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Chess is not the most fun game for me because you really have to take the time to analyze each move by methodically walking forward in your mind and simulating all possible outcomes for the next few moves, which to me is a boring and unpleasant task. I heard somewhere that the best chess players excel not so much because they find awesome moves but because they don't make mistakes, although I can't find a reference for that (though there is the quote: "Avoidance of mistakes is the beginning, as it is the end, of mastery in chess. - Eugene Znosko-Borovsky"). I haven't tried speed chess however, perhaps I would like it more.
Related to this, computers can do pretty well against humans in Chess, but not as much in the game of Go. This is because, in Chess, the number of possibilities to consider in the next few moves is small enough that a computer doing a simple brute force exhaustive search can get quite far ahead, whereas in Go the number of the number of possibilities to consider is greater, making the advantage of brute force exhaustive search less for Go than in Chess. Since 'brute force exhaustive search' is the cognitive operation that I find boring and unpleasant, and since this operation is less useful in Go than in Chess, this suggests that I may find more enjoyment and success in Go than Chess.
Actually, though, I haven't devoted much time to either one. However, sometimes I hear various things about Chess and I want to write them down in case I should ever want to spend some time on it. So, the reader should beware that the notes on this page are written by an ignorant person.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_passant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_notation_%28chess%29
"I can't tell you how many times I've been playing on campus and someone will start with a move such as moving one of their rook's pawns two spaces forward. The basic logic behind making that move is that the rook can then move up afterward, and then later outward. This is a terrible, terrible move.
You've wasted three very precious moves while your opponent has had time to develop pawns to the center, activate knights or bishops, and even become very close to being able to castle. Oh, and what do you have to show for it? You've got one rook activated. Not a good positional trade at all.
C.) Don't take out the queen too early!
This is a very, very bad idea. But why? I used to ask the same exact question, it seems like a great idea! Bring out a powerhouse piece to dominate the board, right? Wrong.
The beginning of the game is incredibly fragile. Introducing such a great power when your opponent is developing his or her opening defense or offense is very dangerous indeed. Generally speaking, your opponent can and will find ways to protect and back up their own pieces from your queen and also develop more pieces at the same time. While you may not lose the queen, your opponent has gained the extra territory and development while all you've got is a queen that's been running all over and out of breath. " -- http://voices.yahoo.com/the-top-5-worst-chess-mistakes-fix-them-4054827.html
" 2.)If you're down, do NOT be willing to trade! " -- http://voices.yahoo.com/the-top-5-worst-chess-mistakes-fix-them-4054827.html
who is defending ea. piece
attack pressure on ea. piece and ea. square from which guys and how many
the best defender of a pawn is another pawn bc its a low value piece low value pieeces are beetter defenders, high value pieces are better attackers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_piece_relative_value
weak square
space behind pawns
open games or closed
"Don’t bother spending any time studying openings outside of analyzing your games. Just make sure you know the basic opening principles. I teach my beginning students simple openings like the London System as white, and a kingside fianchetto system as black (7 – This setup involves the moves Nf6, g6, d6, Bg7, and O-O, resulting in a setup as seen below. Experienced players might point out that this could lead to the King’s Indian Defense or the Pirc Defense, which turn out to be rather complicated openings. This is true, but you can play both these openings with little theoretical knowledge up to the 1600 level and still be fine.). These openings are simple, solid, can be played against virtually anything." -- http://www.gautamnarula.com/how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_endgame
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_%28chess%29
to analyze exchanges, evaluate positions before and after
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_exchange_(chess)
Each move (and each lookahead move, i guess), consider:
each real move, consider:
" If there's a sequence of captures possible, make sure you analyze through the end of those captures, and try to go one move past the final capture, so that you can be sure the position really is settled in the end. A good rule of thumb is to make sure you try to analyze a variation one move deeper each time you see a check, capture, or major threat. Doing so may show that a seemingly safe move is actually quite dangerous once the dust settles." -- http://chess.about.com/od/improveyourchess/qt/Avoiding-Blunders-In-Chess.htm
"when the engine finds a tactical error in your game (and in the analysis of variations that you said you saw in the game) you have to look for patterns. Searching for tactical patterns, you have to look at how many moves in your calculations until you made a serious mistake. This will help you determine your horizon. If you find that you often make a mistake in your calculations after four moves, then you will develop a more watchful eye and pay more attention in such calculations during your games." -- http://www.chess.com/blog/CharlyAZ/a-hardcore-guide-to-analyze-your-chess-games
"Just because a tactic doesn't appear to work at first glance doesn't mean it isn't dangerous. For one, you should always try changing the order of the moves in the potential tactic to see if that can make such an attack more successful; often, move order is key. Other times, a threat may truly be innocuous for now, but forgetting about it later could be deadly. Many games in scholastic tournaments are won this way, when a player who has been facing a mating threat for many moves suddenly removes a defender, allowing the checkmate to occur." -- http://chess.about.com/od/improveyourchess/qt/Avoiding-Blunders-In-Chess.htm
popular chess programs: chessbase, Fritz, Rybka, shredder
"One big mistake is to rely heavily on computers for chess analysis...Working through games on your own and trying to find the best moves and ideas is highly instructive. Computer analysis should be done only after you analyze the game on your own, so you can compare your analysis to the computer’s and unearth any mistakes you made in assessing critical positions in the game." -- http://www.gautamnarula.com/how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast/
http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Tactics-Beginners-Training-Software/dp/B004U0YZ0M (recc. by http://www.gautamnarula.com/how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast/ )
Best open source one right now (late 2013):
Links:
Don't get impatient, don't get arrogant, don't stop being careful when you're winning, don't give up too soon when you're losing, think about why your opponent is doing what they are doing, if there is a timer then save time for later.
