Saturday, 5 November 2016

Chess Glossary – 10 Chess Terms

Part of learning and improving in chess is familiarizing yourself with the most common terms used by players. Referring to a chess glossary is a good start, but you might be surprised to find that there are more than 250 terms to learn. The good news is that you do not have to memorize all them. You can learn them as you play, or you can start by learning the most commonly used chess terms. Whether you are a beginner or an average player, it may help you master the game better by knowing the 10 most commonly used chess terms:

1.  Tiebreak – The method for differentiating the places between two players who have the same score. It is typically based on how well opponents did in the event.

2.  Sudden death – This is the time control period where all moves must be played within a given amount of time on a player’s clock.

3.  Pin – The attack of a Queen, Bishop, or Rook on a piece that should not or cannot move because a worthier piece behind it is along the line of attack.

4.  Touch Chess move – This is a rule that states three points: (1) You touch a piece, you move it, (2) you let go of that piece, you leave it, and (3) you displace the opponent’s piece, you take it.

5.  Doubled pawns – Two pawns in the same color in one file as a result of capture.

6.  Annotation – To show the moves of the game and provide extra moves and text describing the detail of what could have or what has happened.

7.  Attack – Moving a piece to the square to capture the opponent’s piece next move. It may describe having the initiative and placing pressure on a specific square, such as when you intend to attack the kingside.

8.  Blitz – Fast chess, which is typically five minutes per player in the entire game.

9.  Desperado – A piece that will be captured anyway, so it can be sacrificed at a high cost.

10.  Double attack – Attacking two or more pieces with a single move.

Once you familiarize yourself with these 10 chess terms, you can visualize better and imagine your sequences of actions before executing them. Likewise, knowing the terms from a reliable chess glossary may help increase your cognitive skills, boost your memory, and enable you to communicate better with teammates, coaches, and rivals.

Alternate Rules for Chess Game

Chess has certain rules and standards that players must follow to ensure a smooth gameplay that makes sense. However, some chess games can be played using alternative rules that may involve removing certain pieces or adding more pieces, and various time limits. Knowing these alternate rules can help you become a more versatile player while expanding your knowledge and ability. It can also make playing chess with your friends more fun.

Odd chess is one of the alternate ways to play chess. It lets unevenly matched players enjoy a fair game. Hence, it does not matter if you are playing an amateur player with a master and vice-versa. In odd chess, the more experienced or skilled player receives a handicap, which can vary from minimal (i.e. the less skilled player going first) to extreme (i.e. experienced player eliminates his pieces in the queen’s side). Some players add other chess rules. For instance, the strong player delivers mate on a particular square or piece.

Los Alamos is another alternate version of chess, and it is played on a six by six square board without the bishops. This type of chess game was invented for early computers, back when they lacked computing power for a full game. Capablanca chess is a game that is played on a 10 by 10 or 10 by eight board with additional pieces, such as an archbishop that can move like a knight and a bishop, and a chancellor that can move like a knight and rook. Blitz chess is a form of orthodox chess but considered a variant due to its rule, where you are allowed to play at different time limits (usually five minutes for every game). Some orthodox chess games may require you to be blindfolded. It can be a test of how much you know the board and the pieces.

4 Tips for Selecting the Best Chess Classes Online

One of the great challenges people face is to be able to adapt. Yet, change is the one constant in a world that is always evolving. This applies to people as much as it does to technology. We live in a world that would have been the envy of visionaries of the past – any information we seek is always at our fingertips. How we use this resource is up to us. Among other things, it provides a novel approach to pursue a desire or improve your skill. Online chess lessons is a bit of both, and then some more.

If you are a beginner and want to take chess lessons, then you do not have to hire a personal coach. You can easily learn chess by studying it online. Many professional players and institutions share various strategies and tactics of chess on their websites or other online forums that you can access through your laptop or phone from the comfort of your home.

But in the abundance of choices, it is not easy to choose the right institution or coach, especially online. It is not easy to trust someone you have not met in life. When it comes to teaching, the skills and services offered by the person or institution become a serious matter. You must invest time in learning only from the best.

You should consider these pointers before choosing the best chess classes for you online:

Take the Free Trial: Many online institutes and coaches offer a free trial period in which you can join the classes for free for a certain period of time and see if you are comfortable with the information provided by them. Then you can sign up with them and pay the cost of the course. In that trial period, you can evaluate their approach towards the game and their students. If you find them considerable, enough you can move ahead in the process of selection.

Take Them into Consideration: When you are satisfied with the teachings of an online coach or institute in the trial period, you can look for their credentials and see how they are treating their students. If they are attending to their students and properly addressing their issues, you can keep them on your list. Do not forget to ask for the complete information related to their charges, timings, schedule, and other small things. It will help you find out if their services will suit your schedule and preference or not.

