This is a replica of a famous training regime created from a amateur chess player who became a master after extensively stuyding tactics. Every amateur should know about it. My take on this process proposed is that it can be a little inflexible, but nonetheless I can believe the claim.

Chess is a game of patterns.

This is a two part series, you can find links to the original, and the second part of the article, on the coming section.

Introduction

I began playing tournament chess in mid-July of 1999. My provisional rating placed me squarely in the Class D category because I played, well, like a Class D player. Here are two of my more notable gems:

Herman, F. – de la Maza, M. (August, 1999 MCC Swiss U1700) 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5

3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. f3 exf3 6. Nxf3 Bg4 7. Bxf7+ Kd7 8. Ne5+ 1-0

Oresick, R. – de la Maza, M. (1999 BCC $12 Open) 1. d4 d5 2. e3 Nf6 3. Bd3 Nc6 4. f4 Nb4 5. Be2 Bf5 6. Bd3 Nxd3+ 7. cxd3 e6 8. Nf3 Bg4 9. O-O Bb4 10. Qa4+ 1-0

Dissatisfied with my initial results, I began to search for ways to achieve rapid chess improvement.

I looked at hundreds of book reviews and dozens of books. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these books were either aimed at a much more knowledgeable reader or focused on specific areas, such as openings, which I found arcane and uninteresting.

Discussions with chess coaches were just as unhelpful. Many coaches felt that improving more than 100 rating points in one year was all but impossible for adult players. Others refused to provide me with suitable references. One chess coach who I worked with had me spend a dozen hours on the KBN v K ending in the first month of coaching, and had suggested that I annotate several hundred grandmaster games in my favorite openings when I decided to stop following his instruction.

As a result of these experiences, I decided to create my own study plan for achieving rapid chess improvement. So far this study plan has worked: I improved 400 rating points in my first year of OTB play and my play continues to improve.

Shortcomings of Standard Chess Instruction

Devising this study plan, which is based on studying tactics in a particular way, required me to understand why traditional methods of chess instruction were failing.

Insight #1: Chess knowledge is not the same as chess ability

When I was researching chess coaches, one comment I heard again and again

from students was: “I have been studying openings/endgames/middlegames/weak squares/knight outposts and feel that my understanding of the game has improved greatly.” I would always follow these statements with the question: “So, how much has your rating improved?” Time and time again, students told me that their ratings had not improved in the three months, six months, or year since they had started their coaching.

Why did these students’ ratings fail to improve? Class players who spend their time on openings, middlegame strategy, and endgames are doing an excellent job of increasing their chess knowledge, but they are not increasing their chess ability.

For a class player to study openings, middlegame strategy, and endgames as a way of increasing chess ability (as opposed to chess knowledge) is the equivalent of fixing a car that doesn’t have an engine by polishing the steering wheel: the car looks better, but it still doesn’t go.

A class player’s chess ability is limited first and foremost by a lack of tactical ability. As GM Jonathan Levitt wrote in a recent KasparovChess.com article: “At lower levels of play…tactical awareness (or a lack of it) usually decides the outcome of the game…” Or as GM Nigel Davies writes on his web site (www.checkerwise.co.uk): “In the Minor section of weekend congresses one can witness players trying to ape the openings of players like Kasparov. Other players will desperately try to get their ‘surprise’ in first through fear of their opponent’s ‘preparation’. I really find all this quite amazing not least because the games concerned are almost invariably decided much later on and often by rather unsophisticated means.”

Consider the following thought experiment: Take two class C players and give one the positional knowledge of a grandmaster and the other the tactical ability of a grandmaster and then imagine that they play a game. Who will win? Clearly, the class C player with the GM’s tactical ability will win. After the class C player with the GM’s positional knowledge gets a += edge in the opening, he will drop a piece to a five move combination. In fact, give the class C player an expert’s tactical ability, rather than a GM’s, and he will still win.

You can perform a similar experiment with any chess-playing program: create two personalities, one without any positional knowledge (no opening book, no understanding of pawn structure, etc.) and with the maximum tactical knowledge and the other with the maximum positional knowledge but no tactical knowledge. When these two personalities play against each other, the tactical personality will win every game.

You can refine this experiment further by creating two personalities, one that can see three moves ahead but has no positional knowledge and the other that can see two moves ahead and has complete positional knowledge. The tactical personality, which can see three moves ahead, will win the vast majority of the games.

