Garry Kasparov’s View of Chess Computers
chess book, computer chess, reviews January 29th, 2010
Of all the top grandmasters who could give their views of chess-playing computers, Garry Kasparov is probably the best qualified. He has played several matches against computers at a time when programmers were trying with all their might to make a computer that would defeat a world champion.
In his review of Chess Metaphors: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Mind, Kasparov makes several interesting observations about the affect computers have had on humans who play chess.
Chess Endgame Strategy – The Square of the Pawn
chess strategies, endgame strategy, winning chess strategy January 27th, 2010
How to tell if the King can catch a Pawn in a race
(Video below the jump.)
Often a game of chess will end with two Kings and one Pawn: King and Pawn vs. King. And very often in those situations, the question is simply this: can the King catch the Pawn?
In the following diagram we have just such a situation … the King would like to catch the Pawn before it reaches the 8th rank to become a Queen, and the Pawn is trying to race to its 8th rank. Who wins? There is a simple rule to decide which side wins these races.
An Illustration of the Power of the Queen – How the Pieces Give Check
chess tactics, learn chess January 17th, 2010
We all know that the Queen is the most powerful piece on the chessboard. What some beginners (and even some intermediate players) don’t appreciate is the great trouble the Queen can create for the other player. I want to try to give you an idea of how the Queen can be used by showing you how many ways a Queen can make trouble against the enemy King.
To show you the Queen’s great power, I will first show you a feature of the other pieces that they have in common. The Bishop, Knight, and Rook can all give check to the enemy King in at most two ways in any given position.
Free Online Chess — Play Against Real Opponents Today
Uncategorized November 22nd, 2009
If you’re looking for a good game of chess online, there are lots of places to play; and a few of them offer a very good chess experience that is comparable to the experience you would find in a good local chess club.
Free Internet Chess Server (FICS)
One of the best is a free service provided at www.freechess.org. The site has a lot of very strong and serious competitors, regular tournaments, relays of grandmaster tournament games, a lively community, ratings, and more.
Most of the games played at FICS are blitz (speed games) played at 3 to 5 minutes per game, though many blitz games are played with shorter or longer time limits. Many standard games are played at 15 minutes per game. Again, many games are played at longer time limits. FICS features many tournaments, including a popular team tournament played at 45/45 (meaning 45 minutes per game with a 45-second increment added for each move made).
Queen Alice Internet Chess Club
Another good free chess site is Queen Alice Internet Chess Club (www.queenalice.com). This is a “correspondence” type of chess, where games are played with a time limit one move every week, or even more slowly. Again, the site offers ratings and a lively community. If you prefer to play correspondence style, Queen Alice is a good choice. And the price is right!
I don’t have any affiliation with either of these chess clubs … I’m not making money for recommending them.
And if you have any other recommendations, please feel free to leave your recommendations in the comment box below. Please make sure that you are recommending free sites only.
Chess and Twitter – Chess Tweets!
reviews June 19th, 2009
I recently saw a blog post about ChessTweets, a chess community for Twitter. ChessTweets is going beyond making an app for playing chess by Twitter, they’re conducting an experiment in the value of a collective mind.
The ChessTweets Experiment attempts to expand on the collaborative ideas intended by this famous chess game by creating the world’s first automated and objective hive-mind machine. With the advent of Twitter, developing such a machine has become both readily-possible and irresistible. Can such a machine learn to compete with the best of the best? The ChessTweets Experiment intends to find out.
By asking its participants to give their input in community games and without preselecting grandmasters, ChessTweets will examine each participant’s relative skill and apply a formulated weight to each and every suggested move such that every mind plays an important and unique role.
The experiment is just beginning, and the level of play appears to be fairly uneven. But this should improve as more players join the experiment and as the organizers collect more information about the community. This will be a long-term project, but it is interesting and may provide interesting insight into thinking processes.
