Chess thread

Chess is full of strategy .. I really like this board game .

 

very nice game..

 

I can tell you are really addicted to chess. Just won my first round in chess tournament today. Ended with a Mate. Somehow I felt lucky. He thought I was moving my knight away and put my bishop in danger. He fell for it and took my bishop for the advantage and BAM mate. :-D

 

I am not a huge fan of the game of chess itself, but reading about the Bobby Fischer v Boris Spassky original match in Rekjavik is fascinating when it comes to the chess, the Cold War politics and the fact Fischer appears to have been barking mad.

It's a shame the world title matches now don't seem to get that level of publicity.

 

Does anyone know an online game where you get to play against a human opponent in chess? If you know a link, kindly share it.

 

@sarahk -
Just follow the basic.
1. Study your opponent's move - from start to the last move,
2. Avoid blunders - sample of this blunder is moving your piece on a certain spot only to be captured by your opponent's piece, to lessen this, you should look at the whole board to determine the piece placement of your pieces and opponent.
3. Castle- Unless you have a good reason to do so always castle, this will make your king safe and brings out
your rook.
4. Put your rook on open file, put your bishop on open diagonal.
5. Study tactics- this will help you improve your calculation, lessen blunders and makes you spot tactical shots. Sample of tactics are pin, fork and skewer, try chesstempo.com, there are lots of puzzle there.

There is a book called "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess", which contains lots of tactical puzzle. For me this is just a tactical book. Susan Polgar's "Chess Tactics for Champion" is better in my opinion.

@EmsJan-
Yeah that Fischer vs Spassky have captured the attention of the whole world, it captivated them. It's just unfortunate that after his match with Spassky, Fischer did not defend his title. Kasparov vs Fischer or Kasparov vs Fischer, would be awsome. Kasparov was already retired. There is even a nation president who offered Fischer 4 million dollars to play Karpov.

@Mike-
Try FICS , it's a cool site where you have an online rating, you can also set a time. Or you could try chess.com, but I prefer FICS. Congrats on winning your game.

 

Played it since I was 5 lol . Played it at school , played it at the club , played it for money , played it against champs . But mostly i like to play it for fun . I hate to play it at a professional level .

 

Using the same reasoning, for a knight and bishop, since a knight can only go to 2 positions meaning bishop is always better?

 

I posted about Knight versus bishop at the earlier parts of the thread. It depends on the position on when a bishop is stronger than a knight or a knight stronger than a bishop. Usually a bishop is stronger on open position (not blocked by pawn) against a knight. In chess positional concept there is a thing called bad bishop. Suppose you have a light squared bishop and its movement is blocked by your pawns at the light squares, then it’s called a bad bishop. A knight is usually stronger against a bishop on closed positions. To answer your question you can use the same reasoning, provided it’s an open position. I will post again my examples that I posted earlier. Later I will provide more examples. Feel free to ask more questions if you want too. And I will gladly answer it.


Game 1 http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1273732

After 44 moves in game 1 white has a bishop and black has a knight. Notice that white has dark square bishop, and his pawns are on the black side limiting the scope of his bishop, in chess positional concept this is called a bad bishop. Look at the knight it is very strongly placed, it is pressuring the c3 pawn. So it's clear in this position, the knight is stronger than the bishop. Brilliant positional play by Nimzowitsch (the author of one of the most popular chess strategical book of all time My System)


Game 2 http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1010126

In game 2, notice at near end of the game of the superiority of Knight against the bad bishop hampered by its own pawn.

Now when is a bishop stronger than a knight? Usually a bishop dominates a knight on open position.

Game 3 http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1068973

Notice in game 3 after move 37 on how Karpov's (one of the greatest chess player of all time) bishop dominates the knight. In open position like this in which the bishop has a lot of room to maneuver, it is superior against the knight. Superb endgame play by Karpov. No wonder he is a former world champion!

 

@agentwazakashi Thanks. I'm currently reading the ebook. Improve your chess in 7 days by Gary Lane. I'm going to check out How to Beat Your Dad at Chess also. I've never beaten my dad before. lol.

 

@ Mike it’s cool that you are trying to learn chess. But it’s way better if you would buy a chess book. Below are some list of good chess books on certain subject about chess.

Introductory books for those who want to learn chess, it will also improve your game.

1. Play Winning Chess – By GM Yasser Seirawan
2. How to Win at Chess by GM Daniel King
3. Portable Chess Coach by Shipman
4. Idiot’s Guide to Chess (this is really the title of the book) By GM Wollf

Strategic book for advance beginner

1. Winning Chess Strategy by Seirawan
2. Complete Book of Chess Strategy: Grandmaster Techniques from A to Z by IM Silman

Endgame book for advance beginners.
1. Comprehensive Endgame course by IM Silman
2. Winning Chess Endings by GM Seirawan
3. Endgame Course by NM Bruce Pandolfini

Tactics books for advance beginners

1. Chess Tactics for Champion by GM Susan Polgar.
2. How to Beat your dad at Chess by GM Muller
3. Winning Chess Tactics by GM Seirawan

 

That is cool to hear. Do you have an OTB rating?

 

Wow. That's a lot of books. I've actually bought 3 chess books back in High school but I don't have it with me now since it was 12 years. :-(. I'm trying to re learn chess tactics and getting ready for sportsfest chess tournaments. I'll take a look at your recommendations. Thanks.

 

@Mike it's not necessary to but all the books, a player can choose one book on the list per subject. What happened to your tournament?


Here are more examples of minor piece against each other.

Superior knight against Bishop

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1010126

After move 53, the knight is superior compare to the bishop, the knight can target the opponents pawn, while the bishop aside from being limited on movement blocked bit its own pawn, it can't attack the opponent's pawns.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1277070

After move 43, notice again the superiority of knight against the bishop

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1063912

Position after move 29, the knight is better than the bishop as it can easily attack the opponent's pawn and it has more mobility.


Superior bishop against knight

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044361

After move 44, the bishop is superior than the knight, the bishop is very mobile and pressuring the opponent's pawn

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044620

After move 34 the bishop is more superior than the knight.

 

I've notice most the books you mentioned are authored by GM Seirawan. So I've checked him out and got a hold of his Chess Pro. It was amazing. In the first example you gave he had a bad bishop because it mostly blocked. As for the tournament, we have a game once a week until the end of November. I lost my 2nd game because I was rushing to attack which my opponent counter attack and fork my king and knight with a Queen. I proceed with my plan with knight attacking on the queenside but left the knight without a defends. I had the position advantage though. Now my record is 1-1. :-(

 

Not a bad result,that is a good result considering you have not play that much in recents years. Seirawan is really a good instructor, he is an entertaining funny and instructive author. So what happened to the rest of your games? Any updates?

 

I don't have a game this week. I still have 5 games left. I still have time to practice.

 

Cool when preparing, solve lots of puzzle that wins material(and matting attacks), play a lot, study strategy and endgames.