Posts Tagged ‘Chess Classes’
Online Chess Lessons!
Online Chess Classes are now available through CheckMatesUSA! We are offering both one-on-one online chess lessons as well as group online chess lessons for multiple students. We have a variety of teachers that can teach chess to all skill levels from absolute beginner to masters of the game. Our teachers can also speak many languages such as English, Russian, Spanish, Georgian, Hindu, and Tamil.
One-on-One Online Chess Classes
One-on-one online chess lessons are great for people of all ages and skill levels that want to get better at chess. Online Chess Classes give you the ability to learn chess from your home. Online chess lessons are the perfect option to help you improve drastically or learn the game quickly because our chess instructors teach at your pace and customize each lesson for you. If you don’t want to pay the high fees of having an instructor drive to your house and don’t want to settle for the low quality of a cheap instructor, one-on-one online chess lessons with CheckMatesUSA are the way to go.
Group Online Chess Classes
We can also offer you group chess lessons online. Working in a group doesn’t give you as much personal attention as one-on-one online chess lessons, but it has other advantages. A lot of people prefer to learn with a group so they have someone to practice their chess concepts with. Group members can be in the same room, but don’t have to be.
How it happens?
Online Chess Classes use free software such as Skype or Google Hangout to connected chess teachers with one or many students. Students are not only able to see the instructor face-face, but also to share the same screen and use an interactive chess board to learn on. With our system, any resource that the teacher has on his/her computer is available to the students during the lesson. This makes learning chess online with us easy and convenient.
If you would like more information about our online chess lessons or to schedule, contact us.
Online Chess Classes are currently on special for $50 a class!
Learning Chess from Yasser Seirawan
Day one with GM Yasser Seirawan who was the World Junior Champion in the 1970′s. He is not only a phenomenal chess player but he is also a very intriguing and interesting person who not only kept us involved and attentive during a 6 hour-long lecture but he kept us entertained as well. He told sad stories, funny stories, and often times outright ridiculous stories but somehow in the end he managed to connect it to chess in a seamless manner. This was very inspiring for me because this is a very important skill to obtain especially if one is to become a chess captain or chess coach like myself. I believe this is because it allows the audience to delve in and become a part of the lesson. Well after the lecture was completed he went on to compete against 27 individuals in a simultaneous exhibition (playing 27 people at once) including myself. As he made his first move on each board, he shook hands with each individual and he politely smiled and wished all his opponents good luck. As he was making his way towards me I was really excited to play him as he is one my role models.
He finally came around and shook my hand and then my game, along with everyone else’s, began. After 2 hour long struggle, I managed to hold a draw against Mr. Seirawan and I was quite content with the results. GM Seirawan scored 23.5/27 points. He won 20 games, drew 5 and lost 1 so overall he had a very good result. Simuls are especially fun for me to not merely play in but also watch because GM Seirawan was breezing through boards playing amazing moves in the matter of 2-3 seconds. Having a group of people also adds to the fun and excitement. All in all simuls are a great way to play in chess and have fun. I am currently a Senior at Niles North High-School and playing in this simultaneous exhibition or simul was tons of fun for me and I am definitely looking forward to the next one! Until then, this is Rafeh Qazi signing out.
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.
How the Pawn Moves
The Pawns are always the smallest of the pieces, and you should have eight of them. They will go on the second and seventh rows. White on the second row (a2, b2, c2, d2, e2, f2, g2, h2) and black on the seventh row (a7, b7, c7, d7, e7, f7, g7, h7).
The pawn is my favorite chess piece and also a very unique one. The pawn usually only moves one square forward. The pawns have the ability to move two squares forward if they have never moved before and only one square forward afterwards. They can also just go one square forward on their first turn. They are the only piece that cannot go backwards, and also the only one that attacks differently than it moves. A pawn attacks on a diagonal.
The white pawn on f4 captures the black pawn on e5 and takes over its square.
Attacking in chess is different than in checkers, as the attacking piece does not skip over the piece, but actually captures it by taking over its square.
Chess Tournament this Saturday!
This Saturday we will be having a kids chess tournament at Elk Grove Village Library from 1:30 - 3:00. All kids from grades k- 6th are welcome to come, even beginners! Kids will be separated into two sections: Beginners and Intermediate/ Advanced. Everyone will leave with a prize and first place will leave with an even COOLER PRIZE!
Residents of Elk Grove can register now, while residents of other townships will have to wait until Friday to register. The library can be reached at 847-439-0447.
Castling in Chess
Castling is a unique and special move in chess. Castling is one of the three main goals in the opening of the game and you SHOULD do it in every game you play. Castling is the one time in a chess game that you can move two pieces at the same time!
