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.

Let’s start with the following diagram.

In this position, the Knight at h2 can check the Black King in two ways: the Knight can move to f3 and give check, or it can move to g4 and give check.

Similarly, the Bishop can check the Black King in two ways: it can move either to c3 or g3, giving check from either square.

And the Rook can give check from two squares: e2 or b5.

For the Rooks, Bishops, and Knights, the best they can do is give check in two ways. (Sometimes, of course, they can’t give check at all because friendly or enemy pieces get in the way.)

The Pawn is even weaker, usually giving check in only one way.

The Queen, on the other hand, can often give check in more than two ways — a LOT more. Take a look at the following diagram.

In this position, the Queen can give check to the enemy King in twelve different ways.

See if you can find the twelve ways the Queen can give check.

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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.

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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.

1. e4 c6
2. d4 d5
3. exd5 cxd5
4. Bd3 Nc6
5. c3 Nf6
6. Bf4 e6
7. Nf3 Be7
8. O-O a5
9. Nbd2 O-O
10. Re1 b6

11. Ne5 Bb7
12. Ndf3 Re8
13. Qc2 g6?
14. Nxf7! Kxf7
15. Ng5+ Kg8
16. Bxg6! Rc8??
17. 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. I highly recommend it!

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Chess play can be divided broadly into strategy and tactics.  Tactics refer to the exact moves required to win material (a pawn or a stronger piece) or gain a particular objective. Strategy, no the other hand, tells you what to do with that extra material or what objectives you’re aiming for.

A strategy might be thought of as a plan, and might be thought of without thinking of particular moves. A strategy can usually be put into words; tactics usually requires thinking of a line or lines of moves.

Chess strategies might include any of the following:  endgame strategies, middlegame strategies, opening strategies, what to do with extra material, pawn strategies, or how to conduct an attack on your opponent’s king.  One can even include meta-strategies, such as how to learn tactics, how to think at the board, clock management, etc.

One of the best strategies is to add to your library of good chess literature.  If you’re just starting out in chess — and even if you’re an intermediate player — one of the best books to give you a good foundation is Learn Chess: A New Way For All.; The book covers all the basics for the beginning player (including the rules of chess and chess notation), a good section on tactics, opening strategy, and suggestions for ways to progress to advanced chess knowledge.

This is a must-have book for any chess player who wants to begin to take the game seriously, as it covers the basic chess strategies essential to a good foundation.

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