Posts tagged ‘chess’

For Beginners

The game of Chess is the most popular and historic game of the world. It is almost 1300 years old game, and it has received more thought time than art and literature. It is easy to learn but difficult to play as it takes a lifetime to master. It is one of the few games that develop mental abilities, however it’s total fun.

Chess is a board game played by two persons. Every player manages army of 16 pieces, white and black. Both players take their turn, and move one piece at each turn. The method to play Chess is as followed.

Setting up the board

Before starting playing chess you must learn the board setup. Chess board is the battlefield of the game. Players sit in the way so that each player has a white square to his/her right corner. The smallest pieces i.e. pawns are placed in the second row and larger pieces are placed in the first row of each side of the board. King and queen are placed at the center of the army. Make sure that the queen is positioned on a square of her own color.

Description of pieces

Pawn: pawn is the weakest and the smallest piece on the board. It can be moved one square at a time. Pawn can only be moved in the forward direction. After reaching the last row, it cannot be moved further, it can be promoted to any type of piece except for a king. Usually it is promoted to a queen as it is the most powerful piece on the battlefield. So, a contender can have more than one queen. Pawns do not capture other pieces in the same direction in which they move, but diagonally in the forward direction.

Bishop: Bishop moves diagonally and has the strength of about three pawns. It can be moved backward and forward, and can move more than one square at a time. It cannot move to a different colored square.

Rook: Rook carries power of five pawns. Rooks can be moved forward or sideways. They can also move backward more than one square at a time. Rooks can be moved in a normal way to the square occupied where they capture a piece.

Knight: like bishop, knight also has strength of 3 pawns. Knights can be moved one square diagonally and one square plainly. They are the only pieces that can jump over other pieces.

Queen: it is the most powerful piece in the battlefield and it has power equivalent to nine pawns. Queen can be moved diagonally and literally.

King: it is a little bit powerful than a pawn, but a most important piece in the battlefield. King can be moved just like queen.

Special Moves

Castling: Although rook is the second most powerful piece in the battlefield, it starts the battle in a poor place to utilize its power. Also the king is located in a position which slowly gets weak as the game proceeds. Here castling comes. In this technique king is moved two squares in the direction of one of his rooks and then rook is placed on the opposite side of the king.

En Passant: it is done by pawn to pawn. It was invented so that pawns cannot be captured by an opponent’s pawn by moving them two squares on their first move.

Chess is an interesting strategic game which requires skill and smartness to play this game. It also requires lot of concentration for the players to play this game. There are many chess strategies available to promote your game. Major sources of strategies are chess clubs, books, and online libraries. The strategies that are helpful for you to promote the game are as follows:

• You should know the value of each and every piece so that you can use the strategy to give up the piece of lower value in such a way to eliminate the piece of higher value.
• You main objective is to get your opponent’s king into checkmate. You cannot do this simply by planning the move based on the current situation. You should plan your own strategy by thinking ahead of moves.
• You should also watch the moves of your opponent so that you can able to know the strategy that your opponent is going to implement. This helps to plan your moves in such a way to break their strategy.
• When you are trying to move one particular piece you should think that how this move affects the entire game.
• You should always be alert about this game and also you should pay the attention at all the times. If you are careless in the game even for few minutes this will be quite enough for you to lose the game.
• If you control the center four squares of the board then it will be more helpful to take this game with you. So keep this always in your mind when you are planning the strategy.

These are the commonly used strategies in chess that helps you to take advantage over your opponent. You should implement all these strategies in every chance you get and then you can able to see big improvement in your game.

Chess became one of the most played board games all over the world today. There are even tournaments held each year, which is being participated by other countries. The game is known for its complicated rules and strategies. It is a hard game to learn because of the different moves of each chess piece and the reality that if you don’t have the skill you won’t easily get it. If you want to play chess, you must practice and learn strategies to defeat other players.

Some chess players have make their living by playing the game with betting. They use their skills in order to earn money. This kind of process is not illegal since most of the betting is held at their private room or place.

The game has earned respect because of its popularity; even in the computer world it became well-known. The online version of chess has encouraged more players because of its different effects and features. There are different types of online version of chess, some are created using 3D effect and other is 2D. The difference of the two types is the way it appears on your screen.

The version of online chess has made more chess enthusiast to practice their game and develop more strategies. It enhances their skills and can play against players from different part of the world. The rules of the game online are nothing different from the live game. The chess board, chess pieces, and even their colors are the same only that in online they are played through the computer screen and move by a device called mouse. However, the betting of chess on the internet is different.

