Learning chess ..any help for a newbie?
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Nigel Tufnel
Ancient Mariner
Best way to learn is to play somebody. Remember that it is about putting the King in checkmate. All other pieces are expendable. Some ore so than others. Here is a list of importance, after the king.
1. The Queen
2. knights
3. Bishops
4. rooks.
Use your pawns as bait and to block the important pieces. Make your opponent have to make decisions they don't want. Be aggressive. Learn to set up traps to take your opponents important pieces. When I play, it is to capture my opponents king. Everything else is unimportant. A good strategy is to try and herd your opponents important pieces to one side of the board. But always keep in mind that you need to think 2 or 3 moves ahead of your opponent. Try an dictate the pace of the game and make your opponent react to you. Everybody plays different, so try and find the style that works for you and play against different opponents. Anyway, it is a good game to learn and hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
1. The Queen
2. knights
3. Bishops
4. rooks.
Use your pawns as bait and to block the important pieces. Make your opponent have to make decisions they don't want. Be aggressive. Learn to set up traps to take your opponents important pieces. When I play, it is to capture my opponents king. Everything else is unimportant. A good strategy is to try and herd your opponents important pieces to one side of the board. But always keep in mind that you need to think 2 or 3 moves ahead of your opponent. Try an dictate the pace of the game and make your opponent react to you. Everybody plays different, so try and find the style that works for you and play against different opponents. Anyway, it is a good game to learn and hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Please, for the love of bog, do not follow Nigel's advice!
It's good for advanced players. Chess is tough, and most of that is beyond a newb.
Hugely important: rooks are never less important than bishops and knights. (Excepting rare positions, there are exceptions for every rule in chess.) Disregard your rooks at your own peril.
If you want to get good, you have to study all four phase of the game. Yes, four - I divide up the middlegame into two components.
1. Opening... Try to learn the Ruy Lopez. It may turn out not to suit your style, but you'll face it as Black sooner or later. The logic behind the moves and variations is very easy to understand. Learning the Ruy will help you figure out what you do and don't like, and then you can seek other openings that lead to similar middlegames.
2a. Strategy... This one's deep, and actually least necessary. A talented player can go far on the other three categories. The beginner's primer is still the century-old My System by Aron Nimzowitch. Although much of the content is out of date, it's still solid chess that goes far. Most importantly, it introduces all the big terms and ideas. Any further study depends on knowing this book, or at least the ideas it covers.
2b. Tactics... This one's easy if you can learn to see just two moves ahead. (That's two full moves: one by you, one by him, another by you, another by him.) Most tactics are only that deep; maybe a quarter go 3 moves, and a tiny fraction 4 moves. Tactics are ALWAYS based on a double attack. One piece against two: you had better learn how to watch those knights or you will get forked. Two against one: when you get a piece pinned, exploit by attacking it again. If you love to watch your opponent sweat, pin all his pieces. Get a cheap tactical primer, they go for about ten bucks, it will do you wonders. You'll pull out wins you never should have gotten. I have many times.
3. Endgame... Get an endgame primer and learn all you can. This is the only stuff worth memorizing; even openings can be played by general principles safely, once you know enough general principles. Pawns are the souls of chess. Learn to be the one who queens.
It's good for advanced players. Chess is tough, and most of that is beyond a newb.
Hugely important: rooks are never less important than bishops and knights. (Excepting rare positions, there are exceptions for every rule in chess.) Disregard your rooks at your own peril.
If you want to get good, you have to study all four phase of the game. Yes, four - I divide up the middlegame into two components.
1. Opening... Try to learn the Ruy Lopez. It may turn out not to suit your style, but you'll face it as Black sooner or later. The logic behind the moves and variations is very easy to understand. Learning the Ruy will help you figure out what you do and don't like, and then you can seek other openings that lead to similar middlegames.
2a. Strategy... This one's deep, and actually least necessary. A talented player can go far on the other three categories. The beginner's primer is still the century-old My System by Aron Nimzowitch. Although much of the content is out of date, it's still solid chess that goes far. Most importantly, it introduces all the big terms and ideas. Any further study depends on knowing this book, or at least the ideas it covers.
