By Esther Andrews

Many people still think that the game of chess is appropriate for old people. In their mind’s eye, they see 2 elderly people sitting across from each other in the park, playing a game of chess.

Well, it might sound surprising to you, but you can teach a baby to play chess. It has shown to be extremely beneficial for children of all ages to learn to play chess, and in addition, it is very entertaining. It is impossible to describe how much value a child gets from playing chess.

When my son Eric was about 2 or 3, he showed interest in board games, so I asked my husband if he knew how to play chess. I didn’t know how to play Chess at the time, but luckily my husband knew the basics, and volunteered to teach little Eric. Eric took to it immediately. One day, my husband and I walked into a computer store, to buy a piece of hardware, and in the back room, we saw a person sitting in front of the computer, playing Chess. We started a conversation with him, and found out that he was a Chess teacher. When we came home, we asked Eric if he would like us to find a teacher for him, and he was very excited about it.

After some looking around and making some phone calls (now I know exactly who to call and where to look) we found a new immigrant from Russia who was a gifted Chess teacher. Some of his students became very famous grandmasters. So we made an appointment with the teacher, and he played a game of Chess with our baby. He looked at us after the game and said, a little bit amazed: “he is making all the right moves, it is amazing”. Eric was 4 at the time, and the teacher took him on as a student.

Since then, Chess has been a part of our life. Chess has enriched our lives a great deal. Thanks to Chess, we have traveled and seen some parts of the world and the country we would have never traveled to otherwise. Whenever we visited a new place, we always looked for a street corner or a coffee house where people play chess, and always met interesting people and made new friends. There is always something new to learn, and avid players spend a significant amount of time learning and practicing. Many people find enjoyment in participating in tournaments.

All over the country there are many chess clubs that encourage the participation of children, and many scholastic tournaments are taking place all over the country. Players of all skill levels are encouraged to play in tournaments, and players of similar skill levels are paired to play with each other.

What will your child learn from playing Chess?

- He will learn how to put together a plan, and follow up on it.

- He will learn to calculate a few moves ahead of time, based on memory and imagination.

- He will learn how to concentrate.

- He will learn the difference between strategy and tactics.

- He will learn to think before he acts. That every move has consequences.

- He will learn to play fair and to be courteous.

- He will improve his visual memory and visual discrimination.

- He will learn how to follow the rules.

- He will learn to take responsibility.

- He will learn to have patience.

- He will develop his creativity.

There are so many more benefits to studying and playing chess, that you will have to discover for yourself.

When we started taking little Eric to a kids’ Chess club, we met some kids that were highly gifted. I will never forget a little boy, 8 years old, who played a game of “blindfold” chess with the teacher, who was a master. “Blindfold” means that the player is not looking at the board, and has to play the game out of memory. The little boy played a whole game out of memory, and beat the master.

The most successful children were the ones who started very early. Children who had an older sibling who played Chess, or a parent who played Chess, and had the opportunity to watch the game when they were babies.

If you have a baby, if possible let the baby watch people playing Chess. Do you play Chess? Wonderful! Let the baby watch. If you do not play Chess, find a Chess club in your neighborhood, a park or a coffeehouse and let the baby watch the games as long as the baby is interested.

Some babies will be fascinated and watch the game for a long time, some will watch just for a few minutes. No problem! Let the baby watch as long as it wants. Even a few minutes will do. Do it as often as possible.

At home, have a Chess board around, and occasionally just show the baby the different pieces, and mention their names. Do it a few times a day. This is a good start for a baby, to get acquainted with the Chess pieces.

When your child is ready (and the parents know best!), you can show him how to move the pieces. A little bit a day will do. Make sure that the child spends some time around Chess players and gets the opportunity to watch some games.

For school age children, the best thing to do is to sit with them, explain the game and play with them. If you don’t enjoy Chess or don’t know how to play, you can find a teacher, or a Chess club that accommodates children.

Here is a special word about girls and Chess: some of the best chess players are girls! Just look at the sisters Polgar, and many other female chess players. If you have a girl, encourage her to play chess, it is a most beneficial activity for girls, as well as boys.

There are many Chess computer games on the market, starting from very affordable programs, like Chessmaster, and up to very expensive software and dedicated Chess computers. They are all fine, but remember - when your child plays with human beings, he learns much more and enjoys himself a lot more. It is a completely different experience. So take my advice, let your child play with other children, or even adults. Computer games can be a good addition.

