Learn To Play Chess With Some Help
Learning to play chess is not a simple process, not as much as we might like. Playing chess requires the obvious knowledge of how the pieces move, and the object of the game, of course. In addition, to play chess well, a player needs an understanding of strategy, of tactics, and even of his or her opponent. How can a chess player learn these important lessons? The most obvious answer is just by playing chess, as a player who spends enough time is likely to improve, at least somewhat, especially if he or she plays consistently against the same opponent (and also, of course, assuming that he or she is not playing with someone inferior to his or her own skill level). But there are countless other resources out there, ranging from books to website, all of which are available to help provide some good information on playing chess.
For anyone just starting out playing chess, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chess, by Grand Master Patrick Wolff is a prime resource. It opens up with a full and complete discussion of how to play chess, how the pieces move, and how to understand the board, and then moves on to a discussion of tactics and strategies which will be helpful for getting a bit of a grounding on the more advanced elements of chess. It’s a fine resource, easy to read and enjoyable, for anyone with an interest in playing chess but without anyone to teach them.
The first website worth mentioning is chesstactics.org. This website features an online version of a book filled with, aptly enough, the tactics of playing chess. It includes a table of contents that will allow you to quickly reach whatever section most interests you, and it even has a quizzer, to test you on how well you’ve absorbed the knowledge from the book. This is not a website aimed at a beginner; a player will have to know how all the pieces move before coming here, but this is easy enough to internalize by playing a couple of chess games online. The website goes through several different types of tactics, including double attacks, discovered attacks, pins, and guard removal. It’s certainly worth a look for anyone interested in playing chess better, as it is complete with numerous illustrations and easy examples.
Logical Chess: Move By Move, by Irving Chernev, is an interesting resource for playing chess. It’s not a tactics or strategy book, per se; it’s more of an in-depth discussion of 33 different chess games, with each and every move broken down and examined. This is likely the equivalent of playing chess for a few games with an expert looking over your shoulder, telling you all about the advantages and disadvantages of your moves. The book itself does not require expert chess playing knowledge. Furthermore, the book has a unique advantage, in that it allows you to see a full chess game, played through from beginning to end, so that you can grasp the complete whole, and understand how the initial choices affect the rest of the game. This is different from many other resources, which might deal with the beginning, middle, and end of the game separately. The book is a good resources for anyone looking to start playing chess more skillfully.
There are hundreds of other books and websites out there that will aid you in your quest for greater skill at playing chess. The key things to remember are: (1) it will take time; Rome wasn’t built in a day, and complex chess strategies would’ve daunted even Rome’s architects, and (2) all of the strategies and tactics you will learn, will be best remembered through practice. Good luck on your quest for playing a better game of chess!