LEARN TO PLAY CHESS TODAY:

7 Deadly Sins Of Chess By : Barry Newton

If you want to win at chess: here is what not to do

1. Don’t move your pieces out to the side. Always aim for the centre where they will guard more squares. For example a knight in the middle of the board could cover 8 or 10 squares but knight at the side of the board may only cover 4. The same can be said for all the pieces. If you take the centre stage your opponent has no option than to attack you from the flanks and this will be a weakened attack.Control the centre and you control the game.

2/ Don’t castle too late. Get your King tucked in to the corner as soon as possible and out of harms way. A King left in the centre is vulnerable to attack .By the same token, try to castle to the Kings side as it is safer. If you do have to castle to the Queen’s side it will take and extra move to get your King tucked in. A word of caution. Take note of what your opponent is planning. If it looks as if there is going to be an all out assault on the Kings and you cannot stop it side then it would probably be safer to castle Queens side.

3/ Do not move your Queen out to the centre of the board in opening play unless there is a very good reason to do so. A Queen can be chased around the board by a host of pieces and while your Queen a running about like a headless chicken your opponent is developing all his pieces.

4/ The oldest Don’t in the book. Don’t move one piece twice until you have moved all your pieces once. When I say pieces this does not include the pawns. Your pieces should move as a unit. As one galvanised fighting force all covering for each other. The chess board is no place for individual heroes. Again, this is a guidline and not a hard and fast rule. There will be many times in your chess games where it would be dangerous to do this just for the reason that it is best practice. Also, do not miss an opportunity to take a piec or to move to a good position just because it means moving a piece twice.

5/ Don’t get blocked in by your own pawns. Try to move the middle pawns out 2 squares at the beginning to let you bishops and knights out into open play. Nevertheless, remember you can not move pawns backwards and therefore when moving them forward make sure they are going to a safe square and by moving them you will not weaken your defence. Give them back up from other pawns and other pieces.

6/ It here are only two Kings and some pawns left on the board during the end game Don’t follow your pawns up to 8the rank with your King for promotion. Try to get your King in from of your own pawns. This prevents the opponents King getting in and blocking your pawns. On the subject of promotion Don’t always opt for a Queen. I saw a game once where a player was struggling but managed to promote a pawn but realising this was going to be tool late to save a checkmate opted for a knight. This put the opponents King in immediate check and te King had only one move and he was instantly checkmated. Had he gone for a Queen the King would not have been in check and he would have been checkmated himself in the next move.

7/ If you want to continue improving you chess. Do not forget to record each game you play and go over the positives and the negative moves. Remember when you start playing chess you will lose most of your games. Nonetheless, if you learn from each defeat you will start to win. It took me years to beat my Dad but when I was 12 I studied chess books and practiced what the masters did and low and behold I not only beat my dad totally wiped the floor with him. It was my proudest moment and probably my dad’s as well but he would not admit it.

Tips for Choosing a Material for Your Chess Set By : Bradford Roegner

With the overwhelming choice of chess sets to choose amongst, this article will help consumers to choose a material for a chess set for them selves or as a gift.

With the abundance of options in chess sets, it is easy to become overwhelmed, especially at the delicate pricing point. This article will point out the reasons for price variation on chess sets, for a given l. Of course such choices as size of the chess pieces, the length of the chess board, or thickness will have an overall effect on the price. This article focuses on the relative differences when all such things are held equal.

The first thing that will dictate the price of the chess set is choice of the materials that are used in its production. The most popular options include Metal and Wood. Additionally there are several woods that are available and each will influence the price of the chess set.

Chess pieces that are made from metal are going to be the most expensive, while chess pieces that are made from wood are less expensive, in some cases extraordinarily so. Metal chess pieces are more expensive because of the extra equipment that is needed. The hardness of the metal that are used will force replacement of equipment due to wear faster than wood. Additionally, mining the ore needed for metal is usually more expensive than that of obtaining wood.

Even with choosing wood chess sets, there will lie a large price variation in pricing amongst the possible woods. Sheesham wood, Rosewood and Ebony are the three most popular choices for chess sets. This also their order of increasing cost. Sheesham is a lighter colored brown. It is an excellent choice for chess pieces, with its ability to be carved. Identical sheesham set can be up to 50% less that Rosewood set and 70% less that Ebony. Sheesham pieces are just as beautiful as their counter part, with a warm traditional feel to them.

Rosewood chess sets are then next on the ladder. Rosewood is a darker wood with even darker grain running through it. It is also a harder wood and more difficult to procure. As such, the skill needed to work with rosewood drives the cost higher. The wood varies in color from a Brown to a very deep coffee color, and can be found to have red hints throughout. As such, this wood produces a rich chess set that is a beautiful centerpiece to any chess collection.

