Getting out of Check
Check is one of the most, if not the most, important concepts in chess. Check means the king is in danger. This means that the player whose king is in danger MUST get their king out of check.
There are three ways that a player can get out of check
1. Move – This means to move your king out of danger.
2. Block- This means moving a piece in between your king and the piece attacking it. Note: you cannot block a check from a Knight because it skips over pieces.
3. Attack- This means you are attacking the piece that is putting your king in check. You can use your king to attack or another piece on your team.
A good chess player will look through all his/her options before deciding. In each position, the correct move may be to move, block, or attack, but you will never know until you look at all the options.
Take a look at this position, what should the white team do?
What do you think the white king should do. He can move out of the way to b1 or b2. He can also use his queen to block on a2, but the best option is to capture the rook on a7 with the queen on f2.
Practicing chess outside of chess class
Chess by telico82
In order to become a good chess player you need to practice and work hard, just like anything else. No matter how talented a student it, they still need to put the work in if they want to become good chess players.
The nice things about chess is that there are so many different ways to practice. The easiest way is to play a game…more advanced students will also use chess notation to write their moves to later review their games.
Another way to practice is to do chess puzzles. In these puzzles you must find the right move in a certain chess position.
Lastly, you can always read a book about chess…there are so many to choose from!
Playing Chess in your Mind (Mental Chess) Part 2
Knighfall by Breff
The Krasnopolskiy Method to learning to play blindfold or mental chess is simple and makes training your brain fun. Even kids can try playing this version of mental chess.
First, make sure you have a chess board.
Second, make yourself some chess pieces out of paper, thick paper that you cannot see through is important for this to work. Make sure they fit the squares of your chess board.
Lastly, replace your normal chess pieces with these and play with them face down. At first you may need to check which piece is which often, but challenge yourself to look less and less. If you are playing with someone, you can set the amount of time someone can look at their pieces and lower that number with practice. Also, make sure to limit the amount of illegal moves during the game too!
Have fun and enjoy training your brain using chess!
Playing Chess in your mind (Mental Chess) pt.1
Just recently I was asked about playing chess without a chess board; its a really interesting way to play chess. The point is this: if two players can both visualize a chess board and remember each of their moves (which they dictate in chess notation) they can play a full chess game in their heads without ever using a chess board!
I know that for people who dont play chess this sounds insane, and to those that already play chess it may sound like an unattainable challenge. All you readers will be glad to know that there is a way developed of how to learn to start playing chess in your mind.
The goal here is not to take on the whole game right when your starting, but to break it down. One way to do this is to play one of the alternative chess games (chess variants) like pawn wars to practice and train your memory. Once you do this, you can add in more pieces and really exercise your brain. Tomorrow I will write about other methods to train your brain for Mental Chess.
CheckMatesUSA Blog is Back
We’ve been upgrading other parts of the website, but now the blog is back! Check Back everyday for new articles and find out more than you ever imagined about chess.
Also, if you have questions about chess would like us to write an article about something particlar in chess, please let us know.
-George Krasnopolskiy
The Queen and how it moves
The Queen is the most powerful piece in chess. It can move like the Rook and Bishop combined. This means it can move forward, backwards, and diagonally as many squares as it would like. The Queen also attacks the same way it moves.
When setting up the chess board, the Queen goes next to the King. I have kids remember that the Queen likes to match, meaning the black queen matches with the black square and the white queen matches with the white square. The Queen always goes on the d file. For white the queen goes on d1 and for black the queen goes on d8.
The King and how he moves
The King is the most important chess piece on the board. Each team only gets one king and he has very special rules that apply to him such as check and checkmate. Still, the king has a very simple moving pattern in chess. The king only moves one space at a time, in any direction. He also attacks the same way he moves. The king has one special rule you need to know from the beginning: he cannot be next to another king.
When setting up the chess board, the kings always go on the e file. For white this is e1 and for black this is e8.
The Rook and how it moves
The Rook is an important piece to use in chess and not very hard to learn. There is an easy rhyme I made up for the rook; here how it goes:
“Up, Down, Side to Side, that’s the way the rook will slide.”
The rook moves forwards, backwards, and sideways as many squares as it wants. It attacks the same way it moves and cannot skip over pieces. Like all the other pieces, it can only attack one piece at a time.
Each team gets two rooks and they start on the corners on the board. For white this is a1 and h1. For black this is a8 and h8.
Also, it is the rook, not the castle!
The Bishop and how it moves
The Bishop is a great chess piece. It has a unique way of moving and is important for all chess players to use.
The Bishop moves only on diagonals. For younger children who are not familiar with diagonals I would describe this as on squares of matching color.
When setting up the board the bishops go next to the King and Queen. For white this is c1 and f1 and for black this is c8 and f8. You will notice when setting up the board that you have on bishop on a white square and one a black square. Throughout the game this should stay constant (unless there is a pawn promotion into a bishop) and you know if you have two bishops on a white or black square there was an illegal move made. Bishops in chess attack the same way they move and cannot skip over pieces.
Elk Grove Village Library Winners!
Elk Grove Village Library Chess Champions
Congratulations to Emmett for winning the Open Division and Chris for winning the Beginners Division!
This is from the Scholastic Chess Tournament CheckMates Chess Academy held in Elk Grove Village Illinois at the Elk Grove Village Public Library. This is a kids events run by Checkmates Chess Academy. Kids between the ages of 5 and 12 came to the library for this kids event to play in a chess tournament. CheckMates Chess Academy also ran kids chess classes at the Elk Grove Village Library for hree weeks prior teaching chess to two groups of kids (beginners and players that already knew the game of chess) different chess techniques and preparing them for the chess tournament.
CheckMates Chess Academy hosted a free kids chess tournament at the Des Plaines Public Library on Saturday October 22nd, 2011! Around 40 kids of all different ages ( grades K-6th) showed up to compete in this fun filled kid’s event.
Chess Players were split up into two groups: a beginners division and an open division. . All the children that participated earned a prize because their showed excellent sportsmanship and all tried their hardest. Everyone left the day happy and pumped to play more chess!
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