A good place to start is the Chess Federation of your country. Here, in the US, we are lucky to have a very active Chess federation, and many Chess activities for young children. Here are some helpful links and resources:

www.uschess.org/beginners - Ten Tips for Winning Chess

www.uschess.org - The US Chess Federation

www.fide.com - The World Chess Federation

For the last 26 years, Esther Andrews has studied, researched and practiced the ways to develop a child’s intelligence. She also served as the principal of the School for Gifted Education. As a result of this experience, she developed her own method and philosophy, that proved to be extremely successful with her own 2 highly gifted children. In her web site, http://www.all-gifted-children.com , she helps parents develop their child’s genius, and provide for their kids the opportunity to achieve their maximum potential.

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By Jim Slate

So you bought a chess set. You want to look smart, sophisticated. You want people to know you have a keen competitive mind. You want respect, perhaps even a little fear from certain people.

However, you may just be making yourself a joke. At least you are to anyone who really knows anything about chess.

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You see, there is a right way to set up a chess board, and there is a wrong way.

The first thing you have to know is the order that the pieces go in. This is basic stuff, and almost everyone knows this, so that means you have to also.

If you are the white or lighter side, the pieces in front of you should be set up from left to right as rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, and rook. It is important to note that this is the setup for the lighter side, the darker side is not the same, it is a mirror image of the other side.

So the darker side’s pieces should be set up from left to right as rook, knight, bishop, king, queen, bishop, knight, and rook.

The most common mistake made when setting up a chess set is getting the colors wrong. In chess, the lighter queen always has to stand on a light colored square, and the dark queen has to stand on a dark square. This means you have to turn the chess board to one of two directions out of four, in which this is possible.

An easy way to understand this is when you are playing chess, the square closest and to your furthest right, should always be a lighter color.

Once you have the chess set standing correctly, it is time to learn how to pay the actual game. A chess set is an invitation, an open call to battle which can be accepted at any time, by most anyone. If you reply to this challenge with a weak “I don’t really know how…” or with a startlingly pathetic performance, the status piece may actually turn into a demotion.

This article provided courtesy of PebbleZ.com, home of a line of unique chess boards crafted out of natural stone by american artists

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By Bhavesh Pattni

Is Chess a Divine Game? There are some evident correlations between the game of chess and the astrology which lead us to the conclusion that Chess is a game inspired by the Universal Laws, maybe by the planetary movement.

Is Chess another kind of Astrology?

In Chess, we have a board divided into 8 columns and 8 rows, while in Astrology we use the zodiacal circle divided into 12 signs.

In Chess, we have 6 symbols- the pieces (King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, Pawn). In Astrology we have 7 symbols- the 7 traditional planets (Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn). There are rules for the movement of these symbols and each has a specific value or interpretation.

The Art of the Player of Chess is to thoroughly study and understand the network of influences and forces on the chessboard, then to elaborate a strategy that will lead him/her to the defeat of the opponent.

The Art of the Astrologer is to thoroughly study and understand the network of influences in the astrological chart, then to elaborate an overall conclusion of it. So far, we seem to have only some general rules that apply to most board games.

Pieces - Planets correlations

Looking deeper into this, one may notice some striking correlations.There are some strong pieces-planets correlations.

The King is obviously correlated with the Sun. When the King is besieged and captured (checkmate), the game is over.The Queen is correlated with the Moon in astrology. The Moon moves the quickest of all planets, so does the Queen on the chessboard. In horary and electional (traditional vedic astrology), the Moon is the most important planet to be considered. So is the Queen in Chess.

The Pawns are like children, which are traditionally ruled by the Moon. When they grow old, that is, when they reach the other end of the chessboard, they become Queens. Therefore the Pawns are also correlated with Moon.

The Bishops are obviously correlated with Jupiter, since Jupiter rules the religion and the religious persons. However, as the Bishops move always diagonally and there is the planet Mars whose glyph or symbol is a circle with an arrow coming out of it in an oblique direction, this is why the Bishops can also be associated functionally with Mars. So, the Bishops’ nature is Jupiter/Mars.

The Rooks are also called Castles and are therefore associated with Saturn. But since they move only horizontally or vertically and the ideogram of Venus is in the form of a circle with a cross below it, we may say that the Rooks are functionally associated with Venus. So, the Rooks’ nature is Saturn/Venus.