2b. Tactics... This one's easy if you can learn to see just two moves ahead. (That's two full moves: one by you, one by him, another by you, another by him.) Most tactics are only that deep; maybe a quarter go 3 moves, and a tiny fraction 4 moves. Tactics are ALWAYS based on a double attack. One piece against two: you had better learn how to watch those knights or you will get forked. Two against one: when you get a piece pinned, exploit by attacking it again. If you love to watch your opponent sweat, pin all his pieces. Get a cheap tactical primer, they go for about ten bucks, it will do you wonders. You'll pull out wins you never should have gotten. I have many times.
3. Endgame... Get an endgame primer and learn all you can. This is the only stuff worth memorizing; even openings can be played by general principles safely, once you know enough general principles. Pawns are the souls of chess. Learn to be the one who queens.
Nigel Tufnel
Ancient Mariner
I am not saying disregard your rooks. I am saying in an offensive strategy, knights are more suited for attacking because of the unconventional way they move. You can mask your approach with your other pieces and manuever with your knights. That is what is most important if you are playing to win. Playing against different opponents is the best way to learn. But as I said earlier, you have to play a style that is suited to you.
Rooks are best used defensively. Because they have the most conventional movement, they are the least effective offensively. Because I am a aggressive player I tend to think of the pieces in offensive way. You can just reverse my list for a defensive game.
Yes, you have to learn to walk before you can run. I was just giving advice that I find to be effective. Reading books on chess is good, but playing live opponents is better. Let them know you are playing to learn and if you are playing intermediate or advanced players, maybe you could ask them to explain what they are doing. Seeing and doing, was how I learned.
Rooks are best used defensively. Because they have the most conventional movement, they are the least effective offensively. Because I am a aggressive player I tend to think of the pieces in offensive way. You can just reverse my list for a defensive game.
Yes, you have to learn to walk before you can run. I was just giving advice that I find to be effective. Reading books on chess is good, but playing live opponents is better. Let them know you are playing to learn and if you are playing intermediate or advanced players, maybe you could ask them to explain what they are doing. Seeing and doing, was how I learned.
Rooks are best defensively? Oh no. Not at all. I use mine on the attack all the time. When I'm forced to commit one or both to defense, I feel handicapped. Good defense rarely requires rooks; penetrating attacks are hard to achieve without them.
Black Thunder
Ancient Mariner
Rooks are very important in both, but I use mine mostly for offense.
Can you do a checkmate with a king and bishop, or king and knight?
Can you do a checkmate with a king and bishop, or king and knight?
No.
King and queen is easy.
King and two rooks is easy.
King and one rook can take a while, but is easy.
King and two bishops is slightly tricky at the end.
King, bishop and knight is extremely hard, but fortunately equally extremely rare.
Those are the only combinations that work against a lone king making the best moves possible.
King and two knights: checkmate position can be constructed, but lone king can't be forced into it.
King and queen is easy.
King and two rooks is easy.
King and one rook can take a while, but is easy.
King and two bishops is slightly tricky at the end.
King, bishop and knight is extremely hard, but fortunately equally extremely rare.
Those are the only combinations that work against a lone king making the best moves possible.
King and two knights: checkmate position can be constructed, but lone king can't be forced into it.
Unknown One
I see the ghost of navigators.
With openings, I've found that Sicilian openings are extremely popular (even more so than the Ruy Lopez), so you would definitely want to study up on this one as well in my opinion.
When I was just a kid, I was taught a couple of beginner strategies in the opening that I still use today.
1) Control the centre, so you have more space for all of your pieces. One of the worst things is being in a middle game with all your pieces cramped up so they can't move.
2) Develop your minor pieces (bishops, knights) and try not to move them more than once (unless you have a good reason to) so you don't waste time. Wasting time in the opening is also really bad, because then you will be behind the whole game!
3) Don't develop your rooks and queen like you do with your minor pieces as if they get attacked, they'll have to move and will waste time. Just let them sit on the back 2 ranks in the middle of the board somewhere (after castling) until the middle game.
