How I got into chess. I have been big into starcraft 1 and 2 and also league of legends. But recently I have lost my internet so I have headed to local cafes to get free wifi and check my facebook and keep up with everything. But just as anyone with a laptop does at a cafe is to read blogs. So I opened up Teamliquid and clicked on blogs and I noticed quite a few blogs about chess. So I decided to read a specific one Working on Chess By ThomasjServo who is also not able to play SC2 at the moment. Which really inspired me to get on Chess.com and play some chess against people which turned out badly. My ELO was 500 (if you don't know about elo anything below 900 is pretty bad.) The only thing I knew about chess was the moves. So I looked into learning more technical ways to play chess then to just free styling it.
Starting to learn openings. Some games I played were lost in just a few moves so I knew that the first thing I needed to do is learn an opening. I googled around chess openings and Ruy Lopez (named after a spanish preist to analized the opening) was pretty much first on every list. And just as I learn starcraft builds I open up a game vs a computer on easy for me I used Chess Titans (in games folder for windows vista and above) LvL 1 computer to learn the opening. I am going to admit it I lost a few matches vs the LvL 1 Computer. But I slowly got better now I am able to beat it 70% percent of the time and Draw 30% which was way better then I was before the opening.
What I need to learn still. End game how to get a W and not a Stalemate. Playing as black.
Question for readers. Do you use specific openings if so what? How did you get into chess?
i really recommend the giuoco piano opening. it is a simple, safe and fun opening and prevents you from doing stupid shit like kings gambit. as a beginner, you should really focus on the fundamental aspects of the game and not so much in fancy openings.
Are you getting draws, or stalemates? They are slightly different. A draw can happen if there is a three-fold repetition of board states. For example, if you and the opponent keep moving the same two pieces back and forth the same way.
A stalemate will happen if you pin down the king so that he can't move, but the king isn't in check. Practicing endgame tactics is a must for avoiding stalemates.
Nothing wrong with looking at some popular openings to get an idea, but I strongly suggest on focusing most of your attention elsewhere, rather than studying openings. It's far more important to understand overall strategy and mid-game tactics than it is to have practiced a bunch of openings.
A good book to help you think about chess is Logical Chess by Chernev. Another thing that helped me in the past was I bought Chessmaster Grandmaster edition and did all of the lessons. Websites like chess.com also have many different ways to train besides playing games.
Famous quote I've always lived by in chess is "Learn chess first then learn openings" (look at many recent carlsen games he makes seemingly random moves in the opening then rolls over most opponents anyways) if you really wanted to focus on any part of the game focus on the end game first and tactic stuff. Really just play games with decent time controls and spend 5x the amount of time analyzing your games and you'd be surprised how fast you'll improve
To add credibility to my advice, which some people like, my ELO usually ranges around 2200 these days
I got into chess quite young when my dad would play with me sometimes
I only use one opening when im in black and another when im white. only those two and only on specific colors. i just want to familiarize them and i'm not that into it to also analyze my opponents opening.
i also practice end game tactics so that I'll know what to do during late game.
Learn the first 5 most common moves of 2 openings, one for black and one for white, then move into tactics and overall board positions and lines of attack.
I dunno why everyone gets so caught up on openings when they are really an area you can neglect until at least the A level.
To add to what I said in reply to the blog you cited, Ruy Lopez is the best first opening to learn, afterwards there are many paths to take. One I took was:
- White
Two openings among my favorites. However, I rarely use these against people that I've played before, and only once or twice in the same day since I have learned and perfected other openings. I always practice new openings and old ones, providing me with a larger amount of openings to pull from. Note that Black 'openings' are actually called defenses due to White's first turn advantage.
I got into chess when I was four years old. My father and brother began teaching me as a 'birthday present' to me. I struggled at first but soon began to understand and started formulating more and more complex strategies and openings, eventually reaching the point where I was able to not only beat them rather easily, but also enter tournaments and compete for prizes. Practice and reading books helped quite a bit.