Once you hit 1600, get a good opening book that gives you both specific moves and the ideas behind the opening. Don’t mindlessly memorize! Some good books here are Alburt’s Chess Openings for Black, Explained (I hear Chess Openings for White, Explained is pretty good but I’ve never used it), and Cox’s Starting Out: 1. d4!8 (Incidentally, I don’t recommend the book’s counterpart, Starting Out: 1.e4!).
Obviously this depends on your opening preferences. Even here openings should not be your main focus. I only consult these books when analyzing my games to see where I deviated from established opening theory
... Until you hit 1400-1500, you should be picking up strategic play from analyzing your games and going over annotated games. Once you hit that level, I recommend Silman’s The Amateur’s Mind and Seirawan’s Winning Chess Strategies, and once you hit 1800, Silman’s Reassess Your Chess, Fourth Edition.
...
Endgame
After learning the basic checkmates (King and Queen vs. King, King and Rook vs. King, etc.), Silman’s Complete Endgame Course is the only book you need. Study the appropriate section based on your rating, and only come back to it if it’s clear that you keep messing up endgames.
Annotated Games
Go over at least one annotated game a week (and more frequently if you’re a serious competitive player). A good annotated game book is Winning Chess Brilliancies by Seirawan. I hear the Mammoth Book of the World’s Greatest Chess Games is pretty good too, but I can’t personally vouch for it.
Study broader topics, like strategy or endgame, only when you feel like that topic is causing you to lose. For instance, only open a strategy book if you keep getting outplayed positionally. Otherwise, your default state should be studying tactics and analyzing your games.
The tl;dr of this training plan is: play a lot, analyze your games, and primarily study tactics. Your knowledge of openings, endgame, middlegame, etc. will come from analyzing your games and going over grandmaster games. Only study one of those specific topics if it is clear you are specifically losing because of that topic.
" -- http://www.gautamnarula.com/how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast/
"Step 1: Improve your Chess Vision with Micro-level Drills The goal of step 1 is to greatly improve your Chess Vision: what you see in the first ten-second glance at the board. You will do this by repeating a set of micro- level exercises. When athletes practice, they repeat short exercises over and over again. For example, basket- ball players stand at the free throw line and shoot free throw after free throw. Soccer players practice simple passing schemes repeat- edly. Standard chess study involves very few of these micro-level drills but here, in the first step of the plan, this is exactly what you will be doing. The first step lasts 28 days. During the first 14 days you will practice simple forks and skewers. During the next 14 days you will focus on the knight and how it moves. To practice simple forks and skewers use an exercise that I call the Concentric Square. Begin by placing the black king on d5 and a black rook on d4. Now sequen- tially place the white queen on every square where it safely forks or skewers the black king and rook. Once you have determined that there are no such squares move the rook in a square around the king (squares e4, e5, e6, d6, c6, c5, and c4) and look for forks and skewers. When you find such a square, physically lift up the white queen and place it on the square. Involving your body in this process is critical because it helps to cement the connection between the position and the key square. Now move the rook one square further away from the king and repeat the process. The rook now moves through the squares c3, d3, e3, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, e7, d7, c7, b7, b6, b5, b4, and b3. Continue moving the rook one more square away from the king until the rook reaches the edge of the board. This diagram illustrates the concen- tric squares that the rook traces as it moves around the stationary king. The rook travels the following path: d4, e4, e5, e6, d6, c6, c5, c4, c3, d3, e3, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, e7, d7, c7, b7, b6, b5, b4, b3, b2, c2, d2, e2, f2, g2, g3, g4, g5, g6, g7, g8, f8, e8, d8, c8, b8, a8, a7, a6, a5, a4, a3, a2, a1, b1, c1, d1, e1, f1, g1, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, h7, and h8. Ed. Note: I had to add a White King to insert the diagram. Now replace the black rook on d4 with a black bishop, black knight, and black queen and repeat the Concentric Square exercise. Finally, pound the attacking patterns into your brain by repeat- ing the Concentric Square exercise for each of the black pieces (black rook, black bishop, black knight, and black queen) every day for fourteen days. By the end of these 14 days your ability to see forks and skewers in your first ten-second glance at the board will vastly improve. After the initial 14-day period, consider going through these exercises once or twice a week and before games to refresh your skills. You can add variety to these exercises by using a white rook, knight, or bishop instead of a white queen and changing the position of the black king to, say, g8 and c8, the two squares that the king moves to after castling. As you are going through these exercises you will probably notice that the knight poses the most difficulty. The squares that the other pieces can move to just pop out while the squares that the knight moves to often have to be “calculated” by class players. This consumes time and energy that could be used on other aspects of the game. When I was a class D player I remember dreading having an opponent’s knight posted on e5/e4/d5/d4 