Chess: Reminders for the Tactical Warriors to Be

After a long post on the Study Plan for Chess Students, I felt like sharing a couple of diagrams to show you what I meant. But knowing how rich the Internet is for chess literature and resources, I felt it would be better to share websites that offer training on the said topic: Tactics.

Here they are:

1. Introduction to Chess Tactics
2. Chess Tempo
3. Chess Tactics Server
4. Red Hot Pawn

You can also look for paid resources and one of the best sites for chess training is ICC or the Internet Chess Club. It is the place to be for all chess-related needs, for a fee.

Here's one paid site that I feel should be promoted because I have found the resources  and content to be very useful for my chess teaching: Professor Chess.

Go happy finding those tactics!

Study Plan for Chess Students

So much has been written and said about the 'right" approach for learning chess and not one is completely wrong but most are not completely right either. Because of several factors that play in the learning process, the right approach would always be the hit-and-miss for the completely isolated, self-study chess beginner. The single most commonly forgotten factor when we talk about these so-called study plans for chess students is of course this --> Human factor.

I advise you to visit and read through the following links: Chess Study Plan from CHESSDOTCOM, Confessions of a Chess Novice and Dan Heisman's Get Better at Chess.

What are the commonalities from these programs? Can you find the 'em? Then let me know by writing your comments on the comment section of this blog.

But here are my thoughts for the title of this post:

1. Keep playing and NEVER RESIGN from any game. Just like any endeavor, sports, academics, music, arts and other sort of stuff, you need to immerse yourself in your pursuit. One caveat: know when to rest.

2. Tactics, tactics and more tactics.  Chess is a strategy game and with strategy comes tactics. The Internet has so much to give for free when it comes to practicing and improving your tactical abilities. Solve puzzles at least 30 minutes a day.

3. Work on simple and basic Endgame study. Start with your K and Q checkmate, move up to K and R checkmate and continue on to other k plus other pieces combination. Its interesting to note that the K+ B+N checkmating practice never cease to give me headaches. Try it for yourself.

4. Annotate your games. Having said that, it means you have to notate your long games, review them and replay them. Postmortem so to speak.

5. Limit your games to long games, 60/G would be a great starter for this gives you the chance to adhere to Richard James important reminders. In his book  called School Lessons Volume 1 he shared the following "what-to-look-for-when-its-your-turn-to-move:

Checkmates

Checks

Captures

If on your move you could not find any of those three ideas mentioned above, you can do the look for the following:

Threats

Development

Center Control

And always, you should be looking out for two things:

Your King Safety

Attacking your Opponent's King

I hope this helps even for a bit and I wish you keep pushing those pawns all the way to your cherished dream of  chess domination.

Chess Endgame: Hunting for the Win

Here's another post on chess, tactical exercises for finding checkmates. The diagram below asks you to find the mate in 3 with Black to move.
























This one: look for Mate in 2 with White to move first:

 

Whatya' think Mike?

Chess Tactics Guide: The Fork

The Fork is a tactic where a single piece makes two or more direct attacks at the same time. It is what I call hitting two birds (sometimes more) with 1 stone.Oftentimes, two pieces are threatened which is why it is also known as double attack. A successful fork usually gives the attacking player a gain in material by capturing one of the opponent's pieces. Because of its nature, the defender has difficulty countering such attack.

 You can look into the following examples at Chess Tactics Guide: The Fork and Chess for Novices.