Before you are allowed to bet online you have to register first on the site, fill-up a form, and answer few questions. Once you have successfully made an account you can now enjoy the game and choose other players online. There are certain rules set that you have to follow during the game. The first rule that you must learn is to limit the number of moves and decide quickly. There are time limits in playing chess so in betting this is strictly being followed. When the player with the white chess pieces begins its move the game will start. The player with the most number of chess pieces taken will win the round. You can also try to join the tournaments, wherein there more prizes at stake.

Betting chess online should be taken seriously because it involves real money. If you are not a skilled chess player you must learn more about the game and practice it often. There are free chess sites available in the internet and you can try playing on this site first before joining any betting chess game. No money involve, just signup and enjoy the game for free. There are even site that doesn’t require players to signup. There are so many ways to enjoy the game online and betting is just one of them.

Chess is a board game that offers fun and excitement to the players. It is a game that stimulates the mind and exercises your brain. Played in the ancient period between the kings and royal family members, this war game teaches the skill of warfare in a non-violent way. Though the world does not have any kings or kingdoms anymore, every person is waging a battle with the world in his own way. Learning the game of chess and playing it regularly will equip a person to fight the battle of life with poise and confidence.

The salient feature of the game is that the player enjoys the game, gets excited and relaxed while playing the game, and at the same time, learns invaluable skills that would go beyond the game and make him live an organized life.

The invaluable traits that one learns by playing the game include deep thinking, logical analysis, concentration, visualization or foresight, imagination, dynamic planning, decision-making, patience, social skills, assuming responsibility and self-confidence, to name some of the few.

Why should the children be encouraged to play this game?

The game of chess is very easy to learn and the rules are very simple. Moving the pieces through the squares across the board from one side to the other side without getting captured by the opponent’s pieces will be an interesting puzzle game for the kids. The way Knight moves across the board is interesting. Children will have fun playing this game.

Children are taught about the various pieces, their special capabilities and simple rules, such as bishop moves in diagonals, the bishop placed in a dark-colored square in the beginning cannot move through light-colored squares, rooks can move only horizontally or vertically and so and so forth.

Children will be trained to recognize the pieces and remember their characteristics and abilities.

Simple chess puzzles will introduce the child to the habit of thinking. He will try to apply his mind before making move. This is a good beginning and the child, right from his infant age, is introduced to the habit of thinking before acting. The bad trait of haste is eliminated from the child at the early age itself. The child, in his pursuit to solve the puzzle, not only resorts to thinking but also learns the reasoning skills – where to move, where not to move and such other things – all as part of the game.

The child is taught the value of the pieces – such as one for the pawns, 3 for the knights and bishops, 5 for the rooks and 9 for the queen. The King is the invaluable piece.

The child will be exposed to calculate the value of pieces, applying reasoning to ensure that his valuable pieces are safeguarded and the pieces are not gifted or carelessly lost in the game. This is an invaluable trait, which exposes the child to assign importance based on the values. This calculating ability and assigning importance will help him perform well in subjects involving calculations such as mathematics.

As the child learns the game and improvises his skills, he will start thinking a little deep, foresee the moves of the opponent. This will open up to a new world of creativity, imagination and foresight.

The skills learnt in the game, played for the sake of fun, will get inculcated into his character at the infant age and as he grows up, the invaluable skills of thinking before acting, analyzing, looking ahead and planning will help him face the realities of life with confidence and organize his life in a better way.

Now, with the advancement of the technology, teaching the game of chess is much easier. Children love playing video games in this modern world. Getting chess software that teaches the game in a fun way with animation and includes innumerable puzzles will be a good gift for the children. Encouraging them to play chess online with his friends from the comfort of his home and also with the computer is not beyond the means of many parents in this modern world, and can be effectively used for teaching invaluable skills to the children and make them lead a better life in future.

Chess is a novel game that inculcates invaluable traits and skills to the player, which would go a long way in shaping his life and character.

What is there in this board game that makes it so popular among the people?

It is a miniature of life, in more than one way. In real life, you face both success and failure. This dichotomy is what makes the life more interesting. When you succeed, you will feel happy and move further. When you fail, you may lose heart temporarily or feel dejected, but do not shy away from the life, but take alternative paths to regroup yourself and strive for success.