Finally there is Ebony. When a player is looking to make a statement in a room or in a match, this is certainly the choice to make. Ebony is a dense hardwood that is difficult to find. The wood will vary in color from dark purple to deep black. Carved, it is a very impressive as chess pieces. Because of how hard it is, creating chess pieces from ebony is something that left to the most skilled of the trade. That, coupled with its rarity and demand causes the ebony chess sets to rise in price. The result is a severe and well heeled chess set.

With all the chess set that are available for purchase, this article was able to provide the guidelines explaining the source of the costs in a chess set. While there is a large range of the prices to choose amongst, a chess set is an investment that will return hours of joy and satisfaction to anyone who empowers them selves to own one.

Use Psychology to Win at Chess By : Barry Newton

Use everything you have to win at chess especially psychology

Have you watched any tennis or snooker recently. How many times have you seen the players stop dead before the serve or take a shot because someone in the crowd has coughed or flashed their camera. All these years practicing and a small noise can put them off so much that they refuse to play until the noise has abated. What has this got to do with chess strategies? Well I do not condone trying to put your opponent off but I have studdied psychology at university and know that very small changes in behaviour can have a detrimental effect on your opponents concentration. And to me this is all part of the chess strategies we can use.

Here is an example. I played the other day against a player I know all to well. He attacks with his bishops, usually both on the same file and this can be devastating against an opponent. Now if you have read my previous essays you will have noted that I go against the grain and like to take at least one of my opponent's Knights out when I get the chance as I hate playing against 2 attacking knights and my opponent knew this as well. Nevertheless, 6 moves into the game and I changed strategies and exchanged his Bishop for my Knight. He was totally perplexed by this this and I could see him trying to think of another strategy he could use which would not include 2 Bishops.

But more importantly was his attitude to the game. I could see from his expressions that he was desperate to beat me now but every time he developed a piece which looked threatening I would exchange it for one of my undeveloped pieces. In the end he made to uncharacteristic mistakes and lost the game. I had totally put him off his stride and won.

During most games I have anticipated my opponent's next 3 moves at least. Therefore when it comes to my move I usually play quite quickly especially if I have set a trap and my opponent has walked into it. I think it is only human to play quickly straight after she has moved to show that it was a plan and you had calculated this out from the very start My advice: Don't do it I have lost a number of games doing this where I thought I had considered ever possible move my opponent could make only to find she knew one more and scuppered my strategy. Always take at least 1 minute to go over your next move again. Now his piece is in position it will be easier to see if there is any flaws in your plan. This is using psychology as it shows you think out every move thouroughly and this can install negative thoughts into your opponent.

By the way, on the subject of taking your time over each move, it is quite acceptable to stand up and stretch your legs. Take your eyes away from the board and rest them. Think about something else for a minute then come back to the board a little fresher. Have a look at the you and your opponents position and reevaluate it. It is amazing what you will find which you may have overlooked. Walk behind your opponent and have a quick look at the board from his end. You my be surprised and what the pattern of play looks like from this angle. Do not spill hot coffee down the back of his neck this is not acceptable. Taking a long time to think about your next move does agitate opponents. Does it not agitate you?

By the way, a short walk before any major chess game will help you feel refreshed and ready to go. A bar of chocolate and a cup of coffee have been proven to increase your brain power so go for it. Back to the game .

Never show any concern or emotions during a game of chess. Even if you lose your Queen in the first few moves. Play on as if it is a strategy and tactic which you always use. Remember it is a GAME of chess. What is the worst that could happen. Get over it and get on with the game. I have lost major pieces through my own carelessness at the beginning of many games and have fought back to win. Remember, a Queen is not usually used until the middle game as it is quite dangerous to bring her at the start as she is easily trapped. Therefore, use this knowledge to your advantage. At the beginning losing your Queen will not affect the game that much apart from psychologically. You must put it to the back of your mind and use all the pieces including the pawns to work as a unit to ultimately win the game. Take a leaf out of football,s book. How many times has a player been sent off but the team playing with only 10 men hold out for a draw or even win. This is because all the players double their efforts. the pressure is off as they are not expected to win. They work as a single unit fighting and battling for each other. Remember, your opponent is a piece up and may now be complacent. Concentrate on traps and tricks, forks and pins to get your piece back.Pounce on any mistakes she makes she makes. Try to spring an attack out of the blue on her King before she realises what has hit her.