Perform a Background Check: You should do a proper check on your online coach or institution regarding their experience, course structure, and qualification. Not every grandmaster is a good teacher, but they certainly carry a lot of experience with them that can be useful to you. Also, ask from their students for their experiences with them, it will give you a clear idea about whether to choose them or not.

Charges: The price charged by any coach or institute can be a deciding factor in your selection process. Before paying upfront, try making a budget for your training and proceed accordingly. It will help you save some money and to help you choose better.

Blog Source URL: http://www.chesscoachonline.com/4-tips-for-selecting-the-best-chess-classes-online

Learn Perfect Chess Openings by Remembering These 3 Steps

Chess is among the few games that do not discriminate between people. A chess match can be played between opponents regardless of age, gender, color or creed. In many ways, it reflects the true essence of humanity even as two people compete to gain the upper hand. Chess does not care if you are powerful or weak. The great leveler of human nature is a humbling reminder that talent and qualities matter more than the confines dreamed up by those too nearsighted to see the truth. The only thing that matters is skill – the skill to anticipate your opponent’s moves or bear the loss.

In every game, basics matter a lot, and same applies to chess. If your openings are not sorted, then no amount of tactics and strategies can help you make a comeback. Some basics about chess openings are mentioned here that can be useful in making yourself perfect in chess openings.

Learn the Principles: If you are new to chess, it is better to memorize all the principles of opening a game. One of the basic principles of opening a game in chess is to develop your pieces on the chessboard. It means that you have to position your pieces as fast as possible so that you can secure many positions on the board. After that, you should see that your minor pieces such as pawns, knights, and bishops move forward first. Do not be in a hurry to open your ‘big guys’ first. Another important thing is to develop the pieces in coordination with each other. This can open so many opportunities for you in the middle-game.

Use those Principles in the Game: When you have a clear understanding of the opening principles of the game, you should try to implement them in the game. Most of the players try different openings and tactics for the different stages of the game when they sit down to evaluate their performance after a game. This helps them to find out the strategies that work best for them and also identify the mistakes to avoid in the future.

Learn Some Professional Openings: Experienced players have a specific set of openings that they use interchangeably in different games. Their list of openings automatically grows as they gain more knowledge and experience. You should also develop a unique style of opening the game. That will help you choosing the openings better.

Control the Course of the Game with the Best Chess Opening Strategy

Chess opening strategies are crucial to win a chess game. Good strategies allow you to gain a quick control of the center, safeguard your king, create positions to mount an attack and prevent any weak links in the pawns. Moreover, pieces are placed in such a way that they protect each other.

There are quite a few chess opening strategies and the best one for you will depend on two factors: your strategy for the game and the expertise of your opponent. There are essentially two popular types of openings, viz., king's pawn openings and queen's pawn openings. Here are some famous chess opening strategies that you should know if you are into chess:

King's pawn openings: Each of these openings start with the move: e4 where the white pawn in front of the king moves forward two places. Some important king's pawn openings are:

Sicilian Defense
Alekhine Defense
Caro-Kann Defense
French Defense
Scandinavian Defense

Queen's pawn openings: Here the opening starts with the move: d4 where the white pawn in front of the queen moves forward two places. Some famous queen’s pawn openings are:

Stonewall Attack
Blackmar-Diemer Gambit
Trompowsky Attack
London System

These openings are sometimes also divided into open games, closed games, semi-open games, semi-closed games and flank openings.

Here are some of the famous opening strategies classified according to the above categorization:

Open games: White plays e4 and black counters with e5

King's Gambit
Ruy Lopez
Scotch Game
Italian Game

Closed games: White plays d4 and black counters with d5

Queen’s Gambit
London System
Slav Defense
Torre Attack

Semi-open games: White plays e4 and black plays anything other than e5

Sicilian Defense
Caro-Kann Defense
Alekhine’s Defense
Modern Defense
Scandinavian Defense

Semi-closed games: White plays d4 and black counters with a move other than d5

Indian defense
King’s Indian Defence
Queen’s Indian Defence
Nimzo-Indian Defence
Black Knights’ Tango
Dutch Defense
Benoni Defense

Flank openings: The opening moves are played with the white starting with flanking moves

King’s Indian Attack
Réti
Bird's Opening
English Opening

These are just a few of the many opening moves in chess and mastering even a few of these will make you a strong chess player. Start with one of the many options and get set on your way to becoming a chess master.

