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From The Chessville Forum: Join the discussion about Michael de la Maza, and his tactical training methods: 191.1 and 166.1 Eagle Wingz illustrates the x-ray move: 198.3 Kelly discovers a Shocking Chess Book Site (170.1): "I can't post the site's link here, as it would lead to further addiction and perhaps traumatization for some of you, but I had an interesting & upsetting experience last night. I was surfing the chess book sites and getting pretty worked up if you know what I mean. I finally stumbled onto this one site that said "See 'em all NOW for free! Old books, young books, opening books, and tactical books, plus much more. All your chess book fantasies are here!" SlackerGenius has books to trade: 169.1 Learn about your neighbors, in the Bio folder: 91 Msgs
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June 23rd, 2002 In This Issue In my “Suggestions for Improving Your Play” article, I discussed the importance of practicing tactics. In this article, I describe a more detailed plan of tactical training; or rather, three different plans, depending on your current level of chess ability. However, all three plans contain information and suggestions which may be of interest to players of any level, so I highly recommend reading through the entire article start to finish before deciding which plan to undertake. Read the full article here. ProfessorChess Jim Mitch has created both an entertaining, instructive website and a series of engaging training materials. Writing under the pseudonym Professor Chester Nuhmentz (rhymes with "chess tournaments") Jr., these materials target the scholastic crowd (K-7). Mitch started writing chess instructional material when he coached his kid's school chess team, and says both the site content and the commercially available training materials "...can help players to work on fundamental skills at an appropriate degree of difficulty. They're adaptable to many styles of chess instruction, and are flexible enough to use just about anytime, anywhere." Major sections include the Chess Training Materials, Stories, Free Material, and Online Quizzes, among others. I found the boards on the quiz page difficult to view, and the font used for the solutions too small, although the content is very age and skill level appropriate. "Tales From the Diary of King Gustafson" uses a fanciful tale of knights, castles, and such, to tell a chess story. The story illustrations include "maps of the battlefield" which actually are snippets of a chessboard. Next installment due to be posted June 24th. Free downloads include scoresheets (½-blank, for recording your game, ½ classic game, e.g. Zukertort-Anderssen Breslau 1865), a 1-page summary of chess tips, homework (tactical puzzles), and a set of Morphy games with quizzes about the moves. Exercise books (these are available commercially; check his web site for more details & ordering info) are written for six different skill levels (Pawn through King). The chess exercises in Level 1 are intended for students who already know how chessmen move and how they make captures; understand basic chess concepts such a check, checkmate, stalemate, and castling; have played at least a few full games of chess; and are familiar with the basic idea of how squares on a chessboard can be identified by using letters and numbers.
The exercises in Level 1 help students to practice
these skills: recognizing key patterns -- checks, checkmates, stalemates,
pins, forks, skewers; using a king and rook to give checkmate; All of the Level 1 training materials have been picked up by the USCF, and are available at their site. The rest of the training materials are available through the Professor Chess site. Due to the quality of material available, this site is an excellent resource for the scholastic coach, as well as fun for the budding Bobby Fischer. Practicing Tactics: Detailed advice for players of all levels. Basic Tactics: The test exercises have been postponed until next week in favor of expanding last week's lesson (which was renamed -- don't let that fool you) to include a section on "Removing the Guard." Novices should also check out the "Practicing Tactics" article. Downloads of Tactical Exercises. Book Review: Paul Littlewood's Chess Tactics. Editorial: "Tactics, Tactics, Tactics." Chessville now has it's own channel at the
Internet Chess Club: 261 Leoplod Lacrimosa reviews Paul Littlewood's Chess Tactics: "Now there are many tactical books available on today's chess market. Some are great while others aren't. But I like Littlewood’s book because of the amount and quality of the explanations of the tactics he gives. Each chapter is broken down into several sections. First is a definition of the tactic which is simple to understand, even for a kindergartener, and the definition is reinforced with several examples. Next comes an "exploitation," or how to use the tactic which you are studying, also with a few examples. Then there is a section on defense against the tactic with several more examples. Last, Littlewood presents us with ten problems to solve for the tactic, starting with an easy problem and building up to a fairly difficult ones." Read the full review here.
Chessville TWIC 397 June 17, 2002 TWIC 398 June 24, 2002
The Chess Cafe GM Steering Committeee Moscow Meeting Alex Finkel: Sigeman 2002 Best Games & Fragments Russian Chess French Chess Federation Criticizes FIDE President Pakistan Chess Player Lev Khariton's 200 Words Robert Byrne in The NY Times Annotates Radjabov-Beljavsky, Moscow 2002 FIDE Quickplay Lubomir Kavalek in The Washington Post Annotates Epishin-Short, Malmo 2002 Mechanics' Institute Chess Room Newsletter #92 - 6-19-2002 Chess In Ireland Irish Team Selections & Criteria Tell us about your favorite site that you would like us to keep an eye on for you. Write: Newsletter@Chessville.com Do
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