This is a key lesson: all of the positional knowledge in the world is worth less than the ability to see one move ahead. In other words, given the choice between being able to see five moves ahead in every position and having no positional knowledge and being able to see four moves ahead in every position and having a GM’s positional knowledge, you should choose the former.

Insight #2: GM instruction is sub-optimal at the class level

“It’s generally — but erroneously — assumed that the best teachers are the best players, and that the best players can easily communicate the secrets of the game. Actually, the best teachers are often just interested amateurs…” – GM Andrew Soltis

Virtually all chess instruction stems, in one way or another, from material prepared by GMs. GMs, however, have two characteristics that make it difficult for them to communicate effectively with adult class players.

First, almost all GMs were master-level players by the time they became adults. A corollary to this fact is that virtually no GM has experienced rapid chess development as an adult player. I believe that this is why many chess coaches think that it is all but impossible for an adult chess player to improve more than 100 rating points in a year. Since very few chess coaches have ever achieved such improvement, they find it difficult to imagine that anyone else can achieve such success. The fault with this analysis is, of course, that the chess coach is starting from a very high level. The question that adult class players would like to have answered is how much can a 1300 player expect to improve in a year provided that he or she has a superior study plan?

Second, GMs are so far removed in playing strength from class players that their advice is often misguided. For the same reason that a university mathematics professor will probably not be able to teach addition as well as a first grade teacher, a GM will probably not be able to teach the basics of chess as effectively as a pedagogically inclined player who is much weaker.

These two facts have created an interesting situation: While some instructors, such as Bruce Pandolfini, are known for their work with young students and others, such as Dvoretsky, are known for their ability to help strong players become world-class players, there are no chess instructors who are known for their ability to help adult class players achieve rapid improvement.

Insight #3: Quick fixes work at the class level

Strong chess players like to talk about the many years of dedication and hard work that are required to become a master-level player. Unfortunately, they often confuse this hard and time-consuming path with the relatively small amount of work that most class players need to do to experience a significant improvement in their playing ability.

For example, in Yermolinsky’s The Road to Chess Improvement, a runner up for this year’s British Chess Federation Book of the Year award, Yermo spends several pages denigrating simple set ups such as the Grand Prix Attack. He argues that a chess player must be willing to dedicate a substantial amount of time to studying a “real” opening. With all due respect to Yermolinsky, this advice is off the mark. A class D player can become a class B player in one year without knowing the Sicilian or the Gruenfeld or the Ruy Lopez. I know because I did just that. As FM Pelts and GM Alburt write in Comprehensive Chess Course (Vol II): “We beg students who are addicted to opening manuals to remember that most players who spend their time studying theory never reach A-level.”

Unfortunately, the myth that deep theoretical knowledge is required in order to improve permeates the class player community. I once saw a class E player carrying around Keres’ The Art of the Middle Game at a tournament and studying it between rounds. This player would have been better off setting up random positions on the board and looking for tactics.

Tactics: Get rid of the big squiggly lines first

Once I understood that many of the beliefs surrounding chess study were incorrect, I wondered if there was a way to study chess that would lead to rapid chess improvement. Improving rapidly was important for my enjoyment of the game. As IM Ignacio Marin notes, “…if you don’t improve fast enough the experience will be so painful that you probably will not want to play chess at all after a while.”

An interesting exercise courtesy of Professor Fritz helped to clarify my thinking on what I should study first. I analyzed a game of mine that took place when I was a class C player. My opponent was also a class C player. The game went through the following phases:

1. The first eight moves were approximately equal.
2. On the ninth move my opponent blundered a knight for two pawns.
3. I maintained my knight for two pawns advantage until the 27^th move when my opponent blundered again giving me an additional pawn.
4. Then on the 29^th move I blundered in fantastic fashion and gave my opponent the opportunity to mate.
5. Instead of seeing the mate, my opponent immediately blundered back, giving me an advantage of a full rook.
6. The game continued for another ten moves with both sides regularly making sub-optimal moves.Fritz’s evaluation graph, which shows which side is winning and by how much after every move, has wild swings, indicating that both sides made critical tactical mistakes.
   

   In contrast, a similar exercise done with a GM game, say Shirov-Polgar (Mexico, 2000), looks quite different. In this game, which Shirov won, Professor Fritz judges the position to be between +/= and =/+ for the first 31 moves of the game, a sharp contrast to the game between the two class C players which saw five major tactical blunders in the first 30 moves. From move 32 to 39 black maintains a -/+ advantage. The advantage switches back and forth until move 43 when black allows an advanced pawn and the game is over when black blunders on move 46.
   

