By: Clive Jenkins

An increasingly popular variation on the standard ‘International’ chess is known as speed chess. The game involves the use of a chess clock to measure a set period of time in which each player has to make their move, and if the chess clock runs out on a player, they automatically forfeit the match. Not for the feint hearted, speed chess is only recommended for advanced players with an in-depth knowledge of the game, etiquette and strategy of chess.

Speed Chess takes its origins in standard chess, and is a more convenient way of squeezing in a game in your coffee break, or whenever you have spare moment. All you need is a standard chess board and set, a chess clock (which will have two independent clocks and the ability to singularly stop each clock as they count down) and a willing opponent. All the normal rules of chess apply, except in a few specific instances when they are overridden by new rules to regulate such speedy play.

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By: Clive Jenkins

Chess competitions occur regularly, and you may even find there’s one taking place near you. Ranging from competitions purely for fun to international level sporting competition, chess is a seriously competitive sport the world over. If you’re looking to get a head start in the game, the best idea is to start young and research the game to learn how to play it and how to play it well. Additionally, there is no real substitute for practice, and it is advised that before considering entering a chess competition, you play plenty of games, particularly against players better than yourself were possible.

Chess is a game requiring extreme concentration and strategic thinking. Participating in a chess competition requires even further concentration over a number of matches, and should only be the reserve of the more accomplished player. Those who join clubs may find themselves presented with the opportunity to participate in chess competitions, although these are normally particularly competitive environments, where only the intellectually strong can survive.

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You have made the decision to give it a try – good for you! You are about to enter the satisfying, yet challenging world of CC. But, how do you start, what do you do? That is what this piece is all about. Follow the ten steps to correspondence chess and you will be well on your way to a new and rewarding chess experience…
1. Do some research – see if the club or organization has possibilities for you. I would particularly recommend the ASPCC, APCT, and CCLA for American players (in no particular order). Send away for information on what is offered. Study what you receive and make your choice.
2. Join only one organization in the beginning. Choosing a chess organization is somewhat like choosing a mutual fund – the more brochures you have to go through the harder it is to make a decision. Send off your dues and soon you will start receiving the magazine or bulletin.
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Jonathan Levitt, an GM with a lot of chess experience under his belt, created what I believe is one of the most effective and simple, “self-tests” to determine chess aptitude. This test is discussed in his book, “Genius in Chess.”

To take the test, you first need to know how to understand the diagram of a chessboard in algebraic notation. If you are an experienced chess player who is familiar with chess notation, you can skip this paragraph and move to the paragraph where I describe the test. In algebraic chess
notation, each row of the chess board is assigned a number from 1 to 8, beginning with the white side. Each column is described with a letter from a to h, going from left to right from the white side. Each square is described by a letter/number combination according to the intersection of the column and row that both contain that square. The lowermost square, farthest to the left is h8. (If you are sitting on the “white’s” side of the board). As you will see from the diagram on my website that I mentioned above, the uppermost square, farthest to the right a1.

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by Lee Leong

It is so much to learn when you first started playing chess. These includes understanding the chess board, understanding chess move by move and so on. No doubt the more you take time to learn and apply the strategies you learnt, the better you would be in the long run.

With that said, it is worthwhile to understand chess move by move, both basic and special moves. In a game of chess, each piece moves in a different way. Normally, a piece can not pass through squares occupied by other piece. However, it can move to a square occupied by the opponent’s piece. When a piece moves to a square occupied by the opponent, it is said to ‘capture’ the opponent. Hence, the piece which is captured is eliminated from the board for the remainder of the game.

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By Lee Dobbins

Have you ever watched a chess game and wondered how the heck the game works?
On one level it looks kind of like checkers, but not all the pieces are shaped the same and they move in strange and mysterious ways. If you’ve ever wanted to be one of those intelligent looking folks sitting on either side of the chess table, then this guide can help you learn how to play. It’s not that difficult and you can even be playing your first game by the end of the day!

To make it easier to talk about chess pieces and moves on the board, a special method of notation has been devised. In chess the rows on the board are called ranks and the columns are files. In this notation the files are identified with a letter and the ranks are identified with a number. So when looking at a chessboard from the &quotwhite” side, the leftmost file is ‘a’, the one next to it ‘b’ and so on until the last file which is ‘h’. The closest rank for white is ‘rank 1′, the next one is ‘rank 2′ and so on until the last rank, which is the back row for black and is ‘rank 8′. So the when using chess notation, the leftmost back square for white would be called ‘a1′, the square directly above ‘a2′ an so on. Isn’t that easy?

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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.”

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As a chess player, you lose games from time to time—like all chess players.Naturally you want to improve your play. Is there something special or unique about your problem? I don’t think so. Only a few of us can become masters; yet the rest of us can achieve respectable playing strength with a reasonable amount of application.

The first big step ”an enormous step” in improving our play is to become aware of the things we do wrong, the bad moves we make. Many of us could never reach that point without personal lessons because we could not previously find in books the kind of material that would enable us to spot our own weaknesses.

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