How to Play Better Chess

Chess is one of the most complex board games. While you can learn the rules to the game in a relatively short amount of time, it's a board game that is extremely tough to master. Though it takes years to truly master chess, you can learn to play better chess in just a few short steps.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Chess set
• Chess books
• Chess software

1. Learn the basic rules of chess. The first step to playing better chess is to make sure that you understand all the rules. The best resource to use to learn chess is the Chess.com website. At Chess.com, click on "Chess rules and basics" along the top navigational panel. On the next page, you'll see information concerning the origins of chess, the goal of chess, what moves each piece can make, basic strategy and a lot more. It's a useful resource to help you completely understand the game of chess before you delve deeper into the game.
   
2. Find advanced chess books. Two highly recommended books on chess are "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" by Bobby Fischer, Stuart Margulies and Don Mosenfelder, and "Winning Chess Strategies" by Yasser Seirawan and Jeremy Silman. You can find these books at your local library or you can decide to purchase the books. Those two books, along with a lot of other chess related books, are available at Barnes and Noble.
3. Play chess online in order to practice your chess skills. A good place to play chess online is on the PlayFirst website. On PlayFirst, you can download chess software and play online against other real chess players. There is also ranked play and other options that can help you understand where you stand among other chess players. To help you further improve your chess game, PlayFirst offers tutorials that can expand your knowledge of the game.
4. Practice chess daily. If you really want to master the game, you should either play chess or read about chess on a daily basis.
5. Join a chess club. There are chess clubs in most U.S. cities. Using any search engine, search for chess clubs in your area and find out when they meet.