because I knew that I would overlook a fork at some point. Conversely, I knew that if I was able to post a knight on one of the four center squares I was very likely to win the game. The next micro drill, which I call Knight Sight, is designed to make the squares that a knight can move to “pop out.” Begin by placing a knight on a1 and physi- cally hit the squares that it can move to (c2 and b3) with your finger (see next diagram). Then move the knight to a2 and repeat the process. Continue until you reach a8 and then move back to b1, going row by row until you reach h8. Repeat this Knight Sight exercise every day for one week Improve your Knight Sight by placing the knight on a1 and then physically hitting the squares that it can move to, c2 and b3, with your finger. Then move the knight to b1 and repeat the process. Ed. Note: I added the King’s to insert the diagram. At the end of this week, test your Knight Sight by placing the knight on random squares on the board and see if the squares that it can move to jump out at you. If they do not, then repeat the process for another week and continue doing so until you no longer need to calculate the knight’s moves. Once your Knight Sight meets your standards, you are ready to move on to the next step. Place a knight on d5 and calculate the minimum number of moves that it takes to bring the knight to d4. Improve your Knight Sight further by placing the knight on d5 and calculating the shortest path to d4. For added challenge, calculate all minimal paths. You can prove that it takes exactly three moves: first you can show that it does not take one move because your Knight Sight makes the squares that the knight can move to in one move pop out, and d4 is not one of them. Second, you know that it cannot take two moves to move the knight to d4 because the knight alternates colors, and since d5 is a dark square, it cannot be on d4 which is a light square after two moves. Third, it does not require more than three moves to go from d5 to d4 because you can calculate at least one path (e.g., d5-c3-e2-d4) that takes exactly three moves. Now go through the same process that we followed in the Concentric Squares micro drill. Starting each exercise with the knight on d5, move the knight to the squares e4, e5, e6, d6, c6, c5, and c4 in the minimal number of moves. For added challenge find all of the minimal paths, not just one. And, just as before, expand the concentric square as shown in Figure 1 and repeat the process. Continue expanding the square until the knight is at the edge of the board. Repeat this process every day for a week. As a refresher repeat it before tournaments and on a monthly basis. You can vary the exercise by changing the knight’s starting square. Instead of d5, try c3, f3, b1, and g1, all natural squares for the knight. Some players may object that these micro drills are so trivial that they are unnecessary. The fact that they are trivial, however, does not mean that they are not useful. Remember that soccer players practice penalty kicks and basket- ball players practice slam-dunks even though these tasks are trivial. Professional athletes perform these micro drills over and over again so that they can perform at a high level in adverse situations.
Even very strong players make simple Chess Vision mistakes. For example, Joel Benjamin missed a mate in one against Boris Gulko at the 2000 US Champion- ships. The purpose of these exercises is to automate the knowledge that you already have so that you unconsciously see combinations without having to exert any effort. So the time and energy that you save can then be spent on calculating complicated combinations. You are now finished with step one of the five month course. Your ability to spot combinations and to calculate knight moves will have greatly improved and you are now ready to move to step 2, which we will explore in the next issue. " -- http://www.masschess.org/Chess_Horizons/Articles/2001-01_Sample_400_Points_Part_1.pdf recc. by http://www.gautamnarula.com/how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast/ (note: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6792378 anti-recommends this book except for the exercises above; http://www.gautamnarula.com/how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast/ also did not recommend anything except for this part
" 5 – Here’s a very simplified guide for beginning players who want to improve rapidly in a month or two
Learn the basic opening principles: control the center, develop your pieces, and king safety. Googling this should yield useful articles.
Learn the basic checkmates: King + Queen vs King, King and two Rooks vs King, and King and one Rook vs King
Get Chess Tactics for Beginners and do 50 puzzles a day
Do the Chess Vision and Knight Sight exercises from 400 Points in 400 Days Part I
Play as much as you can
If possible, go over your games with a stronger player
" -- http://www.gautamnarula.com/how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast/
Deep Blue shows that chess can be trivially won with overwhelming computing power.
So, if you want computers to play chess, either against each other, against human players, or in hybrid teams with human players, you should limit their computing power.
I propose the creation of a standard chess virtual machine ("VM"). Chess-playing computer programs would be written to run on this virtual machine. This would allow one to ensure that both sides get the same amount of CPU time and memory per turn.
One wouldn't have to actually create an entire VM de novo. One could use an existing VM, e.g. JVM or CLR or LuaVM?, and only add a simple Chess API by which the machine can inspect the board position, accept keyboard input, and print things to a console.
