How do I improve, Can I even improve?

Apologies to @Makropoulos & @CerebralAssassin19

I completely overlooked your replies, Having so many people reply and offer advice has been overwhelming.

@Makropoulos - Thank you for the recommendation, I will seek out that book and disseminate it, it's good to know that you are over 60 and still competing and enjoying this wonderful game!

@CerebralAssassin19
Thank you for your advice and encouragement, It has been noted and I will certainly take your advice. I feel my endgame is possibly my strongest vector, a crowded board leads me in to the scenario of: if I take, he takes, I take, he takes and that can be so confusing when dealing with positions.

Thank you everyone for your help, it's so kind of you all to offer advice and support to an old man who has just discovered this addictive and wonderful game!

@ synposis #30:

You're welcome.

Good that you saw the knight issue in your game! Keep playing and enjoying it; you're bound to improve.

"A spectre is haunting the world – the spectre of patzism ... patzers of all countries, unite!"

Some members of the ruling class published a pamphlet to defeat us: http://www.karlonline.org/kol35.htm

One thing to note is that your life will be the same if you are 900, 1900 or a Grandmaster. It doesn't change anything at all. So, for all the cases, please, have FUN playing. But it can't be much fun if you are only losing, right?

I saw one of your games here. You simply drop a piece here. I mean, why you played 8. Nxd5, you are simply giving your knight up. So maybe it would be a good idea to study the piece values.



Pawns value 1 point. Bishops and knight are roughly 3 points, so they are pretty much interchangeble. Rooks value 5 points and queens are 9. That's it. So if you give up a knight to get a pawn, you are giving up 2 points already, which is a lot. Anything beyond 2 points is too much. If you give up only 1 point, you can survive, but 2 points or more is too difficult.

And here? Take a look:



Here, 30... Qe5 and you just gave up a whole queen! So of course you will lose. Your opponent gave up a lot of material (pieces) and you were winning. If you didn't gave up your queen and kept playing, you would eventually win.

So, your problem is clearly one: you just give up material! You should pay attention where you put your pieces and don't take pawns with pieces, if this piece will be captured after that.

Novices at this level underestimate a LOT material disadvantage. If you lose a piece for nothing or only for one pawn, you are in a situation very bad, you are almost losing the game. And if you give 2 pieces away? You already lost the game. That's it.

You should develop your pieces (bring them out to play), castle kingside (avoid queensite castle, those are too hard to defend) and put a couple of pawns near the center. That's it, buddy! Don't give your pieces away and you will be ok. You will win games and probably, just doing that (avoiding giving up material) grown 200 or 300 rating points.