Chess for Beginners

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  • The Bishop Pair Versus Bishop and Knight

  • Positional Evaluation Checklist

    I have created a PDF document that is based on Karpov and Mazukevich’s thought process guidelines, and includes Herman Grooten’s modifications. You can download it here. The idea is to use it when going over annotated games, or when performing Stokyo exercises. Hopefully, by using it during your training sessions, the questions will sink into our subconscious, and we will subliminally use ask these same questions during actual play.

    Feel free to leave comments if you have any suggestions to improve the checklist.

  • Redoubling Efforts

    I am organizing my chess training, and trying to simplify the material that I will be using in my studies. One of the new changes I have made is to create a site dedicated to my training program, which is called chessnotebook.com. I will be using chessnotebook.com as my online chess training diary and there I will be posting resource and diagrams that will be helping me in my quest for chess improvement.

  • Five Preliminary Endgame Rules

    1. Before even beginning to think of making a passed pawn, put all your pieces into as good positions as possible.

    Queen – Center of board

    Rooks – seventh rank for White, second rank for Black. But if the enemy has two or more minor pieces the rook must be careful about leaving his own camp and must be content with commanding the open file.

    Knights – Square in the center or in the enemy camp, supported by a pawn which is cannot be attacked by a pawn.

    Bishops – Center diagonals; pawn support is not essential but desirable.

    King – Central, provided that he is not dangerously exposed.  If the enemy has a rook, the King is best posted at or adjacent to e2(e7) or d2(d7) – fairly near the center, but still preventing the enemy rook from seizing the second (seventh) or first (eight) rank. 

    2. Avoid pawn-moves while you are getting your pieces well positioned because pawn-moves create lasting weaknesses and thus make your task harder.

    3. Try to free your position from weaknesses; and if possible, make it hard for the opponent to do likewise.

    4. When trying to win, keep pawns on both wings. When trying to draw, play to eliminate all the pawns on one wing. With pawns on one wing only, a pawn plus is usually insufficient for a win.

    5. If you are a pawn up or more, exchange pieces (not pawns) wherever you can do so without losing in position.

    Exception: do not rush an exchange that will leave you with a single bishop running on the opposite color to the enemy’s single bishop. Also, refrain from exchanging if it will give your opponent two bishops against bishop and knight.

    CJS Purdy

  • Purdy’s Chess Opening Rules

    Below are a few guidelines from C.J.S Purdy on playing the opening. Purdy had an incredible gift of explaning difficult chess concepts, and these rules are no exception. I also haven’t seen these rules in many other chess books, so it is important to learn and apply them in your games.
     
    1. When you don’t play 1.e4 (…e5) early, never block your c-pawn
     
    2. Don’t financhetto a bishop if an avenue is already open to it.

    3. Don’t move any pawns other than e4(e5) or d4(d5) in the opening, the general rule is not to move any until development is complete (minor pieces out and the rooks have been connected and one of them placed on an file that is likely to become open or semi-open). With the following exceptions:

    a. If you have played e4 (…e5) and it is impossible to play d4 (…d5), keep the option of f4  (…f5) and play it if you think the time is right.
     
    b. When a piece has come down to b4 (b5) or g4 (g5), you can ask it to move with a3 (a6) or with  h3(h6). DO NOT PLAY a3(a6) or h3(h6) to stop the piece from coming down, that gives up a move for nothing at all.

    4. An exchange loses a move if the opponent captures with a developing move. This should be avoided unless you have to lose a move in development in any case.

    5. When considering in taking a center pawn the rule is:

    a. If the pawn is threatening to take your pawn or advance and hit a piece, usually take it.
     
    6. When capturing, usually capture towards the center. An exception is when something has to be recaptured on c3 (…c6) or f3(…f6), here it is usually good to take with the center pawn instead of with the flank pawn as that makes an avenue for the bishop that was previously shut in by the center pawn.
     
    7. In the opening never hesitate to exchange a knight for a bishop.
     
    8 Exchange a bishop for a knight in the following scenarios:

    a. If bishop is on b5(b4) or g5(g4) pinning a knight and you are hit by the a or h-pawns, exchange rather than lose a tempo retreating – provided that the opponent cannot recapture with a  developing move.
     
    b. If opponent can recapture with a developing move then you lose a tempo regardless and it is best to maintain the pin by retreating to a4(a5) or h4(h5).

    9.  As a general rule develop all other three minor pieces before the Q-bishop.

    a. Only time to develop the Q-bishop early is when you are White in the Queen’s Pawn Game, and you wish to develop the bishop in one move before playing e3.

    10. Develop the rooks on their most effective files as soon as you can.

    11. The Queen has to be moved off the back rank to free the rooks; but she should usually be moved only one square, to the file that is least likely to be opened (usually e2 (e7) is a good square for the Queen).

    12. It is bad to put a Queen on an open file; it only means the loss of a tempo later, when the file is taken by an enemy rook.

  • 200 ELO Points in 6 Months

    USChess.org has a great article on how Christian Galwe  increased 200 rating points in 6 months!

    Here are a few of the recommendations from the article:

    * Study your own games with an instructor

    * Don’t study openings…study structures and plans instead.

