Chess Tutorial

[The Comish]

[Invictus]

Neat trick but doesn't play out much. (Let me geek out here)
D7-D5 isn't the most popular.

After Nf3 the optimal play (i think) is Bg4 (instead of taking pawn)

[Daydream Nation]

As long as chess has been brought up, does anyone have any tips for improving your game? My daughter has started playing and I have taught her just about everything I know. Online resources are the best. Free is even better. Any advice is appreciated.

[Feenom]

Lol, I like the move ICBM to chess board 1, very effective. Game over.

[Eskimo Brother]

As long as chess has been brought up, does anyone have any tips for improving your game? My daughter has started playing and I have taught her just about everything I know. Online resources are the best. Free is even better. Any advice is appreciated.

Chess.com app has daily tutorials and puzzles (unlimited if you sign up for premium which I haven't bothered to do).
I also find the best way to learn is just by playing a lot and learning from mistakes/what other people do. The games on the app you can also look into after, and you can go back through the game and look at what optimal moves were at the time.

I also like playing a bunch of speed games, because the faster you play, the more games you get in meaning more exposure, better pattern recognition, etc.

[Invictus]

I read books that focused on improving you game...
But that was when I was a kid and there wasn't all these apps and things available.

I know there's a chess site that you can review your game after and it critiques your moves and gives you suggestions on where to move. I just don't know the name of it...
I saw it watching a streamer (think it was BoxBox), but she could do that too (as long as the streamer is good and explains reasons for his/her moves).

I'm about to teach my friends 6ish year old how to play so I best figure out some good tools too.

[doulos]

Definitely an old school Russian type chess opening.

[doulos]

As long as chess has been brought up, does anyone have any tips for improving your game? My daughter has started playing and I have taught her just about everything I know. Online resources are the best. Free is even better. Any advice is appreciated.

You will get any number of answers with this.

My experience with improving generally came from a few key things.

1) Focused study. Not watching youtube videos from chess influencers etc, but sitting down, with a book, and focusing only on learning chess.

2) Lots of tactics. Simple problems, over and over, to improve pattern recognition. It doesn't matter if you understand 15 moves into a chess opening if you drop a piece immediately after because you don't have strong enough tactics. I played a game recently where my opponent was ~2100 rated (CFC) and dropped a rook due to a missed tactic. You can make huge gains simply by getting better at this. You can use books like Chess: 5334 Problems, or if you think that distractions can be minimized, then online resources like lichess, where you can just do tactics over and over, are fine as well.

3) Playing longer time control games, preferably against people who are better than you, so you can go over the games after. Real life chess is absolutely best for this, but if you're going to play online, then the longer the better. Blitz chess is mostly useless for people except as entertainment. There will be some small gains to be made up to a point, but it's largely not that helpful. Play 15 minute games at the minimum, but I would suggest even 30 minute games.

4) Go over every single game you play afterwards, without a chess computer, and try to figure out what you could have done better. A computer can be used later to see what you missed, but the act of analysing yourself is key!

There's no shortcuts with it. The quality of my play has always been connected to the time, effort, and quality of learning I took up.

[Invictus]

1) Focused study. Not watching youtube videos from chess influencers etc, but sitting down, with a book, and focusing only on learning chess.

Streamers can be helpful, but you have to find a streamer who's niche is educational streaming and not just entertainment streaming. There's usually a few out there for any game. But yes I would put that as focused study, but I took what you were saying as trying to exclude them.

@Daydream Nation
There's many openings - I'd start with just learning the few basic/strongest ones and build from those working on your opening principles (control the center, create space, develop as close as possible using the "order of development."

Now focus on learning endgames. rook vs king, queen vs king, two bishops vs king, etc.

[doulos]

There are always exceptions. Much of the most popular chess content out there is just entertainment.

[random-d]

I think it depends on what your goals are. There's no way to ever play at top levels without studying theory. Anyone who studies theory knows that gimmicky gambits like the Tennyson are easily refuted and are only really effective for casual play.

Also don't play online unless you have alot of patience, it's littered with cheaters using engines to tell them what moves to make. It's just an endlessly frustrating experience.

This video assumes your opponent will make the least optimal moves. Sure in a best case scenario you're up material but in reality this a reverse Budapest gambit.

[The Comish]

[random-d]

The Albin counter gambit is another dubious opening that is only effective in amateur play and tight time controls. I guess it depends on how seriously you want to play. Risky gambits can be fun but they can also be surprisingly ineffective against experienced players. If you're serious about being a good player, stick to proven theoretically sound openings. Not as exciting but much more effective.

[forumname]

Well, it took less than 15 posts for this thread to get too advanced for me. Carry on!

[Bramuin]

Well, it took less than 15 posts for this thread to get too advanced for me. Carry on!

Ain’t that the truth. LOL!

Personally when I was in my teens, we had a book of famous matches. I found it fun to sit around with friends and replay those games.