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| From | Message | tat2ed_angel
play-chess-online.com chess
2/23/2006
21:38:04
play online chess |  Subject: I love this Game I want to love it more
Message:
So were does someone get lessons online. I have known how to move the pieces since I was
young, but only really fell in love with it in the last few years. I really fell I am about to break
threw I am starting to see thing in my head and beginning to put my ideas to work. The big thing
is that I'm LOOSING still. I do have two books ( Silman's "Amateur's Mind" and Burgess's
Mammoth Book of Chess ) but I never did get any kind of formal training so I do tend to get lost.
I try to play a game from the books only to get lost. Silman's book is a much easier read and
really what has made me love chess.
I have done many google for chess even found GK there. I find that I just get info overload. Any
suggestion on were to start.
Maybe there is a chess whizz out there into tattoos I might think about a barter. I would travel to
any boarding state.
| schnarre
play-chess-online.com chess
2/23/2006
23:05:41
play online chess | Hmmnnn...
Message:
Though out of print, the book 'Opening Systems for Competetive Chess Players', by Smith & Hall comes recommended. It offers the Torre Attack as White,& the Caro-Kann & Tartakower Defenses as Black--so it's an entire repetoire in one book (the book itself reads easily & is decently organized--it also has diagrams from both sides, so you get the perspective you might not otherwise have). Check Amazon.com or see if anyone here has a copy they're willing to part with. That's my 2 cents worth anyway! Good luck & happy hunting (& hang in there with your games)!
| tat2ed_angel
play-chess-online.com chess
2/23/2006
23:51:07
play online chess |
Message:
Thank You. I will look tonight.
Thats a start. So I need to find a couple of sound attacks and defenses and just get down to
learning them.
Any solid opening that every player should have in the pocket? This "Mammoth Book of Chess" is
pretty deep but a bit intimidating.
| ionadowman
play-chess-online.com chess
2/24/2006
01:05:49
play online chess | tat2ed_angel...
Message:
...You might want supplement schnarre's advice by looking for some publication(s) concerning middlegame tactical motifs, and endgames. Having looked at some of your past games, I reckon you are pretty good at developing ideas about what you can do (some quick and drastic finishes there!), but tend to underestimate your opponent's resources. I'm not sure about this, but maybe you are also a bit unsure how to proceed when when there seems to be nothing 'on'?
There may be a way around this for the time being: don't play 'safe' openings, but look for aggressive, tactical lines - gambits in particular. King's Gambit, Morra or Wing Gambits, even countergambits as Black. Play on the receiving end of these too, if you can arrange it. They often lead to exciting, uncompromising play, that will help to develop your imagination not only in respect of your own plans, but also in discerning the possibilities available to your opponent. And they're fun to play!
What more could you ask?
Cheers,
Ion
| wolstoncroft1
play-chess-online.com chess
2/24/2006
01:20:26
play online chess |
Message:
Every player needs to learn the Ruy Lopez from both sides because it is so common.
I suggest you learn the two knights defense as black as to learn counterattacking, this defense also is very developmental and you will see that development is compensation for matierial through this defense. Two knights Fritz and even the olverstock variation.
I suggest you stay away from closed positions like the french because there is much more strategy involved and longterm thinking that you will be at a disadvantage because most players will have more experience than you with these positions. A good plan as white agains black trying for the french would be declining to play 2. d4 and play Nf3 instead planning to trade off the e pawn and play g3 and Bg3 and 0-0 and d4 in any order. You should get a good game out of this.
Truthfully what will help you more than learning openings is tactics puzzles and endgame study. There are many sites on the net for both. after you feel that you are tactically strong and you understand the endgame secrets then it is time to learn the openings. And at this point you will know what type of style suits you best and can decide on openings that suit that style the best. For example, some players like to gambit a pawn or two and try to create a winning attack with the development advantages whereas others like to play positionally and create small advantages throughout the game(like good bishop vs. bad, central pawn duo, outposts for pieces, passed pawns) that will add up to a better end positon and winning chances.
play longer games before shorter games. when you first encounter a new position you will have little experience to draw on. You will need to think about the position adn see all possible checks, captures and threats in order to consistantly make good moves. The less experience you have the longer this takes. As you play more you will start seeing things much faster than you do as a beginner and will not need as much time. Also you will gain experince with various positions that you can draw on that will help you make better decisions. The point is that you need the time to really think about it so that you understand the implications of the move and the features of the position so that when you encounter a similar position you will know better what to do.
Take the time to go over your games. Ask a stronger player to look over your games with you after you finish them. You will learn a lot this way
and it will help understand mistakes you made, strategies that you could have enployed, etc...
Study annotated games from GM's, one a week, one a month, whatever. It will give you insight into strategy and tactical possibilities, youll also learn some opening theory too.
Always aim to play against players that are about 100 rating points higher than you. If you play weak competition you will get used to winning with bad chess, thats a recipe for disaster. If you play players considerably stronger than you, you will have very little chance to really understand what they are doing and why, there is simply too much of a gap in ability to learn from your losses this way, you'll get blown out of the water and learn very little from it. Ideally playing 100 pts higher than your rating is perfect because you will be close in ability you will be able to learn the little things that they are doing that you are not. After you add these things to your game then youll improve a little and then can move up to the next level to improve more.