On July 22 2013 07:30 micronesia wrote: Are you getting draws, or stalemates? They are slightly different. A draw can happen if there is a three-fold repetition of board states. For example, if you and the opponent keep moving the same two pieces back and forth the same way.
A stalemate will happen if you pin down the king so that he can't move, but the king isn't in check. Practicing endgame tactics is a must for avoiding stalemates.
Nothing wrong with looking at some popular openings to get an idea, but I strongly suggest on focusing most of your attention elsewhere, rather than studying openings. It's far more important to understand overall strategy and mid-game tactics than it is to have practiced a bunch of openings.
A good book to help you think about chess is Logical Chess by Chernev. Another thing that helped me in the past was I bought Chessmaster Grandmaster edition and did all of the lessons. Websites like chess.com also have many different ways to train besides playing games.
A stalemate is just a type of draw, as is a three-move repetition, or 50-move rule or draw claim or draw offer.
My favorite opening as black is the sicilian defence. With white the Ruy Lopez is excellent to learn first, but like Broodwar every opening is designed for a specific reason and you must not just learn one. My advice, learn 2 or 3 , practice them a lot, and have them in your arsenal.
Chess is a beautiful game, and can be enjoyed by both the professionals and amateurs like me and you. Just have fun, enjoy it, and try to find opponents at your skill level
On July 22 2013 18:41 pebble444 wrote: My favorite opening as black is the sicilian defence. With white the Ruy Lopez is excellent to learn first, but like Broodwar every opening is designed for a specific reason and you must not just learn one. My advice, learn 2 or 3 , practice them a lot, and have them in your arsenal.
Chess is a beautiful game, and can be enjoyed by both the professionals and amateurs like me and you. Just have fun, enjoy it, and try to find opponents at your skill level
Yeah I plan on learning sicilian defence once I learn a bit of end game.
On July 22 2013 18:41 pebble444 wrote: My favorite opening as black is the sicilian defence. With white the Ruy Lopez is excellent to learn first, but like Broodwar every opening is designed for a specific reason and you must not just learn one. My advice, learn 2 or 3 , practice them a lot, and have them in your arsenal.
Chess is a beautiful game, and can be enjoyed by both the professionals and amateurs like me and you. Just have fun, enjoy it, and try to find opponents at your skill level
Yeah I plan on learning sicilian defence once I learn a bit of end game.
Sounds like a good plan! I wish you the best of luck.
If I was not on vacation and without computer and on iphone(bleh) then I would have a ton of advice for you.
But I'll keep it short and sweet: Chessnetwork and youtube. The guy's name is jerry, and he posts videos of him playing in online tournaments, 1 min games.
Watching him is beneficial because: His useful sayings he says to himself while playing help you in your own game, especially late game He is wonderful at having a game plan, and even if you don't understand his openings(i still dont know caro kann) following why he makes moves is a great learning experience There are unlimited videos, they are entertaining and improve your chess.
Also, don't focus on black. Just play e4 openings and try and just do one thing. For me that was the scotch opening but you can do ruy lopez do. For black just develop your pieces and don't get fancy(sicilian is really hard, maybe just claim the center like e4 e5 or d4d5 is simpler. After a year I know some tricks but I rarely sicillian because it is so sharp)
On July 23 2013 10:11 Bippzy wrote: If I was not on vacation and without computer and on iphone(bleh) then I would have a ton of advice for you.
But I'll keep it short and sweet: Chessnetwork and youtube. The guy's name is jerry, and he posts videos of him playing in online tournaments, 1 min games.
Watching him is beneficial because: His useful sayings he says to himself while playing help you in your own game, especially late game He is wonderful at having a game plan, and even if you don't understand his openings(i still dont know caro kann) following why he makes moves is a great learning experience There are unlimited videos, they are entertaining and improve your chess.
