How to get better in chess fast?

[Monsterboy]

To get better in chess faster? should i play against a computer often or should i play against other people ?

how to avoid silly mistakes in chess? ,when i don't make them i can beat some of rated 1200 ,sometimes i lose someone like 800

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Play slower.

 

[Dadface]

Other than having a brain transplant you can't get better faster than you would by practise and study.

 

[uperkurk]

Play slower.

This.

Take your time, analyse your moves, ask yourself why you're chosing to move that particular piece over another. Try to learn to play 3 or 4 moves ahead.

but to answer your question, play against a computer on level 1. Defeat it 1 times, then level 2 ect ect

 

[cobalt124]

Play against people more than machines to learn the psychological aspects of the game. It's always better to play opponents who are slightly better than you so you can improve your game and learn. Play speed chess to learn openings and gain endgame experience and "playing under pressure". All the other advice posted so far as well, though a brain transplant is just plain cheating.

 

[mishrashubham]

Just so you know, there is no way to get better at chess (or anything for that matter) fast.
Everything takes practice, and patience in order to reach perfection.

Play slower.

+1
Avoid playing blitz or bullet too much, especially when you are in the learning phase. The thrill of playing fast games is tempting but then chess becomes more like a video game rather than something that you want to seriously study and play.

Before focusing on opening theory, have a good understanding of endgame. Do lots of puzzles, this makes you think more tactically; and if you are young, then you'll pick this up relatively quickly. Playing against strong computer opponents is also a great way to improve your tactics (that doesn't mean you shouldn't play with human opponents).

And like others said, pay attention in game and try to analyze as much as possible. Don't just always think two or three moves ahead, try to think deep but at the same time try to understand which combinations are worth spending time on (it'll come gradually).

In addition, analyze your games after you've played them, both your wins and your losses. See what you could have done better. See what your opponent could have done better. Post game analysis is very important in developing your game.

 

[Snow-Leopard]

Play with humans, Just before moving a piece look at all eight directions at both places.

 

[AlephZero]

Just before moving a piece look at all eight directions at both places.

That only works if all the knights are off the board

 

[DiracPool]

To get better in chess faster? should i play against a computer often or should i play against other people ?

A computer? No. To predictable, you learn best by dodging the unexpected moves by dumb humans. My suggestion is to go to the Ant room or Amoeba room on Yahoo games and hit quick play. The more anonymous people you play against, the better you'll get. I actually was a pretty good player in high school. I was on a team of 4 players for my high school in 1985 and we won the Hawaii state championship. I wasn't the best on my team, but one of my best friends was, the guy was unbelievable. Kind of like one of those guys that has a dozen games going simultaneously and winds every one of him.

The guy had one of those chess clocks in his backpack. I got good in high school because he sat behind me in history class and used to pull out his board and command me to play in the 5 minutes before the teacher came in. I will always remember his refrain..."quick game?"

 

[jhae2.718]

Play a lot of chess over many years. Become a grandmaster. Invent a time machine. Travel back to a week from today, kill your younger self, and take your place.

 

[DiracPool]

Invent a time machine. Travel back to a week from today

Can't do that jhae, haven't you been reading these threads?

 

[Lisa!]

Play against yourself!

 

[ChiralWaltz]

-Play against friends who are significantly better than you. Treat them somewhat like a tutor, if you will. Don't worry if the results (winning) aren't immediate, just focus on learning and improving.
-Get critiques regularly.
-Ask how you can improve (as you are doing here).
-Be consistent in playing them (biweekly, weekly, ect.).

 

[mishrashubham]

A computer? No. To predictable...

Computers have come a long way. They are definitely not predictable (unless one dumbs down the engine intentionnally).

 

[Fredrik]

To get better in chess faster? should i play against a computer often or should i play against other people ?

how to avoid silly mistakes in chess? ,when i don't make them i can beat some of rated 1200 ,sometimes i lose someone like 800

A good way to train yourself to get rid of most of the "blindness" that makes you blunder pieces and fail to see simple tactical combinations is to practice solving tactics puzzles. This site is a good place to do it: http://chesstempo.com/chess-tactics.html If you register, you will quickly start to get problems that are appropriate for your skill level.

Another good train-your-brain exercise is to read through the first few moves of some chess game (e.g. 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6. 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6. 6. Be3 e6), and without using a chess board, try to figure out the color of each destination square. At first this is really hard. You can memorize things like "the lower right corner is white" and "the queen is on a square of its own color", but then you have to try to visualize small parts of the board in your mind and put the pieces together. If you keep doing this, I think you will eventually be able to play chess blindfolded.

It's also a good idea to learn a little bit about chess openings. Consider the book by van der Sterren. You can also use a site like chessgames.com to see what most people play in a given situation (in the opening).

There are also people who make chess training videos. I've seen a bunch of videos by IM Greg Shahade. They're both educational and entertaining. Unfortunately you would have to pay a membership fee (at leggopoker.com) to access the whole collection. (I think he has also made some videos that are available for free).

Play online at sites like freechess.org or chess.com, where you can see if your rating is improving or not. Mine is bouncing up and down between 1300 and 1550 (and is usually around 1400). I'm too lazy and busy to seriously try to improve it, but if I wanted to, I would use the methods I suggested for you. I have tried them a little bit, and they seem to be be working.

 

[Monsterboy]

Play a lot of chess over many years. Become a grandmaster. Invent a time machine. Travel back to a week from today, kill your younger self, and take your place.

