Chess for Beginners

Category: Chess

  • Evaluation and Analysis in Chess

    Sometimes the definitions for evaluation and calculation are used interchangeably, but they are quite different things, and understanding what they mean is the first step to improving your thinking process during a game.

    Evaluation:     You evaluate a position to determine the strengths and weaknesses of both sides. Based on your evaluation you develop a short term plan to either attack your opponents weaknesses or fix your own. Dan Heisman defines evaluation as determining which side stands better.

    Analysis: The generation of candidate moves and the response to each. For example, “If I move here, and he moves there what would be my response?”

    It is important to put these to together and perform an evaluation of the position at the end of the line of analysis you have performed to see if one candidate move is better than another. I have yet to master this integration of the two, but doing this is the hallmark of strong players.

  • Chess Symbols

    Symbol Meaning
    # Mate
    + Check
    ++ Double check
    ! Good move
    !! Excellent move
    +/= Slight advantage to White
    =/- Slight advantage to Black
    +/- Clear advantage to White
    -/+ Clear advantage to Black
    +- Winning advantage to White
    -+ Winning advantage to Black
    ∞ Unclear
    ? Bad move
    ?? Blunder
    !? Interesting move
    ?! Dubious move

  • Chess Boards Take Two

    We have had to upgrade our bulletin board software due to unwanted spam that was becoming unmanageable with the previous package.

    Please take a look around the boards, and feel free to contribute.

  • Becoming a Grandmaster

    FIDE LogoI have always been interested in the complex process that Grandmaster candidates need to go through to attain their title, so I figured I post it here in case others were curious as well.

    The Grandmaster title is awarded by FIDE and the requirements as follows:

    1. A player must have an ELO of at least 2500 at some time or other.

    2. Two winning results (norms) must be attained in tournaments involving other Grandmasters, including Grandmaster’s from countries other than than the applicant’s.

    3. The minimum rating of the opponents must be greater than 2250.

    4. The applicant must play at least 9 games in each of the tournaments to qualify and needs a total of 27 games in 2 or more norms.

    5. Title results remain valid for life.

    More details can be found on the online FIDE handbook.

  • Things I Need To Do To Improve

    1. Play less blitz games.

    2. Be more willing to consider candidate moves that require a Queen sacrifice.

    3. Be more vigilant towards tactical opportunities that involve a pinned piece (a king pin in particular).

    4. Go over my games (especially losses).

    5. Go over annotated master games (Tal & Alekhine come to mind).

    6. Play stronger opponents, and then try to go over the game with them.

    7. Learn how to deal with early bishop pins.

    8. Stick with and master the openings I have selected for my repertoire (The Scotch Gambit as White, The Accelerated Dragon as Black against 1.e4, and the Nimzo-Indian against 1.d4) no matter my win record.

    9. Improve my thought process, and try to use it on every move (play ‘real chess‘ 100% of the time).

    10. Have fun.

    Feel free to add your own list.

  • The Good and the Bad Bishop

    According to Pachman, the value of the Bishop can usually be assessed by the following rule:

    The Bishop has good working power if its own pawns are posted on squares of the opposite color, assuming that the pawn formation cannot easily be altered.

    As a rule, each side will try to place their pawns on a color opposite of that of his Bishop; this makes it easier to block the opponent’s pawn on squares accessible to the Bishop. When the position has become simplified and the pawn formation fairly rigid, both sides will try to rid themselves of a bad Bishop and keep a good one.

  • Entering My First Tournament

    Anyone have any advice on how to go about training for a tournament? This would be my first tournament and it would be great to get tips on how to go about preparing for it. The tournament is 1 month away and this would be my first experience in tournament play.

    A couple of questions I have are:

    • As an unrated player should I enter the Open or U1400 class? (I estimate my playing strength to be approx. 1500 ELO)?
    • What should I focus on during my preparation?

    Any advice would be appreciated.

  • Update to the Generic Training Schedule

    After a few days using the Generic Training Schedule, I have a few minor modifications to adapt it to better fit the needs of the club level chess player. The original ChessOK article was geared towards 2000+ level players who have different needs than beginners. One major difference between experts and amateurs is the importance of opening preparation at the expert class, and this focus can be seen throughout the original GTS plan. Another feature of this new version of the schedule is that the play time is spaced in such a way as to allow you to try out new ideas and openings that were covered on previous days.

    In this new adaptation I have halved the opening study time and focused on endgame and tactical study time which will better address the needs of amateurs.

    The end result would look something like this:

    Day 1

    Study Openings 1U

    Solve Tactics 1U

    Study Endings 1U

    Study Strategy 1U

    Day 2

    Study Endings 1U

    Solve Tactics 1U

    Play 1U

    Study Strategy 1U

    Day 3

    Study Strategy 1U

    Solve Tactics 1U

    Solve Endings 1U

    Study Openings 1U

    Day 4

    Solve Tactics 1U

    Study Endings 1U

    Study Strategy 1U

    Play 1U

  • Opening Research : Hyper Accelerated Dragon

    Opening Research : Hyper Accelerated Dragon

  • Chess Training

    In my quest for chess improvement, I have stumbled upon Markgravitygood’s excellent chess improvement blog. I recommend that you checkout his post on the generic training schedule, which is based on an article by chess trainer GM Irina Mikhailova on chessOk.

    Mark’s post is exactly what I was looking for when I wrote my post on ‘My Chess Education’. I was so impressed by this training schedule, that I am going adopt it as part of my chess study routine.

    Since I only have at most 2 hours per day to dedicate to chess, here is my adaptation of the schedule. If I cannot complete the daily curriculum,any topic not covered will be tackled on the next day:

    Day 1

    • Study openings (1hr)
    • Solve tactics (30m)
    • Solve strategy (30m)

    Day 2

    • Solve endings (1h)
    • Play (30m ) either 1 G/15 or 2 G/6
    • Solve tactics (30m)

    Day 3

    • Study strategy (30m)
    • Solve strategy (30m)
    • Play (30m) either 1 G/15 or 2 G/6
    • Solve tactics (30m)

    Day 4

    • Study openings (1h)
    • Solve endings (30m)
    • Solve tactics (30m)