The best thing you can do is to simply play hundreds of games - eventually your board vision will develop and you will stop hanging pieces as your playing experience increases.

If you want a solid foundation in chess, then Seirawan's 'Play Winning Chess', Heisman's 'Everyone 2nd Chess Book', Reinfeld's '1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate' and 'Simple Chess' by Emms are all good books. However, I recommend playing some more games (either at a chess club, at tournaments or on the Internet) before studying Reinfeld's book.

Yeah, a lot of people starting out in chess spend a lot of time staring at pieces and thinking about what takes what. They become to invested in the games. By playing quick games with a chess clock you quickly see what works and does not work and can budget your time. The games should be fun. You would be surprised to find what you will learn by just throwing everything out and going for some crazy conception of a game in your head. I encourage people to throw all the inhibition out the window when starting out. Or anytime. Just have fun. It should be fun that you are learning something new. Why make it a drag by being self-conscious and concerned. Be concerned if you have not had beers with the people you play after the games. It is a game. My opinion is not to get to hung up on it. So many times I hear or read people stating that they don't like this, won't play that. Well, maybe for good reason they feel this way; however, one should play these games at times it would be appropriate. My opinion is that one should do what works. For me, chess is the happy science. Logic for no reason at all. There is no point. It is all in our heads. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." —Keats

Isn't that wonderful? Zen masters say that the beginners mind is good mind. "Don't know mind, is good mind." I think keeping this attitude is correct.

Record the games and go through them later looking for improvements. You will get much more play and experience. The games are not big investments of time. They are just skittles (fun) games. I like to have a light heart. I think this is a better way. Dwelling in a hole is dark and lonely. Give me the sun. (Thinking of Plato here.)

Some points on the issue of recommended time-controls for players starting out in chess:

a) Firstly, these players do not need to use clocks in every game - in my experience with teaching beginners, the vast majority play quickly, and games between beginners are finished within half an hour.

b) Given the choice of time-control, I recommend a combination of short and long time-controls. I recommend playing some games with a long time-control to practice 'real' chess thinking (that is, taking your time), and some (I recommend no more than 20 a week to avoid becoming addicted to blitz) blitz games on the Internet, with either a 5 0 or a 3 0 time-control.

c) It is a good idea to try and play at least 5 tournaments a year - this includes rapid (but not blitz) tournaments.

hi guys im not exactly new but I wouldnt say im a 100% noob either so is there anyway I can play a person on here to see where i rank among you guys lol...

i do get blown out a lot in yahoo games and I dont understand E1 and all that...

There is no exact way that I know of to rank yourself among members here, although if you want, you can play a correspondence game against me in the Correspondence Games section and I will offer an assessment of your playing level if you wish.

Go to this website and learn chess. There is everything you need.