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Comment by ydnaclementine | Hacker News Reader

For youtube, I recommend ChessNetwork. He's a self taught GM that explains his thoughts as he plays. He also has a beginners series to get you in the proper mindset. Really good guy, but a bit mysterious...

For actual playing I recommend something fast like 3min/0increment or 2/1. It kinda of resembles a video game at that point, where your knowledge and speed is helpful, you get to play a lot of games since they're short, and you don't have to live with your mistakes for very long if you mess up

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I actually actively dis-recommend watching videos on something as a way to "get into" participating in a competitive activity. It's a substitute for actually doing things like practice and competition. Like, some research can be done for like what tools to use or where to play, but doing too much research and not enough actual engagement is a huge trap people fall into.

Jerry, aka ChessNetwork, is an NM (national master), not a GM. Besides that, I highly recommend him and his tutorial series as a learning resource for anyone below 2000

blitz/bullet is absolutely atrocious for improving, 15+10 is the shortest time control you should be playing if you're seriously trying to get better.

I think that's a bit limiting as a minimum, 10+2 sounds more reasonable for a new player's introduction to a faster pace chess where they still have an opportunity to calculate lines; 15+* is certainly a great time control to play though.

that's fair, anything over 10 minutes with increment is good enough while you're figuring out if you actually enjoy the game or not

I feel like 5 minute blitz forces me to think on my feet and see things quickly. It might end up being self limiting but I can see that my blunder rate has been declining. I get relatively immediate feedback which has to be good for something ;) As a rank beginner that's something. I enjoy it and I don't need a large open time slot to play a game.

I should play longer games I guess. I do much better on puzzles when I have time to think through the move. Donno if the lichess ratings are comparable but my puzzle ratings are much higher than my blitz ratings...

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