|
Recent articles:
Friday, December 14. 2007
Back in the days, if someone set his/her mind on becoming a reasonable chess player (or turning their offspring into one), there wasn’t a whole lot they could do about it, other then sign up to a chess club, where they could only hope they’d stumble upon a master who would not spare the effort to aid their development properly.
Nowadays, thanks to technological advancements, learning tools have become much more accessible for those truly willing to improve.
The computer, being the wonderful good-for-everything tool that it is, can be a superb aid for beginners. There are many chess programs out there (some of which come as cheap as 40-50 bucks) which will pit players against the pre-programmed skills of a virtual brain. Like it or not, these programs are likely to give players an exceptionally sturdy challenge in the beginning. Unlike playing online poker, learning to play chess against human opponents can often be intimidating. Playing against a computer eliminates that aspect and makes sure the rookie stays fully focused on the game. The computer won’t taunt junior, and won’t go into a rage when it finally loses a game. The downsides of learning to play chess on a computer program are diverse too, though. Therefore, it is seldom recommended as an advanced learning tool. It’s more like a fast and accessible way to get started in the sport.
The social aspect lacking, the chess program will not teach players any people skills, and believe it or not, playing chess has a lot to do with knowing how to handle people. Even though the “professional” chess engines feature a plethora of individual settings which can be used to fine-tune their play, a computer program will never be able to even approximate the behavior of a human opponent, and thus it is not going to prepare someone for the battle against natural intelligence. Bottom line is, an offline chess program, beyond the advantages it provides, has some pretty obvious limitations. One can basically use it for putting strategies to the test, training, analyzing games and solving chess problems. Make no mistake, all of these factors are useful, but in order to take his/her play to the next level, a player needs to measure up against human opposition.
Fortunately, the computer still doesn’t fall out of the equation here. Online training and learning can be much more valuable than what any good chess program can provide. Nowadays, playing chess online doesn’t involve more fuss than preparing yourself a cup of coffee. As one specialist puts it: it has never been easier to find a human opponent, no matter what time of the day you feel the urge to give the grey matter in your skull a little bit of workout. There are chess servers online 24/7, some of which are free, while others are paid. Depending on the level of expertise you’re looking for, and the conditions in which you like to play, you can choose any of those. Player traffic is certainly very important when playing chess (or some other board game) online, because you definitely do not want to spend half an hour waiting for some potential opponent to drop in. In this respect, large and popular servers provide much better services, whether they’re free or paid.
The power of the internet will impact one’s chess education on several levels though. Chess websites do much more than just provide a safe and stable platform where opponents can hack away at each-other. They bring the social aspect of the game back into the fold via specialized forums, where public wisdom comes for free, and socialization is right at home, too. Before the internet, many of the people who joined chess clubs did so for the social benefits involved. Those same social benefits are conveyed through community message boards and forums these days. It is kind of scary if one stops to think about the fact that one doesn’t even have to leave the house to become an excellent chess player anymore.
The articles and in-depth analysis on certain aspects of the game come in extremely handy as well, whether the discussion is about the King’s Indian Attack or the Marshall Attack.
Online chess sites, portals and servers play host to a wealth of information about this game, adding to it the benefit of the “wisdom of the crowd”. As soon as it appeared, the internet looked like something that could potentially revolutionize all boards games as well as card-games, and in the case of chess, we can safely state that the transformation has come full circle indeed.
Online poker rakeback can single handedly turn you into a winner. Do not neglect this edge.
Friday, November 30. 2007
The Rules of Chess – A Basic Guide to Understanding the Game
The Board
Chess is played on a chequered board containing 64 squares.
The squares of the board alternate in color and are termed light, and dark squares.
These squares are arranged into rows and columns.
Rows are called ranks and are numbered from 1 – 8
Columns are called files and are labeled from A – H
Pieces are set up in lines which are parallel to the files, and perpendicular to the ranks of the board.
The Pieces
Pieces are divided into two sets which are generally called white and black, despite what the colors of the pieces actually are.
Each player starts with 16 pieces. Those pieces are…
1 King: Arguably the most important piece on the board, the point of the game is to try and capture your opponent’s king. The king can move in any direction one space.
1 Queen: A powerful piece the queen can move in a straight line in any direction, as far as the player wants, as long as another piece doesn’t get in the way.
