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Mar
13th

3 Newbie Chess Traps That You Must Avoid

Chess is a complicated matter and to make matters worse, there are chess players out there who want to make matters complicated. Get what I mean? I mean the sophisticated complexity of the labyrinthine mosaic of goal directed actions can be a really confusing matter…

Now, I’ll start speaking English again. So what I meant to say is that there are people out there who just want to get you good – trying to take advantage that you don’t know any better. They’re the cheapskates that run the streets, you see and hear (and even smell) of them all the time.

And it’s the same with chess – there are certain players who just can’t resist setting up an early trap, in the hope that you’ll fall for it and lose eventually. But these players, like all cheapskates, don’t go much further than that. If it weren’t for their traps and cheapness, then they would pretty much be free (in a bad way).

So how do you avoid these basic traps? Well, it’s simple. You know them before your opponent does. I say opponent because even your very best friend can decide to surprise you when you’re unaware (like with all the surprise birthday parties they’ve given you, yeah, you know what I mean).

And these basic traps include: the 4 move checkmate (aka Scholar’s mate, although I don’t see anything scholarly about losing in 4 moves), the 2 move checkmate (aka Fool’s mate – for obvious reasons) and Legal’s mate (which is definitely legal).

These are just 3 of the hundreds, and even thousands, that exist in the world of chess. And these are pretty easy to avoid, you just gotta play normally, according to basic chess principles and you’ll never fall for any of these (or for that matter any other) ever again.

Are you too good at falling for chess traps (or just traps in general)? Then you can find out how you can be the worst by visiting my site here.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joseph_Nguyen

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Dec
9th

3 Steps to Improving Your Chess Game By Cameron Duffman

Chess is a historical, complex, and entertaining pastime, game, and sport. There are three key things you can do to improve your game: play, study, and get involved in chess. If you’re having a hard time enjoying the game, it’s most likely because you’re not doing one of these three things.

If you are to improve your chess skills you will need to play a lot. This means winning losing games. Just keep in mind that the important thing is to learn something from every win and every loss. There are lots of places to play. You can play at your local club, online, through email, through regular mail, with friends and family – you can play chess anytime, anywhere, with anyone.

In addition to playing, you need to study if you really want to improve. Start by learning the rules and the basic principles of the game such as controlling the center, developing your pieces, attacking and defending pieces, and the piece values. You can continue your education with detailed tactics and strategies. Save the openings until after you’ve taken the time to fully understand all of the elementary tactics and strategies. Learn to play sound and solid chess, and ignore cheap tricks or easy traps. Once you understand tactics and strategies, start learning some opening systems and endgames as well. Make sure you study master and grandmaster games so that you can learn what the best players are thinking and doing when they play.

Playing online and reading books by yourself will quickly become mundane and lack the excitement and joy the chess is all about. Get involved! Teach a friend how to play chess. Go to your local club and play. Play in over-the-board tournaments. Teach chess at a school. Get involved somehow and you will see that chess is more than a game – it is a great community as well!

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Oct
14th

Learning Chess – Chess Game Piece Roles

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Whether you are brand new to playing chess or if you have been a chess player for awhile now, knowledge is power when it comes to improving your game. Therefore, having a true understanding of both the names and the proper usage of each chess game piece is very important. To win a game of chess, you need to carefully come up with a great strategy in order to beat your opponent. Therefore, playing chess is not only a great way to keep your mind sharp but it is also a lot of fun!

As you are probably already aware, the game of chess is played between two people. As with most any board game, you both alternate taking turns. One player will use all the white pieces, and the other player will then use all of the black pieces. The way the game of chess then works is that you each take turns moving one game piece at a time, and the person that manages to capture the enemy king is declared the winner of the game.

Next, let us take a look at each individual piece. First, there is the bishop. The bishop game piece can only be moved in a straight line diagonally. However, there is no limit to how many numbers of squares it can be moved. The rook game piece most often looks a lot like a small tower. You can move the rook either vertically or horizontally. As with the bishop, there is no limit to how many number of squares the rook can be moved.

The queen is considered by many to be the most powerful piece in chess because the options with the queen game piece are practically limitless. You can move in any direction you choose with the queen game piece whether that be diagonally, vertically or horizontally, and you may also move the queen any number of squares that you would like. As with the queen, the king game piece can also be moved in any direction. However, the king piece is somewhat limited as it can only be moved one square at a time.

The knight is usually easily recognized because it often looks like a horse. The knight piece moves in a rather strange pattern. This pattern is somewhat difficult to explain, but some say that it can best be described as making an L-shape. The knight is also the only game piece that is allowed to jump over other game pieces.