Try to balance play and study. For as many hours that you play, study the same amount of time. Chess ability comes from a balance of theory and experience. Learn something new and try to include it in your games from that point on.
Have fun, thats what chess is all about. Everyone improves at different rates, but realistically with some hard work and dedication you could be an expert after a few short years.
Good Luck
| peppe_l
play-chess-online.com chess
2/24/2006
05:07:30
play online chess |
Message:
I�d forget (specific) openings for now and focus on tactics. At your level tactics is 90% of the game, really. The rest is basic strategy, opening principles, etc. Memorizing the first 10 moves of Ruy Lopez won�t help, especially since most of your opponents will deviate before move 10, anyway.
Three opening principles:
- Control the centre
- Develop your pieces
- Keep your king safe
Follow these, and you�ll be fine :-)
PS. Make sure you read the excellent message of wolstoncroft1, starting from "Truthfully what will help you more..."
| wolstoncroft1
play-chess-online.com chess
2/24/2006
09:13:53
play online chess |
Message:
Ty peppe for the compliment about my message.
In the second paragraph talking about the french i realise i put Bg3 where i meant to fianchetto the bishop to g2.
| dysfl
play-chess-online.com chess
2/24/2006
09:18:20
play online chess | My 2 cents on opening
Message:
Most common, and sound advice to novice and intermediate player is to study endgames first, then strategy, and lastly, opening. I agree it is the best advice. Well, sometimes we just grab a Mac for lunch. So, here is a junk food advice from a patzer to another one. It�s not a healthy diet, you have been warned.
Opening is the building block for the whole game. If you just push pieces in the hope of getting into the battle, you will fight your opponent's fight. So you need opening strategy and knowledge even you�re a beginner.
You can try to select a few of the mediocre openings and stick to it for a while. Learn how to use it passively and some patterns. By doing this, you can move on to the real battle, the middle game, not losing that much gound. I went to the extreme, London system as White, Modern Defense as Black. So the middle game theme is also limited, less things to learn.
For me, I was able to defer the study of the whole e4 openings and most of the theories my opponents supposed to be stronger than me. And it is also a logistics of studying resources. Let�s say both my opponent and I studied openings for 30 hours. Assume my opponent studied 20 hours of Ruy Lopez and 10 hours of QGD, allocating 20 hours on black�s response of d5/e5 but spent only 30 minutes about black�s response 1.. g6. On the contrast, I spent 10 hours about 1. e4 g6, 10 hours 1. d4 g6, 10 hours 1. d4 *any* 2. Nf3. You get the picture.
As you are getting more experience with your mediocre openings, you will see the similar middle game patterns are repeated. And you can concentrate to the themes in your middle game study.
I got this study strategy from my Go (another board game) background. In Go, you can have four different openings in one game from the four corners of the board. And as the game starts without any pieces on the board, the complexity is much more daunting than in chess. As a White, you have 361 options in move in theory (actualy figure should be around 10-20 for professional Go players).
| peppe_l
play-chess-online.com chess
2/24/2006
10:04:52
play online chess |
Message:
On the other hand, by playing (no need to study zillions of lines, learn the basic themes from annotated master games and go for it!) lots of different openings is good: you learn the basics of different positions - open, closed, classical, modern, and so on. One cannot really AVOID certain type of positions, anyway. Eg I play Caro-Kann as black, but the game can become open, closed, sharp, quiet, etc. And even if you rarely end up for example w/isolated d-pawn, by playing the position with both colours is defitenitely great practise. Later on, as you make progress, you can limit the openings you play to the ones suiting your "style" and preferences. But...if you have at least tried everything from Ruy Lopez to King�s Indian, chances are you�ll be more complete chess player. Still, wolstoncroft1 made the most important comment IMO: focus on tactics, endings and annotated master games.
Just my 2 cents.
| gfweiss
play-chess-online.com chess
2/24/2006
22:17:56
play online chess | Angel
Message:
If it's online lessons you're looking for, try ChessKids.com. Don't be fooled by the name, it may be a kids site, but the lessons are great. They have LOTS of lessons and I've gone through all of them, some several times over (I'm a 60 year old kid)...Good luck, george
| appelfflap
play-chess-online.com chess
2/25/2006
00:37:09
play online chess |
Message:
start with the basic.
- simple tactics (motifs)
- simple endings ( N+B vs K or basic pawnendings)
- simple strategy ( weak pawns, strong K vs B eg)
- analyze your games as deep as possible (search for the thruth):)
| ionadowman
play-chess-online.com chess
2/25/2006
11:58:26
play online chess | tat2ed_angel...
Message:
Check out the Novice Nook threads in this forum, especially the links to Heisman's Novice Nook column. Novice Nook #6 has some great information on chess books you might consider looking at. I have, or have read, a few of them myself.