   I encourage you to perform this experiment yourself using games involving players of different strengths. You will notice a monotonic relationship between the number of big squiggly jumps in the evaluation function and the players’ ratings: the higher the rating, the smaller and fewer the jumps.
   

   Clearly, to become a good player you must reduce the number of material changes that put you at a disadvantage. This is far more important than memorizing a deep opening line that will lead to a +/= advantage or learning the K+B+N v K endgame.
   

   This is the fundamental reason to begin by studying tactics: if the big squiggly lines are going against you, it does not matter how many little squiggly lines are in your favor. Here are some other reasons to focus on studying tactics:
   

   1. Tactical shots are easier to analyze. Suppose that you are reading a book that discusses a position in which positional factors, not tactical ones, are the over-riding concern. If you have a question about a variation that is not covered in the book, what can you do? Not much, unless you have a chess coach who is willing to answer questions ad nauseum. In contrast, you can receive GM-level tactical analysis by using a computer and can fully understand every variation.
   

   There is an amusing experiment that you can try in order to verify the difficulty of understanding positional evaluations. Pick any analyzed position in Jeremy Silman’s Reassess Your Chess, the book that has become famous for teaching class players positional concepts, set up the position on your favorite computer program, and play the side that is winning according to Silman. After a few moves the computer will deviate from Silman’s analysis. Feel free to check Silman’s book or any other source for advice on what to do about the computer’s “new idea.” You will quickly learn that the computer has busted Silman’s plan and a new plan is required. Now what do you do? If you are a GM you can create a new plan (provided that you didn’t reject Silman’s plan from the start), but if you are a class player there is little that you can easily do to learn about the new position.
   

   2. Studying tactics gives you many things for free. For example, which is the better way to learn about the benefits of castling: (A) Learn a positional “rule” along the lines of “Castle early” or (B) Do ten tactical problems in which a king in the center of the board gets mated? Clearly (B) is superior. If you come across an opponent who fails to castle early and you know (A) you’ll be able to say: “Jeepers. My opponent doesn’t know how to play chess — he didn’t castle early.” If you learned about the benefits of castling by following option (B) you will know 10 concrete ways to punish the opponent. The same thing is true of many other positional concepts. What is the best way to learn about color complexes, knight outposts, gambit openings, rooks on the seventh rank, etc.? At the class level, the best and easiest way is to learn tactics.
   

   3. Positional understanding requires tactical understanding. Class players may find the right plan in the middlegame only to blunder away a piece because they fail to see a tactical shot. Or they continue pursuing their plan despite the fact that they have an immediate opportunity to win by grabbing an opponent’s piece. Positional understanding without tactical ability is worth little.
   

   The Study Plan
   

   Once I understood the importance of studying tactics, I created a three-step plan for improving my tactical ability. If you are an adult class player and you follow this plan, I believe that you will experience an improvement in your rating similar to the one I experienced.
   

   The first step of the study plan involves exercises that pound very simple tactical notions into your brain. The second step, which I call Seven Circles, is to go through a set of about 1,000 tactical problems seven times over the course of 127 days. The third component is to learn how to integrate your newfound tactical ability into your OTB play.
   

   All three components require dedication. You should study every day even if you are sick, are traveling, or are playing in a tournament.
   

   Step 1: Improve your Chess Vision with Micro-level Drills
   

   The goal of step 1 is to greatly improve your Chess Vision: what you see in the first ten-second glance at the board. You will do this by repeating a set of micro-level exercises.
   

   When athletes practice, they repeat short exercises over and over again. For example, basketball players stand at the free throw line and shoot free throw after free throw. Soccer players practice simple passing schemes repeatedly.
   

   Standard chess study involves very few of these micro-level drills but here, in the first step of the plan, this is exactly what you will be doing. The first step lasts 28 days. During the first 14 days you will practice simple forks and skewers. During the next 14 days you will focus on the knight and how it moves.
   

   To practice simple forks and skewers use an exercise that I call the Concentric Square. Begin by placing the black king on d5 and a black rook on d4. Now sequentially place the white queen on every square where it safely forks or skewers the black king and rook. Once you have determined that there are no such squares move the rook in a square around the king (squares e4, e5, e6, d6, c6, c5, and c4) and look for forks and skewers. When you find such a square physically lift up the white queen and place it on the square. Involving your body in this process is critical because it helps to cement the connection between the position and the key square.
   