Last but certainly not least, there is the pawn. In the game of chess, pawns are commonly referred to as the weakest game pieces. One reason for this is they are somewhat limited in their movement, as one is only allowed to move a pawn piece forward and not backwards.

Best of luck, and I hope that you enjoy learning how to play chess!

Chess Game Pieces is a chess resource that provides information on various types of chess pieces. If you are looking for a new chess set or pieces , wooden chess pieces or staunton chess pieces are a good place to start for beginners.

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Sep
28th

Inside Chess For Kids By Omri Dotan

When a child wants to learn the game of chess it is a rather important occasion because it’s not every child that wants to play this complex game and start learning chess. But once in a while you will run across a child who is absolutely mesmerized by the beauty and majesty of the 64 squares that have been the cornerstone of so many lives. It is a rare child who can appreciate this game of champions, and though at first they might just think it a game, later it might become a staple of their lives, so when your child wants to give this a try, you need to take it as seriously as possible while allowing them to have fun with it. Chess for kids is much different than chess for adults however.

Yes it can be a very competitive game, but that doesn’t mean that you should push your child to compete. At first they might just be wanting to have fun, so let them have their fun, but they’re going to need help at some point. For this reason you’ll need to know the basics of moving the pieces, even if you aren’t entirely familiar with the strategy. So let’s look at a few of the movements!

Pawn: This is the simplest piece in the whole game; it can only move one square per turn with the exception of the first move where it can move two squares. When seizing the pawn you can move diagonally to one square to do the seizures.

Knight: This is the piece that your kid may call a pony. It is allowed to move forward two squares and over one. Take note that is should always make that shape when moving, and it can seize while doing so.

Bishop: You have two of these pieces and they are each on different colors. They can move diagonally and can seize any piece in its line of movement, however just like all other pieces, it must stop once it has seized a piece.

Rook: This one moves along the vertical. Though it’s movement is somewhat restricted, it is common knowledge that loss of one rook if not in an even exchange can actually mean the end of the game.

Queen: This piece can be moved around in any direction you please. It can go diagonally, or even in the same way, a rook moves. Importantly, it cannot move in the same way that a knight moves though.

King: While it can only move one space at a time, it is the most important piece in the entire game. If the king is captured the game ends immediately.

Note that the king does not need to be captured in order to end the game, in fact the king should never be captured. Rather the goal is to force a king into a position where he would be captured no matter where he moved. This is the endgame objective, but remember that you do not want to force the king into a position where he cannot move simply because he would be captured if he moved, but the square he sits on is safe. This is known as a stalemate, and while some might consider it a victory, others turn their nose up at the thought of it.

When a pawn reaches the opposite side of the board, the player can replace that piece for any other piece they want. Some players believe that the piece can only be exchanged for one that has been captured previously, but that is untrue. The goal is not to recover a fallen comrade, it is to promote the man that made it to the other side of the battlefield.

In the end, when it comes to chess for beginners, you can get special chessboards that include large pieces as well as small pictures on how to move the pieces well that are printed on the pieces themselves. These are awesome for learning boards and any kid would be happy to use them. As they grow more confident, you can graduate them to a standard board.

Chess for kids is an exciting concept for both the child as well as the parent. If you are the parent of a child that wishes to become involved, make sure you encourage them but do not push. If they want to take the game further, then they will in time.

Visit Learning Chess Net For the Best Source for Chess For Kids

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Aug
31st

Chess Puzzles Can Help You and Children in Many Positive Ways – By Tom Gosselin

According to various studies conducted in different parts of the world, it has been seen that playing chess games and solving chess puzzles actually increases the person’s concentration, perception as well as self-discipline, and also helps a person to plan ahead and do many more good things. They are good for the development of kids who can then combine development of their thought processes with better enjoyment that they experience by solving puzzles.

Increases Kids’ I.Q.

Kids are prime candidates for solving chess puzzles as it seems to increase their intelligence quotient, and also help kids in becoming more adept at solving problems as well as helps them to make difficult as well as abstract decisions without depending on their parents. They have shown to be instrumental in teaching children how to think in a more logical way as well as to think efficiently.

In the process of solving puzzles, they will learn the advanced techniques and they will also be encouraged to read, which is a most desirable attribute for children to develop and have.

With the help of chess puzzles, children will also be able to develop their game skills through practice as well as experience. There are online chess puzzles as well that kids can use, which provides them with the fastest method as well as the most enjoyable one to further their chess skills. Playing against a computer is also possible using different software packages.

