|
|
| From | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
aston294 05-Oct-09, 11:01 |
 welome |
||
|
Roger |
||
|
aston294 21-Oct-09, 07:01 |
|
||
|
|
||
|
aston294 20-Nov-09, 10:42 |
welcome |
||
|
pankaj_kumar 20-Nov-09, 13:19 |
Deleted by pankaj_kumar on 20-Nov-09, 13:22.
|
||
|
pankaj_kumar 20-Nov-09, 13:24 |
WHAT IS CHESS? FEW WORDS BY GREAT PLAYERS Chess is a fairy tale of 1001 blunders - Savielly Tartakower Chess is a beautiful mistress. - Larsen Chess is life - Bobby Fischer Chess is like life - Boris Spassky Chess is everything - art, science, and sport. - Karpov Chess is 99 percent tactics. - Teichmann Chess is really 99 percent calculation - Soltis Chess is mental torture. - Kasparov Chess is ruthless: you've got to be prepared to kill people. - Nigel Short Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe - Indian proverb Chess is as much a mystery as women - Purdy Reflections Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy. - Tarrasch You cannot play at chess if you are kind-hearted. - French Proverb Morphy was probably the greatest genius of them all. - Fischer Every chess master was once a beginner. - Chernev Life is too short for chess. - Byron A good player is always lucky. - Capablanca A chess game is divided into three stages: the first, when you hope you have the advantage, the second when you believe you have an advantage, and the third... when you know you're going to lose! - Tartakower When the chess game is over, the pawn and the king go back to the same box - Irish saying contributed by Etienne Goldstein General Tips When you see a good move wait - look for a better one. - Emanuel Lasker Play the opening like a book, the middle game like a magician, and the endgame like a machine. - Spielmann All that matters on the chessboard is good moves. - Bobby Fischer The pawns are the soul of chess. - Philidor Tactics The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made. - Tartakover No price is too great for the scalp of the enemy King. - Koblentz The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake. - Tartakover A man surprised is half beaten. - Proverb Chess is 99 percent tactics. - Teichmann There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones and mine. - Tal The defensive power of a pinned piece is only imaginary. - Nimzovich The pin is mightier than the sword. - Reinfeld The combination player thinks forward; he starts from the given position, and tries the forceful moves in his mind. - Emanuel Lasker Discovered check is the dive-bomber of the chessboard. - Fine If the student forces himself to examine all moves that smite, however absurd they may look at first glance, he is on the way to becoming a master of tactics. - Purdy The tactician knows what to do when there is something to do; whereas the strategian knows what to do when there is nothing to do. - Gerald Abrahams Examine moves that smite! A good eye for smites is far more important than a knowledge of strategical principles. - Purdy The scheme of a game is played on positional lines; the decision of it, as a rule, is effected by combinations. - Reti In the perfect chess combination as in a first-rate short story, the whole plot and counter-plot should lead up to a striking finale, the interest not being allayed until the very last moment. - Yates and Winter A thorough understanding of the typical mating continuations makes the most complicated sacrificial combinations leading up to them not only not difficult, but almost a matter of course. - Tarrasch It's always better to sacrifice your opponent's men. - Tartakover Middlegame The middlegame I repeat is chess itself; chess with all its possibilities, its attacks, defences, sacrifices, etc. - Znosko-Borovsky Before the endgame, the gods have placed the middlegame. - Tarrasch Endgame Every pawn is a potential Queen. - Mason The Passed Pawn is a criminal, who should be kept under lock and key. Mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient. - Nimzovich A Passed Pawn increases in strength as the number of pieces on the board diminishes. - Capablanca Any material change in a position must come about by mate, a capture, or a Pawn -promotion. - Purdy Planning Even a poor plan is better than no plan at all. - Mikhail Chigorin It is not a move, even the best move, that you must seek, but a realisable plan. - Znosko-Borovsky Analysis Methodical thinking is of more use in chess than inspiration. - Purdy Chess is the art of analysis. - Botvinnik Chess mastery essentially consists of analysing chess positions accurately. - Botvinnik Half the variations which are calculated in a tournament game turn out to be completely superfluous. Unfortunately, no one knows in advance which half - Jan Tinman |
||
|
pankaj_kumar 20-Nov-09, 13:28 |
IMPROVING TIPS Analyse your games with the opponent afterwards Even if you lose the game, analyse it with the opponent afterwards. This is psychologically hard to do because you may feel upset. However, if you want to improve in the long run, you must try to use this opportunity to gain deeper insight into chess. Even if you feel that your opponent is a complete hacker with no positional understanding, you may extend your grip on practical techniques relevant to the winning process. Draw conclusions from your games If you lose in a certain way, try to recognise this, and other game instances where you have lost in that particular way. Draw conclusions from your wins and losses. They maybe the wrong conclusions, but at least you are making attempts to draw conclusions which can be tested in further practice. Improvement is only possible through the process of learning and abstraction. Each game should be treated as an example, and not just treated on its own. Ideally you should be trying to improve your game fundamentally with each game, not just gaining insight into another opening variation. You may for example have misplayed against the opponents isolated queens pawn. Look over the