by: Ron King

Chess is a fascinating board game that was invented thousands of years ago. Throughout its long history, it has earned acclaim and is considered to be the ‘king’ of board games. Several famous personalities were known for their chess skills. Napoleon, Nikola Tesla, Charlie Chaplin and Einstein were among them.

Chess can provide many hours of pleasure, not to mention intellectual exercise, since the game is known to improve analytical thinking, creativity and judgment.

In the past chess was mainly played by courtiers. Now everyone may enjoy this privilege. Chess attracts people of all ages from all over the world. Chess is intriguing, for it allows players to pit their wits, experience and inspiration against a competitor.

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by: Chad Kimball

“Notation” is a method in chess strategy books that is used to describe the movement of pieces on the chess board, without needing a visual diagram of the chess board for each move. It greatly increases a chess author’s ability to describe a large number of chess games in compact form, leaving more room for game analysis. It also allows the author to concentrate on chess strategies and tactics, rather than requiring hundreds and hundreds of cumbersome diagrams of the chess board for each move.

If you are a chess player, aspiring to improve through strategy books, understanding the two chess notation styles is crucial to your improvement. Most chess strategy books are either written in “Descriptive Notation,” or “Algebraic Notation.”

Descriptive Notation, in general, was used in older chess books and magazines, although it is possible to run into more current chess literature using this notation style as well. Nevertheless, the fact that any book or magazine written before 1970 probaby uses descriptive notation makes it worth knowing.

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“Notation” is a method in chess strategy books that is used to describe the movement of pieces on the chess board, without needing a visual diagram of the chess board for each move. It greatly increases a chess author’s ability to describe a large number of chess games in compact form, leaving more room for game analysis. It also allows the author to concentrate on chess strategies and tactics, rather than requiring hundreds and hundreds of cumbersome diagrams of the chess board for each move.If you are a chess player, aspiring to improve through strategy books, understanding the two chess notation styles is crucial to your improvement. Most chess strategy books are either written in “Descriptive Notation,” or “Algebraic Notation.”

Read the rest of this entry

1. As you have so few pieces, see that you make the most of each one. For this purpose try to avoid having to use a piece for a defensive task, especially a rook It is only when aggressively posited that a piece pulls it full weight
2. Remember that in the end-game the King is a fighting piece. Make use of it.
3. A Rook’s goal is the seventh rank. Here is attacks pawns which cannot possibly call other pawns to their support. A Rook is here particulary strong if at the same time it confines the enemy king to his bank rank.
4. If you have a bishop, whether the enemy has one or not, place your pawns on the opposite colour to that occupied by your own bishop.
To Beginners this rule for bishops and pawns sound silly, because deprives the pawn of the bishop’s support. However, on opposite colours the bishop and pawns together command more squares, they do not overlap. It is the same reason that makes two bishops so strong.
5. Always remember : the passed pawn is the soul of the end-game. A passed pawn advanced to the sixth or seventh rank is often worth a piece
6. With the advantage, keep pawns on both wings. This helps to avoid a draw. If there are pawns on one wing only, the advantage of one pawn extra is more often than not, insufficient to win.
7. Reuben Fine’s excellent rules: For winning, exchange pieces; For Drawing, exchange pawns.

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Site admin of www.Chess-Learning.com, the place to learn more about the game of chess.