Why Am I so Bad At Chess?

I find great difficulty in playing chess. It seems so difficult to wrap my mind around!



I am not a stupid person by any means. On the contrary, I am amongst the brightest students in my school. I am amongst the top 10 (in a school of 600) in terms of my mathematical capabilities, able to solve problems well above my grade level.



So I am not unintelligent, that's one possibility out the window.



I have a Chess.com account and have been practicing daily. One thing that I find very frustrating is trying to understand why the difference in openings is really that important. If I play sicilian or If I play Roy Lupez, is that really gonna determine if I a am going to win or lose. I also do not understand how moving one piece later or sooner in the game will make a difference. If I move my pawn to a6 now or one turn later, will it matter? If I castle now, or develop one of my minor pieces, will it really drastically change the game. I get the impression that it will, but I don't understand why. I just don't understand the principle behind all this.



I also cannot think ahead in this game. There are so many pieces on the Chessboard at one time that I cannot formulate a proper plan. I am not a computer! I have my limits! Sure in the opening it is simple enough, but by the time I get into the mid-game, it becomes nigh impossible to keep track of all the pieces. Usually I lose a game because I forget about one of my opponents pieces and lose a rook, or a queen, or a knight etc.



I have a lot of trouble working towards a plan or strategy. There is just so much that can go wrong, and the plan can go off balance. I have been playing a couple of games recently and I have lost all of them (against average chess players). It seems to me that when I play I just can't keep up with all the developments, and I eventually end up in a situation where I am "screwed".



I also have difficulty in judging when I am in an advantageous position. Obviously if I have my opponent in check or if I ahead materially I am good, but otherwise, I find myself lost. One of my friends who play chess (one of the best in the country for his age actually) when he is giving me a practice match says "oh that was a good move" and he tells me the reasons, and those were not at all the reasons why I made the move. I make "good" moves by accident.



I get the feeling I should have just stuck with Calculus, it was much simpler to follow, at least.Why Am I so Bad At Chess?
My rating on chess.com is 1603

and my rating in real life is 1920
try to think before you move and also don't move until you are sure no one will kill you. try to always have the king piece surrounded by other pieces.Why Am I so Bad At Chess?
Google "matrix chess" and bernard parham".Want lessons email me.
EVERY chess player ever invented always starts out the same way...a beginner



so what if your not a 2000 player?.....the most important thing is to have funWhy Am I so Bad At Chess?
The other guy is right. Reading will make a huge difference. I am not as highly rated as him but I'm around a 1750 online. It took a lot of work to get there and it will take a lot more work to get higher still.



I have played chess since i was a child and even got a trophy or two at school. The thing is I (like you) didn't really understand why i was doing what i was doing sometimes. Only thinking a move or two ahead and often getting lucky accidentally. This was all untill a couple of years ago when i started playing online and realised i was not as good as i thought i was. There are some phenomenal players online.



I started reading everything i could find. Google 'chess strategy/tactics' and there are some brilliant free sites with lots of helpful information. Another thing you should do is go to youtube and search for various instructional videos. There are literally hundreds of them. I started by picking an opening i liked (Scotch opening) and searched for it. The videos show you the games from both sides and show variations based on possible moves all whilst explaining exactly why they do everything.



A few tips for a beginner that helped me a lot would be



1. Control the centre of the board (obviously the better you get the more openings you will try but for a beginner it is a simple rule that will benefit you in the long run)



2. Try not to move any of your main pieces twice within the opening moves. Get it to where it is safe and impacting the game and then leave it there while you develope more pieces around it.



3. Try to resist the urge to take your queen out early. What often happens when you take the queen out early is that you will end up on the run. It will be threatened over and over forcing you to move it again and again. This means that whilst your opponent developes pieces and gains control over the game you end up moving the same piece over and over.



4. While they may have the same value on the board if you are white your white bishop will usually be the most effective bishop over the course of the game. The opposite applies if you are black. Keep this in mind when deciding if you want to trade a piece for a piece.



5. If you are up in material you should try and trade equal pieces when you get a chance. Being one bishop up may not make a huge impact early on but if you keep swapping rook for rook, queen for queen and so on that lowly bishop will have a greater and greater effect as you go on.



6. Castling is usually recommended as soon as you get a chance. Bare in mind that it might not always be a good idea but usually i would say do it. It gets your king safe and links up your rooks when the back line is free.



7. Try and get your rooks involved early. You have no idea how many times i see people concentrating too much on other things while they leave one of the best pieces they have sitting in the corner for most of the game. They can't impact the game if they are not developed.



8. As you are nearing the end game get your king involved. It is a powerful piece and should be used like one. Too many people protect it to the end whilst it sits in the corner. They forget that it can cover other pieces whilst being safe itself. This is especially important when trying to get pawns to the other side of the board. Use it!



9. Lastly search for free online chess databases. The Gameknot.com one is quite good. They store every move of millions of games. There is a board you can test out openings and defenses and all the while it will give you your chance of success in a percentage based on how the other games where these moves have been played went. For example you may open with d5, it will calculate how many times white won with this opening, how many black and how many draw. DON'T USE IT TO CHEAT! just use it to improve your own game



Anyway those are just some things i have picked up in the last couple of years. I am by no means a master of this game but i would consider myself a better than average player and am improving all the time. I am sure the 2200 guy above me could give you much better tips but hopefully these will help you start out.
Even though you are intelligent, it could be that chess is just not your thing. I am a FIDE rated player but unlike you calculus is very hard for me. Go figure.

The other possibility is that you have not yet studied many books. I never knew a good chess player who had not studied books. Playing alone won't necessarily improve you because you won't necessarily understand why you won or lost. Books explain the principles. They help you play with a purpose. They answer the question WHY? Once I began studying several books (from my local library) my play took off. If you haven't studied many books yet, give that a try first. See if it makes a difference. Only then will you know.



Added note:

Since more books have been written on chess than any other game, it's hard to know where to start. There are lots of basic books about tactics - pins, double attacks, discovered checks, forks, skewers, etc, and thats a very good place to start. Also books about attacking (checkmating) the king are very worthwhile in my experience as a chess coach. Keep it basic to start with. As you progress, not only will you be able to study more advanced books but they will become easier to read and follow.
Chess requires practice. I play well, but I've spent almost 400 hours of my life playing it. Just practice, and these moves will start to get more familiar, and you will remember where enemies can play, e.t.c.

It also helps to play REALLY bad players at first, it gives you confidence when you win.
Chess is a matter of training. Your problem as a novice is lack of training in general, but tactical training in particular. Tactics is about being able to execute combinations that win you material or mate the king. This is different from strategy which is about creating and executing long-term objectives. While strategy is important, it should be treated as secondary for a beginner. For now concentrate on developing tactical skills. I recommend the site http://chesstempo.com for that.



As to openings, you have two options. One option is to learn in-and-out one favorite opening for white (e4 or d4) and two favorite defenses for black (against e4 and against d4). The second option (which is more practical IMO) is not to memorize any opening at all but rather learn the general principles of openings, such as "develop knights before bishops", "connect your rooks" etc... These general principles will enable to view a situation on the board critically rather than automatically execute the moves.



I recommend this Susan Polgar's book which explains it in detail: http://www.amazon.com/World-Champions-Gu鈥?/a>