Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Fred Reinfeld Editor. Beginners and even fairly advanced players agree on one thing: analyzing the strength or weakness of a position material being equal is the hardest part of chess to learn.
It is also one of the hardest elements to teach, and there are some who claim it is unteachable. But this wonderfully lucid book, written by one of the outstanding chess expositors of the twentieth cen Beginners and even fairly advanced players agree on one thing: analyzing the strength or weakness of a position material being equal is the hardest part of chess to learn.
But this wonderfully lucid book, written by one of the outstanding chess expositors of the twentieth century, presents the basis of analysis in such a disarmingly simple way that even the most casual player will be able to improve his game immensely.
Sticking to a few well-chosen examples and explaining every step along the way, the author shows you how to avoid playing a hit-or-miss game, from move to move, and instead develop general plans of action based on positional analysis: weak and strong squares, the notion of controlling a square, how to seize control of open lines, weak points in the pawn structure, and other aspects of analysis. For this revised edition, the author added 20 problems from master games on which the reader can test his understanding of the principles found in the text.
Get A Copy. Paperback , pages. Published June 1st by Dover Publications first published More Details Original Title. Other Editions 5. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about How Not to Play Chess , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about How Not to Play Chess. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Step 4. Step 5. There are only three ways a king can get out of check: move out of the way though he cannot castle!
There are 5 reasons why a chess game may end in a draw: The position reaches a stalemate where it is one player's turn to move, but his king is NOT in check and yet he does not have another legal move: With the move Qc7, black is not threatened and can't move. The players may simply agree to a draw and stop playing There are not enough pieces on the board to force a checkmate example: a king and a bishop vs.
Study Basic Chess Strategies There are four simple things that every chess player should know: Protect Your King Get your king to the corner of the board where he is usually safer. Don't Give Pieces Away Don't carelessly lose your pieces!
A pawn is worth 1 A knight is worth 3 A bishop is worth 3 A rook is worth 5 A queen is worth 9 The king is infinitely valuable At the end of the game, these points don't mean anything—it is simply a system you can use to make decisions while playing, helping you know when to capture, exchange, or make other moves.
Practice By Playing Lots Of Games The most important thing you can do to get better at chess is to play lots of chess! How To Play Chess Variants While most people play standard chess rules, some people like to play chess with changes to the rules. Each variant has its own rules: Chess : In Chess Fischer Random , the initial position of the pieces is set at random. Pawns keep their normal initial position but the rest of the pieces are arranged randomly. King Of The Hill : In this format, the goal is to get your king to the center of the board or "top of the hill.
When one player captures a piece from the opponent, this piece will become available to his or her teammate. For example: If I play as White and my teammate, who is Black, takes a white knight from her opponent, in my turn I will have a knight that I can put on any free square on my board.
I can do so in any of my future turns. Crazyhouse: This is a very exciting format since it allows you to use the pieces you take from your opponent. That is, if I play as White and I take a black pawn from my opponent, that pawn will turn into a white pawn that I can put on the board as part of my army.
Enjoy chess with these amazing chess variants. Touch-move - If a player touches one of their own pieces they must move that piece as long as it is a legal move. If a player touches an opponent's piece, they must capture that piece. Clocks and Timers - Most tournaments use timers to regulate the time spent on each game, not on each move. Each player gets the same amount of time to use for their entire game and can decide how to spend that time.
Once a player makes a move they then touch a button or hit a lever to start the opponent's clock. If a player runs out of time and the opponent calls the time, then the player who ran out of time loses the game unless the opponent does not have enough pieces to checkmate, in which case it is a draw. To improve you need to do three things: Play lots of chess — Just keep playing! Play as much as possible. You should learn from each game — those you win and those you lose. Study with chess lessons — If you really want to improve quickly then you should do some online chess lessons.
You can find online chess lessons here. Have fun — Don't get discouraged if you don't win all of your games right away. Everyone loses — even world champions.
As long as you continue to have fun and learn from the games you lose then you can enjoy chess forever! Which Color Starts In Chess? Can A Pawn Move Backwards? When Was Chess Invented?
The Longest Chess Games in History article. Articles For Beginners. Opening Theory. Amazing Games. Chess Players. Study Plans. Curriculum for Kids. Pawns are unusual because they move and capture in different ways: they move forward, but capture diagonally. Pawns can only move forward one square at a time, except for their very first move where they can move forward two squares. Pawns can only capture one square diagonally in front of them.
They can never move or capture backwards. If there is another piece directly in front of a pawn he cannot move past or capture that piece. Pawns have another special ability and that is that if a pawn reaches the other side of the board it can become any other chess piece called promotion.
A pawn may be promoted to any piece. That is NOT true. Only pawns may be promoted. This special move must be done immediately after the first pawn has moved past, otherwise the option to capture it is no longer available. One other special rule is called castling. This move allows you to do two important things all in one move: get your king to safety hopefully , and get your rook out of the corner and into the game.
See the example below. However, in order to castle, the following conditions must be met:. Notice that when you castle one direction the king is closer to the side of the board. That is called castling kingside. Castling to the other side, through where the queen sat, is called castling queenside. Regardless of which side, the king always moves only two squares when castling.
This happens when the king is put into check and cannot get out of check. There are only three ways a king can get out of check: move out of the way though he cannot castle! If a king cannot escape checkmate then the game is over. Customarily the king is not captured or removed from the board, the game is simply declared over.
Occasionally chess games do not end with a winner, but with a draw. There are 5 reasons why a chess game may end in a draw:. The players may simply agree to a draw and stop playing.
There are not enough pieces on the board to force a checkmate example: a king and a bishop vs. A player declares a draw if the same exact position is repeated three times though not necessarily three times in a row. Fifty consecutive moves have been played where neither player has moved a pawn or captured a piece.
Many tournaments follow a set of common, similar rules. Some play weak and others play strong. This makes playing quite interesting for you. Adjust the pieces and the chess board first. As you can see, Miss Molly is pretty weak.
But she will still take you apart when you are a beginner at chess. So watch it, she will get you in the end. At the link below you can download some more chess programs for your PC to play at home. Have fun. If you lose every game then come back to my site and learn some chess strategies. When you have downloaded it, you have to extract it into a new empty directory, which you have to create first.
This free chess program is pretty simple to use, but strong. You will find it hard to beat. Now you can test the chess strategies that you have learned so far. So, off you go, my friend! Jose Chess is also a very nice chess program indeed.
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