In the game of chess, the same thing happens often. Chess is a thinking game and what you need to win a game is the tactics and strategies. Not all tactics of yours will yield the desired result at all times. Your tactical plans and steps might be foiled or nullified by the opponent. You do not lose heart or accept defeat once your tactics fail to deliver the results. You try different combinations and make a different plan to corner the opponent’s king.

The more a person practices and masters the game, the better will be his attitude towards life. Now, thanks to the advancement of technology and the increasing usage of the Internet across the world, playing chess online is the easiest and best way for a person to relax, have fun and in the process improves his skill and exercises the brain.

Chess is a fair game in that there is no room for luck or chance to either of the players. If you are person inclined to act first and think later, then chess is not the game for you. You will be hearing only checkmate from the opponent always. In other words, chess calls for serious, deep and logical thinking, careful analysis, visualization, planning and effective execution, if you were to say “checkmate” to your opponent.

One important virtue that the game of chess teaches or sharpens is Intuition. How does one’s intuition can be improved? Intuition leads to creativity in the game of chess, opens up the mind for new ideas and innovative ways of deploying tactics and strategies. However, intuition in the game of chess is not similar to intuition in general.

Intuition refers to that unique quality where one finds the truth instantly. In other words, intuition is referred to as a quick solution that comes to mind suddenly. Does this refer to any random move made instantly without any thought behind the move? No. By intuition in chess, we do not refer to any random move played instantly, that, in a way, confuses the opponent, awakens creativity and opens up new possibilities.

On the other hand, intuition in chess refers to a move made instantly without taking time, through the act of chess instinct. As one gains expertise by playing more number of games, some of the positions, situations, pieces and the games get recorded in the mind. When such a position takes place while playing, the mind quickly recollects the similar situation in earlier games, and the solution for the present game can instantly come to mind. Driven by that recap, one makes the moves. This chess instinct in the game will turn to be intuition in real life situation. The more the chess instinct is sharpened, the more intuitive will be a person in life.

With online chess, a person can develop his chess instinct in particular and intuition in general by playing chess online with innumerable players of different countries and in the process, expands his horizon of thinking and expertise in the game.

Although you don’t intend to join chess tournaments someday, time will come wherein you will wish to perk up your chess skills. Probably, a long lost friend suddenly battle you for a game thus you end up wishing for ways that could somehow don’t leave you in disgrace. Now, if you don’t have time to study all the skills then you might just consider looking for successful chess openings.

Chess opening is given due priority by lots of people. In fact, if you search the web you will realize that there are more books that will discuss this much more than tactics to attack enemy. This is for the reason that it is fairly easy for someone to talk about openings rather than attacks.

Keep in mind that successful chess openings may vary and if you ask many experts, each of them will suggest different methods to open the game which they think is the most reliable. Each opening has specific reasons behind; some would opt to have a control of the center, others would like to have more space, while some would target coordinated development of their pieces.
Through openings, players can possible realize those goals and the process of doing such is more of chess strategy rather than chess tactics.

However let it be known that chess attacks are merely result of chess tactics which may rise depending on the position that arise into the chessboard. The positions are just an outcome of the right and wrong positioning done by player to his pieces and to his opponents. This happening normally takes place during the middle of the game during the time when a wide range of possible moves as well as countermoves were made.

Because of this, some people may thing whether it is right to think that chess attacks can never be pre-planned. The answer here is both ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Yes, in the sense that each chess game is different thus needing new thinking for the players. No, for the reason that since the positions may vary then there are some underlying factors which will recur. If you are aware about these and you are capable enough to detect them in the chessboard, you can surely opt for a methodical manner to take advantage of the opportunity.

Now, is it really important to understand successful chess openings? The answer here is a big sound “yes”. They are important although they do not play all the part to determine the success of your chess game not unless you did a very bad chess opening. Nevertheless, even though your openings are somewhat indifferent from what is written in the book, you will be able to come up with reliable attacking attacks just as long as you try to be careful with what you do.

In a nutshell, there is the obligation for you to carry out a good opening plus a good tactic to come up with a good game. These two factors will create a big difference in the outcome of your game.

An Open Game, or also known as the Double King Pawn game, is a type of chess openings which starts with White moves. Commonly, chess players begin by advancing their king’s pawns by two spaces or known as the 1.e4, which is the oldest type of chess opening. This is the most famous opening strategy and it features many strengths: it can instantly wore on repressing the central space and it frees the queen and a bishop. However, 1.e4 puts a pawn on an unprotected area and weakens d4 and f4. An open game occurs when the Black reflects the strategy of the White.