If you’re interested in playing casual correspondence-type chess (games are played at approximately one move per day), and you love Twitter, I think you’ll love ChessTweets
I have a suggestion for getting the most advantage out of playing chess on Twitter (or any of the online correspondence-type chess communities): practice analyzing each position by first asking yourself what all the checks, captures, and threats are for your opponent, and how you should respond to each of those. Then examine what checks, captures, and threats you have in your position. Only after you have ascertained all these facts should you begin to do further analysis.
Tags: chess tweets, online chess, twitter
En Passant Capture During Check
chess beginners, chess rules June 10th, 2009
In a comment to a recent post, Scott asks why someone doesn’t mention that you can’t make the en passant capture if the King is in check. The short answer is that you can make the en passant capture if it removes the check.
Here are two videos to help illustrate the en passant rule.
So, for example, in the following diagram, Black has just played 1… d5+. White’s King is in check and he has a pawn in position to make an en passant capture.
It is perfectly legal in this position for White to play exd6 (and it would be the best move on the board!), capturing the pawn en passant and removing the check against his King. The important point to remember here is that the capture is legal if it removes the check, but would be illegal if it did not remove the check.
Tags: en passant capture
Chess Notation Part 3 – Playing Over a Game
learn chess June 10th, 2009
Good Moves and Bad Moves
When you are reading a chess book, you will often find exclamation points or question marks (or some combination of exclamation points and question marks) after certain moves. These are generally accepted indications of good moves and bad moves. Here’s the normal meaning for these symbols:
- ? = bad move
- ?? = really bad or losing move
- ! = good move
- !! = brilliant move
- ?! = questionable move, probably bad
- !? = interesting move, possibly good
Ellipses …
When you see ellipses (the three dots …), that usually means that a move that was played is being omitted from the notation. It is most often used in a book or magazine before or after a diagram to indicate that it is Black’s move. For example, in the following diagram, it is Black’s move. This would be indicated in the following manner before the diagram:
1.e4 …
1… e5
The ellipses in the move before the diagram indicates that it is Black to move in the diagram. The ellipses after the diagram indicate that it is Black who has moved.
Other symbols
Some chess books (such as the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings) employ special symbols to indicate more detailed evaluations of positions in a single symbol. Many of those books are addressed to international readership and will usually have an explanation of the symbols somewhere in the book.
The moves for a complete game.
Here is an interesting game with a strong attack against the castled king and the sacrifice of a couple of pieces to maintain the attack. If you want to practice using chess notation, set up a chess board and play the moves listed below and check the position you get on your board against the diagrams shown below.
- e4 c6
- d4 d5
- exd5 cxd5
- Bd3 Nc6
- c3 Nf6
- Bf4 e6
- Nf3 Be7
- O-O a5
- Nbd2 O-O
- Re1 b6
- Ne5 Bb7
- Ndf3 Re8
- Qc2 g6?
- Nxf7! Kxf7
- Ng5+ Kg8
- Bxg6! Rc8??
- Bxh7+ Black resigns 1-0
If you’re practicing reading chess notation, compare the position above with the position you get on your chess board. After you’ve done that, try to work out why Black resigned. Black has four legal moves, and you should work out the best line for White after each possibility. I’ll post the answer tomorrow.
If you’re interested in a great book for beginning chess players, check out Learn Chess: A Complete Course
King and Rook v. King Checkmate Patterns
checkmate, chess beginners, endgame strategy June 7th, 2009
One of the first things a new chess player must learn is how to finish off the checkmate when you have won the game. Often this boils down to one of the basic checkmates: King and Queen v. King, or King and Rook v. Rook. I previously gave some rules about how to checkmate with King and Queen against King, and you might want to review that if you’re unsure how to finish that mate.
This article is about how to finish the mate with King and Rook against King. This mate is slightly more difficult than the one with the Queen, but relatively easy once you see the method and understand the concepts.
I will have three posts about this checkmate: the first shows the checkmate patterns with Rook and King against King, the second has rules and tips for mating with a King and Rook against King, and the third will show a 15-move checkmate from a difficult starting position to the final checkmate.
