Literature Review Wednesday: Logical Chess

Logical Chess Move by Move: Every Move Explained is not a book in the traditional sense. Written by Irving Chernev several decades ago, this book looks at many famous chess matches and breaks them down in painstaking detail, explaining what the masters behind the games were thinking when they made their moves. Chernev also takes the time to list the pros and cons of each move and even lists what alternative lines may have produced for the players.

I thought that this book would be boring, but it's actually quite enjoyable. I haven't made it through all of the games yet, but the ones that I have read are written in an entertaining manner and they are very detailed--which is great for the chess player with a basic grasp on the game, but doesn't yet truly understand why some moves are better than others. This is right where I am with my game now, so this book is perfect for me.

 

 

I highly recommend this book for players just getting into serious chess. Chernev is very thorough with his explanations why the moves made are good or bad, and this line of thinking will eventually its way into your game. It's already starting to show with my play.



Friday Update

Fridays will be used for going over goals and where I stand in relation to them. Now that June is half over, I have gotten further away from my blitz goal of 800, and have regressed down to a score of 665. This looks bad, but I'm not concerned. I've been focusing mainly on my standard 30 minute games, so the blitz score has been neglected. The standard score has dropped, too, which is a little disheartening. It's down to 862 right now, even though I was up above 900 for quite a while.

Still, I'm not worried. My standard games have been tough. I changed my opponent search ratings, and I am facing a lot of higher quality players. I'm losing much more often than I'm winning against these guys, which is frustrating, but I'm confident that I am getting better. I'm seeing moves more easily, I'm able to set up forks and skewers with more regularity, and I'm better able to visualize moves into the future. I think it is only a short matter of time before I start beating these opponents and step up in class. I am even able to spot their mistakes at times and turn the tables on them, which is very promising for me.

So my scores are getting worse, but I'm getting better. While I'm not making progress as quickly as I'd like, I know that I'm slowly starting to understand the game better, and this is a good thing.

Goal Update

So when I started playing a few weeks ago, the original goal was to get all of my chess.com scores to 800 or above by the end of June. 800 is an indicator of a solid beginner, and I think this was a completely reasonable goal.

As of right now, my blitz score is the only mark below 800, and this stands at 647. My standard score, which I think is more indicative of my true ability, stands at 886. My other scores really don't have enough data to be worthwhile to look at.

Why is my blitz score so low? Well, blitz games, by definition, are 10 minutes long and under. I tend to play these when I don't have a lot of time, but I end up rushing through the games and this hurts me. I'll either be watching the kids and have to get up (I can't even tell you how many times I've lost close games because I ran out of time), or I am rushing to make my moves and don't see obvious blunders until it's too late.

So I'm pretty happy with my progress after not quite two weeks of playing. I am confident that if I play only when I know I have the time, I can boost my blitz score up over 800 in the 3+ weeks left in the month.

Once I hit my goals, I will be shooting for the 1,000 mark. I still have to evaluate a timeframe for this.

Theory Thursday. Episode 1

I wanted to make a series of weekly posts dealing with chess theory and tactics that can give you an  advantage over your opponent. Today, we will be talking about forking.

I started using this strategy regularly after having it pulled on me several times. Basically, this is a move commonly used by the Knight, since they have the most varied range of motion. A fork occurs when your piece is not threatened, yet the piece can attack more than one of your opponent's pieces. This is most effective when the King or Queen is put in danger with a Rook on the other end. What will happen is that the King or Queen will move out of harm's way and the Rook is left exposed so you can swipe it with the Knight. Even if you need to sacrifice the Knight, this still works out in your favor since you are giving it up to get a more valuable piece.

Forks can quickly change the momentum of the game into your favor, especially if you are only slightly down or pretty even. Losing a major piece like the Rook or Queen is a big blow to your opponent and severely limits their checkmate capabilities.

You can even set up a three-way fork if you're lucky. These give you a bigger range of capturing options, especially when a King is involved since they will be forced to move the King to stay alive. After this, you have your choice of which piece to take.

Forking is at its most powerful when your opponent relies heavily on their Queen. Assuming you are white, once the Queen is out of d8, a Knight on the c7 square can be a revolutionary move. This forks the King and the Rook. The King will probably be able to move  to the d8 square, momentarily putting pressure on you, but the Rook is ripe for the taking and more often than not, you won't even have to worry about exchanging the Knight.

So this pretty simple concept can change games. I use this a lot because I am aggressive with my Knights, and lower rated opponents don't always see where the Knight will be in a few moves. How I proceed to use this technique is try to envision what the perfect position for my Knight is, and then I figure out a safe course to set up the play. This obviously doesn't always work, but when it does, you can often dominate the game.

Opening Moves

I love playing chess. But I'm not the best. In my defense, I haven't really played regularly since high school, and that was over 13 years ago. But I started playing again last week on chess.com, and I am absolutely loving it. I thought that tracking my journey from beginner to wherever I end up would be interesting on two levels, both for giving me a way to track my own progress and learn, and to provide a blueprint of sorts for those who wish to learn the game and become better at it themselves.

If you're looking for expert advice on how to perfect your game, this is not the blog for you. Not yet, anyway. I currently am well under 900 rating in both standard and blitz games, with my standard game about 250 points higher than blitz. So I'm far from an expert. But I hope to be one in the next few years. Did you know some people make a living playing chess? I had no idea until a few days ago. This would be really cool, and while it's probably extremely stupid to bank my family's future on me bringing home a regular paycheck from chess, it would be amazing to say that I am that good.

So this blog is geared more toward those who are not very good at the game, but have lofty ambitions. I will be posting regularly here tracking my progress and documenting the improvements and setbacks that I experience. Hopefully this will be a learning experience for both of us and we can realize our dreams of kicking butt in the Royal Game. Good luck!