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Chess Lessons – Discovering the Amazing World of Chess

Author: Rick Martin

February 4, 2007

Chess is one of the world’s most popular sports, played by millions of people worlwide in clubs, online, by e-mail, amateur and professional tournaments. The current form of the game emerged in southern Europe in the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar much older games of Asian origin. The game is a wonderful blend of art and science and people who play chess know that it is a good way to enhance mental prowess.

In ancient times, chess was often used as a basis of sermons on morality. To the Age of Enlightment, chess appeared mainly as a way of self-improvement. It was often depicted in arts and used for example as a metaphor of a struggle of two, as a symbol of cold logic. During modern times, it was decided to promote the game of chess as a game for the masses and not just for the intellectual elite.

Today, people who play chess are known to improve their communication skills and also their confidence. They discover the power of fair-play and they use the skills learned while playing chess in real life as well. When you play chess you get better at thinking more moves in the future, you come up with various planning strategies and you do your best to defend your pieces as well as capture the opponent’s pieces.

Chess is a competitive strategy game that requires a lot of dedication. You cannot play chess without learning all about strategy, tactics, technique and discipline. You must study carefully the competition, how she/he thinks and most importantly how to constantly think of the next move ahead of anybody else.

The strategy of chess consists of setting and achieving long-term goals during the game, while tactics concentrate on immediate maneuvers. Strategic goals are mostly achieved by the means of tactics, while the tactical opportunities are based on the previous sound strategy of play. When you play chess, the main concern regards the chess positions. Players must take into account the value of pieces on board, the pawn structure, the king’s safety and the control of key square.

Every day there are more and more who decide to play chess and are willing to take chess lessons in order to learn the secrets of the game. Before taking up the game of chess, there are some basics of the game that one must be aware of. To become a really good player and play chess with the very best, one must put in an enormous amount of time into botht the study of the game and play as well.

Chess lessons start with the game’s descriptions. It is a game played on a board, there are two colors in chess meaning white and black and the player in control of the white pieces is the first to start. In chess, the rows on the board are called ranks and the columns are files. In this notation, when you play chess the files are identified with a letter and the ranks with a number. Theoreticians have developed extensive chess strategies and tactics since the game’s inception.

When it comes to chess lessons, one must also learn the basic phases of the game: the opening, the midgame and the endgame. Moreover, it is crucial to understand that not all the chess pieces behave the same. Each one moves in a different way and has different rules. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent’s king so this piece must always be protected. Chess lessons can sometimes be tiresome but it is worth the pain to learn chess tactics and strategies.

The King can only move one square at a time but he can go in any direction. The only restriction is that he cannot move into a square that would allow him to be captured. The Queen is the most powerful piece and can move in all directions. All chess lessons will teach you that unlike the King, the Queen can move any number of squares without having to jump over another piece. The Bishop is placed on either side of the King and Queen; can only move on diagonals but as many squares as he wants.

The Knight moves in any direction and is the only piece that can skip over the pieces. His movement form an L. The Rook is placed on the end squares next to Knight. It is the second most valuable piece. The Pawns are the smaller pieces and have the simplest moves. It cannot capture a piece directly in front of it but can only capture on a diagonal. Though the least valuable piece, it has the distinction of being able to be promoted.

These are basic things to be known about the game’s pieces, presented in almost all chess lessons. Another important aspect introduced by well-organized chess lessons is that the games do not have to end in checkmate as either player may resign if the situation looks hopeless. Also, a draw can occur in several situations including draw by agreement or stalemate.

Resource box: The popularity of online chess lessons coincided with the growth of the Internet. More and more people desire to play chess and join in professional competitions. Choose us and let us open to you a whole world of possibilities, full of great websites for playing and learning the incredible game of chess.