game, and see methods which could be better. Try and apply these methods to future games. In order words try to reap the maximum benefits from your experiences by looking more globally at your games, not just accounting for your losses by for example, not knowing certain moves in certain opening variations. Stronger players Try to play with slightly stronger opponents If you play an opponent which is much much stronger than yourself, you will be probably not be able to relate their insights in after game discussion to your current understanding of the game. If however they are only slightly stronger than you, then you are more likely to assimilate everything that they have to say about the game. Try and analyse your games with stronger players. Even if you have won a game, there may be lots of mistakes which will be exposed by the stronger player. Don't assume that just because you have won that you have played well. Join strong chess clubs if necessary to be get your games analysed with strong players at those clubs. If you confine yourself to just your immediate circle of friends for example, you may think you play an excellent game, but only in the context of those immediate friends this is necessarily true. If you are rich get some Grandmaster/ International master to coach you! A very strong player will have a good balanced outlook of chess. They should be able to determine your weaknesses and work out a plan for systematically building on your strengths and removing your weaknesses. Experience Experiment with different ways of gaining experience Five minute chess might be both enjoyable and also a way of gaining confidence in your chess. It may also give you the confidence to play in longer time limit games and gain more solid experience. It might also give you a feel for openings. Rapid chess (1/2 hour chess) is good because it allows you to experiment with new openings and ideas. Postal chess might be enjoyable and be a very good opportunity to improve your opening knowledge and ability to find resources systematically in a chess position. Internet chess may be enjoyable, and may stimulate you to read around openings where you have bad results. For experience sometimes play in a higher section in a weekend tournament Even if your grading implies that you should be playing in a certain category of tournament, you may feel yourself that you have improved fundamentally. If this is the case, consider the possibility of playing in a higher section than you would normally. |
||
|
pankaj_kumar 20-Nov-09, 13:35 |
MY WINNING TIPS Disclaimer!: The advice presented in this section is not about playing perfect chess, and may even reduce one's ability to improve in the longer term. If for example one plays for king attacks in all games, then one's positional understanding is not likely to improve very quickly. The advice in this section really has to be qualified by the position, and other factors, eg the clock, the opponent, etc. Winning is results focused, as opposed to methods focused. One hopes that if one plays a very good game positionally and tactically, that one should win. Good methods should find their rewarding results but in practice this might not occur. This section offers advice which does not necessarily imply good methods, but can be used to improve one's results in practice. MY Style of play Play for king attacks! The opponents king is the most vulnerable piece to attack. You could be down on material, and have your position blown apart, but if you mate your opponent's king you will have won the game. The opponent may have completely outplayed you previously in the game, but your mating attack will give you the point. Put the opponent under pressure Simplifications of material are unlikely to put the opponent under much pressure, and the game is more likely to end up as a draw. However if you are constantly putting your opponent under pressure, then they are more likely to eventually break. However apply this idea recursively!. Do not punish their mistakes by direct tactics which could simplify too quickly. Instead use the opportunity to put them under even more pressure. Only when they have made a really significant error should one try and capitalise directly on the advantage and risk losing the pressure exerted on them for concrete gains. The link between the opening and the middlegame Try to choose an opening which give a certain flavour to the game which suits your style, eg a lot of manoeuvering. Eg the English does not give a massive advantage, but gives a chance to be creative in terms of manoevers. Some openings like the Kings Indian give rise to positions where there opportunities to use pawn breakthroughs. Whereas the Gruenfeld is about piece pressure on the centre, with thrusts later designed to blow up the white centre such as c5. Move ordering is a technique to consider if you know what your opponent likes and simply avoiding it through the flexibility offered by particular move orders. If you know your opponent plays the Budapest gambit for example, you could start with 1. Nf3. Or if you are black against 1.d4 you could play 1..e6 to leave the possibilities of the Dutch defence or the French defence. Choice of opening Look at your opening statistics and play to your strengths! "Chess for Tigers" by Simon Web suggested this as a method for improving one's results. Again the idea is not to have a perfect opening repertoire, but to have an opening repertoire which brings good results in practice. Openings which suit your style are likely to give you the best results in practice. Play these opening lines to maximise your chances of winning. Try and understand why statistically you are winning in certain openings and not in others. Don't pretend to be Kasparov Don't just copy the Grandmasters if you don't understand what they are doing. Play to your own level in order to have a grip to the motivations behind your moves. If the opponent plays an unexpected move for