The checkmate patterns
There are three, and only three, patterns for checkmating with King and Rook v. King. The first pattern is the checkmate on the side of the board. This checkmate can occur on any edge of the board on any square that is not a corner square. The Kings stand opposite each other and the White Rook checks the Black King along the side.
In the diagram above, the Rook gives check along the rank, and could be anywhere on that rank except c8 or e8. (If the Rook were on c8 or e8, the Black King could get out of check by capturing the Rook.)
The second and third patterns occur with the Black King in the corner. In this next one, the Black King is in the corner with the White King a Knight’s-move away and the White Rook checking from the side. Again, the White Rook can be anywhere along the 8th rank, provided he’s not right next to the Black King on b8.
The third pattern is really just a variation of the first and second patterns; the Black King is in the corner and the White King stands directly opposite the Black King.
If you know these patterns, you will have a goal to reach for your King and Rook v. King checkmate. The video has examples of how you might reach these positions, and my next post will give rules for reaching these checkmate positions.
Chess Notation Part 2 – Captures, Castling, and Checkmate
chess beginners, chess rules May 30th, 2009
In the first part, we saw how the moves of the pawns and pieces are recorded, but we still have to see how captures are recorded, ambiguities are resolved, and some other matters. I haven’t put the labels along the side of the board for all the diagrams in this post. If you need to review how the squares are named, review Chess Notation Part 1.
Recording Captures
It is common to write “x” for “captures.” So if the King captures an enemy piece on f1, the move is written “Kxf1.” (You will find some players and some books that use a colon : to designate a capture. So the King capture described above would be written K:f1. This is not common in the U.S.)
It is common for Pawn captures to name the file that the Pawn is capturing from, and the square that the Pawn is capturing to.
So in the diagram above, if White captures the Black Pawn on the second move, it would be written “exd5.” Some books and players just name the files for Pawn captures. This is an abbreviated notation, and the pawn capture just mentioned would be written simply “ed.”
Removing Ambiguities
If the simple method just described for naming the piece and destination would be ambiguous, you should add the name of a file or rank that would remove the ambiguity. In the diagram below, both White rooks could move to e5.
If the Rook at e1 were to move to e5, the move should be written “Ree5.” If the Rook at a5 were were to move to e5, the move should be written “Rae5.” In that same diagram, both Black Rooks could move to f7. If the Rook at f2 were to move to f7, you should write “R2f7.” If the Rook at f8 were to move to f7, you should write R8f7. Of course, if all else fails, you can remove all ambiguity by naming the piece, the square of origin, and the destination square: Rf8f7.
What about en passant captures?
In the old descriptive notation, en passant captures were written, PxP e.p. (Pawn captures Pawn en passant). In algebraic notation, you would just name the file that the capturing Pawn starts on and the square that the Pawn captures to: exd6. Remember that in the en passant capture, the capturing Pawn arrives at the square that the enemy Pawn bypassed in its two-step move. So though the Pawn being captured may be at d5, the capturing Pawn captures by arriving at d6. In the following diagram, Black has just moved d7-d5.
That means that White has two ways of capturing the d-pawn: each of the White’s e-pawns can make the capture. We can’t just write “ed” (the abbreviated way of writing the move) because this wouldn’t tell us which of the pawns made the capture. But in this case, we can remove the ambiguity by naming the destination square, so our normal way of writing the move will suffice: exd6 would be the en passant capture, and exd5 would be the normal capture. Again, the simple way to remove all ambiguity is to name both the square of origin and the square of destination of the capturing piece: e5xd6 or e4xd5.
How to Record the Castling move, Check, and Checkmate
Castling has a unique designation that doesn’t involve naming any squares. Castling to the king-side (castling “short”) is written 0-0. Castling to the queen-side (castling “long”) is written 0-0-0 (By the way, this is one way in which algebraic notation is the same as English descriptive notation.)
You may see some places where the castling move is recorded differently from the way described above.
Check
If a move ends in check to the enemy King, a + is added at the end of the move. For example, in the above diagram with the Rooks, White could check the Black King by moving his Rook to g5. This would be written “Rg5+”.