4) Castling. This is an absolute must (even though it is only 1 move). It gets your King off to the side of the board where it is usually in less danger than in the middle and gets a rook more into the middle of the board.
Being able to plan ahead is critical in chess. If you can't think of what you will do in the future or what your opponent will do, then you will really have no chance. I'd say that 3 full moves ahead for tactics would suffice the majority of the time. Strategy is also important, the ultimate aim is to checkmate of course, but you need to have strategies in the game as well. They might be as simple as getting 2 rooks on the same file because the opponents back rank is weak (which may only take a few moves), or it might be as complex as getting all your pieces into a specific position (which may take 20-30 moves). Like SMX said, Strategy is probably the least important of the 4 phases, but you still need to know about it.
Speaking about Tactics, I found a book probably about half a dozen years ago that really helped me with my tactics. It's called "Winning Chess Tactics" by Yasser Seirawan and contains beginner tactics like forks and pins (that SMX has stated already) and works all the way up to more advanced tactics. You definitely need to know some basic theory for it to be useful, so once you feel you have a good grasp of beginner theory you can have a look for this book.
Another thing I would look at is common checkmating patterns, because once you start playing, you'll notice that a lot of checkmates are repeated over and over. Knowing these checkmating patterns means that you can plan ahead for what sort of checkmate you want. If your opponents back rank is weak, try to aim for a back rank checkmate with a rook or queen. If some of the pawns in front of the opponents king (after castling) are missing, try to use bishops, knights and your queen to get into the holes to Kill the King (sorry, just had to
)!
But of course, the best way to learn how to play competently is to play against better players and learn from them!
When I was just a kid, I was taught a couple of beginner strategies in the opening that I still use today.
1) Control the centre, so you have more space for all of your pieces. One of the worst things is being in a middle game with all your pieces cramped up so they can't move.
2) Develop your minor pieces (bishops, knights) and try not to move them more than once (unless you have a good reason to) so you don't waste time. Wasting time in the opening is also really bad, because then you will be behind the whole game!
3) Don't develop your rooks and queen like you do with your minor pieces as if they get attacked, they'll have to move and will waste time. Just let them sit on the back 2 ranks in the middle of the board somewhere (after castling) until the middle game.
4) Castling. This is an absolute must (even though it is only 1 move). It gets your King off to the side of the board where it is usually in less danger than in the middle and gets a rook more into the middle of the board.
Being able to plan ahead is critical in chess. If you can't think of what you will do in the future or what your opponent will do, then you will really have no chance. I'd say that 3 full moves ahead for tactics would suffice the majority of the time. Strategy is also important, the ultimate aim is to checkmate of course, but you need to have strategies in the game as well. They might be as simple as getting 2 rooks on the same file because the opponents back rank is weak (which may only take a few moves), or it might be as complex as getting all your pieces into a specific position (which may take 20-30 moves). Like SMX said, Strategy is probably the least important of the 4 phases, but you still need to know about it.
Speaking about Tactics, I found a book probably about half a dozen years ago that really helped me with my tactics. It's called "Winning Chess Tactics" by Yasser Seirawan and contains beginner tactics like forks and pins (that SMX has stated already) and works all the way up to more advanced tactics. You definitely need to know some basic theory for it to be useful, so once you feel you have a good grasp of beginner theory you can have a look for this book.
Another thing I would look at is common checkmating patterns, because once you start playing, you'll notice that a lot of checkmates are repeated over and over. Knowing these checkmating patterns means that you can plan ahead for what sort of checkmate you want. If your opponents back rank is weak, try to aim for a back rank checkmate with a rook or queen. If some of the pawns in front of the opponents king (after castling) are missing, try to use bishops, knights and your queen to get into the holes to Kill the King (sorry, just had to
)! But of course, the best way to learn how to play competently is to play against better players and learn from them!