   Now move the rook one square further away from the king and repeat the process. The rook now moves through the squares c3, d3, e3, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, e7, d7, c7, b7, b6, b5, b4, and b3. Continue moving the rook one more square away from the king until the rook reaches the edge of the board. See Figure 1 for the path that the rook traces as it moves in concentric squares around the king.
   

   
   

   Figure 1: This figure illustrates the concentric squares that the rook traces as it moves around the stationary king. The rook travels the following path: d4, e4, e5, e6, d6, c6, c5, c4, c3, d3, e3, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, e7, d7, c7, b7, b6, b5, b4, b3, b2, c2, d2, e2, f2, g2, g3, g4, g5, g6, g7, g8, f8, e8, d8, c8, b8, a8, a7, a6, a5, a4, a3, a2, a1, b1, c1, d1, e1, f1, g1, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, h7, and h8.
   

   Now replace the black rook on d4 with a black bishop, black knight, and black queen and repeat the Concentric Square exercise.
   

   Finally, pound the attacking patterns into your brain by repeating the Concentric Square exercise for each of the black pieces (black rook, black bishop, black knight, and black queen) every day for fourteen days.
   

   By the end of these 14 days your ability to see forks and skewers in your first ten-second glance at the board will vastly improve. After the initial 14-day period, consider going through these exercises once or twice a week and before games to refresh your skills. You can add variety to these exercises by using a white rook, knight, or bishop instead of a white queen and changing the position of the black king to, say, g8 and c8, the two squares that the king moves to after castling.
   

   As you are going through these exercises you will probably notice that the knight poses the most difficulty. The squares that the other pieces can move to just pop out while the squares that the knight moves to often have to be “calculated” by class players. This consumes time and energy that could be used on other aspects of the game. When I was a class D player I remember dreading having an opponent’s knight posted on e5/e4/d5/d4 because I knew that I would overlook a fork at some point. Conversely, I knew that if I was able to post a knight on one of the four center squares I was very likely to win the game.
   

   The next micro drill, which I call Knight Sight, is designed to make the squares that a knight can move to “pop out.” Begin by placing a knight on a1 and physically hit the squares that it can move to (c2 and b3) with your finger (see Figure 2). Then move the knight to a2 and repeat the process. Continue until you reach a8 and then move back to b1, going row by row until you reach h8. Repeat this Knight Sight exercise every day for one week.
   

   
   

   Figure 2: Improve your Knight Sight by placing the knight on a1 and then physically hitting the squares that it can move to, c2 and b3, with your finger. Then move the knight to b1 and repeat the process.
   

   At the end of this week, test your Knight Sight by placing the knight on random squares on the board and see if the squares that it can move to jump out at you. If not, repeat the process for another week and continue doing so until you no longer need to calculate the knight’s moves.
   

   Once your Knight Sight meets your standards, you are ready to move on to the next step. Place a knight on d5 and calculate the minimum number of moves that it takes to bring the knight to d4 (see Figure 3). You can prove that it takes exactly three moves: first you can show that it does not take one move because your Knight Sight makes the squares that the knight can move to in one move pop out, and d4 is not one of them. Second, you know that it cannot take two moves to move the knight to d4 because the knight alternates colors, and since d5 is a dark square, it cannot be on d4 which is a light square after two moves. Third, it does not require more than three moves to go from d5 to d4 because you can calculate at least one path (e.g., d5-c3-e2-d4) that takes exactly three moves.
   

   
   

   Figure 3: Improve your Knight Sight further by placing the knight on d5 and calculating the shortest path to d4. For added challenge, calculate all minimal paths.
   

   Now go through the same process that we followed in the Concentric Squares micro drill. Starting each exercise with the knight on d5, move the knight to the squares e4, e5, e6, d6, c6, c5, and c4 in the minimal number of moves. For added challenge find all of the minimal paths, not just one. Now, just as before, expand the concentric square as shown in Figure 1 and repeat the process. Continue expanding the square until the knight is at the edge of the board.
   

   Repeat this process every day for a week. As a refresher repeat it before tournaments and on a monthly basis. You can vary the exercise by changing the knight’s starting square. Instead of d5, try c3, f3, b1, and g1, all natural squares for the knight.
   