Checkmate
If a move is checkmate, a # is put at the end of the move (or you could just write “mate” or “checkmate”).
It is also common to write the result of a game using a shorthand. If White wins, this is written “1-0″. If Black wins, the notation is “0-1″. If the game ends as a draw, the notation is 1/2-1/2.
You can learn all the rules … including chess notation in the wonderful book that I recommend to new players: Learn Chess: A Complete Course
In Part 3, we will review a short game to test our knowledge of chess notation.
Chess Endgame Strategy – King & Queen v King & Pawn
chess strategies, endgame strategy, winning chess strategy May 24th, 2009
The importance of chess endgame strategy
It is very common for chess games to come down to an endgame, and very often those endgames amount to a single Pawn or a Pawn for each side (plus the Kings, of course). In order to win more chess games, you must know endgame strategy.
Queen v. Pawn strategy
Take a look at this endgame diagram:
The players each have a simple overall strategy for winning (or drawing) this game. White’s strategy is to capture Black’s pawn. In order to do that, he must do two other things: he must first prevent Black from promoting his Pawn, and he must attack the Pawn with both his King and Queen (the Queen alone can’t safely capture the Pawn as long as Black’s King guards it). In order to do this, White must bring both his King and Queen to bear on the Pawn; both must attack the Pawn at the same time.
Preventing Black from promoting the Pawn can be done by pinning the Pawn and keeping Black busy with checks against his King. Bringing White’s King closer requires that Black have his King in front of his Pawn, physically blocking the Pawn from the promotion square. This will give White a free move (a tempo) to move his King closer to the Pawn. Each time Black’s King sits on the promotion square, White has a free move to bring his own King closer to the action.
Black, on the other hand, wants to promote his Pawn to Queen (which would result in a draw). In order to do that, Black wants to both protect his Pawn from capture while leaving the promotion square open so that if he gets a chance, he can push the pawn to e1.
Black’s strategy is simple; and while White’s strategy is equally simple, executing the strategy requires careful maneuvering.
Here are the moves for finishing this mate. The starting position is in the diagram above. Also listen to the video for my additional comments about the position and White’s techniques for winning the game.
- Qf6+ Kg1
- Qe5 Kf1
- Qf4+ Kg1
- Qe3 Kf1
- Qf3+ Ke1
- Kb7 Kd2
- Qf2 Kd1
- Qd4+ Kc1
- Qe3 Kd1
- Qd3+ Ke1
- Kc6 Kf2
- Qd2 Kf1
- Qf4+ Kg1
- Qe3 Kf1
- Qf3+ Ke1
- Kd5 Kd2
- Qf4+ Kd1
- Qd4+ Kc1
- Qe3 Kd1
- Qd3+ Ke1
- Ke4 Kf2
- Qf3+ Kg1
- Qe2 Kh1
- Kf3 Kg1
- Qg2# …
White has driven the Black King in front of the Pawn (which Black has resisted as long as possible), preventing Black from promoting and giving White time to bring up his King. Achieving this position is one of White’s intermediate strategic objectives. Watch how White brings about this position several times in order to give his King opportunities to move closer to the action.
Avoiding Kf1, which would be moving into a pin and would give White a “free move” to bring the King closer.
Now the White King is close enough to help in both attacking the Black Pawn and delivering checkmate to the Black King. You can’t give checkmate with the Queen alone … the Queen needs some help (from either friendly or enemy pieces) to checkmate the King.
This ending works every time against a Knight-pawn or center-pawn (the b-pawn, d-pawn, e-pawn, or g-pawn). The Rook-pawns and Bishop-pawns can be more tricky and sometimes impossible to win. That will be the subject of another post soon.
This chess endgame is very important to know, and it is surprising how few average tournament players know this ending. If you play enough chess, this will come up. You should know this well enough to be able to play it without thinking. Well … at least not thinking too much. 
You can find this endgame in Reuben Fine’s masterwork, Basic Chess Endings
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