This app was mentioned in 2 comments, with an average of 1.00 upvote
I've been working with Chess Endings for Beginners, which is an Android app offered by Chess King (they also have apps at the Apple Store). It has an endgame theory book built in, with plenty of practice puzzles. If you make an incorrect move while solving puzzles, it shows you the refutation. It's free to download, but you have to pay $4 to get all of the puzzles.
Thanks for opening up about this. I've been there myself; my chess journey has been a long and tough one. At this point in my journey I'm still only 1700 rapid lichess.org but I'm hoping to break past that barrier and keep climbing.
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Your problem seems to really be affecting you, so I'm going to put a lot of time into typing this reply. However, if you want a quick summary, I'll include a tl;dr at the end.
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None of what I say will matter unless you know who I am. My username is ChessStudyPotato on Lichess.org and I'm rated 1700 on Rapid. It's not that high, but I've been through your journey and had to work past your barrier myself.
https://lichess.org/@/ChessStudyPotato/perf/rapid
Perhaps advice from a low rated player like myself will be more helpful and relatable than higher rated players?
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You've made a huge misconception; being bad at chess doesn't mean you're stupid. Don't be so hard on your intelligence just because you lose to lower rated players. Chess is a lot to do with pattern recognition and not just intelligence. Most likely you're not used to seeing particular tactical patterns, nor are you completely used to what a hanging piece looks like.
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At your level, you'll benefit a lot from doing a lot of daily puzzles. I recommend ChessTempo for tactics. If you're serious then get premium and make a custom tactics set for 0-800 rated tactics. Drill them then slowly move up through higher rated sets to build up your pattern recognition. At your level, a lot of games will be determined by hanging pieces. Don't rush your tactics; spend even 15-30 minutes on a single tactic daily. I would be spending up to an hour on lower rated tactics and I had to learn to be very patient myself. Every ounce of you will be thinking, "why in the world can I not see the solution to such an easy puzzle?" But remember that your brain will not have seen that pattern yet, and once you find the solution your brain will remember the pattern for next time!
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Stick with the same openings. I work as a pharmacist in the UK and so a lot of my mental energy is exhausted during the day at work. I barely have time or energy at home. When I first started playing chess seriously online at the very end of 2017, I was working many 6 day weeks spending up to 2 hours daily commuting.
I therefore made the choice of sticking with the same openings from the very start, since my time to study chess is limited. My openings are: 1.D4 with white, as well as Caro-Kann and Slav as black. Sticking with the same openings means that I can be more efficient in my learning of chess; I decided it's better knowing only 3 openings but being good at them, than to know a thousand openings but be bad at all of them. I have limited time as an adult so I might as well spend this time as efficiently as I can.
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Study endgames. I used the ChessKing endgame app for android and it's really helped me with getting to 1700 Lichess Rapid (along with tactics of course). Don't underestimate how important endgames are. Many games can be won by knowing king and pawn endgames. You will also start to learn the value of each piece. As with the tactics puzzles, take your time with these puzzles and don't be in a hurry. At first I would only do one daily because it would take me forever to work out the solution.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chessking.android.learn.endingsforbeg&hl=en
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Lastly, analyse your every game. Take your analysis very seriously. I use the Lichess studies function to annotate my games. Analyse by yourself then use stockfish afterwards. If you can get a higher rated player to look over the game with you then even better!
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When carrying out all the steps above, you will meet a lot of challenges. You will get a lot of your puzzles wrong, you will lose a lot of games trying to understand a particular opening and you will struggle to understand the concept of endgames. This is the normal process of chess, but I believe you will fight through it. I'm not just saying this blindly, but I do believe in your ability to improve in chess. The immense frustration you are currently feeling actually shows the deep passion you have for chess. This deep passion is what will drive you to higher heights!
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You will never stop facing new problems in your chess journey. I've linked you my profile; notice how I got to 1700 rapid but I've been stuck there since January? That's one slightly irritating problem I'm facing at the minute, but it's all part of the journey!
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If all the above was too long for you to read, here's a summary:
- You're not stupid; chess is a lot to do with pattern recognition.
- Drill tactics on ChessTempo
- Stick with the same openings
- Study endgames
- Analyse your games
- You have a passion for chess and I can see that in you. Your passion will drive you to higher heights!