Chess: A quick-start guide

As a hobby, I cannot recommend chess enough.

It’s easy to learn, impossible to master, and fun at all levels. That said, it does have a smidge of a lingering reputation as a stuffy, snobby boy’s club.

For instance, I, myself, am a stuffy, snobby boy.

However, with the advent of some very inspiring content creators and some really well-made chess apps (chess.com and lichess being the two big kahunas), the tide is changing and the game is becoming more and more accessible to everyone.

With that in mind, I’ve tried to collate a few resources that I’ve found to be incredibly useful for improving my chess in a fun, digestible way.

?I’ve organized them into groups based on what stage of your chess journey you’re at, from pure beginner to a post-beginner/intermediate like myself. Feel free to skip to the range that applies to you.

Step 1: Pure Beginners (Rating; Not rated/ Never Played/ idk)

As with most things, getting started is the hardest step. If you’ve clicked into this article, then you’ve already taken that step.?To help you get a handle on the basics of the game, I would be hard pressed to find a better resource than this very engaging 30 min intro by GothamChess;

Here, you’ll learn how pieces move and interact, how to win a game and where to go from there. There is a brief study plan at the end of the video that may make this blog pretty redundant but... well... I started writing it so here we are.

Levy Rosman, or GothamChess to use his YouTube handle, is equal parts educator and entertainer. Eloquent, organized and very easy to listen to. This won’t be the last time his name crops up in this article as he is one of the most prolific content creators I’ve ever seen, including non-chess creators.

Step 2: Your First Games (Rating; 0-300)

You may not think your ready, but I trust you. It’s time to play. My next recommendation would be to download the Chess.com app. It’ll look like this;

(or Lichess alternatively. Both great, personally I find chess.com’s app more intuitive and slicker, but Lichess is more opensource with fewer paywalls for additional content.)

Once you’ve set up an account on either of the above, the app will probably suggest some learning material to get you started, which isn’t to be sniffed at, but the above video should have you covered on the basics.

If you’re like me, you may be hesitant to play your first online games for fear of embarrassment. This is completely normal and something you will just need to brave through for your first few games.

The beauty of Chess’s matching system is that once you play your first few games, you will only ever play people of a similar rating to yourself (unless you choose otherwise). Meaning that the people you’ll be playing against will probably be thinking the exact same thing...

Step 3: Chess Fundamentals (Rating:300-1000)

Now that your up to speed on the basics of the rules and played a few games, you’re probably keen to see what all the fuss is about. This is one of the most enjoyable stages of a chess journey. And your guide at this juncture will be John Bartholomew’s 5 videos on Chess Fundamentals

I watched these videos after years of playing chess and they really made the penny drop for me and I saw a big leap in my rating directly afterwards. You’ll learn about common strategic/tactical concepts explained simply, as well as hearing a fantastic chess player work through their process.

I would also add Levy Rosman’s How to Win at Chess series, which really is what it says on the tin. A video series about, well…how to win at chess.

Around this point in your journey is when you’ll start to see just how deep the chess rabbit-hole goes. It’s an exhilarating battle of wits, and each game is a small battlefield on which you are the general, shifting your troops around, trying to gain an edge on your adversary. And then you’ll blunder away your queen. Again. But that’s ok. It’s all part of the journey.

Step 4: Keeping it Fun (Rating: 0-1200, but also everyone)

After your first voyage into the world of chess you may be feeling exhausted or overwhelmed. There is a lot to this game, and it only gets trickier. But the joy of improving is that it’s not the game that gets any easier, it’s you that gets stronger.

That said, nobody likes to lose over and over. So you also want to keep it light and fun, so that you can ease yourself into things without resenting the steep learning curve. I recommend doing that in three ways:

1.?????Play puzzles:

Puzzles are a subset of the game of chess where you’re presented with a board mid-game and you have to choose the exact right path towards winning/capturing pieces. They’re fun brain-teasers and they come with the added benefit of no time pressure or live human on the other end of the board.

The trick here is to treat chess puzzles like a crossword puzzle, only submitting an answer that you’re confident is right. This will help build habits of how to think in a game and immerse you in some cool positions and ideas.

?Puzzles will be rated by difficulty, so the problem you’ll have to solve will be in-line with your ability, so this advice goes for literally any level of chess. Here’s several videos of me grappling with puzzles (Did you think I wasn’t going to shamelessly plug my own channel? Have you met me?).

2.?????Find some content creators you like:

"If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants" - Isaac Newton

When I’m not in the mood to play myself, but I want to drink in some chess, there are a number of channels I turn to.

?Gothamchess, Daniel Naroditsky, The Botez Sisters, Eric Rosen and John Bartholomew are my go-to’s, all for different reasons, all brilliant content creators.?Hearing experts walk through their process, explaining different concepts and having fun is a fantastic way to learn anything.

I feel blessed to live in an age where there is quite literally, too much of this content to pick from, so my advice would be to shop around. Try out a few different channels and personalities to see which ones you like watching. The YouTube and Twitch communities are teeming with Grandmasters and International Masters imparting their wisdom.

3.?????Play your mates

My love of chess spawned from a Simpsons chess set that I was gifted as a lad. I have many fond memories of winning, losing and drawing against my friends, sacrificing many a Marge to try and trap a Homer. While I’m not sure how much we improved, we definitely had a great time and I caught the chess bug.?

(As a side note I was pretty swiftly inoculated from the chess bug when I joined my primary school’s chess club and was laughed by the teacher for not knowing all the rules. Like I said; stuffy and snobby. But who cares, I’m clearly over it, right? Stop bringing it up!)

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Playing against someone you know hits very differently to playing a stranger, and adds a layer of comedic drama to proceedings. You could find a buddy to start your chess journey with you, or if you don’t know anyone who plays chess, feel free to DM me and I’ll give you a game!

Step 5: Enjoy the Ride

This advice feels like when your teacher would menacingly approach the board on a Friday afternoon and write HOMEWORK at the top in big dramatic letters and then underneath would write “Have a great weekend!”. Those rascals. They really know how to work a room.

But seriously, for 99.9% of people, chess is a board game. Full stop. It’s fun and should always be fun. It hurts to lose, but that makes winning all the sweeter.?And in the end…

My main advice would be to approach it with joy in mind and play mindfully. There’s a satisfaction that comes with exercising your brain and, win or lose, working through the endless possibilities and permutations on a chess board is a great way to do that.

That’s all I’ve got for today folks, thanks for stopping by and hopefully this is useful to anyone trying to break into the enigmatic world of chess! If do you yearn for some more amateur chess, then my channel Chess Please accepts all and sundry.

All the best,

Andy