Chess

September 6, 2010

It's my own chess page.  Hey, I'm an amateur, or what real chess players call a "Patzer", so don't be expecting anything too flashy.  After years of tedious study, I've worked my way up from absolute beginner, to moderately pathetic.

Each week I'll talk about a different concept.  Some of it may be old stuff to more advanced players, and some of it you may have just not thought about.

One thing I've noticed about a lot of chess books, is that they'll glaze your eyes over with tedious variations and tricky positional problems, but don't necessarily explain the concepts behind strategies or tactics very well.  You can't memorize billions of possible positions and combinations, but you can understand a few dozen strategies and tactics which can be applied to any of those billions of possibilities.  I've tried to boil down some of that tedious reading here.

Wood.  It may not look like much here, but this is a really nice wood set.  The pieces were well carved and beautifully finished.  Not by any means the largest wood set I have, but one of the nicest.  Very playable.  I got this set February 12, 2006 in Versailles Missouri.

Pins And Skewers.  Pins and skewers are some of the most common attack tactics.  They're closely related, but still opposites.

A pin occurs when you're attacking a piece which can't move, because moving it would expose a more valuable piece behind it.  A skewer is the opposite, in that you're attacking the more valuable piece which must move, thus exposing the less valuable piece behind it.

Pins and skewers happen on a regular basis, so definitely be looking for them, and of course, bear in mind that you could also be the victim of these tactics if you don't watch it.

More next week...Forks

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