2 Bishops: The bishop can move diagonally in any direction, as far as the player wants, as long as another piece doesn’t get in the way,
2 Knights: A Knight can move two squares forward and one step to the right or left. This move can be done in any direction, as long as the same amount of distance is covered in the same way. The knight can also make his move over other pieces.
2 Rooks: The Rook can move in a straight line in any direction, as far as the player wants, as long as another piece doesn’t get in the way.
8 Pawns: Pawns are the backbone of a chess army. In general they can only move forward and can only move one space at a time. However, on their first move they can go forward two spaces. Also, the only way for a pawn to capture an enemy, is to move diagonally to take them.
The board is positioned so that the closest square to each player on their far right is light colored.
The row closest to each player contains the non pawn pieces.
If you are the white team, the pieces are set up from left to right as rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishops, knight, rook.
If you are the black team the pieces are set up from left to right as rook, knight, bishop, king, queen, bishop, knight rook.
The two armies should be mirror images of one another. Each queen should stand on a square of its own color.
Game Play
The player who is designated to be white makes the first move.
Pieces are moved either to an unoccupied square or to a square with an opponent’s piece on it. Each player can move one piece on each turn, and turns are alternated. When your piece moves onto an opponents piece, their piece is said to be captured, and is taken out of play.
En passant is a move done by two opposing pawns, in which one pawn can capture the other, under special conditions, without moving to his square.
Casteling is a move in which both the king and the rook move during the same turn, to a predefined position, under special circumstances.
If during play a pawn reaches the other end of the board, they are promoted, and can be exchanged for an extra of any piece the player wants except the king.
The object of the game is to capture your opponent’s king.
When a player maneuvers their pieces such that on their next move they can capture the opponent’s king, the opponent is said to be in check.
When a player is in check, they have to move their pieces in such a way that they get out of check before the next move.
If it is not possible to move their pieces in such a way that they get out of check before the opponents next move, the player is said to be in checkmate, and loses.
Not all games are ended by putting a player in checkmate. A player can resign, or if it seams impossible to achieve checkmate, a game may end in a draw.
If it is a timed game a player can also lose by running out of time.
This article provided courtesy of PebbleZ's natural stone chess sets
Thursday, October 18. 2007
Chess is a game of mystery to the many people who dont know its rules. Often even the most intelligent will remark that they dont really know how its played, or never really understood it. For them the existence of a chess board in a setting is a constant challenge which they cannot meet. If it is your chess set, that challenge is being made by you, and it puts you in a subtle position of dominance over the other person.
For those who do play chess, there will be a sense of respect. Chess is a challenge which pits two minds against one another in a struggle for superiority. Your chess set leaves you as open to an invited game as it does your guest. In that game you could win gloriously, or you could lose, humiliatingly. A chess set shows that you are willing to take that risk, and that you are confident enough in your own abilities to handle anyone who enters that room.
A chess set does not necessarily guarantee a challenge every day, but the eventual invitation to battle will arise, and when it does the worst thing you can do is be bluffing. Answering that you dont really know how to play or that you just keep it around for show will make you look week, and even phony. While including a chess set in a setting doesnt require you to be Bobby Fischer, it does help to have a working knowledge of the game for when contests do arise.
When you walk into a room and you see that someone has chosen to display a chess set, your subconscious mind will probably give them a few extra points of respect for their audacity and fearlessness at displaying this open challenge. You may also attribute qualities of strength or intelligence to them, whether they possess these or not, merely because of the possibility presented by that game. These effects are usually very subtle, but by knowing what they are you can use the space around you as a tool to increase perception others have of you.
This article provided courtesy of http://PebbleZ.com home of Unique Stone Chess Sets
Sunday, June 3. 2007
 Is Google product search (formerly known as Base or Froogle) affected by external links to a particular set of results. We're trying this with a search for chess sets on google.co.uk. Can it achieve high rankings even though it doesn't have any Google page rank? Currently on page 6 (2nd June 07) - will linking lift it higher - even to compete with the first current chess set retailer. If you want to link - feel free - it's an interesting experiment - the link is: [http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&rls=GGLJ,GGLJ:2006-33,GGLJ:en&um=1&authorid=1104921&cdn=ChessBaron+Chess+Set&q=&scoring=pd] This has important implications - it means that as well as optimising web sites - one can optimise the free results allowed by Google. What then of a shop on eBay or a free chess computer page on eSnips or a chess computer page on Squidoo? This potentially gives another realm to any search engine optimisation company that optimise web sites.
