Current Events > How do I get good at Chess and Poker

(+) Yeah! (+)

These are two games that I enjoy playing but I want to get better at.

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play yahoo chess like nine hours a day

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after you've mastered the yahoo circuit you need to go to the inner city and play 9 hours a day of speed chess against the old black men

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By playing.

Poker: play online a lot (100,000+ hands). Read/watch some basic stuff so you have a little understanding of what's going on but improvement is going to come from playing and analysing hands. Check out the beginner stuff on 2+2. There is tons of stuff and that site has some of the best content because some real crushers came up on 2+2 in it's glory days.

Your poker game improves by thinking about why you make certain plays and learning what other people think in similar situations.

The easiest way to quickly improve in poker is to (1) fold more pre flop, (2) value bet thin more, (3) and fold more to aggression on the river.

Chess: understand how the game works and then start learning a few lines in the major openings with a focus on the strategy and big picture for the opening. Do puzzles and chess trainers for mid game, learn end game basics and do puzzles. Play longer timed games (10 min+) so you can think. Use engines to analyze the games after you play.

I played poker full time for almost a year as my primary income years ago and still play a bunch now when I can. I still average a pretty decent bb/100 online and live, and have played all types of games and limits with mixed success. Poker is tougher now than years ago but it's still very beatable.

I took up chess a few years ago and still suck (1500 blitz on lichess) but have seen this question asked a bunch.

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For Chess it's literally puzzles and just learning a few basic openings extensively. I got a chess.com subscription and I didn't play my first game of chess with it for like a month.

All I did was fuck around with puzzles constantly, and learned the basics and worked my way to learning some openings. I'd play against their computer engine at an easy level and do what I felt like was the best move, and then see what the engine said was the best move, and why. Then I started playing real people and with that knowledge the skill gap at the low end makes it's really really easy.

whitelytning posted...

I took up chess a few years ago and still suck (1500 blitz on lichess) but have seen this question asked a bunch.

1500 is definitely not bad. You're going to beat your average person a lot.

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Play until you hit a wall, study what you're fucking up on, repeat

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Evening_Dragon posted...

Play until you hit a wall, study what you're fucking up on, repeat

It's too hard for most players to figure out their weak areas in chess without a coach. Someone can be great at the early game and that carries them through most of the matches they win, but their midgame is bad and they don't know how to force things to their advantage in the endgame without piece advantage. It's part of why there's match recordings, so people can look back and figure the exact move someone messed up on. Or even, just that they missed a checkmate in 4 type of situation. But again, most people can't really see those moments clearly. Especially in the moment.

Chess has 4 steps for growth really. Openings, knowing how to open and what the opponents might do and if/ how you'll modify things any. Midgame, how to start it and when to do so because you always want the advantage or at least not to gain disadvantage. Endgame and how to initiate it, pressuring, and closing the match off. And lastly, figuring out your strengths in playstyle.

I love the London system opening and it's a strong area for me until late game. But if I want to win I'm better off going kings or queens Indian because I have a better textbook understanding of what the midgame theory is for it. More than that, it's also the opening style of a former Washington state champ who taught me in middle school. And as such, there's certain benefits I might not even be able to assign any tangible value to, albeit something I didn't know about until I looked up his chess match records years later.

*Ahem* But I digress. I only know my strengths and weaknesses because I've played with actual pros throughout my life, and as such could get given advice or even players to look up in order to analyze how I differed from them.

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This is something I'm actually serious about. Not just making a BS topic. So I appreciate the advice. I also found this on reddit that I thought was good and pretty similar to what yall are saying:
https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/2pqka6/most_efficient_way_to_improve_at_chess/

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Poker is about learning the odds based on what cards you have

chess is about memorizing openings,defenses, tricks and learning end game principles.


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MaddenDude-- posted...

This is something I'm actually serious about. Not just making a BS topic. So I appreciate the advice. I also found this on reddit that I thought was good and pretty similar to what yall are saying:
https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/2pqka6/most_efficient_way_to_improve_at_chess/

Losing a lot is probably your best bet then :P


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based on the queen's gambit, take some tranquilizers and get drunk.

but it's just memorization. Chess memorizing openers and responses to those, then memorizing later moves. Poker is about memorizing odds and playing the odds. bonus points if you can count cards and do the math on the fly.

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