Why I can not improve in chess & why I can not see the things? [closed]

Question

Why is it that I can not improve in chess? When I lose a game, I feel very angry. I am always trying to improve so I played a lot, but I can not see any improvement. Please suggest me something.

Answer 1

Everything is a matter of dedication, but with the correct techniques.

You should not feel angry, but glad! Your opponent just gave you the opportunity to figure out what are your weakness, so you can fix it! :D

Also, you are probably playing a lot of fast games. DON'T DO THAT!

Chess is a game of thinking. You need time for that. That's why chess is naturally a slow-paced game. Everything is so fast nowadays... Slow down a bit. :)

Prefer to play slow games (30min at least - 1h+ ideal). Let your speed build up naturally, at your own pace.

Also, I strongly recommend that you study the basics deeply. Most players (specially beginners) have a lot of "holes" in their knowledge (and don't know that), but they think they have a "playing style".

Stop trying to "win fast" using traps and studying lots of openings and variations. That's remembering, not playing.

There are a few concepts that you MUST know by heart to play good chess in every move:

1) Find all possible:

• Checks
• Captures
• Threats (Pins, forks, etc.).

And I mean ALL of them. Don't consider if it's good or bad yet. That's how the Masters find such great tactics and sacrifices! It's the CCT technique.

2) Find the Least Active Piece (the one that dominates the least squares), and think about what is the best square to put it, where it will have it's Maximum Activity (controls the most squares possible). That's the LAP=>MA technique. Piece Activity is the most important of all concepts, because all the others come from it.

3) Now you reorder the moves you found from the most forced (aggressive) on the top of the list, going down to the least forced (passive) move. That's the Candidate Moves List technique.

4) To be better organized and don't get lost doing that, look at one piece at a time, in descendant order of power/importance: King, Queen, Rooks, Bishops, Knights, Pawns.

5) If you are in the opening, keep in mind it's main goals: Develop the pieces, Control the Center, Protect the King. That's the DCP technique.

6) In the endgame, pawns are everything. Remember that each of them is a potential Queen! Don't try to chase the opponent's King, because in an open board, with few pieces to help, he can escape easily, and you will waste time.

Important! - Do all of that to your opponent first!! (like if it's his turn again). Only after that, you calculate for your own side. That's a great secret, hard to find anywhere, and is the best way to avoid those embarrassing blunders.

The deeper (more moves ahead) you can calculate, the better. About 3 is good, 5 is great (you will hardly need more than that) and 7 is about Master level.

Plus: When you are going to study a game (the ones you lost are the most important), a book, or a video, use all those techniques combined with the "Guess the move":

• In a book, cover the moves list an try to figure out the next move.

• In a video, pause it after every move, and try to find the next move.

Try as hard as you can, on every single move, always for both sides.

When you think you found the best move, write it down on a paper and include WHY you think it's the best move.

Only then you can see what was the next move made.

Did you guess it right? Great! Go to the next one.

Did you guess it wrong? Don't go further before you find out and completely understand why your move wasn't the best.

You will see that all those techniques combined are enough to bring you (at least) close to the Master level!

I spent 15+ years to find that out... Oh if I had someone to teach me just that when I was beginning... Only now I'm getting at 2000's.

You won't need to remember lots of variants of lots of openings. They will just start to feel right.

Try all those techniques in every move, since the very first one.

Try them everyday to solve chess tactics problems! You will see how things will suddenly start to make sense! And you will hardly make blunders if you use them correctly.

Of course, there is no "chess pill of success", but you won't get much closer than that... :) You have to take your time to learn how to use all of that properly.

I hope that helps. Forgive my bad english... I'm from Brazil.

Answer 2

You should stop playing a lot of games, but

1. Try to think harder when you play one, start from 15min games or slower, because playing 5min blitz or faster won't help you at all.

2. Once the game is over, use the computer analysis (cheap) or a chess coach (expensive, but feedback quality is much higher) and go over the game and learn from the mistakes you and your partner made.

3. Get some tactical training (plenty of web-sites and applications, google for "chess tactics").

This should get you going up to 1500-1600 and maybe a little beyond.