Friday, November 17. 2006
Author: nabla
When seeking for a subject of my next chess article, I was thinking of how I could maximize my potential readership, and found out that problem was not so easy. Indeed, one of the great things about the community of chess players is its variety. We have veterans and youngsters, intellectuals and manuals, bankers and tramps, artists and competitors, and since a short time we even have men and women.
Isn't there one common denominator ? Fortunately there is one : we all love queen sacrifices. Ahah, say no more, I have found my theme ! Here are three of the finest chess studies ever composed on the theme of the queen sacrifice. I would even like to issue a poll about which one you will like best.
Continue reading "What is your favourite queen sacrifice ?"
Sunday, October 22. 2006
Author: Servant
Chess is like a triathlon, their are three parts to it, the opening, middlegame and the ending, three stages that are different. You can start out well in a triathlon, the swim and bike ride but it is the final run that decides who wins. A person in the lead after the bike ride can easily lose if they are too tired to run fast, the same applies in chess as a person who has the advantage after the middlegame can still lose in the ending, this thought should boost ones confidence in their abilities when playing a tougher opponent. Knowing endgames can help you as you can then think ahead in the late middlegame and have a better idea if you are winning, drawing or unfortunately losing. This knowledge then dictacts how you play, if you swap of pieces or just keep a central knight, long range bishop or a file sweeping rook. If you want to be a strong player then you have to play the best move until move 70 or 80 and try not to make a mistake after that. This is the approach of the modern day Grandmaster who is a really competitve player. I have been following the ongoing Chess World Chamionship in Elista, Russia and have noticed the strong moves by both Topalov and Kramnik in their games. They both have played brilliantly in the endgame and have been able to win and draw when there have been little pieces left. I can see that they are very committed to their endgames, they know that the game is usually decided at the end. To add to that they seem to be very patient too at the table. Much of the endgame requires thinking ahead, perhaps up to 7 moves ahead if one can do that, one such situation is when there are passed pawns and you have to see ahead to see if you can deliver check when you promote to a queen, rook, bishop or knight. You have to see if the opponent can do the same thing to you as well. These days, chess endings are exciting and tend to get alot of focus in tournaments rather than the opening where people who finish their games early come and watch the top board players take each other on right until the last move. I read about endings in the Australian newspapers and there are lots of tricks worth knowing. I have eight positions here where the pawns are invovled. To be honest these foot soldiers can really make a difference in the ending.
Continue reading "Spectacular Endings - the foot soldiers"
Tuesday, October 10. 2006
Author: Problemist
A horrible bad bishop for black, to be sure! In a game, the easy route would be of course to capture pawns and promote but what if, horrors of horrors, Black finds some way to sacrifice the bishop for the promoted pawn and come to a 2N vs. K position? Not likely, but again, such things happen to us all, especially in quick time controls.
Instead, white can use the impotence of the bishop and use his knights to force mate in one line, by sacrificing it.
Continuation:
1.Ng3! threatening Ne2(#3) 1...Bg7 2.Ne2 threatening Ngf4(#2) 2...Bh6 3.Kxc6 Bg7 4.Ngf4 Bf8 [if 4...gxf4 5.exf4#] 5.Ng6#
Interestingly, removing pawns b3/b4, and white knight on g2, leads to an even quicker mate in 4! Can you find it?
1.Nd2! threatening Nb3(#3) 1...Bg7 2.Nb3 threatening Na5(#2) 2...Bh6 3.Na5 and 4. Nxc6#. Mate on the white square again, this time from the Q-side.
This line certainly shows that in blocked positions, the N, or in this case, a set of Ns, can severely overpower a bad bishop!
Monday, October 9. 2006
Author: Problemist
This article is the result of a training exercise by the author in determing the best ways to win or draw, down a piece, but with pawn compensation for that piece. Should readers doubt any anaylsis shown here, please feel free to contact me.
We have all experienced positions in which we are a piece down for one or more pawns, and know that the draw or win is just as much a matter of positional factors and calculation as it is the material on the board. Even a bishop for a pawn up for black, this position sits in delicate balance. Black does not win this endgame unless white falters in his attempts at combining defense and offense (the same will hold for black in some positions!). Both sides can win or lose from this initial position, but it is white to play and draw.