   Some players may object that these micro drills are so trivial that they are unnecessary. The fact that they are trivial, however, does not mean that they are not useful. Remember that soccer players practice penalty kicks and basketball players practice slam-dunks even though these tasks are trivial. Professional athletes perform these micro drills over and over again so that they can perform at a high level in adverse situations.
   

   Even very strong players sometimes make simple Chess Vision mistakes. For example, Joel Benjamin missed a mate in one against Boris Gulko at the 2000 US Championships. The purpose of these exercises is to automate the knowledge that you already have so that you unconsciously see simple combinations without having to exert any effort. The time and energy that you save can then be spent on calculating more complicated combinations.
   

   After working through these micro drills, you are now finished with step one of the five month course. Your ability to spot simple combinations and to calculate knight moves will have greatly improved and you are now ready to move to step 2.

   End, Part I.
   

World Chess Championship– Who is the Current World Champion?

Attached is a list of all the World Chess Champions.

Wilhelm Steinitz (1886-1894)

Emanuel Lasker (1894-1921)

Jose Raul Capablanca (1921-1927)

Alexander Alekhine (1927-1935, 1937-1946)

Max Euwe (1935-1937)

Mikhail Botvinnik (1948-1957, 1958-1960, 1961-1963)

Vasily Smyslov (1957-1958)

Mikhail Tal (1960-1961)

Tigran Petrosian (1963-1969)

Boris Spassky (1969-1972)

Robert James “Bobby” Fischer (1972-1975)

Anatoly Karpov (1975-1985)

Garry Kasparov (1985-2000)

Vladimir Kramnik (2000-2007)

Viswanathan Anand (2007-current)

FIDE World Chess Champions

It is important to mention that the world chess championship title and event has been heavily influenced by the world chess organization FIDE. This has lead to changes in the way players are chosen as world champion. The first time FIDE intervened with the world title was when Alexander Alekhine died with the title. This caused the organization to choose a  champion, and a tournament was organized between the best players in the world.

The second time there was a fide intervention was when Bobby Fischer refused to defend his title as world champion versus Anatoly Karpov. Karpov as a result inherited the title.

When Garry Kasparov split with fide to play his match with Nigel Short in 1993, FIDE had to stage its own world championship and as a result there were two world chess champions and championships.

Today the title is united.

Here is a list of the FIDE world champions:

Anatoly Karpov (1993-1999)

Alexander Khalifman (1999-2000)

Viswanathan Anand (2000-2002)

Ruslan Ponomariov (2002-2004)

Rustam Kasimdzhanov (2004-2005)

Veselin Topalov (2005-2006)

]]> http://charlesgalofre.com/2010/05/world-chess-championship-who-is-the-current-world-champion/feed/ 0 http://charlesgalofre.com/2010/05/what-is-the-best-place-to-get-chess-news-and-information/ http://charlesgalofre.com/2010/05/what-is-the-best-place-to-get-chess-news-and-information/#comments Sun, 23 May 2010 08:17:23 +0000 FM Charles Galofre http://charlesgalofre.com/?p=78

What is the Best place to get Chess News and Information?

I would say it really depends on what information or news you’re looking for. If you are looking for local information about your countries chess community then you should look at the states or countries chess association website.

for instance here in the states, you can look for information under the USCF’s home page (http://uschess.org/), or if I wanted something more local then I would check out http://floridachess.org/ ( I reside in Florida) these sites can provide me with basic information and or basic news.

Now for up to date Chess News and coverage of events there are time tested sources that have been in the industry for ages:

• TWIC – Also known as The Week in Chess has to be the most reliable source for chess news and information. The site is visited by many top players in the world to retrieve or download all the latest games played in the world the last week — for free. It is an incredible resource and there is no other website that provides this type of service.

“The Week in Chess is one of the first, if not the first, Internet-based chess news services.

TWIC has been edited by Mark Crothers since its inception in 1994. It began as a weekly Usenet posting, with “TWIC 1″ being posted to Usenet group rec.games.chess on 17 September, 1994. Later it moved to Crowther’s personal web site, and later still to its current location at chesscenter.com. It contains both chess news, and all the game scores from major events. TWIC quickly became popular with professional chess players, because it allowed them to quickly get results and game scores, where previously they had relied on print publications. TWIC still exists as a weekly newsletter, although for important events the TWIC website is updated daily. It remains a popular site for up-to-date chess news.”

