I started in November in my 40's and not used to losing this much at anything. My brother started at the same time and is 200+ elo higher here and on chess.com. I've played 1000 games on both sites. I drop in once a month or so at a local chess club and usually lose every game. I should probably buy a PlayStation or something.
The majority of your games here are blitz, and I’m assuming it’s the same on Chess.com. When you are starting out, playing a ton of blitz games does you no good because you haven’t developed the skills yet to play on autopilot, so you’d just be blitzing out a bunch of moves aimlessly. Doing that repeatedly would get you into the habit of not spending much time on calculations (blunder-checking - are there any hanging pieces?) in longer time control games. Losing is not fun, and I get the frustration, but it’s honestly too early to quit. Try playing rapid exclusively for a couple of weeks, and I’m sure you’d see an improvement in your rating. If that doesn’t work which I’m sure won’t happen, come back to us.
Also, just out of curiosity, how much time do you spend studying chess per week? Or do you study at all?
TLDR; playing 5+3 or 10+0, game 1-2 hours a day and study 1 hour a week.
Majority of games here are 5+3 blitz, which I am better at than rapid 10+0 games due to the increment that can be so useful at the end of games when I can hurry up and hopefully secure a nice win. Chess.com I pretty much exclusively play 10+0 rapid and games are so hard & I occasionally run out of time. If you want to see the most painful losses, look at my games from today 7/24 (username AGentleman-and-Scholar). A lot of my games there are WILD and I get emails almost weekly about "one or more of your recent opponents cheated here is 7 more points". I know I am a beginner but my games here feel a lot more honest. I like the game review feature on that site, but only use it about 10-20% of the time after games to review. I honestly don't know how to review games properly on this site.
My local chess club is just games. They tell you to develop knights and bishops and castle by move 10 and that is where the coaching stops. They have tournaments and occasionally, I can beat a tournament player on a timer in a casual game. I go once a month for a 3 hour session. I should probably compete even if I lose......I want to see if I can even win a game in that environment against an experienced player.
I play online 1-2 hours a day and study about 1 hour a week. So mostly just live games because that is usually more fun to me than studying. Usually before bed while my kids running around screaming. When I do study it is might be the lessons page here on lichess or chess.com, but more often youtube videos from ChessBrah, Chessdawg, Chess with a Akeem, Remote Chess Academy, Chess Vibes are probably my favorite youtube channels.
Most useful studying is probably the lessons section here on lichess or youtube chessbrah building the habits series. Remote chess academy has a pawn storm video I liked. GM Akobian with STL chess club is good youtube but those are hour long videos and I have limited time to watch.
I initially liked Italian as white and recently changed to Scotch as it's easier and works better for me. My biggest problems are playing black pieces, I was playing Italian initially, then Caro, then Kings Indian, and back to Caro or Slav as it is the only way to defend myself playing black and get some counterplay going.
You need someone stronger to go through your games and explain where you're going wrong. Like someone at your club or your brother.
There's plenty of instructional material on lichess for you to train yourself. Playing game after game without reflection or analysis? Buy the PlayStation.
In my opinion openings only become important after one reaches at least around 1800 elo level, at lower levels it's more about trying not to blunder pieces and checkmates and stuff like that.
Just try to remember you mistakes next time you're in a similar position, so you can try other continuations.
I would suggest playing longer games. It is good for beginners like you to develop your skills. Always think about your moves properly before you play. That is my advice.
Thanks for the replies & if anyone has advice how to utilize this site correctly to review games I would appreciate it. I see an arrow with correct move but I think I am missing something here. I really like this site better than it's competitors for the study section and good gameplay. I am now over 1000 in rapid 10+0 games but still 700 on the other site. I paid them $120 for the year but think after 6 months there I am done, the pieces move smoother here, nicer people, less cheating.
In chess.com, its harder to progress. Like me for example, I am a 1700 lichess player but only 1200 in chess.com. I'm sure I can progress further but not enough to reach similar rating range of my lichess.
For your first question, if you click on one of your games after you finish it, you will be led to the analysis page. You could do your own analysis or click the request computer analysis at the bottom of the screen. To the bottom right, it gives you puzzles to train on based on that game and just above it is learn from your mistakes. It shows you all your mistakes and you have to try correcting them. Good luck on your chess journey!
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