Chess Ending Strategy – More About the Square of the Pawn

Posted on by
Reply

In my first video on the square of the pawn, I mentioned an important warning about how to calculate the square when the pawn is on its home square. I mentioned it in the video — but failed to mention it in the blog post; so I’m remedying that omission now.

When the pawn stands on its home square, you must imagine the square of the pawn as if it were standing on its third rank instead of its second. The reason for this is that the Pawn can move two squares for its initial move. That being the case, the square of the pawn must account for the double move.

For example, if White’s a-pawn stands on a4, the square of the Pawn is drawn with the Pawn standing at the lower-left corner of the square, as in the following diagram.

Square of the Pawn

When the Pawn stands on a4

But if the a-pawn stands on a2, the square of the Pawn is drawn as if the Pawn stands on a3.

Square of the Pawn on a2

Square of the Pawn on a2

Knowing the rule for the square of the Pawn is extremely useful in calculating endgames, but you must keep in mind the possibility that a Pawn on its original starting square has the possibility of moving two squares for its first move.

Technorati Tags: , ,

Two Bishops v. King Checkmate

Posted on by
2

One of the elementary mates that every chess player ought to be familiar with is the mate with King and two Bishops against King. This mate is of less importance than King and Queen v. King or King and Rook v. King because it rarely comes up in practical play. But it is good to know for those rare occasions when it does occur; but especially for learning how the Bishops can cooperate with each other to cut off large areas of the chess board.

Most chess books devoted to teaching beginners how to play chess and many basic endgame books (such as Reuben Fine’s Basic Chess Endings or Pandolfini’s Endgame Course) will show how to execute this checkmate. I recommend studying the examples in one of those books, as well as learning the example I give here.

As with most of the simple checkmates, the first important goal is getting your King to the center of the board. The two Bishops can checkmate the opponent only with the help of their own King!

Second, the Bishops should work together.

Two Bishops in the center of the board

Notice how, in this diagram, the two Bishops placed next to each other prevent the enemy King from attacking them. The Bishops guard four squares directly in front of them, thus preventing the King from immediately attacking either one of them. In fact, the Bishops have the enemy King completely imprisoned, and the White King can now stroll up to the scene to aid in further confining the opponent.

Continue reading →

The Official Rules of Chess

Posted on by
2

Here’s a story to illustrate why you should have the official rules of chess. I was playing in a tournament once against a higher-rated player (a couple hundred points higher). I had played a good game and my opponent was struggling to get a draw with a three-fold repetition while his time was running out.

In fact, he had made the move to give the three-fold repetition when his flag fell. He claimed the draw and I claimed a win.

How should the point be awarded?

If you have the official rules of chess, you can probably make a reasonable answer to the question … and perhaps vindicate my claim for a win!

If you would like to play tournament chess, you should learn the official rules of chess.Official Rules of Chess, Fifth Ed., by Jeremy Silman For players in the U.S., that means getting the U.S. Chess Federations official rules. I’ve added the United States Chess Federation’s Official Rules of Chess, Fifth Edition to my chess store for your convenience.

If you’re just starting out and haven’t played a lot of chess, you will first want to review my articles and videos on the rules of chess for the absolute beginner. But when you decide you want to play a little more seriously, play a few tournaments to get the feel for it; and to see if you really want to stick with it. If you decide you do want to play tournament chess in even a half-way serious manner, you really should read the official rules and keep a copy with you at every tournament. The official rules should go in your travel bag with your clock, set, and board!

Get the official rules of chess and enjoy a fun-filled tournament career!

Garry Kasparov’s View of Chess Computers

Posted on by
7

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.

Garry Kasparov - Chess Metaphors

Continue reading →

Chess Endgame Strategy – The Square of the Pawn

Posted on by
3

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.

Chess Endgame Strategy - Square of the Pawn

Continue reading →

An Illustration of the Power of the Queen – How the Pieces Give Check

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Continue reading →

Free Online Chess — Play Against Real Opponents Today

Posted on by
5

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!

Posted on by
2

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.

Technorati Tags: , ,

En Passant Capture During Check

Posted on by
Reply

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.

en passant rule diagram

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.

Technorati Tags:

Chess Notation Part 3 – Playing Over a Game

Posted on by
2

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 …

diagram of first move: 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

middlegame diagram

  1. Ne5 Bb7
  2. Ndf3 Re8
  3. Qc2 g6?
  4. Nxf7! Kxf7
  5. Ng5+ Kg8
  6. Bxg6! Rc8??
  7. Bxh7+ Black resigns 1-0

mate coming soon diagram

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!