LOL

i will do the playing part and you invent the time machine for me ,i will pay you handsomely but no pre-payments

 

[Monsterboy]

The guy had one of those chess clocks in his backpack. I got good in high school because he sat behind me in history class and used to pull out his board and command me to play in the 5 minutes before the teacher came in. I will always remember his refrain..."quick game?"

i tried this when i was in high school and i got caught,i was the best in my class back then but non of my friends liked chess ,i was good(compared to them) so they avoided playing with me, i had no access to the internet ,i gradually lost interest and ran out of practice.Today i only play online

 

[Monsterboy]

A good way to train yourself to get rid of most of the "blindness" that makes you blunder pieces and fail to see simple tactical combinations is to practice solving tactics puzzles. This site is a good place to do it: http://chesstempo.com/chess-tactics.html If you register, you will quickly start to get problems that are appropriate for your skill level.

thanks ,i registered there ,i play in chess.com ,i don't a premium membership so i watch youtube videos on different chess openings etc(chesswebsite.com) and apply them in the game.

 

[FreeMitya]

On top of what has already been said, I would recommend also studying the greats like Fischer, Kasparov, Carlsen, and see if you can find any information on their strategies.

 

[Monsterboy]

Avoid playing blitz or bullet too much, especially when you are in the learning phase. The thrill of playing fast games is tempting but then chess becomes more like a video game rather than something that you want to seriously study and play.

I do play a lot of blitz and maybe that's why i make stupid mistakes and i lost a ton of matches initially ,now i think i am getting used to it and i think it actually helps in the long run.
Now recently, i played standard 30min games ,i can think a lot faster than my opponents who are not used to blitz and 30mins feels like a lot of time to think.I think playing blitz actually gives an edge.

 

[mishrashubham]

Emphasis mine

I do play a lot of blitz and maybe that's why i make stupid mistakes and i lost a ton of matches initially ,now i think i am getting used to it and i think it actually helps in the long run.
Now recently, i played standard 30min games ,i can think a lot faster than my opponents who are not used to blitz and 30mins feels like a lot of time to think.I think playing blitz actually gives an edge.

That is the problem. Playing blitz gives you a bad habit. You tend to quickly look up combinations and play the move that looks the best. But why do that when you could instead think for five mins and do a much better move?

On the internet you compete with people who play blitz, but when you'll go out to play real tournaments you'll have much larger time controls. Any standard FIDE rating chess tournament has matches typically 90mins + 30s, which means you'll begin with 90 mins each and then a 30 second increment every time you move. And even that lasts for only the first 40 moves (although this can vary). So matches can last for 4, 5 hours; or sometimes even 6 to 7 hours striaght (mostly only happens with IMs or GMs though). And trust me it's as tiring as running a marathon. So you should have the stamina and concentration to able to think with clear mind after playing that long. Why do you think all the top tournaments, in which the world's best chess players compete have such time controls? You can see what sort of time controls the recent http://www.tatasteelchess.com/tournament/information had (this is a prestigious tournament, only the top 15 of the world compete). Even in unrated rapid tournaments, you'll generally have time controls of 25, 30 or 40 mins.

You get to see quality moves in chess only in long games. Sure you can play a hell of blitz and soon you'll be pretty good at it, you'll start beating everyone, but then like I said, it begins to resemble a casual video game at that point. If you want to seriously play chess and appreciate it for what it is, for it's own sake, then blitz is not the answer.

 

[Monsterboy]

Emphasis mine



That is the problem. Playing blitz gives you a bad habit. You tend to quickly look up combinations and play the move that looks the best. But why do that when you could instead think for five mins and do a much better move?

On the internet you compete with people who play blitz, but when you'll go out to play real tournaments you'll have much larger time controls. Any standard FIDE rating chess tournament has matches typically 90mins + 30s, which means you'll begin with 90 mins each and then a 30 second increment every time you move. And even that lasts for only the first 40 moves (although this can vary). So matches can last for 4, 5 hours; or sometimes even 6 to 7 hours striaght (mostly only happens with IMs or GMs though). And trust me it's as tiring as running a marathon. So you should have the stamina and concentration to able to think with clear mind after playing that long. Why do you think all the top tournaments, in which the world's best chess players compete have such time controls? You can see what sort of time controls the recent http://www.tatasteelchess.com/tournament/information had (this is a prestigious tournament, only the top 15 of the world compete). Even in unrated rapid tournaments, you'll generally have time controls of 25, 30 or 40 mins.

You get to see quality moves in chess only in long games. Sure you can play a hell of blitz and soon you'll be pretty good at it, you'll start beating everyone, but then like I said, it begins to resemble a casual video game at that point. If you want to seriously play chess and appreciate it for what it is, for it's own sake, then blitz is not the answer.

You win.

i was just proposing that if you play blitz (not too much) you can think fast in less time than your opponent can think in the same amount of time ,hence you can think more in the same given time than an opponent who is not used to blitz

 

[mishrashubham]

You win.

i was just proposing that if you play blitz (not too much) you can think fast in less time than your opponent can think in the same amount of time ,hence you can think more in the same given time than an opponent who is not used to blitz

I agree being able to think more in less time is a good thing, but then you're not always thinking in the right direction. You almost never have the time in blitz to think many different possiblities and so the quality of the move is decreased; that's what I'm trying to say. In a blitz match the quality of moves from both sides is never as good as in a standard match, and this happens with even grandmasters. Eventually the one with 'better' moves wins, but that does not necessarily mean that they would mostly be 'good' moves.

 

[Monsterboy]

What i have noticed is that all the GMs in chess.com always play bullet, not even blitz ,why is that? what do they gain from bullet which is even worse than blitz.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Blitz chess kills your ideas.

http://www.chessquotes.com/topic-blitz