Also, don't focus on black. Just play e4 openings and try and just do one thing. For me that was the scotch opening but you can do ruy lopez do. For black just develop your pieces and don't get fancy(sicilian is really hard, maybe just claim the center like e4 e5 or d4d5 is simpler. After a year I know some tricks but I rarely sicillian because it is so sharp)
Sounds like good advice. I too have yet to practice the sicilian due to it really just not being my style and also being quite the learning curve. However, I know how to deal with it when I am required to. I will check out those videos myself, as I have yet to hear of them.
I'd recommend staying away from the Sicilian when you're just starting to learn. Too much theory, which isn't what you want to be concentrating on. ...e5 is much simpler.
I'd recommend trying all major openings to get a feel for the differences and similarities.
Openings I'm currently studying:
Catalan for White - Broad theory, but I think White can get very comfortable positions if he's done his homework. Grunfeld for Black - I have a hard time playing against this as White, so if I can't beat 'em... Berlin Defense for Black - An alternative to a6 Ruy Lopez. Scotch Gambit for Black - I keep losing to this over the board. I'd play it for White if I weren't avoiding Sicilian theory by 1 d4. Schliemann Defense for Black - Looks like fun!
Openings I've played a bunch:
French Defense for both sides. - I think White can do very well if he's prepared. I've stopped playing it in long time controls in favor of 1...e5, since most players I encounter over 1800 appear to have some anti-French line prepared. Nimzo/Bogo/Queen's Indian for White. - There are a lot of possible transpositions when Black plays e6. King's Indian for White. - I think the Gligoric-Taimanov variation gives White good piece activity once the center opens up (which it often does).
There's no reason to learn more than one opening when you're just starting. You should barely even be looking at any theory. It's much more important to just understand the basic ideas of the positions and to study stuff like tactics and basic mating patterns.
On July 29 2013 14:15 GolemMadness wrote: There's no reason to learn more than one opening when you're just starting. You should barely even be looking at any theory. It's much more important to just understand the basic ideas of the positions and to study stuff like tactics and basic mating patterns.
You definitely get more victories for your time spent by practicing tough puzzles / blitz, but chess is ultimately a game of strategy, so there must be balance. I recently lost a tournament game because I came in on every move looking for tactical possibilities, but my strategic decisions were all garbage: I neglected open files, I allowed my opponent's minor pieces too much activity while not coordinating my own pieces, etc. My opponent defended my attack and was forcibly winning material a few moves later.
Studying openings gets you started on the strategic basics: center control, piece activity, space, king safety, tempos.
On July 29 2013 14:15 GolemMadness wrote: There's no reason to learn more than one opening when you're just starting. You should barely even be looking at any theory. It's much more important to just understand the basic ideas of the positions and to study stuff like tactics and basic mating patterns.
You definitely get more victories for your time spent by practicing tough puzzles / blitz, but chess is ultimately a game of strategy, so there must be balance. I recently lost a tournament game because I came in on every move looking for tactical possibilities, but my strategic decisions were all garbage: I neglected open files, I allowed my opponent's minor pieces too much activity while not coordinating my own pieces, etc. My opponent defended my attack and was forcibly winning material a few moves later.
Studying openings gets you started on the strategic basics: center control, piece activity, space, king safety, tempos.
But when you're just starting, strategy doesn't really matter so much. People will often just leave pieces hanging or drop something to a one move tactic. Also, studying the middlegames of a few openings will be much more beneficial than studying the theory of a bunch of openings. Yeah, eventually you can start to learn more openings, but it's of extremely minimal importance. The only major opening changes I can remember making before I hit 2000 were playing the Caro-Kann instead of ...e5 and the Ruy Lopez instead of the Italian.
Hey guy I play chess now and again but recently I have really struggled with having my king and h1 rook and a8 rook still at starting place. The opposing player places a night on either C2 or C7 forcing me to either save my king and lose a rook any advice?
EPT