As soon as you have made a mistake do not show any emotion but put a very slight rye smirk on your face. You want her to thing this is a sacrifice and you are willing her to take the bait. Do not say anything as this would be deemed unsporting. You never know, she may refuse to take your piece if you
put on a good act.

Finally, one of the oldest chess strataegey cons in the book to put your opponent off. Concentrate your eyes on one side of the board while planning to attack the other side. You can learn more chess strategies at: chessstrategy.blogspot.com

You can do it: Use psychology

For more visit
http://chessstrategy.blogspot.com

Teaching a Child Chess By : Francesca Black

With the world becoming more complicated children need these skills to be equipped to meet its expectations, challenges and the many problems that will arise. A person does not need to go to extremes to help their child, its as simple as teaching the game of chess.

Raising children in the world today has become much more complicated than it was even 20 years ago. Among some of the influences that seek to effect the youth of today are a "got to have it now attitude" and related to that, a lack of foresight as to how choices will have consequences later. There seems to be a deteriorating of values and concern with basic moral character. Responsibility, effect of choices and thinking before acting are among these traits. With the world becoming more complicated children need these skills to be equipped to meet its expectations, challenges and the many problems that will arise. A person does not need to go to extremes to help their child, its as simple as teaching the game of chess.

Benjamin Franklin said, "Chess teaches foresight, by having to plan ahead; vigilance, by having to keep watch over the whole chess board; caution, by having to restrain ourselves from making hasty moves; and finally, we learn from chess the greatest maxim in life - that even when everything seems to be going badly for us we should not lose heart, but always hoping for a change for the better, steadfastly continue searching for the solutions to our problems." Some say chess is just a game, after all, but what it teaches seems to put its position higher.

The traits that chess develops not only effect the game, but help develop the skills to be applied to all of life. There is not just one skill required to play chess, but several working together. With a game lasting at times hours, chess teaches focus. Many things want a person’s attention and the ability to focus on what is before you allows for the problem to receive full attention and to be solved. One move can lose the game and before a piece is moved a player needs to think about the possible effects that move will have, this teaches thinking ahead. Concentration is required to play chess. Each choice needs to be made consciously and deliberately, not just making a move to make it, but deciding the best move. There is no force of a choice or move to be made in a certain amount of time and this teaches responsibility of choice and consequences. Chess not only requires these skills, but allows for them to be developed. With the complexities involved in chess some may wonder if it really is a game for children.

Learning chess is a natural progression, and as a child grows and matures their skills will develop and the complexity of the game will increase for them. A child can start to learn the pieces, points and direction of movement as young as 4 or 5. There are many ways to help a child learn strategies, understand the effects of their choices and be able to see things from their opponent’s view. One important tool for an adult to use to teach chess is asking questions. For example, as you are contemplating a move, ask the child the value of that piece, explain why are you doing something or ask what might happen if that piece is moved. Another helpful thing to do is to turn the board once, or more during a game. This not only allows for a child to gain back the advantage and help them be successful, but it also allows for them to learn perspective and how a move or placement of pieces looks to the other player. They need to not only see the possible moves they can make on their side, but their opponents as well. Another helpful skill is to encourage them think forward to how a move will effect the board, and how will the board look after their move. Encourage them to make two to three moves in their mind before moving a piece instead of doing the first one that they see. This will help them look forward to the consequence of their choice and train their minds to think before they act. Encourage them to gain ownership of their game by asking questions about why they did something and getting them to explain their thought process out loud. This will allow them to feel responsible for their own decisions. Never throw the game. Winning needs to be earned to allow for feelings of accomplishment, it does not help a child to be given the win. They should also sometimes play against someone their level, they will win sometimes, lose sometimes, but will learn to be gracious in both instances.

Just a game? Perhaps, but the skills developed will benefit a player beyond the scope of the game. Their mind is sharper, their thinking more complex and their ability to make choices and feel responsible for those choices has increased. Who better to benefit from learning these skills than a child?

Learn The Right Moves For Sucessful Chess Play By : Lee Dobbins -

For many people they find the tactics and strategy of chess play very complicated, even computers are unable to work out the best strategy against every situation in a game of chess. As there are literally millions of different possibilities involved in each game of chess it is impossible for us to evaluate them all.

Over the years chess strategy has gradually been getting more advanced and the Chess Masters who write books about their various strategies will eventually influence the next generation of chess players to come along. It also means that being able to observe a particular player’s strategy can often make it easier for other players to work out how to beat them, despite them not knowing much about the game of chess itself.

Whilst the more advanced chess play strategies and tactics can take some one years even a life time to learn and in fact you will soon discover it is pretty much impossible to learn everything about the game of chess. However, below are 2 of the more basic moves which should help get you started.

