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Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina  Can someone explain how player ratings work? If I'm just starting out, do I have some minimal rating already? |
FIDE uses the ELO rating, USCF has its own rating system. They're both quite a bit complex to calculate, and you'll not have any until you become a member of the USCF. If I can give you any advice, is that you shouldn't really be looking into that right now.
One other thing: Kingston said that you should start with the opening theory. From what I read, heard, and experienced, this is the wrong approach. You should start by studying the endgame, so you learn how to mate. After that you learn middlegame, so you know how to get into the endgame.
The thing with openings is that the theory got so big, that it's not so much about thinking it through by yourself anymore, but more about memorizing a whole bunch of stuff. Most lines, nowadays, are analyzed at least up to the 12th move. The best I could do so far in my own studies is to learn patterns and objectives: I know how a Ruy Lopez, a Sicilian, a Petroff, a Slav, an English, a French, etc. look like at its early stages so I can get an idea of what to play next, but without serious study and practice I couldn't get past the 7th move. Worst of all, once I got there, I did not know how to do the middlegame, so all that hard mental work meant absolutely nothing.
All you really need to read about the opening, so far, is this section of the Wikipedia article:
Aims of the opening