Hi Gavin I think you should follow all the advices that were given to you before, but I think that the one that will impact your level the most is to go to a club whenever you can. Playing real people and with longer time controls OTB (over the board) will help you a lot. In longer time controls is where you can think and comprehend the things you are doing. You probably havea chess club where they make classic tournaments. Also I would recommend you to see some videos if you can of Chess-Network on YouTube. They are great and he, in my opinion, explains really well. You should look for his chess traps in order to avoid them in your games and the series he had called Begineer to chess master. Also maybe reading books on principles and fundamentals may be good, opening principles (develop, dominate the center, etc) Oh and two more things, 1) Have fun and enjoy chess, other way you are not going to progress and 2) Don't be dissapointed if you lose on your first games in a club or wherever, with time you will become better and you will start winning more(I'm talking about personal experience)
Hope this helps you
cheers dude I was looking at chess clubs earlier they are everywhere !!
That's nice!
Also playing in a club is much more fun than online. (if it's not, go to another club :D)
I found Peter Svidler and Jan Gustafsson commentary on high level tournament games really entertaining. Not only do you learn a lot, but they're also really witty, it's a pleasure to listen to them. :D
(though the chess explanations might be over your head, dunno, you'll have to try out ;) )
yes there are probably 10 chess clubs within a ten mile radius
@Gavin_Whittington I was looking at
en.lichess.org/sHBiPC1R - a 10+0 game you played yesterday morning.
Your opening was perfect. You developed all your pieces (to very good squares) and castled your King before attacking your opponent. As soon as you finished the opening you made aggressive moves that overwhelmed your opponent who resigned after only 17 moves. I'm against resigning at that level but the resignation was justified. Stockfish had you winning easily.
"Learn from your mistakes" had only one complaint about one of your moves. That's excellent and something to be proud of.
If you combine your strong opening skills and your natural ability to be aggressive in the middle game with good endgame skills you're going to get a classical rating above 2000 and unlike me you will be able to stay at that level or higher. You have already become an opponent to fear.
thanks dude I do love being aggressive :) I feel I'm starting to be able to look at the whole board better if that makes sense and am starting to notice patterns , I need to start mating better and more ruthlessly I have lost a few games I should have won easily!, guess I'm still only looking 1-2 moves ahead but I suppose with time and practice I can keep improving :)
Thanks for your input much appreciated.