Cheers,
Ion
| tat2ed_angel
play-chess-online.com chess
2/25/2006
23:48:46
play online chess | Thank you
Message:
First off let me thank every body for the solid advice.
I do find that I get a "a bit unsure how to proceed when when there seems to be nothing 'on'?"
A lot of times I will get my peaces all developed get castled but so will my opponent and then I
am lost have to start a
new plan. I'm sure this comes from the lack of formal training. I have been playing the:
Three opening principles:
- Control the centre
- Develop your pieces
- Keep your king safe
Since I was a kid. Really the only thing I ever did learn back when I was kid. This may have
helped me with my opening but it definitely leaves me wondering "now what do I do?". So I
usually go to war and HOPE for the better imbalances. I realize that hoping your opponent will
NOT calculate the middle action farther is the wrong way but I find my self doing it most games.
Only because it was mentioned will I say I think my style leans more to the aggressive style
when I do play the two friends here. I find I will win most games that I take control of right from
the start. I tend to go with the get your pieces out, castle, blow some holes in the middle and
controlling the files with the rooks. I really like it when you drop a rook behind the enemy lines
and just eat all the pieces you can. Hopefully leaving my opponent drained of material for the
endgame. Just in case you are wondering NO it is not working I am still not reaching that
epiphany moment were I go
"WOW I SEE IT NOW".
I really like the idea of just playing the board. The memorization of millions of line of games is
just not how I am build.
I think gaining a better understanding of theory behind why we develop the pieces here or there
is going to help me to play the board.
I do really love the suggestions on studying GM games. I have played a few games out of
Silman's Amateur's MInd and I like how he has them right down there thoughts before the move
and Silman makes note on there thought process. As I read through the thoughts I find my self
going "yea that what I would do" then I read Silman comments and see that I we were wrong.
Usually it is something like I didn't calculate far enough or just made a dumb mistake.
Last but not least I have been at the CHESSKIDS.COM for about two hours now. I just made my
self go threw it from the beginning even the real basic stuff. I am learning things I guess I
already knew but this put it in black and white and
that has been nice.
| peppe_l
play-chess-online.com chess
2/26/2006
04:20:47
play online chess | Re: opening principles
Message:
Are you sure you always remember to apply them? One good way to improve is to analyze your losses. Your previous loss was exciting tactical battle, 9.Qe3 exposed your queen to the same file with enemy rook, but after 9...d5 there was 10.Bxd5! instead of 10.Nxd5. But vs jpm11: check out the position after move 5...Nxf2 6.Kxf2. How many of your pieces are developed? Zero (there WAS one, but you sacrificed it). That�s the reason your attack was stopped. You cannot hunt the enemy king succesfully if your pieces are still at the first rank :-) Also, are you controlling the centre? Etc.
Otherwise, I believe you are spot on: try to understand each move, instead of memorizing "theory lines". And I�d like to commend you for going back to the basics, because the harsh fact is at our level most games are won and lost because of basic stuff like simple tactical patterns, calculation and opening/middlegame/endgame principles. It�s like math, really: one cannot go for rocket science (eg advanced opening repertoire) before learning 2+2. I am convinced attempt to skip the basics is the main reason lots of people spend lots of time for chess and fail to make progress.
| lorddreamer
play-chess-online.com chess
2/26/2006
07:36:09
play online chess |
Message:
The Chess Master computer game is very good for people trying to step into the 'intermediate' pool. It has tons of great games and activities to do, and even walk throughs of old games and archives of great games to watch and learn from.
I would suggest that you first learn the value of pieces in certain positions (i.e. in an open game, its all about bishops, closed you want your knights), then advance to understanding space development, when you should attack white squares, black, take out which bishop, etc... But obviously little things like forking, discovery are important if you don't know them...
Also, I would like to just say that trying to jump into advanced chess by learning openings will kill your game. First get understanding of play, then develop all that memory stuff. Maybe understand the flow of one or two openings at first, knightsknigt is pretty popular... or Ruey Lopez...
Hope that helps a bit...
| tat2ed_angel
play-chess-online.com chess
3/07/2006
16:29:57
play online chess | Sorry
Message:
I would like to say sorry to all the games that timed out. The computer went south.
| schnarre
play-chess-online.com chess
3/08/2006
10:32:05
play online chess | It
Message:
happens! Just make sure your opponents are informed of such in a timely manner (some teams have a rather negative view on timeouts), & you should be okay!
| tat2ed_angel
play-chess-online.com chess
3/14/2006
23:11:08
play online chess | ARGH!
Message:
So I think I have begun most of the things suggested. I went to chesskids.com started from the
most basic, Found an 1800 player to do some analyzing of games with me and get me started on
some basic goals.
Now here is the kick to the gonads I even went and purchased Chess Master 9000 for the Mac get
it all opened (very large sticker ABSOLUTELY NO SOFTWARE RETURNED IF OPENED) just to relies
the computer doesn't have a DVD drive 50 buck down the drain. I could of pay a chess couch here
in town for that lose.
I guess I just keep truck-in along.
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