Chess

[MyrddinsPrecint]

So-- having played about 5 games of chess before in my life, i've decided to start playing a lot more.

of course, this involves learning.

obviously, there's a great deal i can only get by playing.....

but the other night, when i was surfing the web trying to find basic tutorials, what i found was not exactly.... basic.

does anyone have any suggestions??

[strongbad94]

yeah, make sure you keep your queen and bishop (and of course, your king) safe from harm.

[Araznal]

Okay, I've been playing chess since I was... well before I can remember. The first book I read was great, it's The Usborne Guide to Playing Chess. Simple and direct, it also includes Karpov v. Korchnoi (I sound like an infomercial, don't I ). My favorite chess book for opening your mind is Bobby Fischer's Outrageous Chess Moves. It includes 101 crazy moves made by the crazy chess master. Also, the commentary can be really funny. Example: "Fischer's outrageous king move brought the house down"

For more advanced stuff, you have to focus on openings, Modern Chess Openings is fascinating and great for the more advanced player.

[Larrison]

Seriously, MP -- get a good chess program for the computer and religiously play a game a night.

And then study the game -- with a good program, you can replay the game and see what you did wrong, and even have the computer suggest alternative moves at that point to maybe open up the ideas for some options. Some computer programs have some reasonable "teaching" modes, where they will show you different openings and allow you to set and play chess problems to get tactical awareness and knowledge to match general strategic directions.

That's about the easiest method I know of.. and fairly cheap, since you can get a reasonably good chess program for like $40

[mrbiggs]

I say get a few friends to play with you, and make sure at least 1 or 2 know what they're doing, then learn from each other. After that, you can move up to internet and computer chess.

I used to be really subpar at chess, then I played a game or 2 every day for the better part of a year during study hall with one of my friends. I became very good, and was able to hold my own online where, of course, I learned more.

Computers, I don't think, are very good to play, because they aren't human. It's hard to learn strategies from them, and you can't take human mistakes into account when playing them. It's good when there's no other option, though.

[VELISARIOS]

Hello MyrddinsPrecint. It nice that you start chess. I help you with this
http://www.chessvariants.com/d.chess/chess.html
try in this link it has the rules for the beginers.
You can try and this
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044603
It has a game between 2 great players. That will help you very much (...I hope so).
ciao

[Inquartata]

Nothing helped my game more than studying the openings.

I always thought it would be tedious, just memorizing moves worked out by other people. But it really strengthens your play. I recommend trying a bunch and selecting 2 or 3 favorites ( per color ) for intensive study and practice.

[Soldier]

Wait, Inq plays chess?

Well, surprise, surprise...

[scrapinpeg]

when you're beginning, here's a few rules of thumb (which of course you may choose do disregard once you get better)

1) unless there's nothing else you can do, moving a pawn is probably a mistake

2) control the center 4 squares. preferably with pieces rather than pawns.

3) if you can't control the center, at least prevent the other player from doing so.

4) don't be afraid to trade pieces. especially if the other player winds up weakening pawn structure to take your piece (putting one in front of another, for example).

4a) it's okay to trade a knight for a bishop, or vice versa. don't trade your rook for a knight or bishop. don't trade your queen for a rook.

5) don't set a piece anywhere unless (a) it's protected or (b) it can escape to safety if unprotected.

That's enough to get you started with.

[epeefencer74]

Seriously, MP -- get a good chess program for the computer and religiously play a game a night.

And then study the game -- with a good program, you can replay the game and see what you did wrong, and even have the computer suggest alternative moves at that point to maybe open up the ideas for some options. Some computer programs have some reasonable "teaching" modes, where they will show you different openings and allow you to set and play chess problems to get tactical awareness and knowledge to match general strategic directions.

That's about the easiest method I know of.. and fairly cheap, since you can get a reasonably good chess program for like $40

I agree, not that I'm an expert or anything, but I like it enough to learn it. Chessmaster 9000 is a great program. It has lots of learning tools besides the requiste chess game.

[latenight]

get battle chess



Little animated pieces killing each other is priceless....

[lochinvar]

Wait, Inq plays chess?

Only in Latin. And he always only plays White.

[oiuyt]

get battle chess



Little animated pieces killing each other is priceless....

I had a copy of that years ago. Couldn't play it worth a d*mn. Always had to switch it into 2d mode (which, incidently, turned off the battles). Always missed obvious threats or openings when it was in 3d mode. Playing it in 2d mode I had no problems.

-B :)