Posts Tagged ‘learn chess’
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.
Playing With a Goal
Often times students come to me to learn chess who already knows how to the play chess and ask to learn about chess strategies. There are many chess strategies that kids can learn, but there are also system of though that they must learn. These ways of thinking are, in my opinion, the most important parts of chess and are the ones most easily translate to other parts of their life. The very first of these that students of chess must learn is to play with a goal. This is tied very closely to the chess strategy of making sure each move has a purpose.
Every move needs a purpose, which means that the player needs to have a goal while playing the game of chess. This sounds obvious, but does not come naturally to the many kids of the current generation. The overall goal of chess is checkmate (to achieve it in the most efficient way), and every move needs to have that in mind.
Chess at the Morton Grove Farmers Market
Chess at the Morton Grove Farmers Market
On Saturday July 23rd, CheckMates came to the Morton Grove Farmers Market for a free demonstration. Kids got to Challenge Coach George to games for a chance to win a chess set. Although it rained on and off for the first hour, the sun came out and chess players gathered. There were around seven brave challengers who came close to winning a chess set, better luck to them next time!
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