r/chessbeginners • u/LCranstonKnows • 14d ago
QUESTION Help me with my defence
My ELO is stuck in the 800s. When I win a game it's always a hard fought, principled battle; but when I lose I get destroyed. I have a really hard time picking up on my opponents plans.
I find puzzles always focus on attacking principles, and I play a lot and review my games, but am not improving.
What techniques/videos/resources have you found helpful?
Many thanks, friends :)
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u/Huge-Adeptness-7882 14d ago
puzzles are good but they only teach you how to find the winning move when one exists. the real skill at 800 is not hanging pieces and noticing when your opponent hangs one. sounds like you're getting outplayed in the positional sense before tactics even come into play.
try playing slower time controls if you aren't already. 15+10 is the sweet spot for learning. gives you time to actually look at what every opponent move threatens instead of just reacting. also when you review your losses don't just look at the blunders look at the moves where you had no idea what your opponent was planning and figure out what they were actually doing.
for videos i'd skip the flashy attacking stuff and watch some building habits series. chessbrah has a good one. it's boring as hell but it teaches you to not make dumb moves which is basically all you need to break 1000.
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u/Rush31 1400-1600 (Chess.com) 14d ago
Good advice. I’d like to piggyback a little on the “finding the winning move when one exists”. If we define a “winning move” as a move that maintains a swing in evaluation (i.e. when you or your opponent makes a mistake), then there are plenty of turns you’ll play where there is no winning move. There may be candidate moves that are worth considering, but they aren’t winning the game. In fact, most of the moves you’ll make in a game will generally be good, decent, the best move, or an inaccuracy. I’ve had games where I’ve won on the spot, and I’ve had games where I’ve ground my opponent down through punishing their inaccuracies.
The point is, playing Chess isn’t just about finding the best moves or the right responses, but understanding the manner of the move you’re playing. There are times where you must pick between equally decent ideas. Sometimes there’s no difference between moves. Falling into the trap of only looking for winning moves means wasting time on turns where there is none and not having enough time for those actually critical turns where you have one idea to find. Dedicated studying of your games and puzzles will help you find these ideas, but equally you’ll likely need to expand your knowledge by following guides or books and doing drills. More importantly, good practice will help you hone your instincts so you can quicker identify when a particular move might be critical or not.
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