I have been playing chess for almost two years, and I honestly love it as it is so easy to play bullet or blitz games on your phone or a long-winded OTB game at my local chess club. With every chess game, I always learn something new, and it is one of the few games where it is "pure" skill with little to no luck involved. If I lose, it is because I made a mistake somewhere, and finding that mistake and learning from it is what makes chess so fun.
Currently, I am around 1400 Rapid and 1200 Blitz on chess.com and would love to play anyone around my level to play and analyze games to help both of us improve. I play better with more time as I often make careless mistakes, and more time allows me to think about my idea and think about the long-term consequences of it, while in Blitz, I find the shorter time format often forces me to make short-sighted attacks. As I found, when I play with someone around my level who wants to improve, I improve at a rapid rate which I have not been doing for the last six months since I have not stopped by my local chess club. Does anyone else go to chess clubs? I have been to five chess clubs and found the most enjoyable ones that encourage beginners to participate and play. The ones that take chess too seriously are the clubs I do not attend, as most people will not become grandmasters, so why not have fun and play some chess and maybe learn something new?
One book series that helped me rapidly improve was
Playing Winning Chess by Yaseer Seirawan, as Seriawan presents information in a simple and precise manner that allows a beginner to understand the fundamentals of chess.
In terms of YouTube, I find most of them not helpful in drastically improving my chess since their primary purpose is to entertain. I enjoy GothamChess, Eric Rosen, and Hikaru, but I do not actively go to YouTube to learn chess.
In terms of openings, I am not a big fan of memorizing openings but rather learning specific structures and ideas. While it is fantastic to remember a "trap," it is much better to know why that "trap" works and is beneficial; I might be able to execute the ideas in a similar position. My favorite aggressive openings are the King's Gambit, Evans Gambit, Fried Fried Liver, etc. I often do not pay attention to the theory but rather try to play ideas that make sense, and if it doesn't work, I do not want to know the correct idea; I want to understand why my idea was incorrect and why the other idea is better so I can apply the knowledge universally.
If anyone wants to play chess, please let me know, as I am always looking forward to playing someone new, regardless of your level, so that we can improve.