Lit Review Wednesday: Winning Chess

Winning Chess: Tactics & Strategies, by Ted Nottingham, Al Lawrence, and Bob Wade, is the first chess book I should have read. It starts out right where I was a month ago--someone who knew the basic moves but knew nothing about the theory behind those moves. The book highlights all of the important tactics: the fork, the pin, and the skewer. It also goes into some detail on discovered check and double check.

I think this book was written for a younger audience, particularly high school students, but it was still very informative. It's definitely the best beginner book I've come across so far. It's not really the most complete book, but if you're just trying to learn the game, this is where you should start.

 

With that said, I would give this book a 4 out of 5. It has a lot of really good basic info, yet there are some glaring problems too. For example, it uses a weird form of algebraic notation for most of it, one that isn't what the professionals use. If they had used the more commonly used version, I think this book would be much more complete.

Literature Review Wednesday

I wanted to have a few commonly recurring subject matters that I will be addressing on a weekly basis. I've decided Wednesdays will be a slot for me to review chess books.

Last week, I took out two books from the library and am almost done with the first. It's called The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess Openings, by William Aramil. So far it's decent. The first few chapters were especially good for me as they go over algebraic notation and some very basic strategy principles. Concepts like material, space, tempo, King protection, and Pawn structure are introduced, and this is a very good thing for beginners. These five things are the building blocks of what makes a good board setup, and something that absolutely every budding chess player needs to be aware of.

However, these subjects are only briefly introduced and there isn't much space given to them--a couple paragraphs at most. It's pretty much assumed that the reader is already familiar with them, which is fine, but this makes me think that the book is not really geared toward the beginner, but rather someone who has already seen some moderate success.

After that, the most common openings are explained in good detail. For the beginner, this is great, but parts can be confusing because Aramil relies greatly on algebraic notation. There are several diagrams of board setups, but to really get the most out of this book, you will want to have a chess board handy so you can fully appreciate the various structures and their nuances.

If you're new to chess, this book can help you, but I wouldn't recommend this being your first read. I'm going to finish the book, but I think I will need to reread it in a few weeks.

Two things that I know now that I didn't know a week ago

One of the most important concepts about chess that I just learned a few days ago is that control of the center of the board is extremely important. When your pieces are in the center, they have the widest, most uninterrupted range of attack and this is obviously a big advantage.

Let me put out a basic example. When white moves the King's pawn to e4, black is at an immediate disadvantage since white is freeing up their Queen and the King's Bishop, and when they move the King's Knight out on the second turn, they are gaining yet another advantage by increasing their attack range in the center. Black must immediately play on the defensive or risk losing uncompensated pieces. 

However, this doesn't mean that white can just put pieces in the center and win. Black has many strengths, and if white is not careful, pieces on the sidelines can be lost and this can give black a small material advantage which can add up quickly. Still, if white plays correctly and adjusts for black's moves, white can keep momentum on their side and force black into a series of moves that they might not want to necessarily make.

Also, I learned algebraic notation! This should be the first thing that anyone playing chess needs to learn on the theory side of things. If you're looking on the white side of the board, the bottom left corner is a1, and the bottom right corner is h1. The top left corner is a8 and the top right corner is h8. The squares in between are all filled in accordingly. Knowing what the spaces are gives you a generic template for notating moves.

Obviously it's not quite this simple. Each piece has its own letter representing it, and there are special notations for check, checkmate, castling, en passant, and capturing pieces. The knowledge of these concepts will enable you to decipher games posted online and in books, and this opens up a whole lot of learning opportunities for you--definitely something that you need to know if you are going to get better at the game.