example, then you are in trouble. Understand the purposes of moves and the general plans in the positions Do not understand just reams of moves. For example in the Ruy Lopez why does the White bishop spend four moves to get to c2? A good reason is that white has the advantage in space and does not want to simplify the position. A bad reason for playing this is that is because one has seen Grandmaster's doing it. Other factors Be aware of context There are several factors usually in the context of a tournament game. For example:- a) The clock You cannot leave yourself too short of time to make a lot of moves. In this respect it is sometimes better to play practical moves quickly, rather than try to find the "perfect" move. In finding the "perfect" move, one's clock situation may be worsened considerably. b) The opponent You may find out information about the opponent such as they are a sicillian dragon specialist. Do not go into their pet variations. Instead be prepared to play a boring line if necessary to get them out of their book knowledge and make them fight on their own resources. c) Yourself If you feel tired, do not go in for the most demanding variations. Try and play a solid game, which does not require too much mental effort. It also hopefully means that you wont be blown away after one mistake. Then try and get as much coffee in during the game, to try and wake yourself up. |
||
|
pankaj_kumar 20-Nov-09, 13:37 |
SOME SPECIAL TACTICS Positional play can bring excellent positions. It can be used to put the opponent under enormous pressure, reduce their counterplay, and generally put the opponent on the racks! However to finish off the game usually requires a tactical blow which will convert the advantage in a technical way. The name given to a series of tactical moves which may involve a sacrifice is a combination. For example if one has a passed pawn, there may be a tactical combination to forcefully queen it. If the opponents king safety is suspect, there may be a combination to checkmate. Tactical ability and the ability to spot combinations thus helps to convert positional advantages into more concrete gains. Tactical awareness in implementing positional plans Even strongly positional players should be aware of the tactical resources hidden in the position. Even if combinations are not played, it is very important to have tactical awareness when trying to carry out positional plans. Positional plans can fail tactically even though their concept is very good. There are positional players at Barnet chess club (not mentioning names ) that really know how to put their opponent under a lot of positional pressure! . If they improved their tactical awareness and still sticking to their fundamental plans, they would be even more effective players. They would not Fall for silly tactical traps set by their opponent. Beat around the bush excessively with positional play- when there is a clean kill tactically they can play that instead. It is not enough to judge positions based on how good they look, and superficial judgements. Tactical variations provide reassuring evidence for one side being better or worse. "Test your positional play" by Bellin and Ponzetti was an excellent book that incorporated an analysis of the tactical variations to give the reader bonus points when selecting the most appropriate positional plan. The practical problems associated with implementing a plan are emphasised in the form of tactical variations. This may radically effect the choice of plan altogether in some cases. Being able to survive in tactical situations! Positions can be broadly categorised as "open", ie full of open lines and piece play as opposed to "closed", eg blocked and full of manoevering. In open positions, tactics can dominate completely, and the value of formulating positional plans is less because it is very important simply to calculate all the necessary variations to stay alive! The positional player protagonist could argue that they play positional openings and stay well clear of tactical complications. However what if the opponent influenced the game tactically by playing gambits, etc ? The positional player needs to be tactically aware even if they do build their own infrastructure in terms of openings for example, for supporting their playing style. A results-focused path for improvement for the developing chess player A chess player should learn tactics before positional play, because winning will usually be as a result of tactics not positional play. In snooker the analogy would be being able to pot balls well. The more advanced snookering ability should be learnt after this, because without the former, one is never going to win, and there is really no point in the latter. The more abstract elements of chess should be given to the developing player later after they have become more familiar with the basic arsenal of tactics. Winning games tactically is a good basis for greater sophistication in terms of developing positional play, and being able to outplay the opponent positionally, and accumulate small advantages. Getting results is a always a good incentive for finding out more about chess! |
||
|
pankaj_kumar 20-Nov-09, 13:40 |
FINAL CONCLUSION An understanding of positional elements and how to manage the elements is an essential context for all the tactical insight and tips presented in this paper. Damage can indeed be done by over-analysing and becoming distracted by the momentary factors in the position. You may be thinking you are exploiting to the maximum the unique placement of the pieces, but you may be doing damage to your overall game plan's simple and effective implementation. By going off on a tactical tangent which does not in reality gain that much you can distract yourself from your intended plan. Chess is not easy! Try and balance tactical reasoning with positional reasoning! Respect your playing style and respect the needs of the position at the same time! |