A Brief Introduction to Learn Chess Strategy and Movements

Chess is known for its various strategies and movements. From opening moves to ones for checkmate, there are countless game plays that you can use to outwit the opponent and win the game. Most of these plays have been perfected by the grandmasters and the experts, and there are innumerable arguments in favor of each.

These strategies and movements are important as:

They give you a better command of the game, and you have control of the board
You can dictate how the game develops and how it ends
Keeping to the strategy and refining it as the game progresses help counter attacks
You can end the game sooner than what would have been otherwise possible
You significantly increase your wins-to-losses ratio if you know your strategies and moves well

Here are a few chess strategy and movements that have helped players win across the years

Opening strategy:

There are quite a few famous opening strategies and deal with the first few moves that you make. The end goal of these opening moves are:

Control of the center
Safeguarding the King
Development of the opening moves
Avoiding any pawn weaknesses

There are a number of opening strategies. These include the Sicilian defense, the Alekhine defense, Kings Indian attack and the Dutch defense, among others.

Middle game strategy:

As the name suggests, these strategies and movements are for the middle game when some pieces are gone, and players are moving on to consolidate their position. The idea is to maximize the opportunities offered by one’s own pieces and whittle down the opponent’s strategies by attacking their weak pieces. Some of the common mistakes to avoid are isolated pawns (that will definably come under attack) and a playing a passive game with moves determined by the opponent.

End game strategy:

Here the goal is to simply win. There are now very few pieces on the board and the idea is to give a checkmate with the least number of moves. Some of the more common end games involve the kings and 1-2 pawns through there are those that involve other pieces such as the rook and / or the bishop. However, having an unequal number of pieces is rare unless one party has outmatched the other completely.

Chess Learning Software: Enjoyable Way to Improve Your Chess Skills

No matter if you are looking to improve your chess playing skills or want a professional to teach your children about chess due to the incredible mental benefits that the game offers, chess learning software is for everyone.

The traditional method of looking for an institute that is close to your home is time-consuming and training at such institutes can also be very expensive. A better alternative is to use chess learning software that is not just affordable, but you can learn and play chess anytime and anywhere.

Chess learning software come with an abundance of advantages and some of the most beneficial ones are mentioned below-

Live Expert Help: Some of the best of chess learning software can connect you to expert tutors who will guide you through live video chat. You can play with them, and while playing, they will provide you with all the expert advice that you need to improve your skills. You can learn advanced strategies to open or end a game, get answers to your queries, etc. just like you’d do it in an actual institute.

Learning at your Pace: If you are just starting with chess, things can be a little confusing. But with easy access to databases filled with useful knowledge about the game and step-by-step tutorials, you are sure to learn the nuances of the game as well as enjoy the whole experience. Moreover, you can go back to previous tutorials whenever you want or can also ask questions to the tutors to make sure that every concept is clear right from the beginning.

24 x 7 Availability: While you will not be able to play and learn from experts at any time of the day, the software has practice game which you can play to improve your skills. The games are divided as per the skill levels and no matter if you are a beginner or a professional, you are sure to find practice games that will challenge your skills.

And the best thing is adults as well as children can easily use the chess learning software with utmost ease. Everything around us is getting digital, and it is time to switch to a more convenient and simpler way to learn chess.

Online Chess: Improves Children Cognitive and Critical Thinking Skills

Chess is an excellent game which requires the players to focus, think and then make a decision. While adults who love playing chess can spend hours on it, it is highly recommended that even children should be trained to play chess.

Playing chess comes with a host of benefits for the children which have been confirmed in many scientific studies. The game is known to improve the cognitive and critical thinking skills of the children and makes them a better decision maker.

Let us try to know the benefits of playing chess for children in detail.

• Improves IQ: While children are not required to go through an encyclopedia to play chess, the game helps in improving their thinking abilities. Children use many different areas of their brain to play the game which in turn strengthens their brain muscles and sharpens their mind. Moreover, it is the impatience that often leads to children and adults making the wrong decision. Chess helps them to think slowly and make their moves very patiently.

• Independent Decision-Making: While playing, children make the moves on their own without consulting anyone. This helps in improving their decision-making abilities which can prove very beneficial in the later stages of life as well.

• Improves Problem-Solving Abilities: While playing chess, children learn to analyze the problem from all the different angles and then make the best possible decision. When they make a move, good or bad, they get to see live results of their decisions and over time, this can help in improving their problem-solving skills and will make them understand that there can be consequences to bad decisions.

Apart from these, skills like mathematics, language, reading and memory are also improved through various aspects of playing chess. As you can see, children can gain incredible benefits from chess and the skills that they learn at this young age will continue to help them in later stages of life as well.

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