The Knights are also called Horses, and they move atypically by jumping over other pieces, much like flying. Therefore, the Knights may be associated with Mercury, the Roman name of Hermes, the messenger god, with winged sandals.

Houses - Game stages correlations

The astrological development of the game of ChessI’ll present next the correlations between the twelve astrological houses of an astrology chart and the development of a game of chess.

The traditional “joys of the planets” are a particularly helpful concept here. It refers to the house where a planet enjoys itself, its energy being really appropriate and useful there. The astrological tradition considers that Mercury has its joy in the 1st house, the Moon in the 3rd house, Venus in the 5th house, Mars in the 6th house, the Sun in the 9th house, Jupiter in the 11th house and Saturn in the 12th house.

The 1st house is associated with the beginning of the game. The players move the first pieces. At this stage, the Knights are very important as they jump over the Pawns and can attack the opponent’s Pawns. Mercury (the Knights) has its joy in the 1st house.

The 2nd house is associated with the next stage of the game, the development of the pieces, the building of a structure of defense.

The 3rd house is associated with the construction of a line of advanced Pawns (associated with the Moon), communicating and defending one another. At this stage the Pawns are really important. The Moon has its joy in the 3rd house.

The 4th house is associated with the castling. The King is put behind a wall of Pawns, in a safe place. The first part of a regular chess game is over.

The 5th house is associated with thinking of a strategy of action; here the creativity of the player is put to trial. The main issue now is to strengthen one’s position in order to impress the adversary. The Rook (Venus) enters the game for the first time, as it gets out of the chessboard corner through the castling. Venus has its joy in the 5th house.

The 6th house is associated with a stage of preparations. Once the overall strategy has been established in the previous stage, it is now time to put it into practice, first by apparently innocent moves. In the same time, one must be attentive to speculate any bad move of the opponent, while trying to fix any weak points in the defense. The Knights (Mars) should be used to control the diagonals. Mars has its joy in the 6th house.

The 7th house is associated with the attack, with the overt challenge. It is the first house over the horizon and from now on the game will be played openly. The real war begins.

The 8th house is associated with traps and pitfalls, the most dangerous stage of the game, when the attack may fail and this would lead to a decisive counterattack. If the attack is successful, the opponent’s defense line will be broken and some of his pieces captured: the 8th house is the turned 2nd house (pieces) from the 7th house (opponent).

The 9th house is associated with important steps toward victory. Once the defense line of the opponent has been broken, at this stage the King (Sun) may be threatened by check. The Sun has its joy in the 9th house.

The 10th house is the stage when the player is already leading and now has to plan the next steps to make toward victory.

The 11th house is associated with the final stage of the game, when the final plan is put into practice. After both sides have captured many pieces, the Knights (Jupiter) have now plenty of space to run across the chessboard. Jupiter has its joy in the 11th house.

The 12th house is associated with the end of the game. The Rooks (Saturn) are supporting from behind the Pawns to advance and transform into Queens, which will checkmate the adversary’s King and bring victory. Saturn has its joy in the 12th house.

This is an astrological overview of the game of chess.But, Chess is a game of wits, which is governed by the moves of the players. It represents a mental warfare between two opposing players where the one with an agile mind and strength to succeed, wins this battle of minds. It is a board game played by two players.

By and large, it is believed that chess appeared in India around 5000 B.C. Several interesting legends abound this fascinating game. One of the legend states that the wife of King Ravana invented the game 4000-5000 years ago.

There is also a reference in the Bhavishya Purana about the game. Mahabharata, the great Indian epic, mentions the game of Chaturanga played between the two opposite sides of the Pandavas and the Kauravas.

When horoscope is simply a chart of heavens calculated by the rules of astronomy, it shows certain positions of the planets and zodiacal signs in relation to the earth. Indian astrology is popularly referred to as Vedic astrology. This is not because it is there in the Vedas (Veda means original knowledge and truth). There is no mention of astrology in the Vedas. However, it is one of the Vedangas, i.e., limb or branch of Vedas, and dates back to the Vedic period. Several of the Poojas and remedial measures prescribed in the Indian astrology are as per the Vedic system. Hence, it is called Vedic astrology. Ramayan and Mahabharat are the evidences of Vedic Astrology.

Get personalized free horoscope based on daily planetary movements in various categories, i.e. business, job, finance, romance, health & travel. Horoscopes and Astrology

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