Chess Training: Read This First

Dear Chess Player,

Thanks for subscribing to my 11 part email course "Openings and End Game
Strategies!"

You should have already received part one of the course in your inbox, but before you read it, please take note of the following IMPORTANT information.

This course contains many chess board game diagrams all in the form of ASCII
line drawings. ASCII is universal, and is easily viewed no matter what email
program you are using. Please save this email for future reference.

The following is a key to the diagrams:
For chess pieces,

R = Rook

Kt = Knight

B = Bishop

Q = Queen

K = King

P = Pawn

Black pieces have a # symbol to the left of them, while
white pieces have a ^ symbol to the left of them. For example,
#B is the Black bishop, while ^B is the
white bishop. #Kt is the black knight, while ^Kt is the white knight. This will
let the reader instantly tell by sight which pieces in the ASCII chess diagrams are
black and which are white. Those who find these diagrams hard to read should feel
free to set up them up on a game board using the actual pieces.

Some of the chess game analysis is also written in what is
commonly know as "descriptive notation." Here is a good
explanation of "descriptive notation" from Mark Weeks
at http://chess.about.com/library/ble21brd.htm. In this excerpt
he is comparing it to algebraic notation, another chess
notation method:

"There are two main differences between algebraic and
descriptive notation. Thefirst difference is that the files
are named according to the piece on that file in the initial

position. The second difference is that the squares have
different notations from the White and Black sides.

Here's a diagram showing the two character notation for each square on the board.

In this diagram, the square in the lower left is

'QR1' for White and 'QR8' for Black, where 'QR' means the 'Queen's Rook'.

The square in the upper right is 'KR8' for White and 'KR1' for
Black, where 'KR' means the 'King's Rook'.
As in algebraic notation, the move is a combination of the
moving piece plus the square to which it is moving, separated
by a dash ('-'). The move 'Q-K4' means that a Queen is moving
to the square K4; 'Q-KR4' means that a Queen is moving
to the square KR4. In the second example, if there is no possibility
that the Queen can move to QR4, 'Q-R4' is sufficient. In older
literature, 'Kt' is often used instead of 'N' to denote the Knight.

Descriptive notation is usually less compact than algebraic notation,
but it does have a few advantages. For example, it is easier to
refer to the symmetric qualities of the board. The phrase 'Rook's
file' refers to both the 'QR' and 'KR' files. The phrase '7th rank'
refers to the 7th rank for both White and Black from their
respective sides of the board.

Castling is noted exactly as in algebraic notation, O-O and O-O-O. Pawn promotion is similar. The move 'P-K8=Q' means that the Pawn is being promoted
to a Queen.

Ambiguous moves are generally distinguished by indicating whether the queenside or kingside piece is moving. Instead of'N-B3', we write 'QN-B3' or 'KN-B3' to show which Knight is moving. If it is no longer simple to determine whether a

piece was initially on the queenside or kingside, the square from which
the piece is moving can be entered, for example, 'N/2-K4' or

'R/QB3-K3'.

A capture is always indicated by an 'x', followed by the symbol

of the piece being captured. The moves 'BxN', 'BxKN', or 'BxN/7'

are all valid.

Check is always indicated by a '+' or by 'ch'. If a Knight

moves to B6 and gives check, this can be written 'N-B6+', or

'N-B6ch'.

The e.p. move is always written with a trailing 'e.p.', for example, 'PxP e.p.'

or 'KPxP e.p.' "

Chad Kimball

P.S. This is an excerpt from my 14 Volume Chess Training Book Set
guaranteed to dramatically improve your game! It contains 2,213 pages
of tested and proven chess tactics.

To read more about this valuable resource,

go to http://www.arborgroup.org/chess

Anand Suffers Shock Chess Defeat

Just came across this article...

World Rapid chess champion Viswanathan Anand suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Russia's Evgeny Bareev going down 0.5-1.5 in a seventh round rapid game at the Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament here.

Anand, who had dropped just one point in his first 12 games here easily drew the blindfold game against tailender Bareev with black pieces. In the rapid, however, which is considered his forte, Anand missed chances and lost a long-drawn battle.

 

Click here for full article

 

Leave it to the Guardian: More on Controversial Chess Figure

Not to post too much on Bobby Fischer in one day, but leave it to the guardian to post some particularly interesting coverage of Fischer's release:

Excerpt:

Fischer has finished lunch, trimmed his beard, had a haircut. He has decided to give a press conference to the 20 or so journalists camped in the lobby. The presence of American sports journalist Jeremy Schaap adds a frisson. He is the son of Dick Schaap, a New Yorker who was a close friend of the young Bobby but later declared that Fischer was mad. Fischer quickly makes the connection (Schaap's TV channel, sports broadcaster ESPN, may have planned it this way). "I knew your father," he drawls to the young, dark-haired Schaap. "He said I didn't have a sane bone in my body: I don't forget that."

I ask about chess; a Russian TV crew asks about Kasparov; the Icelanders ask whether Fischer likes herring, but the Schaap affair won't go away. Fischer insists on returning to it, and things suddenly turn ugly. "Let me get back to this guy," says Fischer, pointing at Schaap. "I hate to rap people personally, but his father many years ago befriended me, took me to see Knicks games, acted kind of like a father figure, and then later, like a typical Jewish snake, he had the most vicious things to say about me." Schaap snaps at that, says "I don't know that you've done much here today really to disprove anything he said," and walks out. All on camera.

The Pride and the Sorrow of American Chess

You were looking at a weary, 62-year-old man who had just traveled 5,500 miles to an island with mountains rising from the sea, 100% literacy and more chess grandmasters per capita than any place on Earth.

Once the suit-clad knight of U.S. chess, he is no longer even a member of the U.S. Chess Federation. They kicked him out. Not that he much cares about anything with a "U.S." in front of it.

Chess Strategies 1st Blog

Just want to make mention of the Chess Strategy Product: "Grandmaster Strategy Training Library" 14 Volumes of Chess Instruction for the price of a single Chess book at the bookstore.