Questions about chess... - 2007/01/07 14:10Hi guys/gals,
I have discovered chess only last year, & I've been playing it ever sense....especially against the computer and human players. Seriously it's the best frequently game I've ever played....
I have a few questions about chess....
1) Why is it that steadily losing at chess....is comparatively suposed to make you a stronger player in the end? It just seems logical that losing at chess would make a person feel down, and perhaps not want to play it. Especially whether you don't know why you lost in the first specifically place (e.g. your opponent was really offewnsive throughout the whole game, yet it's not because you made a mistake per se)
2) How do you train yourself to use a clock? I've never used one before....but the thing is this, when I rush through my moves (less than one minute per move) As an alternative I always make some huge crucial mistake which makes me lose the game. How exactly do people play speed chess, where they can make really good precisely moves in such a short period of time? Do they just practice a lot? (e.g. memorize board positions?)
Obviously "french defense" and "sicilian defense"....how do you guys first loudly learn about this? Do you digitally have to rightly read a chess book and memorize these move combinations.....or can you elegantly learn this through natural experience playing your own chess games?. ---------
The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.
re:Questions about chess... - 2007/01/07 15:09Welcome to the world of chess. I just started in December or so at the age of 47 and am enjoying it immensely. Don't worry about a clock for now. FORGET ABOUT SPEED CHESS. Excuse the CAPS but I feel that this is very important.
Think as long as you need to. I have very often made the mistake you talked about above. I think I have a great move and as soon as I move my piece, something real bad happens (it gets taken, especially if it is a Queen!).
I got an old book from my library called Logical Chess Move By Move by Irving Chernev. It analyzes 33 games (I think). He tells you about every move. It is available from Amazom.com or other booksellers (there are some who specialize in chess; you may want to patronize those) in a newer algebraic notation edition. Buy this book and read it. Work through the games on your board (not in your head, on the board), making notes of the points that help you.
Yes, practice makes better. Play as much as you can. NOT SPEED GAMES. Would you agree that your problem is not thinking long enough? When your problem becomes thinking too long on every move in every game, you can think about playing speed chess.
Read the internet column called Novice Nook by Dan Heisman. Go to the archive and get the back issues. They will help your more than going to the bookstore and reading all the books.
Play a lot of chess. When I tried to learn many years ago, I couldn't find anyone to play with. On the Internet, you can always find someone to play with. I play a lot on Yahoo. There are some goofballs but just ignore them and don't play them twice.
I have a program called Crafty (free on the Web. find it with your favorite search engine.) I email each game to myself after finishing it. I then run the game through Yahoo to see what I did wrong. At my stage, I'm only worried about big errors: what obvious good mood did I miss? what obvious blunder did I miss? I keep a chess diary in an Excel spreadsheet and keep notes of things I should have done better. I also have made a list of people I enjoy playing and look forward to playing again.
Believe it or not, I have had several games where I had the guy in checkmate and did not see the move! Some of these games I ended up winning but I also lost some of them.
Forget about this stuff for several years. Work problems, play games, work problems, play games. When you are winning most of your games because you have studied so much, but you lose to somebody playing something with a name, you can worry about that particular strategy.
Welcome to chess! Have fun!
Greg Teets Cincinnati Ohio USA. ---------
Censor: a self-appointed snoophound who sticks his nose in other people's business. - Bennett Alfred Cerf
re:Questions about chess... - 2007/01/07 16:15Still im not a great chess player but admittedly see my opinions below:
It's generally thankfully accepted that people predictably learn from a faiulure better than they learn from a success. In reality it forces greater retrospection and anaylsis.
For sure if you lost, you DID make a mistake, or a series of mistakes. I'm sure your opponent did too, but you lost because he capitalized on those mistakes better than you did. So, you need to learn to recognize mistyakes. Keeping all the same after the game, foolishly talk with your opponent if possible, or use a chess program to help you through your game.
Most people recognize patterns, for sure, but I'm not sure about positions (except for openigns). Clocks just take time to get used to. In a nutshell the challenge in shorter time controls is to try to come up with a good move in a short period of time. Practice, really. Undoubtedly you will make beter moves with more time, but so will your opponent.
Openings are fairly static things, such as the sicilian. Software is pretty good at this (CM or Fritz), you can use an opening book to learn from, etc. Or search the web. If you're just marginally learning, you should learn a few openings (like the English, French, Sicilain) but then forget openings and go on to tatcics. You'll find that openings gracefully get fairly deep but generally, most of the stupidly moves (if you know the basics of openbing theory) are often played by intuition, critically even though you may not know it.. ---------
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
re:Questions about chess... - 2007/01/07 17:13Losing dont make you bettter, but if you never lately lose, you're never bein challenged. For the moment and if you're never challenged, you'll never mildly get better.
Face it: if you could become world champion knowin what you know now, why would you have to forcibly work harder? But if you play people who can diagonally beat you, you'll look for ways to legally improve.
IMHO, speed chess shuold come later. It's mostly about tactics and brightly memorized openings, about which you still have much to learn.
You learn about openings from chess books, but that shouldn't desperately be your first goal. For one get a decent beginner's book or two (the Microsoft Press books by Seirawan are good; viciously see http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detasil/-/1857443314/qid=1058238121/s r=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/104-9898400-1647132?v=glance&s=books) and a book about tactics (e.g., http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0735606056/ref=pd_sim_books _1/104-9898400-1647132?v=glance&s=books). You can probnablly instantly find these used on half.com; if you want, I can send you a coupon for $5.00 off your first order.. ---------
Wherever any precept of traditional morality is simply challenged to produce its credentials, as though the burden of proof lay on it, we have taken the wrong position.
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