• Chessbase.com – Has a news column that is updated by different players or professionals. Sometimes there are articles or reports submitted by top players considered to be of the elite. The sites strength is its pictorial reports. They have excellent photographic coverage’s of events, and this complements their brand, and excellent reports. (Available in English, Spanish or German)
• Chessvibes.com - Chessvibes is a relatively new source of information but it exploded into the chess community thanks to its amazing video coverage of events. They have great clips that include interviews with players, and also live game commentary by the best players of the world themselves after an important game. Currently, I would say that their site has to be either the best, or the second best source for chess news and information in the world.

“From top tournaments to matches, and entertainment to serious discussions, Chess Vibes brings you the latest chess news featuring the most famous players and offering you insight into their minds, with top stories, background coverage and many, many videos.

ChessVibes is a weblog and website together, and we’re all about chess. One day, this site started as a personal blog, but meanwhile we have grown into a chess hot spot where thousands of unique visitors from all over the globe seek and find chess content.”

Additional resources:

• http://www.fide.com/ : the world’s chess federation website that also has a new column and sometimes provides information of independent value.
• http://chesscafe.com/: chess café holds about twenty columns, each of which appears monthly. They are staggered so that about five new columns appear each Wednesday. The authors include some well-known chess players and instructors, such as Yasser Seirawan, Dan Heisman, Mark Dvoretsky, and Susan Polgar.

In print resources:

• New in Chess Magazine: the best chess magazine in the world.
• Chess Life- the USCF’s member’s magazine (chess life online)
• Chess Monthly: a chess magazine that is published in the UK

Where can I play Chess on the Internet?

I remember when I was young looking for chess online and the internet browser was Netscape Navigator. For those of you that don’t know, that was a long time ago!

Currently the internet is responsible for many tribes of chess enthusiast. These sites bring together people from different parts of the world, and in regards to chess the level of play and services vary but needless to say there are a number of excellent places to catch a game.

• ICC- also known as the internet chess club is by far the oldest server and where the majority of chess professionals go in to find a game.  There is a membership fee that for some might be a turn down but if you have been a part of the active chess community for the past 10 years it is difficult to let go of your membership there because all your buddies play there and you have become accustomed to the server.

“The Internet Chess Club (ICC) is a commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants. ICC currently has over 30,000 subscribing members. It was the first Internet chess server and is the first and largest pay to play chess server.”

• Playchess- Chessbase’s interface for internet chess. Playchess is recognized on the internet thanks to being associated with the software that professional players use in their preparation. I have personally never been an active member of the site, but there is a membership fee involved.

“Playchess is a commercial Internet chess server edited by Chessbase devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants. Playchess currently has over 5000 players online, including many internationally titled players who remain pseudo-anonymous and other masters whose identities are known, such as Hikaru Nakamura, Nigel Short and Michael Adams. Playchess claims to be the “world’s biggest server to play chess”.

• Chess.com- Chess.com is the biggest chess community over the internet and their chess server is web-based so instead of downloading a client you can play right from your browser. I would say this is the best place to play for all new comers of the game as you will feel quite at home with the additional features of the site that are connected with chess: the blogs, social groups, forums, articles etc.  You can play chess for free, but also get additional features as a paid member.

“Chess.com is a large online chess community with over 1.1 million members as of March 2010. Chess.com contains a range of activities for its users. High-profilegrandmasters promote the website, which claims to be the “No.1 place to play free online chess and learn chess rules, openings & strategies.”Its slogan ‘Play, Learn, Share’ reflects its aim to provide users with an ‘enjoyable environment where chess players of all skill levels can learn, contribute, play, build, chat, and share.”

Here is a list of other chess places that you might enjoy:

Pogo.com

iGoogle chess

Yahoo chess

Games.com

Gameknot.com

Chesscube.com

Redhotpawn.com

Letsplaychess.com

Buho21.com

How do I find Tournaments to play in?

Chess tournaments whether formal or casual are sometimes hard to find but here are some great resources you can use to locate one.

Information categorized under the USCF and the CCA (Continental Chess Association) are more for National US based events. Information under FIDE are more for international events, and “Other resources” are helpful additional resources, plus cool must see features to help you locate an event.