Why would you castle? Well…just think of the word. Chess is a medieval battle and the castle is where the King goes to stay safe.
You should know that there are two ways to Castle: Kingside and Queenside. Chess Players are very logical and therefore you probably correctly assumed that Castling Kingside is going towards the rook on the King’s Side. The Queenside Castle is towards the side of the Queen. Because castle is such an important and special move in chess there are some special rules that a player must obey in order to castle.
Rule #1: To castle in chess you need to make sure that you have moved all the pieces in between the King and the Rook on the side you want to castle to.
This Player is ready to Castle Queenside. Notice that it takes longer to be able to castle queenside bause there are more chess pieces in the way.
Rule #2: To castle in chess you need to make sure that your King is not in Check and will not travel through check.
Rule #3: To castle in chess you need to make sure that your King and Rook (that you are castling with) have not moved. If either piece has moved you lose the ability to castle.
Finally, if your King and Rook have not moved, your King is not in check and will not travel through it, and there are no chess pieces in between the King and the Rook, then you can castle. Move your King two square and bring the rook around him. You final Castle should look like this:
What is a stalemate?
Stalemate is either a relief to you or a huge disappointment. A stalemate in chess is one of the four ways to achieve a draw (a tie game). A stalemate happens when a player cannot make any moves. In chess you are never allowed to skip your turn; therefore, if you cannot move the game is over in a tie. Look at the position below: can you find how white is able to force a stalemate?
If you thought of Queen taking h7 you are correct. Black has no option but to take the Queen and White now cannot move: stalemate. Moving the Queen to g4 or any other square where it can get taken doesn’t work because black does not have to take the queen…therefore the game doesn’t have to end in stalemate.
A stalemate can be a huge relief to you if you are losing but also a huge disappointment to you if you are winning. In a losing position you must know how to force a stalemate. if you are winning, you must know how to avoid giving your opponent a stalemate. You really don’t have to worry about a stalemate until the end of the game. You can practice forcing stalemates with chess puzzles that we have posted online.
The Ven Diagram of Chess
The Ven Diagram of Chess is something I created to help explain what a player should try to do in a game of chess. Of course, we all know that a player must always strive to give a checkmate. This is a very general goal and most people would get frustrated if that is the only advice a coach would give.
The Chess Ven Diagram Visually Guides you to what you should be able to do. It does not show any specific moves, but instead explains the theory of how you will be able to create the opportunity for yourself to win on the chess board.
If you look at the Chess Ven Diagram you can tell that the main goal of chess is to checkmate your opponent. There are two things that you need to do to allow you to checkmate your opponent: Control the Board and Protect your King. You can protect your King by Castling either Queenside or Kingside. In order to control the board you must develop your pieces to powerful squares and stop your opponent from doing so. These powerful chess squares are most often in the middle. If you do these things you can attack your opponent and control the momentum of the game. This will allow you to then give a checkmate.
What is a pawn chain?
Pawn are the first piece that most players learn…but are by no means the simplest. They are a very unique piece for a variety of reasons:
1. They are the only pieces that cannot move backwards.
2. They are the only pieces that attack differently that they moves.
3. They are the only pieces that can be promoted.
Pawns are actually my favorite piece for these and many other reasons, but enough about pawns. Pawn chains are one the first strategies that a chess players learns when dealing with pawns. A pawn chain in when a group of pawns are in a diagonal protecting each other. This is beneficial because the pawns are much harder to attack for your opponent, and easier to defend for you. The pawn at the bottom of the pawn chain the only vulnerable one and therefore you can focus your defenses on him. Later on, more advanced players learn to coordinate their pawn chains with the color of their bishop. Having many pawns chains on the board leads to a closed position and is very powerful for a knight.
Discovery Attack!
A discovery attack is one of the best tactics that a player can use in a chess game. It is a chess tactic that will distract your opponent from your main attack…then if they don’t notice…DISCOVERY ATTACK!
Here’s how it works:
In this position (We are playing as white) we can use a discovery attack to win our opponents Queen and eventually win the game. Our Knight on e3 can move anywhere it wants to without fear or being taken, as our Rook on e2 will be attacking the opponents king and creating the discovery attack. In this instance, it is actually a discovery check, which is the best kind of discovery attack. Can you figure out where we should move our knight?
…
..
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If you are thinking f5 you are correct. By moving our knight to f5 we can attack the Queen and create a discovery check with our rook. The Queen is now lost for black, as it can only go to e3 or e6 to stop the discovery attack and both moves will lead to it being taken.
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