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Just a quick guide on what I consider a sound way to begin learning.
I'm assuming you already know the rules and how the pieces move. If not it is easy to look up. If you like using books to learn, I would recommend "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" for this stage, as it will teach you the rules and the essence of tactics.
Now in addition to playing lots of games for fun (several good places online: chess.com, FICS, chess.net), you should start doing some studying to further your improvement. A great way of doing this is going over master games. The internet makes this easy. You may be tempted to start with big names like Fischer or Kasparov, but their games will be very hard to understand as a beginner. I think the best place to start is with the father of modern chess, Paul Morphy. Not only are his games exhilarating and fun, but they are also crystal clear examples of applied tactics. You can find them online here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=16002
Now tactical concepts should start sinking in for you as you continue to play and study games. I suggest signing up at http://chesstempo.com/ to further practice your tactics. Change your problem mode from blitz to standard so you have time to learn calculation and not worry about the clock. A couple books for this stage I'd recommend are: Emmanuel Lasker's "Manual of Chess", and JR Capablanca's "Chess Fundamentals". The authors were two of the best to ever play the game so they know their stuff. You will learn basic endgame principles, more advanced tactics, and beginning positional concepts, as well as some opening theory.
Now you will need to strengthen your understanding of positioning, AKA, "what do I do when there's no tactics?". The above books will help, but the simplest way to learn is to study the games of the grandfather of positional play, Willhelm Steinitz. You can find his games here : http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=10421
(Focus on the later dates, they exemplify his positional style.)
These things should give you a solid base. Later you can read more advanced books on position like Nimzowitsch's "My System", and get specific books on endings and openings. One word of advice once you are in the intermediate stage: play less blitz games and use longer time controls (30 minutes or more). You learn much more this way because you will have to search for the "best" move in order to win, not hope your opponent runs out of time.
Good luck and have fun!
 
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I would reccomend the many chessbase DVDs that you can torrent. Excellent for a developing player. Any book by Aagaard is great as well. After that, just pick GMs you like the style of and play through through their games, trying to figure out what their plans are - that is more important than just learning moves.
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Once you can appreciate a game by looking at a move list, you know you're well on the way...
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so which openings and variations are most popular now in tournaments?
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Thanks for the chess tempo website. I've always liked puzzles, and this website has 33,000 of them. Stuff like this is really helpful, especially for blitz play. Speaking of which, I want to know what you think is better in the long run, Mass blitz games or long in depth games. I used to prefer mass 5 minute blitz games, but I'm starting to appreciate longer player now.
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Its varies a lot.
The slav and semi-slav have largely replaced the queen's gambit accepted. The sicilian is slightly less popular at the super GM level, whiel the caro-kann has had somewhat more of a renaissance, courtesy of both Topalov and Svidler re-invigorating it.
Most tournaments just copy whatever Kramnik or Anand played the week before 
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On November 22 2009 13:11 Athos wrote:
Thanks for the chess tempo website. I've always liked puzzles, and this website has 33,000 of them. Stuff like this is really helpful, especially for blitz play. Speaking of which, I want to know what you think is better in the long run, Mass blitz games or long in depth games. I used to prefer mass 5 minute blitz games, but I'm starting to appreciate longer player now.
I've read several teachers and authors say that standard games are far more beneficial to your long term understanding. For the longest time I only used to play blitz too and when I switched over to longer time control, I definitely began to notice and fix a lot more mistakes in my game. It may be hard at first to take several minutes to move if you're used to only blitz but it is worth it. One great thing is that you now have time to systematize your thought process or make a "mental checklist". For example: Look at all opponents threats (especially Checks), look for hanging and poorly defended pieces, calculate a few variations, double check then choose the best one.
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Oh and for practice, I would go with the longer games. Blitz is fine for practicing openings and tactical opportunities, but you NEED longer games to practice strategy, positional play, depth calculation and endgames.
I play one classical time control game a week (2 hours each side) then some 15-minutes a side speed chess online.
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This is awesome, thanks for the resource.
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Thanks for this! timing is perfect, my roommate is trying to teach me, but he just has me play games against me and then beats me, not doing a very good job of motivating.
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Good blog post, and you're absolutely right about beginning players studying tactics, but I was very disappointed with Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. It's clear none of it was written by him, but aside from that it teaches little more than a few basic back-rank mates.
I would recommend Learn Chess Tactics for a beginner/intermediate level player...or else just search Amazon for well-rated books for beginners.
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On November 22 2009 13:28 jfazz wrote:Its varies a lot. The slav and semi-slav have largely replaced the queen's gambit accepted. The sicilian is slightly less popular at the super GM level, whiel the caro-kann has had somewhat more of a renaissance, courtesy of both Topalov and Svidler re-invigorating it. Most tournaments just copy whatever Kramnik or Anand played the week before
slav and caro-kann... so i'm assuming it leads to really cramped, tactical play and not particularly attacking chess, right?
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nice! can i steal this to give out to beginners my school's chess club?
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Hmm depends on the lines exactly.
The semi-slav merans from the Kramnik v Anand WCC were crazy (two wins for black in three games) attacking.
The caro-kann is as attacking and white wants it to be - my score as black in the caro is over 65%. People don't play it often, so they get caught out against your home prep.
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9071 Posts
If you just know the rules, you should play a tone of games even before opening a book with theory.
Openings and variations come with time, if you just study a couple of them, you will be destroyed if your opponent plays differently. Just get "the feel" about the game.
The beginners only move. The first step to the improvement is to ask yourself "why I moved this?"
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I'll also chime in and recommend Chessmaster's (lastest edition) tutorials by Josh Waitzkin. They cover some interesting aspects of the game as well as the important fundamentals - it's a nice introduction to the game.
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Tactics rule. Once you have worked through that Fischer book and once you have a good overview of all the tactical themes, get Chess Tactics Art 3.0 by Convekta. It's tactical exercises that get progressively more difficult. Do a few each day. These come from the Russian chess schools so they are all selected for their instructional value.
But I also recommend you develop an opening repertoire. Just go a few moves deep with your memorization. Pick openings that appeal you. I would recommend you to play 1.e4 as 1.d4 leads to much more subtle openings.
Pick a move and always play that move. Don't have two, just have one. There is only strength in limiting the openings you have to play.
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Yeah, I would suggest playing a very narrow opening repetoire and learning your openings as deeply as possible.
When I was little I was a 1.e4 kid, who played the classical sicilian, nimzo and QID. Nowdays I am a 1.d4 player, a caro-kann but still the nimzo and QID. Its funny how your tastes will change over time, though I must admit to learning the semi-slav just so I can play for a win with black if need be.
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On November 22 2009 16:33 madnessman wrote:
nice! can i steal this to give out to beginners my school's chess club?
Yes feel free to. There's lots of good stuff on the internet too so don't take my word as gospel. The merit of this book over that can be debated endlessly. Some basic rules for teaching chess seem to be agreed upon though:
Beginner should learn tactics and endgame first. As others have said a couple openings should be chosen and stuck to. Lots of people fall into the trap of endlessly studying openings thinking that is what makes them win or lose. When a good player gives piece odds to a weaker player, it is as if he blundered a piece in the opening. Yet they still win by strength of middle and end game.
As others commented: mass game in the beginning. Later, slow down and take time to understand each game.
I think if I were teaching someone over the board, the first thing I'd have them master is the basic mates: King and Queen, King and two Rooks, King and Rook etc. It's best to learn the power of the pieces with just a few piece on the board. Some GM said something like: "If you can't control one soldier how can you control the entire army?"
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EPT