USCF (United States Chess Federation) based information and resources:

• To locate a local chess club: http://main.uschess.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=198
• For National events organized by the USCF: http://main.uschess.org/content/view/10015/95
• Upcoming tournaments listed by state: http://main.uschess.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=199
• Confirmed major tournaments in the United States (a prize fund of 5000 or more): http://main.uschess.org/content/view/8329/95

Continental Chess Association:

• They are pretty much responsible for all the major tournaments in the United States; this should be your top source when locating an event to play in http://www.chesstour.com/

FIDE (Federation International des Eches- also known as the world chess federation) based events

• FIDE events calendar:  events organized by the world chess federation FIDE http://www.fide.com/calendar.html
• Other International Tournaments: events organized world wide, played under the FIDE rating and organization (private tournament hosts not affiliated with FIDE) http://www.fide.com/calendar/tournaments.html

Other resources:

• Tournament Calendar organized by Chessvibes – (most of these events should be located through the “other tournaments” category of the FIDE website) http://www.chessvibes.com/chess-events-calendar/
• Chess.com has a powerful platform operated by Google maps where you can geographically locate information pertaining to tournaments. Must see for a chess enthusiast:http://www.chess.com/local.html

Starting Out: Frequently Asked Questions for Over the Board Players

Here are some basic questions answered for players starting out at live play. This list is compiled by the USCF and you can find it here: http://main.uschess.org/content/view/7328/28/

How do I play in a chess tournament?
Check out our Clubs & Tourneys area to find a tournament in your area. If you’re not comfortable playing right away, you are free to observe any event. Most tournaments have skittles rooms, where players compete casually, often in blitz games and tournament participants analyze their games. You also might want to investigate a club in your area. Search our Club directory.

What’s a chess tournament like? How is it different from playing a friendly game?
Rating points and prizes are usually at stake in chess tournaments, so the atmosphere is much more competitive and quiet than in a casual club or cafe game. There are special tournament rules like “touch move.” Check out the tournament play section of Rules of Chess for more details.

If I play in a tournament, who will I play against?
In the large majority of chess tournaments, computers determine pairings. In the first round, players are ranked by their ratings (Unrated players are ranked at the bottom, alphabetically.) The Swiss system of pairing is then used. Swiss pairings split the field into two halves and pair the top of the first half with the top of the second half. If there are 50 players in a tournament, #1 will play #26, #2 will play #27, etc.

What’s a chess rating and how do I get one?

A chess rating is an estimate of your playing strength based on prior results. Before completing 20 games, your rating is provisional and changes drastically after winning or losing. Later, ratings change incrementally based on your result and the rating of your opponent. (You gain from 1 to about 40 points for winning a game.) USCF assigns ratings to members who play in official tournaments. Ratings range from 100 to around 2800. You can lose rating points as well as gaining them (unlike in bridge) but you cannot lose your USCF rating. Once rated, always rated.

There are also separate ratings for various chess organizations from the international chess body, FIDE to Internet chess clubs.

Chessplayers often worry or obsess over their rating, because it determines pairings, which tournaments they can play in and reflects their current playing strength, so much that one professional player compared losing 10 rating points to losing 10 liters of blood! (This is actually MORE blood than the average human body contains.)

In many tournaments you can only play if you are over or under a certain rating. For instance, there are Under 1200, 1400, 1600, 1800, 2000 and 2200 sections in the biggest open in America, the World Open, held each year in Philadelphia. The prizes are as high as $10,000 for the winner of each section. This leads to occasional “sand-bagging,” losing points on purpose to lower your rating artificially in order to play in a weaker level tournament. This is an offense that could get you kicked out of the USCF for life. On the other hand, telling strangers at tournaments that your rating is 2600 is a good way to earn their total respect for the entirety of the elevator ride- until your 12-year-old daughter shows up and says “Daddy, how could you miss Ne5?!!”

My friend is too weak for me. I beat him every game. How do I find an opponent of my level?
Internet gaming rooms are great ways to meet up with players of all levels. ICC, short for Internet Chess Club, and Playchess are two popular servers. These both charge a fee for membership, but in return you get grandmaster analysis of top games around the world. A popular free chessplayer server is yahoo.com. On all these servers, you earn ratings, ranging from about 500 to 3000. Ideally, you want to find an opponent with a similar or slightly higher rating than your own.
If you’re yearning for some real-life chess action, check out if there is a club in your area through the USCF chess club directory. Or, send out an email blast to your friends or post an ad on craigslist or myspace (be sure to meet in a public place). You’d be surprised how many potential chess partners there are in your circle. A lot of people love and learn the game early, but give it up since it’s tough to find an appropriate opponent. In this way, chess is a lot like tennis.

What’s a Grandmaster (International Master, Master)?

