TEN STEPS AND WIN CHESS

BY BILL MELVIN

1. Take your time. Your opponent wants you to move quickly. She also wants you to drop your queen. Take your time and find a strong move.

2. Don't resign! I've never seen anyone win a game by resigning. On the other hand, I've seen hundreds of stalemates when huge armies couldn't finish off a lone king. Are you positive that your opponent can win the position on the board? If not, then play on!

3. Practice playing with a clock. Most scholastic chess players think they know how to play with a clock. It is not uncommon for one or both players to completely forget about the game at hand when a clock is put on the game. Often, both players will make random looking moves while they are both fixated on the clock. Many of these games are completed within two minutes after a short series of horrible moves on both sides. Practicing with a clock helps you to concentrate on the board position more than the seconds remaining.

4. Don't "think" with your hand. All large tournaments use the "touch move" rule. If you touch a piece, you must move or capture that piece if at all possible. Players will often pick up a piece while still considering their move. Oftentimes, they will notice their opponent's threat after touching a piece. Ooops! The correct process for making a move is simple: a) think about and decide your move, b) make the move. Never start b) until you are finished with a).

5. Develop your pieces. The "point counts" for chess pieces are all wrong. A knight is only worth 3 "points" if it is developed. The same goes for the other pieces. Try to move each piece just one time at the beginning of the game. Try not to move pawns other than your two center pawns unless you have a good reason. Falling behind in development can easily cost the game.

6. Watch out for your opponent's threats. Your opponent's last move just threatened something. You can ignore it, but he just threatened something. I know you are anxious to threaten something yourself, but he just moved and already threatened something. His threat may be more important than your threat. If you threaten mate in one move, you still lose if he just threatened mate in one move and you didn't meet this threat. While some of your opponent's threats may not be worthy of a response, more games are lost by ignored one move threats than any other way.

7. Never play a move without thinking. Your opponent just dropped her queen. If she's a good actor, she even looks hesitant as if she would like to take the move back. You have the impression that she will resign as soon as you take her queen. Without thinking, you reach for the queen. Stop! The queen will still be there in a couple minutes. If this is a trap, you could lose the game by capturing the queen. Try to determine whether your opponent really dropped her queen or if she is setting a trap. Always be at least a little suspicious of a free queen.

8. Make even trades when ahead. As pieces get traded, material advantages tend to increase in importance. Simply making even trades should eventually lead to a situation where more material can be won. Eventually, a pawn can be queened and checkmate given. Don't make yourself win the same game twice. A piece up endgame is better than an unsound attack.

9. Learn basic checkmates. You can't win if you can't checkmate. A king and queen can only checkmate a lone king if the king helps out. A king and rook can checkmate a lone king by driving it to the edge of the board and making a waiting move at the right time to force the opposing king to walk into a one move checkmate. It is essential to understand the winning method in these positions. Most winning positions can be won by queening a pawn and then performing the basic king and queen checkmate.

10. Don't get discouraged. No matter how new to chess you are, everyone who ever got good at chess was at your level at one point in time. You improve more in the games you lose than in the games you win. Keep a healthy attitude and eventual mastery of the game of chess can be yours.

Chess Rules For Beginners

INTIAL POSITION AT START:
You see the initial position . Each side has 1 King, 1 Queen, 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights and 8 pawns. The chessboard must be placed between the players in such a way that the near corner square to the right of the player is white. White commences the game. Your aim is to checkmate ( capture )your opponent's King.




CHECKMATE:
After you threat your opponent's king , if your opponent can't find any appropriate square to escape his king or can't capture the attacking piece or place another piece between his king and the attacker , he is checkmated.

CAPTURE:

When you move your piece properly to a square occupied by an opponent's piece , you capture this piece . Captured piece is now out of the chessboard.

The KING:

The most important chess piece is the king because if your king is captured , you lose the game.
The king can move one square in any direction that is not attacked by an opponent’s piece. If it is attacked by an opponent’s piece , it is in check.

CASTLING:

The king has a special move done with the rook. It is called castling. For the short and long castling see castling page.



The QUEEN:
The Queen can move any number of squares horizontally, vertically, or diagonally . It can't move over the pieces.

The ROOK :
The Rook can move any number of squares horizontally or vertically . It can't move over the pieces.




The BISHOP:
The Bishop can move any number of squares diagonally . It can't jump over the pieces.







The KNIGHT:
The Knight's move is as a letter "L" .1- It moves two squares horizontally and one square ahead or backward 2- It moves two squares vertically and one square left or right. Only the Knight can jump over the other pieces.







The PAWN:

The pawn always moves ahead. It moves one square but every pawn has right to move 2 squares ahead if it is first move .The pawn captures diagonally , but only 1 square ahead.

Pawn promotion :
If a pawn reaches the rank furthest at the opponent side , it is promoted to Queen ,Rook, Knight or Bishop . It cannot become a King or a pawn .







En passant
The pawn has a special move : en passant. For a detailed explanation click for en passant page.


The DRAWN :

The player has no legal move to do while his king is not in check. This is stalemate and the game is drawn.
Other conditions for the drawn:- Both of the player can not checkmate the opponent's king- Players agree on the drawn during the game.- Any identical position is about to appear or has appeared on the chessboard at least three times.- If each player has made the last 50 consecutive moves without the movement of any pawn and without the capture of any piece.
A player who draws his game scores 1/2 point. A player who wins scores 1
, a player who loses has 0 point.