When
all seems hopeless... Stalemate! Five
Stalemate Problems
Zchess.com is devoted to both the novice and the
International Master of chess. You will find on
this site checkmate problems which range in mate
in one to mate in four. Also, essential
tactics which are explained with diagrams.
Take a look around, and if you like this site,
you can book mark it by pressing
Ctrl-D.
Check Mate
Puzzles!
Mate in: 1
| 2
| 3&4
Sections
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Improve
your visualization skills and learn to
find checkmates more easily.
If
you like this site, then you can book
mark it by pressing Ctrl- D. Tactics
! Featured: The Knight Fork, The Skewer,
Double Check, The Invincible Bishop. All
with helpful diagrams. |
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The
Square of the Pawn Learn to
force a draw even when your opponent has
a passed pawn. With this tactic, you
will be able to determine very quickly
whether a given pawn is stoppable or
not.
The
Pawn Charge With this tactic, you
can force a pawn through a barrier of
other pawns and promote to Queen.
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Want
to become a GrandMaster at chess? Click
here for some chess tips.
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Recent
Tournament:
Kasparov
Vs. Deep JR.
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Opening
Moves- Due
to a large volume of requests I have added all of
the opening moves that I know of. Putting together
all of the opening moves for this website has been
very educational for me, and I hope that if you
review them it will be for you
also.
* I have ended the checkmate problem newsletter. It was great while it lasted. Feel free to send me an email via the form below.
"When
you see a good move, look for a better
one." Emanuel Lasker
(When
there is a good move there is almost always a
much better move.)
Is
there any wisdom that chess strategy
can teach us for real life experiences
(anticipation, aggression and offense
over defense, or an active defense,
etc.)? Would any such strategies work
in real combat? What do you
think.. |
So
you want to become a Grand Master?
Here
are some general tips that you
might find useful.
There
are several main chess strategies that you
should always employ, unless you want to lose.
First of all, never make a passive move!
Doing so would be appeasing your opponent which
would push you into an even more passive
position while your enemy is free and can easily
attack you. Offense is a great deal better than
defense simply because you disable your opponent
whereas in defense you must remain passive until
your opponent finds a way to bypass your
defense. There is such a thing as an active
defense, however, which is strategically sound.
Another important strategy to keep in mind:
always be on the offense. Why does this work?
When you are constantly attacking your
enemy, he or she must focus on dealing with your
attack instead of attacking your king. Thus, in
a way it creates a "buffer". If one of
your attacks fails, you have only lost territory
that was once the enemies (no loss really).
"The
best defense is a good offense." Old
English Proverb. Most successful attacks on an
enemy render him or her immobile. Yet another
advantage to you.
There
is a huge difference between tactics and
strategy. Strategy can be applied to many things
besides chess, and is usually learned in long
(several hours) chess games. Tactics on the
other hand are extremely specialized moves or
processes of moves in chess. Tactics are most
easily learned in bullet or blitz chess. One of
the most basic, yet important strategies to keep
in mind is that you should always try to control
the center. There are higher priorities,
however, for example you could sacrifice having
superior position of the center of the board for
a supreme attack against the enemies king; the
king is worth more than every single piece on
that board combined. One thing
most amateur players overlook is the importance
of protecting the king. Once the king is gone,
all of the pieces on the board are completely
worthless.
Tactics
are moves or processes of moves that are usually
completely forced. An example of a tactic is a
Knight fork. This is a most basic tactic, yet
powerful, that forks a King and a piece of high
value (rook, queen). Want to learn more about
some basic tactics? Visit my tactics
section. Or I have recently written an article
on the Square of the Pawn. This is also an
important tactic, so if you are unfamiliar with
the term, visit the Square
of the pawn.
Remember,
strategy is most easily learned over long games,
and has the most applications to life in
general. Most people are mislead into thinking
that playing chess is a 'waste of brains',
however I have a view that is strongly opposed
to that. Playing chess teaches you logic,
visualization skills, strategy, creativity,
improves your memory, priorities, essential
planning skills, patience, determination,
anticipation, and much more.
Tips
for
improving your game.
Blitz / bullet /
lightning Chess
Top
players recommend playing blitz games daily. If
you are playing against a human player, and you
don't have a clock, you can play bullet/blitz
chess with five seconds per turn. If you have
any kind of timer, you can set it to one minute
per player, with zero incremental seconds. It
should be noted that playing blitz games can be
very challenging and suspenseful, not to mention
exhilarating.
Blind-Folded
A very
challenging thing to do, but rewarding. Play
against others using only your mind. The most
difficult things to visualize when playing
blind-folded are the diagonals. If
you have winboard you can
choose to play 'blind-folded'. Literally, you
are not blindfolded, but Winboard displays a
blank chess board, and you have to keep track of
where all of the pieces are. It is hard to do,
but fun. Download winboard.
Learn
Powerful Opening moves
Some
opening moves give you more chances of employing
innovative strategy and tactics. Using an
opening that was developed by someone else does
not mean that you are unoriginal. Check out the
Ruy Lopez, and a Knight sacrifice here.
Play Online
Play
against other humans online for free. Tens of
thousands of chess players play online at any
given moment.
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