The second most known strategy for White is the 2.fN3 which strikes the king’s pawn of the Black, prepares for a castle in the kingside, and anticipates the forward move of the queen pawn to d4. The most popular response of the Black is 2…Nc6, which commonly results to Ruy Lopez or 3.Bb5, Italian Game or 3.Bc4, or Scotch Game or 3.d4. But if the Black keeps symmetry and retaliates the opponent’s central square using 2.Nf6, it will leads to Petrov’s Defense. The Philidor Defense or 2…d6 is not used because it provides a convenient space advantage for White while the Black’s place remains passive and paralyzed. The 2.Nf3 response is not also used in the master game.

The most known substitutes to 2.Nf3 are the Bishop’s Opening (2.Bc4), the Vienna Game (2.Nc3), and the King’s Gambit (2.f4). These tactics have some connection with one another, particularly the Bishop’s opening which often TRANSPOSES to VARIATIONS of the Vienna Game. During the 19th century, the King’s Gambit was exceedingly accepted. White gives up a pawn for rapid development and to get a Black pawn out of the central square. The Vienna Game also often features ATTACS on the Black center through the pawn’s move forward from f2 to f4.

The White instantly opens the central area in the Center Game or 2.d4 type but it should prematurely expand the queen after 3Qxd4, when the pawn is needed to be recovered. An option is to give up one or two pawns, for instance in the 3.c3 or the Danish Gambit. The EARY advancements of the queen in the Napoleon Opening (2.Qf3) and the Parham Attack (2.Qh5) appear to be amateurish. In fact, they are normally being played by beginners but the 2.Qh5 was used in some grandmaster competition games. Some of the rare openings and interesting moves for White are the Alapin’s Opening (2.Ne2), Inverted Hungarian Opening (3.Be2), Portuguese Opening (2.Bb5), and Konstantinopolsky Opening (3.g3).

In terms of the defense, the Damiano Defense is definitely not an ideal technique to use, even though the Latvian Gambit (2…f5) and the Elephant Gambit (2…d5) are very dangerous for Back. Meanwhile, the 2…d6 is not common in contemporary chess since it gives an effortless space advantage to the White while the Black stays solid but is controlled and inactive.

The open games has various variations, this include Portuguese Opening (1.e4 e5 2.Bb5), Alapin’s Opening (1.e4 e5 2.Ne2), and Ponziani’s Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d4).

In playing chess most of the time is spent in the opening. Although chess opening should be given ample time in planning for moves, but it is also ideal to give enough time to study the middle game and the end game. In this sense, it is important to learn efficient chess openings in lesser time. This will help any player to facilitate and divide the time on the three part of the game.

Reference material is a great help in learning the different openings. You can find valuable information from many reference books like Encyclopedia Chess Openings, Nunn’s Chess Openings and Modern Chess Openings. These books will provide you information on deciding what systems you want to employ as well as the important opening lines. The benefit of using reference book is that you have a guide on studying your opening point. In this sense, your mind will be focused on the task you will carry on instead of wasting time studying inferior scenarios.

However, studying chess opening should be more than about memorizing the variations and lines. Figuring out the plans and themes available for use on each side is one way of effectively studying the openings. You can achieve it by using database games that provide examples of games played in higher level in the exact opening variations and lines you are studying. By just browsing in the internet, you can find multitudes of free databases programs that you can use. Having the right system you can easily learn the opening and games played before.

On the other hand, you can also use specialty books that will guide you toward the specific opening system or line. Included in this book are instructions of themes and ideas that you should learn and think about in your studies as well as in the actual game. Likewise, you can also learn ideas on how to trap your opponent at your advantage. However, specialty books are effective after you have referred to opening references, databases and played lot of games thus you will master the opening in chess.

If you are just beginning on this game, you can use the combination of databases and reference books for you to obtain general idea of the things happening in different openings. You can also achieve more insights about the subtle variations and differences that you can use in your own game. This will be your doorway to play well in the middle and end game. After you have mastered the opening until you reached at least 1800 USCF, it is then the time to work on the middle and end game. These parts of the game will be the deciding phase of the battle. No matter how good you are in the opening if you come across trouble in middle and end game, you will find hard time gaining your tempo. For this reason, you should not overuse your time studying and planning the opening but also towards the end of the game. Doing so, you can take in control the board throughout the game.