Former Hearthstone and current Duelyst/MTG player. Is control a viable strategy in chess?

The best advice for an absolute beginner is just to play a lot, and learn basic tactical and positional ideas, then try to put them into practice. "Style" is more something that applies to very high level players. There are some players who like to outplay their opponent by small increments, accumulating small advantages here and there until they snowball in the end game. Other players thrive more in tactically complex positions, double-edged swords where both players need to play very accurately in order not to lose on the spot.

As a beginner, you will be deficient in both strategy and tactics. I don't think it's such a good idea to get obsessed with one "style" of play when you don't have all the building blocks in either the tactical or strategical department. I don't play card games but imagine you were given a stack of cards, but you only knew the purpose and use cases of half of them, if that. Not much use trying to apply a certain style of play then, is there?

Also, the #1 tip that experienced players tend to give newer players is to play slowly and methodically. Playing fast is just a diversion and a place to use the intuition that you as a new player lack. Playing faster than your opponent will more likely lead to more blunders by you than it will tire out your opponent.

It's not true that the only resource chess players have is time. You start with 16 pieces and pawns: each one is potentially a resource at any point in the game. Often you'll have a particular move that you don't necessarily want to play, but the fact that you could potentially play it is something your opponent has to take into account, and that can often put a wrench in their works. That's a resource. Playing a lot and doing tactics puzzles will help you identify them. Check out John Bartholomew's videos on youtube, he has a lot of great instructional content. (All of them focus on making the right moves as opposed to playing mind games or anything related to things off the board. The fact that very little content aimed at chess beginners takes anything but the board into account should tell you something about what you should focus on.)

/r/chess Thread