lichess and lots of speed chess…
also chess youtubers… hikaru is the best player who streams… gotham chess has a lot of more beginner videos….

[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I would highly recommend to get a book of chess games that's annotated by someone who knows what they're doing, and play through the games from it on a separate chessboard, reading the notes and how the person is describing the strategies and values at play during the game. That's what I did and it taught me a whole lot that I never would have really absorbed or come to on my own.

[–] Sadbutdru@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Do you have any particular books you would recommend?

[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't, sadly... I actually looked to try to find the book I used for it, but it's been so long that I couldn't properly remember what it was. Maybe go to the bookstore and pick up a few and see if they have the right structure (a series of games and then annotations of what's going on in them, and also if the author's text seems like something you vibe with).

Sorry if this is unhelpful lol... I looked over some books online but I'm not sure what is good and I don't want to give you some recommendation and then it not be worthwhile.

[–] Sadbutdru@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 month ago

No that's cool, thanks for the advice! A couple I've seen recommended online are Chernev: "Logical Chess Move by Move" and Sierawan: "Winning Chess Brilliances", so I'll keep my eyes out for a used copy of one of those.

[–] KokusnussRitter@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 months ago

When I tried to understand the game better I found the lessons on chess.com helpfull. They introduced me to basic concepts like "the four squares in the middle.are the most powerfull ones" . I was also lucky to have a couple of ppl at uni who I'd play with. We weren't good, but we sometimes explained our moves to each other.