Continue reading "A Draw A Piece Down"
Sunday, October 8. 2006
Author: Problemist
Many Grandmasters and World Champions have shown their skill in the problem arena, especially in those days when there was less of a chiasm between the art of the problem world and the practical world of the chessplayer. Emmanuel Lasker, Alexander Alekhine, Max Euwe, Vassily Smyslov all have been known for at least one well-regarded composition. Alekhine, who is suspected of doctoring some of his game scores for publication in an attempt to make them appear more brilliant or finished, had perhaps the most interesting reason for not continuing in the compositional field, especially given the rumors surrounding some of his more famous annotations. In a quotation widely attributed to him, Alekhine allegedly wrote:
"I am very much in sympathy with the idea of chess composition. I would be quite happy to devise problems myself. But, the opponent, that obtrusive partner! What disappointment does he bring to a real artist in the chess business, who wants not just another win but works of lasting value."
One grandmaster who dabbled in chess problems was Frank Marshall, who showed very good promise with his first composition. Marshall's first problem appeared in the Montreal Daily Star of June 19,1894 and the solution in June 26, 1894 column. That column also noted "Marshall's problem has baffled the entire corps of Star solvers. Most chess clubs have a mascot, or at least a tender juvenile who is exhibited to strangers as the local prodigy. Mr. F.J. Marshall occupied this position in Montreal until recently, but he is beginning to bite too hard to be played with much longer. Especially as he is blossoming out as a problemist. The Star has been favored with his first composition. It is neat and highly creditable, the more so as it is as sound as a bell.
Continue reading "Frank Marshall, Chess Composer?"
Wednesday, October 4. 2006
Author: Servant
One day i was outside watching the clouds for inspiration perhaps for a minute or two and came up with a novel idea that was profound.
What opening can put your opponent in a spin? When can you dream of excellent moves? What is recorded in magazines and newspapers as the starting moves of choice? In chess one of the best openings for Black is the Sicilian. Currently fashionable and trendy it is also one of the most popular openings ever. The Sicilian starts of 1.e4 c5 and then White has a choice of some different moves and the game can go in any direction, with names for certain positions like a najdorf, dragon, smith gambit, closed game, fianchetto game or a scheveningen. Black after starting slowly complicates the position, then heads into a great middlegame and then reaches an ending with chances to win. The Sicilian is used by the top players in the world. They seem to enjoy it in every tournament. I use it myself whenever i get the chance and have had some great results against the strong experts. In the Sicilian you will find subtle moves, sacrifices and unusual moves. A recipe for some deep thinking and excitement. I find that the centre of the board is critical since the central squares control the battle. King safety is also a huge priority, it can be left in either corner or stay in the middle. Consider the following games where Black moves first in all of them.
Continue reading "Sicilian Daze"
Monday, October 2. 2006
Author: Servant
I have dived into my collections of chess games and found some gems and even gold!. I'm rich. Well not in a monetary sense, just rich at chess.
There were many brilliant games to choose from and very instructing were most of them. Games from the world's best including Kasparov, Kramnik, Karpov, Svidler, Topalov and Anand. Not to mention great Australian players that no one has heard of. I did learn much from these and are worth revising. There is nothing so as important in chess than going into favourable tactics once a winnable strategic position has been reached. Tactics will turn up in the chess game about 99% of the time. There will be opportunities in chess where you may need to sacrifice pieces to end up with a winnable position or winnable endgame. This requires a bit of bravery and daring, especially when there are clouds hiding things in the poition. Since the middlegame is before the endgame there should be alot of thought into making a capture, checking or getting passed pawns. You should also create space for your pieces and not have them cramped. There is also opportunities to have a bishop vs knight ending where the bishop is the better piece because it can travel to more squares. Also the pawn structure has to be taken into account because doubled pawns are easy food in the ending. I like to have my knights and bishops in the middle squares d5, d4, e5, e4 and my rooks on open files. King safety is a priority too. In fact there are lots of things to look out for in the middlegame. No shortage of thinking. Here are some games that one can learn from. They are also rather enjoyable.
Continue reading "Middlegame tactics - the ambition for more"
|