It really does not matter what the level of skill of the player is, as chess puzzles can help beginners as well as advanced level players. Even parents are realizing the benefit of giving their children chess puzzles so that they help to advance their knowledge about the game as also develop latent skills. Each piece on the chess board has a value, and kids must learn which have more value and thus will help them win, and which are of lesser value and not so important to winning.

Chess puzzles are also wonderful for the betterment of brain functions and trying out things like checkmate in four moves puzzles will require that the player solve the problem in quick time. Solving such puzzles will also help in real life games as you will learn to become a problem solver, and in the process be able to come up with more solutions.

There are many chess puzzles and they address different levels of competence having something for beginners, intermediate as well as advanced players. All you need to do is to try one level, and having mastered it, progress on to the next level.

Where did chess come from? What materials make a good chess set? How do you become a better chess player? Can chess really improve my health and well being? What does it mean to have a chess set in my home or office? Find out the answers to these questions and more at http://www.unique-chess-sets.com where chess is more than just a game.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tom_Gosselin

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Jul
31st

How to Play Chess and the Reasons Why By Carmen Beese

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How to play chess is being researched more than ever these days and one of the reasons for it is the benefits that learning how to play chess can provide for our brain. Chess is a strange game that was invented way before anyone could really record it. The written history only can show some proof of the chess game about 600 A.D. However, it could well have been invented a lot earlier. The idea is a fairly simple one where two opposing armies battle for their kingdom. The pieces represent the people from each kingdom and the players are the generals who command the kingdoms to victory or defeat. It is a strategic game that benefits the player’s way beyond their expectations. Studies have shown that learning and playing the game can increase your IQ and surprisingly give your self-steam a boost. Not to mention your spatial, numerical and administrative-directional abilities that will be maximized in great proportions. The beauty of the game is that you will develop strategic abilities that could be used in your everyday life allowing you to be more precise in your decisions and in your ability to foresee possible outcomes judging different moves you can take in real life. The ultimate objective of the game is to capture the opposing king. Once you achieve this goal the game ends and you as a general have the victory. But to get to this stage you need to learn the moves of the six kinds of men who have many varieties of moves. This will bring great benefit to your memory and the good thing is it requires very little practice in order to learn the different moves. The combination of these moves is so deep and powerful that many professional players say that from the depth and wealth of those combinations lays the pleasure of this game. Learn how to play chess is a magical experience that can only enhance our ability to think and perform better in life. Enter this magical world and learn how to play chess in no time at all. If you already know how to play the game then you can develop more strategies than you ever thought possible. Learn in depth strategies about how to play chess like a champion far quicker than you could ever have thought. Just visit http://www.howtoplaychesssecrets.com and benefit from this powerful tool. For lots more information about how to play chess and also learning more strategies go to http://www.howtoplaychesssecrets.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carmen_Beese

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Jun
16th

Computerized Chess Boards – By Lindy

When most people think about chess, they envision two people sitting opposite one another while squaring off in an epic dual of thought. While that is the most common form of this game of strategy, there is no denying that it has come a long way since its inception. A great example of this is computerized chess boards. These boards certainly offer a different experience than the one that most players are accustomed to. There are many reasons to own one of these computerized chess boards, but to truly appreciate them it helps to understand some of the reasoning that they were brought to life in the first place.

Surprisingly enough, the idea behind computerized chess has been around long before an actual computer was ever built. While the idea was there, the concept never came to life until the advent of the digital computer. Since then, there have been many different forms of computerized chess and for numerous different reasons. Some want the ultimate challenge and feel that an artificially intelligent player would provide that. Others just want to play a game of chess by themselves to practice, or simply want to play when other opponents may not be available. Then there are those that want to take the game with them when they travel, but don’t want to be hassled by dragging the traditional sized board and pieces around.

Whatever your reasoning may be for wanting one of these computerized chess boards, you are sure to find a great deal of enjoyment out of them. They also offer a way to play the game in ways you may have not thought possible. For instance, you can choose to play with or without actual game pieces. Also, the computer can keep tabs of your record and even evaluate your performance. These types of options make this a great purchase for newer players and players who simply want to improve their overall game. Having the computer show you your weaknesses will only help you to become a much stronger player in the long run. You will learn many new tactics that will have you looking forward to the next time you play a real life opponent.

It’s apparent that the game of chess will continue to evolve, and if the result of that evolution brings such welcomed advancements to the game that computerized chess boards have, then every player should be excited about the future of this awesome game.

Popularity: 42% [?]

Launched November 2006