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Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe. – Indian proverb

I might add that if a gnat studies in the right way, he may eventually become an elephant. – Nigel Davies
 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

Have you played a game that you would like to have analyzed & published at Chessville?  Send it to us (in pgn format only, please!)  Games with instructional value, and with your own comments added, stand the best chance of being selected.


 

 

 

 

 

 

It's not the will to win that counts. Everybody has that. It's the will to prepare to win that's important. – Bear Bryant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back issues of The Chessville Weekly can be viewed at the archives.

June 23rd, 2002
 

In This Issue
Practicing Tactics
Site Review: Professor Chess
New At Chessville
Book Review: Chess Tactics
Pablo's Chess News
New On The Net
Kelly's Quotes

Practicing Tactics

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.

Site Review

ProfessorChess
<http://www.professorchess.com>

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;
 identifying strong and weak opening moves; distinguishing between checkmate, stalemate (or neither!); systematically looking for the three ways to get out of check; and using basic chess notation skills.  Higher level materials work on skills such as visualization, identifying features of opening positions, basic tactics, and responding calmly to checks.

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.

New At Chessville

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
If you play online at ICC you can add this channel to your channel list by typing "+ch 261" (without the quote marks, of course) and join in on all of the fun.  You never know who you might run into there!  Over at The Free Internet Chess Server check us out in channel 231.

Book Reviews

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.

Pablo's Chess News

Chessville
     Recent Chess News  News & Notes, including Chessville
     coverage of:
    
Advanced Chess Match: Anand, V - Kramnik, V (León, SPAIN)
       
Current score (Kramnik, V - Anand, V): 2.5-1.5
          Kramnik beat Anand in game 3! / Two games left (Sunday 23)
       
Read Chessbase reportOfficial site / Webcam /
          Download all the games

The Week In Chess (TWIC)
     TWIC 397  June 17, 2002
     TWIC 398  June 24, 2002

New On The Net

The Chess Cafe
     Book Review: Botvinnik’s Best Games,Volume 3, 1957-1970
    
Interview With Yuri Averbakh
     Endgame Study
     Edgar Winter's Chess Notes
     Anand Annototaes: Anand-Karpov, Prague 2002    
     Late Knight by Richard Forster
     Dan Heisman's Novice Nook: Break Moves
     An Arbiter's Notebook by Geurt Gijssen

KasparovChess
     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

Kelly's Quotes

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.  Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.  Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your books.  Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.  Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.  But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.      –   Buddha
 

 

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Lilknight asks : "Where do you get out of print [chess] books at a reasonable price?"  Click here: 200.1 for some answers.

 

 

 

 

 

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Looking for a laugh?  Check out these chess humor sites from The Chessville Links Collection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Chess is 99 percent tactics. – Richard Teichmann

Chess isn't 99% tactics, it's just that tactics takes up 99% of your time. – Dan Heisman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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