Generally the most common move made in any game of chess is to ensure that you pin the other player’s pieces. What we mean by pinning is that you use one of your pieces to stop your opponent from one of theirs and thus allowing you to take one of their more important pieces such as the Rook or Queen. Certainly a more skilled chess player will be able to easily stop you from moving anywhere and thus controlling not only their side of the board but yours as well.

Then there is the skewer move which is very similar to the pin move, but only the other way around. So the more important piece (Rook or Queen) is at the front and the less important one is behind. Although it looks as though you are moving your most important piece into the line of fire you have actually in reality got it covered. Thus if your opponent decides to take your important piece they will then leave their most important piece open to be taken by your less important one. Because of this your opponent will be forced to move their more important piece out of the line of fine and leaving their weaker ones that are behind open to attack.

Learn To Play Chess Today By : Lee Dobbins

Always wanted to play chess/ Here's the basics that will get you started playing today.

Have you ever watched a chess game and wondered how the heck the game works?

On one level it looks kind of like checkers, but not all the pieces are shaped the same and they move in strange and mysterious ways. If you've ever wanted to be one of those intelligent looking folks sitting on either side of the chess table, then this guide can help you learn how to play. It's not that difficult and you can even be playing your first game by the end of the day!

To make it easier to talk about chess pieces and moves on the board, a special method of notation has been devised. In chess the rows on the board are called ranks and the columns are files. In this notation the files are identified with a letter and the ranks are identified with a number. So when looking at a chessboard from the "white" side, the leftmost file is 'a', the one next to it 'b' and so on until the last file which is 'h'. The closest rank for white is 'rank 1', the next one is 'rank 2' and so on until the last rank, which is the back row for black and is 'rank 8'. So the when using chess notation, the leftmost back square for white would be called 'a1', the square directly above 'a2' an so on. Isn't that easy?

A game of chess has 3 basic phases - the opening, midgame and endgame. The opening begins the game and is the first 10 or 15 moves. During the opening you should concentrate on getting your pieces into a good position (called promotion). But what is a good position? Typically it is good to control the center of the board and of course you want to be sure your king is protected. You should have some sort of general plan in mind when promoting your pieces - don't worry as you get more experience playing it will be easier to come up with these "plans". The middlegame is when you play your battles and try to take more of the opponenets pieces than he takes of yours. The endgame comes when there are only a few pieces left to play with and eventually ends in either a draw or checkmate.

Not all the chess pieces behave the same. Each one moves in a different way and has different rules. A piece may capture an opponents piece by landing on the square of the opponents piece - the captured piece is then removed from the board. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponents king so this piece must always be protected. The King can only move 1 square at a time but he can go in any direction, vertically, horizontally or diagonally. The only restriction is that he cannot move into a square that would allow him to be captured (or checkmated) by the opponenet as this would be a huge blunder that would end the game. So, looking at an empty board with a king on e4, he can move to e3,e5, d4, f4, d3, f3, d5, f5.

Th Queen is the most powerful piece and can move in all directions but unlike the King can move any number of square without having to "jump over" another piece. A Queen that is on d4 has 27 possible moves and can move to any square on the d file, any square on the 4th rank all 7 squares on the a1-h8 diagonal as well as all 6 squares on the 'b7-g1' diagonal.

The Bishop is initially placed on either side of the King and Queen and can only move on diagonals but can move as many squares as he wants. Because of this, the Bishops will always stay on same colored squares. He is slightly more valuable than a Knight.

The Knight is placed next to the bishop and is the piece that looks like a horse on a typical chess set. This piece moves in a strange way - the movements form an L. It can move in any direction and is the only piece that can skip over other pieces. Namely it moves two squares horizontally and one vertically or vice versa. Therefore, a Knight on d7 (Nd7) can move to b8, b6, c5, e5, f6 or f8.

The Rook is placed on the end squares next to the Knight which often looks like a castle. It can move along files and ranks as many squares as it wants. The Rook is the second most valuable piece. A Rook placed on b5 can move to all 7 squares on the fifth rank, as well as all 7 squares on the b file.

The Pawns are the smaller pieces that are in the front row and have the simplest moves as they can move only one square forward. There is one exception - on the pawns initial move, it can move two squares forward. Unlike other pieces it cannot capture a piece directly in front of it but can only capture on a diagonal. The pawn is the least valuable piece but it does have the distinction of being able to be "promoted". If a pawn reaches the opposite end of the board it can be replaced with any same color piece of the players choice which is most usually the Queen.