The All-In-One Manual for Getting Started in the Game of Chess
Chess is a time-honored board game that can help players become better at problem-solving and strategic thinking. These steps will help you learn the game from the most basic level to the most advanced level, regardless of whether you are just starting out or sharpening your skills.
Equipment and Arrangements
Chess sets typically have sixteen individual game pieces: eight pawns, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, one queen, and one king, all of which are crafted from a variety of materials such as wood or plastic. The squares on a conventional checkered board that is 8 by 8 inches are alternatingly light and dark.
The initial setup consists of positioning the kings such that they are on the first rank, placing a rook in each corner, placing bishops adjacent to the king, and positioning the queen on her color. On rank two, the pawns are lined together.
Standard Procedures
Study the rules governing legitimate piece movement, capturing, check/checkmate, castling, en passant, stalemates, and draws. The objective of the game is to achieve checkmate on the enemy king by strategic plays while simultaneously defending your own king from any attacks.
Introducing Some Core Values
Obtain control of the central squares while developing the lesser pieces. Bring the knights out first, then the bishops. Pawns and rooks should be used to establish early control of the fourth rank. Move the castle fast to ensure the king’s safety. When it comes to the efficacy of later game play, major pieces should be centered and united wherever possible.
Variable Points of Entry
Experiment early on with openings like the King Pawn, the Queen Pawn, flanking moves, or gambit sacrifices in order to gain control of the center of the board. Adapt your strategy to the actions of your opponent by switching between solid positional and aggressive unbalancing approaches.
Instruction in Tactics
Read puzzle books and participate in online courses that concentrate on rudimentary discoveries, forks, pins, skewers, removing the defender, and other fundamental assault and defense patterns. Instead of making educated guesses, try visualizing the situation.
Positioning for the Middlegame
Coordination of pieces should become more aggressive through the use of open files, diagonals, and intricate movements as the amount of material and board fluidity increases. You can outmaneuver your opponent by using center pawn breaks or you can treat your forces in a harmonious manner. It is important to respect the opponent’s initiations.
The final act
Learn how to promote passed pawns either remotely or close, how to use opposition strategies, how to move a lucid king, and how to coordinate heavy pieces and opposition forces. Simplify difficult locations so that calculations are less difficult. Endgame drills should be done every day in order to get expertise.
Utilization of Time-Based Controls
Leaving increment time reserves for important situations is a winning strategy for winning blitz games in tournament play. On the other hand, slower matches call for more in-depth positional analysis in addition to greater time management across the phases.
Concepts That Are More Complex
Investigate the opening theory in great detail, as well as Silman’s comprehensive endgame course, annotated games played by grandmasters, and learning tools that places a focus on computation, visualization, and intuitive long-term planning skills when under duress. Participate in local organizations and internet groups.
Your chess skills will increase much beyond the level of a beginner over the course of many pleasant years if you practice, study, and enjoy the game on a regular basis. This will give you enormous mental discipline and the ability to solve problems, both of which will be valuable in other aspects of life.
The following chess teaching tools come highly recommended by our instructors:
Books with Puzzles:
Tactics Time! is a book written by Andrew Soltis. Ideal for novice and intermediate players to develop their ability to recognize simple patterns.
The authors John Bain and Andrew Phillips have written a book titled Chess Tactics for Students. The difficulties of the challenges increased from easy to difficult.
Aagaard and Cafferty’s Chess Tactics for complex Players presents a difficult endgame, increased piece activity, and more complex pins and skewers.
Modules Available Online:
Chess.com Tactics offers a vast database of problems that are categorized according to their level of difficulty. Examine and learn from your errors.
The Lichess Tactics Trainer is a free and open-source alternative to the popular Chess.com website. Ratings that can be adjusted.
ChessTempo has, for a long time, been regarded as one of the top websites. Evaluate your performance over time in order to progress.
Chessable is a website that incorporates strategy puzzles into video lessons. Levels of difficulty that can be adjusted.
Introduction to Chess Tactics by International Master Excellent interactive introduction, according to Andrew Martin on Chessable.
Mobile applications :
GM Jonathan Rowson’s Chess Tactics for Beginners is a well-organized iOS and Android app. Rowson is a chess grandmaster.
Improve your speed recognition with the gamified, quick format of the Puzzle Rush game on the Chess.com app.
To improve one’s ability to calculate, it is strongly recommended to spend at least ten to fifteen minutes every day working on problems from the aforementioned sources that focus on focused tactics. Examining past errors is essential.
The following are some other mobile apps that have received great ratings and are helpful for chess technique training:
Chess Tactics Pro by Chess Praxis offers a wide variety of problem sets that may be customized and are available at a variety of difficulty levels.
Chess Tactics, written by Daniel King, features an intuitive user interface together with a large number of challenging challenges and in-depth analysis.
Another excellent chess problem library with configurable rating may be found in the Chess Tactics App by AarStar.
Just Chess’s Chess Tactics Training zeroes down on standard tactical motifs like pins, for instance, as its primary area of concentration.
Interactive chess puzzles and lessons on basic checkmates are provided in the Chess Genius Tactics app by the same developer.
Study the entire endgame curriculum on the go with Silman’s Complete Endgame Course by Chessable, which is available on mobile devices.
Chess King GM Tactics by Expert Tiger features difficult issues derived from master games along with extensive explanations.
The Woodpecker Method by Chessable is a well-known spaced repetition training program designed to improve long-term recall.
Chess Training by Ronen Har-Zvi is a platform designed in the style of blitz to improve speed while under time constraints.
The Lichess Mobile App is a free, fully-featured application that can be downloaded from the Lichess website. The application also includes puzzles.
A well-rounded strategy training regimen that can be done while on the road could be obtained by completing a variety of puzzles for ten to fifteen minutes each day in two or three of these applications. Altering the presentation of the content helps to maintain readers’ interest over time.