    * If you play blitz, play with a 5 second increment and always try to find the best move

    * Review your blitz games just like if it were a standard game.

    * Do tactical exercises everyday for at least 30-40 minutes.

    * Keep physically fit.

    Read the full article at the USChess.org site.

  • Connecting the Dots in Chess

    I have made an observation while solving puzzles, that I feel will improve my tactical puzzle solving skills, and might have direct application during actual games.

    When solving a tactical puzzle of intermediate to advanced level I either:

    1. Have no clue how to go about solving it and get it wrong.

    2. Have multiple ideas that look promising, but after further analysis don’t win {usually end up playing one of the two and get the answer wrong}.

    3. Solve the puzzle correctly.

    This post is going to focus on solving the 2nd category above. I have found that you will get many more puzzles correct by combining ideas that arise by analyzing different candidate moves. Unfortunately, by not making a link between the two, or forgetting about your first idea when looking at the second, I mainly fail to connect the dots and only after reviewing the correct answer do I see that I had been on the right track and would have answered correctly  if I had combined my candidates.

    You might want to solve this puzzles on your own before reading the answers below taking into account your thought process while doing so and then see if you encountered the same issues as I did.

    Here’s the first position we will look at:


    White to move and win

    The first candidate that came to mind was 1.Bb6 attacking the Queen. I analyzed the response 1…Nxb6 2.axb6 Qxb6 which loses a pawn for White and the Black Queen lives on. So I abandoned this candidate and looked for a better move.

    I then found that Qh6 looked promising and I began to analyze 1.Bh5 with the idea of Bh8 and then getting my Queen to h6. But I soon found that 1.Bh5 was a slow since it allows 1…Kh7 and White is out of gas. What I missed, and where I think there is room for improvement, is if I would have combined both moves. Attacking the Black Queen with 1.Bb6 with the idea of freeing the diagonal for my Queen to get to h6 with mate was the winning combination and one I failed to see by not connecting the dots.

    Let’s look at another example, and one which occurred right after I had attempted to solve example #1 above.

    White to move and win

    In this position quickly saw that both the White rook and Queen were attacking the Black d8 rook, and that there might be a tactical opportunity if the Queen were deflected from its defense. The candidate that came to mind was 1. b4 but after further analysis I saw that the Queen could seek shelter by moving to 1…Qc7.  The other candidate that stood out was 1.Qf6+ but the King can easily get out of the way with 1…Kg8 and there aren’t enough White pieces in the vicinity to force the issue. The third candidate I analyzed was attacking the undefended bishop with 1.Qe7 but I found that the bishop can get out of harms way via 1…Bc8. If I would have combined the two ideas or even looked a few ply deeper  I would have found the answer 1.Qe7 attacking the bishop and preventing the Queen from seeking shelter at c7 after deflecting her with b4. 1…Bc8 2.b4! and Black resigned.

  • Critical Moments in Chess

    GM Dorfman, has suggested that every game has 5 or 6 critical junctures “forks” at which important decisions need to be made. By understanding that the game has reached a critical moment, you can take extra time in analyzing and evaluating your moves. These critical moments are where games are won or lost, and identifying these milestones in a game are the key to improving your game. Critical moments are characterized by the presence of 2 to 4 different possibilities. Below is Dorfman’s list of critical moments:

    Critical Moments (Dorfman)

    • Positions where there are possible exchanges.
    • Change in pawn structure (especially central pawns).
    • At the end of a  series of forced moves (combination).
    • Transposition into an endgame.

  • Training Position #1

    White wins this position by creating a passed pawn on the Kingside.

     

    Note that if the Black pawn would be on d3 instead of c3, the game would be a theoretical draw.

    Copy the FEN position 4k3/1pp2ppp/p1p5/8/4P3/8/PPP2PPP/4K3 w – – 0 0 and play this position against an engine.

    NOTE: There was an issue with the original post. There was a missing White pawn on d4. The diagram and the FEN diagram have been updated.

  • The Sixth Ply

    Before we get started let’s define what a ply is in chess:

     A ply is a half move and a move is equivalent to 2 ply or a turn by each player. For example,  1. e4 is one ply and 1…e5 would be the 2nd ply, together these two plys make one move.

    Getting close to the truth of a chess position requires the calculation of a minimum of 6 ply (3 moves). The higher your rating the higher the ply calculation requirement increases since your opponent will be delving more deeply into the position than you. If you calculate anything less than 3 ply you are playing hope chess, since you are not forseeing your opponent’s responses. 

    Below is an assessment of how calculation skill correlates to one’s chess rating:

    0-1000 1 ply

    1000-1200 2-3 ply

    1200-1400 4 ply

    1400-1600 6 ply

    1600-1800 8 ply

    1800-1900 10 ply

    1900-2000 12 ply

    Stopping your calculations too soon can prevent you from finding the winning move. Many times the winning move comes after a series of seemingly unfavorable moves, and stopping your calculation too soon will prevent you from finding the best move in the position. At the same time, not looking deeply enough into your opponent’s moves will cause you to miss defensive opportunities against your opponent’s threats. (more…)