I want to learn chess! How to proceed?

Librarian

Over the last couple of weeks I rediscovered Chess which I had not played since I was a kid. I have played a lot of games against the computer on chess.com and while I have slowly noticed an improvement in my game, I would like to try a more guided approach to learning the openings, strategies, etc.
I have already ordered a big old book on chess and now I am a bit unsure what software or online community offers the best tools to a beginner.
There are a ton of chess programs and different versions and it looks like either Fritz or Chessmaster is the way to go, but I noticed that chess.om also offers paid content in the form of tutorials, lessons to play through and play via internet.
If anyone can tell me if that content is any good, I would be willing to subscribe to them for a month or two, or what else is out there and not too costly(wouldn't want to buy software that costs more than 50$ or so for now)?

Dhalphir

An excellent way to learn is to find games of masters and study them. Look at what they're doing, and see if you can determine why they do it. Set up a board and play out the game from both sides. Every five moves or so, stop and predict what move one player should make next. Then check the move list to see how accurate you were. If you didn't choose the same move, why? Determine whether the player had spotted something on the board that you missed.

Djeet

Have you been only playing games, or have you also been doing tactics practice? Reddit has a good noob FAQ. For the novice, if you're going to study game, study endgame first (more tactics).

Local H Jay

look for chess clubs around your area, most people enjoy showing new players the ropes. chess is a fantastic way to make friends.

Librarian

So far I have only been playing games and doing some of the tactics lessons on chess.com that are free.
And I ordered "The Game of Chess" by Siegbert Tarrasch.
The reddit FAQ has some good info, thanks for that, I will try some of the sites they recommend.
The chess club is something I didn't even think about, I will look into that.

Morblitz

If you have a tablet- An iPad or iphone might be best since as far as I know it's definitely on iOS, but there are quite a few chess tutor apps out there. They've got tutorials and scenarios and really dissect the game. I grabbed a few and started using them and they're pretty good, and then most of those Apps also allow you to just play, so you can practice with a friend or family member.
No substitute from learning from someone real but it might be a good thing to hold you over in the meantime.

Bartholamue

Don't forget about the Chess Master series. They're pretty much the go-to game for chess advice.

Raern

For learning tactics, puzzles based on actual games (as opposed to compositions with impossible positions) can be quite good. I often look up chessgames.com to see their puzzle of the day, which ranges from easy on a Monday to near-impossible on a Sunday, but all are examples from real games.

You'll probably improve faster practising against humans than computers as well, since computers tend to make 'artificial' mistakes when their difficulty is turned down. If you play Chess on a free website against other people, you'll be given a rating based on performance that will match you with similar players, and give you a measure of how you're improving.

Youtube is full of chess stuff. Being Youtube it's free, likely to have people talking who like their own voice too much, and of totally random quality. But you can find some good videos too, just keep an eye on the 'likes' generally.

Finally, even if you don't usually find a reason to go to a local library, they probably have a few books on chess lying around. Could be worth looking into.

JAEF

In terms of the mindset for the games (rather than pure logistics and strategy) I really loved The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin, the child chess prodigy that Searching for Bobby Fischer was based on.

Al_wat

If you have an android phone you can get Shredder chess, it has tutorial modes and stuff. Pretty good at teaching you how to play. It costs like $5.

Not sure if it is available on other platforms.

garroad_ran

Roman Lab

Get your hands on as many of these videos as you can.

Lepton

I would like to recommend gameknot.com as a place to play chess. It's correspondence based on the web, but there are a lot of old games, forums, and annotations that will help your game. And you can sign up for free.