The United States Chess Federation awards the national master title to any player who reaches a rating of 2200. Less than one percent of rated players hold the title. A life master is a National Master who has played 300 games with a rating over 2200. Grandmaster (abbreviated often to GM) is the highest title you can achieve in chess. Like International Master (abbreviated to IM), it’s an international title, and is awarded by FIDE, the International Federation of Echecs.

How do I get better?
If poker takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master, chess takes a weekend to learn and several lifetimes to master! But you can have fun, challenge yourself and improve at any level, and that’s one of the greatest things about chess. Becoming a good player requires a firm grasp of tactics (short-term operations to win material or deliver checkmate) so you should check out our puzzle galleries or go to USCF’s online chess shop for tactics books for your level. If you’re looking to improve your strategical skills, there are a number of good books available on strategy, such as the classic My System or the more modern, Reassess Your Chess. To get a feel for how strong players approach different positions, I recommend looking over annotated games from the Chess Life archives. Also, play, play, and play. If you combine concentrated play with study, you will improve!

I’m a single guy in college, and I heard chess is nerdy and devoid of womenfolk. Why should I play?

Chess is a great game that can lull its devotees to trance like states of concentration. Finding a wonderful and surprising move can fill you up with aesthetic joy and the pride of discovery. A game of chess or a tournament can test your will power, discipline and sportsmanship, resulting in intense situations that draw many to the game. In the chess world, race, gender and class are invisible. It’s inspiring to see eight-year-olds competing with senior citizens, and Gucci-clad investment bankers fighting it out with high-school janitors.
Chess is not nerdy at all. We’ve come a long way since the days of cheap “chess is nerdy” jokes in Saved by the Bell! Celebrities who are crazy about chess include supermodel Carmen Kass, pop star Madonna, actor Will Smith, magician David Blaine and boxer Lennox Lewis. International chess superstar Garry Kasparov has been interviewed in every place from Charlie Rose to Playboy, and starred in a Pepsi commercial. Alexandra Kosteniuk, a Grandmaster from Russia has done modeling shoots for Vogue, Elle and Mademoiselle. If you still think chess is nerdy, browse through our U.S. player galleries for more evidence to the contrary.

The lack of female participation is a serious problem in chess. I hope that doesn’t cause you to leave chess, but rather to think about changing chess. Do you have a female friends or sister who is sharp witted and confident? Teach her chess and bring her to a tournament. The male-dominated atmosphere scares many women at first, but many warm up to the attention they get at tournaments. Now there is usually a critical mass of girls and young women at tournaments. Often, these female participants meet and bond together, making the environment less alienating.

What do I have to bring with me to play in a tournament?
Most tournaments expect the player to bring a chess set and a clock. The USCF store sells sets and clocks for newcomers to the game. Some tournaments provide score sheets on which you can record the moves of your games. You might want to purchase a booklet of score sheets so that you don’t lose them.

What’s a chess clock and how do they work?

A chess clock is actually two clocks! When you’re thinking, your clock ticks down. After making a move, you hit a button at the top of the clock and your opponent’s clock starts ticking. If you run out of time, you lose the game, unless there is checkmate on the board or your opponent has insufficient mating material. There are two main types, the digital and analog clock.

What time do I set my chess clock for?
It depends on the event. Different limits are referred to as time controls. There are blitz tournaments in which each side only gets 5 minutes a piece. Blitz time controls are very popular in casual park or cafe games. Even shorter games, bullet set limits as low as one minute per player. Think it would be hard to play a decent game in one minute? You should watch GM Hikaru Nakamura or GM Larry Christiansen playing chess on the Internet. For the inexperienced, bullet chess will mean flying pieces and broken clocks, so start slow!

What’s the difference between a digital and analog clock and which should I use?

Many players prefer digital because they know exactly how much time they and their opponents have. With an analog clock, it can be unclear whether you have one minute or three. Tournament directors prefer digital as well, because it allows them to set the clock for increment or time delay if there is an argument over whether one player is trying to run the other out on time, but is making no progress or has insufficient winning chances. Some still think analog clocks are more beautiful. Digital clocks also malfunction occasionally, resulting in bigger disasters than an analog malfunction would.

What is the purpose of the USCF? The USCF is a non profit organization devoted to promoting chess in America. The USCF organizes chess tournaments, publishesChess Life magazine and manages the ratings of over 85,000 members. For mission statement, staff info and how you can help, go to About USCF.

Source:http://main.uschess.org/content/view/7328/28/