Nigel Tufnel
Ancient Mariner
Rooks move lateraly, very conventional and easy to see coming. They are effective for controling lanes of attack. A bishop's movement is diagonaly and easier to mask an attack, using pawns as a screen. Knights are effective because they have the most unconvetional movement and can be used to attack from a screen 2 or 3 ranks deep. Yes you can use rooks offensively, but I find the other pieces are better to use because you can surprise your opponent more effectively and you can keep dictating the match. Manuvering your pieces is essential, with support. Rooks move forward, backwards, left and right. Very limited, because the movements are so conventional. I find trying to outflank an opponent more effective. It is about best diguising your axis of attack. If I do bring the rooks into the attack, it is to support the pieces that i want to use, but hey that is my style.SinisterMinisterX said:
Yes, Unknown One mad a very critical point about not jamming your pieces and limiting your options. It is more about developing strategies on the fly as opposed to thinking one before the match. It is better to be abstract than direct.
cheers, all ! 
Nigel Tufnel
Ancient Mariner
Remember to have fun!
Nigel Tufnel
Ancient Mariner
Exactly. If you can play someone good who is willing to teach you as you go, that is the best way to learn.
Dr. Eddies Wingman
Brighter than thousand_suns
Sorry to bump this thread, but I have a question. Have a look at the position below. The last move is indicated by the yellow highlighting; Ba7.
This comes from the chess column in a newspaper, and after this move the players seem to have agreed on calling a remis. I first wondered; why would White accept that? I thought that in order to avoid check-mate in the next move after Qxb7, Black would have to move his Queen away from d7 to provide an escape route for the King, and all possible moves - except one! - would give White the chance to push home an attack that would at worst win Black's bishop. So, what was that last move?
I concluded that it had to be ... Qc7. Do you agree that this is the best move if Black wants to secure a draw? And, if you were playing with the white pieces, would you accept a draw after ...Qc7?
This comes from the chess column in a newspaper, and after this move the players seem to have agreed on calling a remis. I first wondered; why would White accept that? I thought that in order to avoid check-mate in the next move after Qxb7, Black would have to move his Queen away from d7 to provide an escape route for the King, and all possible moves - except one! - would give White the chance to push home an attack that would at worst win Black's bishop. So, what was that last move?
I concluded that it had to be ... Qc7. Do you agree that this is the best move if Black wants to secure a draw? And, if you were playing with the white pieces, would you accept a draw after ...Qc7?
I agree that Black would have to do Qc7. White then has no chance of getting his Queen out of the corner. I could see white trying to bait the Queen out of c7 with Bb6, but that would cost black the Queen. If Qc7 remains, White could take the Queen with the bishop, but then Black can simply do Kc7. That would leave Black having to checkmate White with the bishop and the rook. Some clever pawn movement may threaten White, but he still has his Queen and the rook to work out defences with. White has no chance of winning this one, and Black would need a lot of luck.
Unknown One
I see the ghost of navigators.
And after White goes Bb6, why can't Black go Qd6 or Qe5, since the Bishop is now blocking the route to b7? I'd say it's probably a drawn position unless Black can activate his rook somehow. Even getting a free Rd8 would help alot with Black's winning chances.
Dr. Eddies Wingman
Brighter than thousand_suns
If White goes Bb6, I'm quite sure Black would go Qd6, with remis following after repeted moves. After all, Black is the one who is probably more interested in a draw. If White did not want to accept the draw, I think he would try to develop his pawns and maneuver his Rook around to see if he could open up the position again.
But what if Black does not play Qc7? It's obvious that the King or the Queen must move, otherwise White's next move is Qxb8 and check-mate. Let's look at what happens if Black has a black-out.
... Kd8
Qxb8+ Qc8 (only possible move)
Td3+ Ke8 (again, only possible move)
Qxc8+ Kf7 (the poor King can only watch as his officers fall, one by one)
Qxh8 and Black has no officers left.
But what if Black does not play Qc7? It's obvious that the King or the Queen must move, otherwise White's next move is Qxb8 and check-mate. Let's look at what happens if Black has a black-out.
... Kd8
Qxb8+ Qc8 (only possible move)
Td3+ Ke8 (again, only possible move)
Qxc8+ Kf7 (the poor King can only watch as his officers fall, one by one)
Qxh8 and Black has no officers left.
Unknown One
I see the ghost of navigators.
And black will be able to do the same thing, although black's rook is in a worse position, so it would take more time for him to get it activated. I still say it's a likely drawn position though.