Hi I'm a 13 year old trying to improve his chess. I would like to know some of the best ways to help improve my chess and how to get the most out of chess books. I am currently reading this book "Comprehensive Chess Course Volume II from beginner to tournament player in 12 lessons" by Roman Pelts and GM Lev Alburt. I'm up to like chapter 8 in the book but i haven't really seen any improvement. I have never been in any tournaments so I don't have an real rating. Also I can't afford a chess teacher. I would like not to have alot of books since my current book almost seems like a waste unless am using it wrong which I think I am.
What am looking for is help to make a chess program to make me better. I don't mean like an computer program I mean a program like some stuff to do everyday like a training guide. I know some basics like development and stuff ever few tactics. So I think i would want to start in the field of tactics. I dont really have any opening knowledge at all, all I try to do is develop in the opening also have very little endgame knowledge. So if you know any sites or anything to help even you just giving me tips to use in my game i would be much obliged.

You're halfway there, looking for help and trying to identify weaknesses

Have you read any of the Novice Nook columns at ChessCafe? If not, here are a few that are geared towards getting better. I have started a Novice Nook Book by printing articles and trying to organise them into themes- they are good stuff.

Some of his advice is geared towards adult players with limited time, but in general it applies to anyone seeking to get better. He works with players of all ages.

An Improvement Plan: a long term overview of what you should be reading and studying over a 24+ month period. Dan recommends 1-3 books to be working with at any given time, each for several months so the investment is modest (especially if the first few show up under the Xmas tree )
Seeds of Tactical Destruction: Looks at tactics- what to exploit or avoid.
Four Homeworks: Things you should be doing to increase your chess knowledge and apply it OTB.
Opening Principles: The uh...opening
Here's the whole archive. Everything he advises you to work on (tactics, thought process, reviewing games, etc...) he has a column on, usually linked in the pdf.

Chess is a little like swimming. I can tell you how to do it, what to do, what not to do, etc. But at the end of the day you only learn how to swim by getting into the water. Play a few tournaments and you will be able to much better assess the areas of your game that need improvement. Until then I recommend doing tactical problems.

AO

It doesn't have to be tournaments. Just play a few games against real people on the internet at relatively slow time controls (not blitz, and not just against computers). After each game, analyze what you could have done better. Post the games here for analysis if you're not sure, but analyze them yourself first and post your own analysis, so we know what you're thinking. After a dozen or more games, it should become obvious to you which areas you need more work on.

--Fromper

The suggestion to visit Dan Heisman’s site and look at his stuff is excellent advice. He offers advice not only on chess itself but study methods.

The book you have is a good start. You should also play over a lot of master games; they will be incomprehensible at first but gradually as you assimilate more and more chess knowledge, they will begin to make some sense. You also need to play a lot of games…not a hundred all at once, but a few at a time taking care to think things through and apply what you’ve learned.

Don’t be discouraged at a lack of progress as this is natural. Chess is like anything else…you struggle at first and nothing makes sense, but eventually something “clicks” and you see improvement. This is an ongoing process that happens little by little. It took me about 4 years to reach 1600 and it was another 20 years before I discovered the secret to making it to over 2000. Don’t get discouraged.

i got a question about rating say you learned how the move the pieces and some basic mates like back rank mate and like mating with a king and rook or a queen and king around what rating would u be? and whats the lowest chess rating someone can be?

Hard to say because there are so many variables. Also remember there is absolutely no correlation between official over the board tournament ratings, correspondence ratings and ratings you obtain playing on any given server. Maybe somebody more familiar with dealing with new players has a better idea of what you could expect to get. Below are some sites that attempt to explain the different classes.
Duif's Guide for Chess Fans: Ratings and Titles Explained

Vision: Chess Ratings

Chess Rating Classes

I'm not familiar with the book you're using. But, that being said, you need to recognize that chess progression isn't smooth. You can study for several months and see no improvement, and then all of a sudden make a big leap in strength when it all "clicks."

I'm going to make a couple of book recommendations in a moment, because they're books everyone should read, but in order to be more specific it would be very helpful if you posted a few games.

You say you're not playing in tournaments, so my question is, where are you playing? You should probably be playing on FICS, and (this is the hard part) you need to be playing SLOW games. g/25 and slower. Blitz is fun, and may even have a place in developing your play (albiet a small one) but for major improvements you need to learn how to dig deeper, and that means playing slower.

But the point is, if you aren't playing on one of the major servers, you have no way of knowing if you're improving or not.

Okay, that aside, the books that every would-like-to-be-serious chess player MUST read are Chandler's "How to Beat Your Dad At Chess" and Renaud & Kahn's "The Art of Checkmate." These books cover similar material. Chandler's is more approachable, R&K go into much more depth.

But if you want to be a strong player, you need to be able to solve every problem in both of those books instantly. (You think I'm exagerating? Well, slightly. There is ONE problem in R&K which it's okay if it takes you 30 seconds or so to solve. Every other problem in both of those books: you should be able to solve the instant you've comprehended the position.)

That sounds like a tall order, but actually, it's not. Once you learn them, the mates given in those books are actually quite simple. The problem is that, until you've learned them, they're almost impossible to spot. That combination means they'll win you a LOT of games, very easily, as you set up "obvious" mates and your opponents fail to defend against them.

They also have the advantage of being spectacular, which won't win you any more games but makes the games you win a lot more fun. Master the material in those books and you WILL sacrifice your queen to force mate, multiple times.

I reccomend that you get rid of the book that you have to some used book sale and get something else. You do not need a lot of chess books to get good, a few really good books will give you everything that you need. I suggest that you get The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings by Edmar Mendis (sorry I don't think that is how you spell his name ill find out and get back to you), it's a great book that explaines how to play the opening without memorising any variations, that is how to find the most practical move. The book covers middlegames some too and especally the transition from opening to middlegame. There are parts that anyone can understand and parts that are very advanced so this book should always be usefull to you. That is the only book on openings you will really need, its inexpensive too. The middle game is the most difficult part of the game and most of your books should be on the middlegame I reccomend The Art of the Middlegame by Paul Keres and Alexander Kotov. It's also an inexpensive book.

You are right that that book you have isn't doing anything for you, it can't! It's hard to learn with stuff that sucks. Both the books I recommended put together will probably be cheeper than that book was.

lanced: well i paid like 21 dollars for that book got it on amazon. and thx for the help the rest of u i will start looking into those websites and see what books i can get my parents to buy