[nandreev]

Some "suggestions" that helped me get from 1000 to 1300 very quickly:

- Castle very early

- Resist taking pieces for no reason. To take is a mistake

- Use your opponent's time to plan your next move

- If you stop hanging pieces you will automatically be >1200

- Save your bishops, bishops > knights in most endgames

- For every hour you spend analyzing your past games your rating will go up by 10

- You won't improve by playing blitz. Go for 15 + 10 time controls

[onlyrealcuzzo]

For the most beginner of beginners - I would say that the best advice is to control the center of the board, play aggressively / make an attacking move whenever possible, and DON'T be afraid to trade pieces.

If you don't have a move that attacks your opponent and forces them to play defense, develop your least active piece.

Also, learn the King's Indian opening. You can use it as black or white, and it's one of the easiest openings. I also think it's a good opening against beginners, because they make a lot of mistakes against this. So, 1) you'll be able to beat beginners - and winning is always more fun than losing; and 2) you'll learn to watch for your opponents to make mistakes - and that will help you learn to avoid making common mistakes.

[1] Controlling the center of the board and making attacking moves - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5jTMqdYXWM&t=1100s

[2] King's Indian opening - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK0cq6UBt1Y

These two videos got me from ~700 to ~1000 in about a week. And they got me to the point where Chess was actually fun instead of a being a frustrating minefield I tried to navigate until I inevitably made a blunder and self-imploded.

[david927]

> Save your bishops, bishops > knights in most endgames

That's funny because I found the opposite to be true if it's a single bishop / knight endgame.

> You won't improve by playing blitz.

It will just take longer. A single five minute game a day over coffee will work, if that's all the time you have for.

[cambalache]

> That's funny because I found the opposite to be true if it's a single bishop / knight endgame.

No matter what you found, it has been statistically proved that a Bishop (against a Knight), and especially a Bishop pair is stronger than a Knight/Knight or Knight/Bishop .

[devmacrile]

If we are talking blitz though there is an argument to be made for the trickiness of the knight's geometry. Forks abound and no time to calculate.

[david927]

Wow, I didn't know that! Thanks so much.

Bishop pair is clear, of course, but I literally would look for a single knight/bishop ending (where I would have the knight), thinking it gave me the advantage. Maybe it was a placebo effect. Ha! Thanks again!

[soamv]

Not _just_ placebo. If you tend to favor very closed positions, or end up placing pawns in ways that make your bishops useless, then the knight might be better sometimes, even though the general idea of bishop > knight is correct.

[cambalache]

You can see here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_piece_relative_value

Also Kaspy confirming here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3uvvA7dyoI (:30 in the video)