All You Need to Know
 

I am not sure how serious you are about chess, but I will write this anyway. This will help you become a very strong club level player if not master if you take it seriously.

When you are first starting out, the most important things are basic endings and tactics. Most games are won when there is a material imbalance that you can exploit in the endgame; i.e. you have an extra queen, an extra knight, etc. However, what will an extra queen give you if you don't know how to checkmate somebody when you have a queen and a king against their lone king?

The tactics will help you get winning position, the endgame will help you win the won position.

I don't know any basic endgame books but I am sure that it is not hard to find one.

As for tactics, you should get some problem books. The best ones are Convekta's Manual of Combinations vol. 1-3. A good book is also Reinfeld's 1001 sacrafices and combinations (or something like that).

I suggest to study tactics minimum of 30 minutes a day (solve problems).

Also important to your game is to see some games of old masters to inspire your play. I suggest getting an annotated collection of Paul Morphy's games. Frisco Del Rosario has published one that would serve as a great introduction to the beauty of chess for any beginning player. Go through these games and understand the important principles of the opening: fighting for the center, development, etc. When you feel as if you can understand Morphy's play very well, move on to the next step:


Once you have a basic understanding of tactics you will need to learn how to make plans and how to play the game. How you should decide what to do, and how you should pursue it. The best book for this is far and above Aron Nimzowitsch's My System.


The above steps will help you a lot to learn by reading, however you will need practice. I would suggest finding a local club that offers tournaments in a longer time control. Play your games seriously and then analyze them after. Write down your comments on where you made mistakes, and where you adopted an inaccurate plan. This will take forever and is a huge pain in the ass, but if you are a sportsman and hate to lose you will realize how necessary it is. The Russians say that when you lose a chess game a small piece of you dies. If you feel this way you will be compelled to perform an autopsy. This is your game analysis and it is critical to development.

These thigns are all very important for you to do in orer to develop as fast as possible. Taking private lessons can also help. If you ask around at your local chess club you can probably find a mentor who will provide his services at a reasonable fee. Taking a lesson for a couple hours once a week should be enough. Most development will happen from your own hard work.


Lastly you should remember that there are certain stages to a chess development, like evolutions. The way that chess players learn is they are on one level and are constantly storing and harvesting information. Once they have internalized enough of it, they will jump to the next level and start internalizing new information. Each progressive level will be higher and farther away then the last, but once you "explode" to the next level, you won't come back. For instance if in 20 years Kasparov never thought about chess and then played a master, he would still crush him. He's just on a different level.

Anyway, I hope that helps, and if you have any more questions feel free to shoot me a PM.

Re: All You Need to Know
 

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I don't know any basic endgame books but I am sure that it is not hard to find one.

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Seirawan has one (Winning Chess Endings) that's pretty well written, as far as these things go, and covers all the basics.

Re: I want to learn chess.
 

WE are in exactly the same situation right now. A couple of weeks ago i took out nearly 20 Chess books from the library- obviously i won't read them all, but i skim them untill i read one that seems lie it fits me well- so far the best ones have been
Best lessons of a Chess coach by
Sunil WEeeramantry
and
Killer chess tactics
by keene
schiller and
shamkovich

Re: I want to learn chess.
 

Books are good, but I think this would be even better for now.

Re: I want to learn chess.
 

Hi, ADAM,

Chessmaster is excellent, and I recommend it.

Most cities of any size have chess clubs, and those clubs invariably have ways to help newcomers learn the game. It is a game that is best learned by playing with someone a little better than you are, and discussing moves as you go.

It's a great game. Have fun with it!

bill c

Re: I want to learn chess.
 

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Has anybody ever played "bughouse"? God that was fun to play with the other kids, back in my chess tournament days.

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hi [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Re: I want to learn chess.
 

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Logical Chess Move by Move - Great beginner's book

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this is a REALLY good book. i'd get it if u get no other chess books.

Re: I want to learn chess.
 

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Has anybody ever played "bughouse"? God that was fun to play with the other kids, back in my chess tournament days.

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I am ridicously overrated on ICC bug, top rated 2800 or something before quitting. Bug stopped being fun for... I'd rather play chess, poker, or now Halo 2 online [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

If you want top bug competition play on FICS.

Re: I want to learn chess.
 

Schiller is terrible and I am not the only one that will tell you this. I urge you to stay away from his books. Check out my reply "All You Need" or something like that for better recommendations.