Eventually I'm gonna make a VR Chess game with a mode that vibrates your buttplug whenever your finger hovers over the piece or space that the hint system recommends. So, look out for that one day.
early game is basically solved and tedious to learn first so don't worry about it yet. Maybe learn like the first 5 moves in a handful of popular openings if you're paralysed by indecision.
Midgame is too complex to understand for a beginner. Instead learn the broad fundamental principles and try to develop a sense for judging which positions are better. Stuff like whether the board is open or closed and what pieces have more value in those situations, why the centre is good to have control over, how to develope pieces and avoid common traps.
you cannot win reliably if you don't understand end game. End game is also the simplest as it involves the fewest pieces. Begin your learning studying end game puzzles, you will learn fundamental techniques like forking, recognising what pieces a player needs in order to check mate and what positions are stalemates, how to force moves. This will strengthen your late midgame ( you know what trades to take, what pieces you must keep in your situation), and help you avoid frustrating drawn out cat and mouse games.
After learning the very basics you also should just play chess. After all don't forget it's supposed to be about a fun game and the less you expect yourself to be good the less anxiety you'll face playing matches. Get used to the feeling of playing against people, don't overanalyse your early matches. Just play many games, lose most, learn new tricks and where you're weakest.
Eventually you'll start feeling like you need to learn openings to improve, you should do that then.
For clarity I'm talking about mock boards with like 3 pawns a side, a rook, a bishop and it's like "white to play and checkmate" or "white to play and mate in 3" etc for beginners. Where you learn like how you get a checkmate with 2 rooks or whatever.
Reject the coded and striated space of chess (knights and kings, institutionalization), and embrace the smooth space of go (a louse or an elephant, deterritorialization).
learn how the pieces move. Castling, pins, pawn moves, knight moves.
learn basic opening principles, fight for the center, develop pieces, castle.
focus on tactics. Beginner players can lose significant material in the early game and win consistently if they are better at tactics. I like chess tempo for tactics training
learn some opening theory. Find lines that give you positions you enjoy and practice them.
i don't know why anybody hasn't told you but you can just steal a chess player's skills by eating their heart. i'd recommend one of those niche celebrity 'champions' or whatever
Play the game and get a feel for it, and then watch videos of the best players playing, with commentary if possible. Before they make their move, decide in your head what your move would've been. You could even pause the video. Then see how it differs. If you can mimic the pros, you'll beat a lot of players.
The bonus of that is you don't have to get locked into a game, so you can do it whenever and not feel bad.
When you play, justify every single move by explaining it to yourself - it's a precise game so every decision should be justified, even the most simple. Explore every possibility (within reason). Use the time given to make the optimal play.
I can only speak for this working in Hearthstone Battlegrounds (a form of auto chess, which chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov has had a go at playing and saw similarities).
I watch DogDog's daily hearthstone highlight VODS every day before I go to bed. I skip through the 20 minute videos to the parts where he's making plays. Despite being an otherwise casual Battlegrounds player, I once reached the top 1% of player rankings. Most seasons I make a good global rank without even really thinking about it.
Honestly, just sign up for chess.com or Lichess and jump in. It'll take a while to get comfortable with the pieces and win but the best way to learn is by doing. Both sites have training and puzzles too. Once you start getting a feel for how the pieces move and if you're enjoying it you can look up openings for beginners online and practice those.
I've been playing since 2019 pretty much constantly. I had no experience when I started and while I'm not great by any stretch I love playing and I'm really glad I picked it up.