Blitz Jackova - Kosteniuk

Here it si another Kosteniuk's great game.



The knight in d3 is scary! Put pieces in advanced squares it´s half of the way to control the entire board.

Geri's Game - Pixar's Short Film

Now here's a short video released by Pixar in 1997, and winer of the best animation film prize in that year, has also won several awards for best animated feature and best short film in the following year.

Hope you enjoy it.

Blitz Kosteniuk - Krapivin

Blitz Kosteniuk - Zhu Chen

Enjoy the wisdom of Alexandra Kosteniuk...

Military Strategy vs. Chess Strategy

Sun Tzu lived in the fourth century BC, and was a respected General in China that NEVER lost a battle.
The memory of this great military strategist is still alive to this day due to his work: "The art of war". This book is the most popular strategy work of the current days, being studied around the world for entrepreneurs, in order to prepare for the business world.
His teachings are also useful for Chess due to the depth and breadth of his ideas.


Here are some Sun Tzu's ideas (commented) that everyone should know:

"a military commander must attack where the enemy is unprepared and must use paths that, for the enemy, are unexpected ..." - Principle of Surprise;

"If you discover the weakness of the opponent, you must affect it quickly. Capture, initially, what is very valuable to the enemy. Do not reveal the time of the attack." - Principle of vulnerabilities;

"Invincibility is in defense, the possibility of victory in the attack. Who defends shows that his strength is inadequate; who attacks, shows that it is abundant." (In Chess is important to defend when we are in the lower position and attack when we are in advantage, attack in lower position is suicide);

"If it isn't advantageous, never send troops; if it yields no profit, never use your men; if it isn't a dangerous situation, never fight a battle hasty ..." (Attacks must be planned, there should be harmony between the parts, attack without activate all the parts is precipitated);

"If you know the enemy and yourself, you needn't fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you don't know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will lose all the battles. " (Knowing our strengths and weaknesses is extremely important in chess, in order to choose the best ways to trick our opponent);

"Keep them under stress and tire them." (All moves should improve our position, the pressure must be constant);

"He who is prudent and wait for a reckless enemy will be victorious."

Blitz Kosteniuk-Balashov

A quick match, commented by the current World Chess Champion, more will come ...

The Great Players Also Err ...

In this issue we will present some videos where you can see that also the best in the world are, sometimes, caught off guard ...



In today's video we present a snippet of a game between two giants of the world of chess, Kasparov and Anand, where you can clearly see the surprise reaction of Kasparov after his opponent's move, revealing all of their emotions.

Fair play in chess

In this game, as in life it is important know how to win, but also to know how to lose. The players must have an exemplary conduct and be cordials for his adversaries, independently of the result of the play.

In this video the GM Korchnoi (defeated finalist of 3 matches for the Chess World Championship), show what the strength of play has nothing to do with the good manners, and has an exaggerated reaction when he loses for time in a wining position against Sofia Polgar (the younger of the clan Polgar).

Probably it was only a bad moment of one of the most emblematic figures of our art...

Restart

After the presentation of the basic rules of the game, we enter now in a 2nd phase of our project. From now on the boarded subjects will be varied and in accordance with the demands of our readers.

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In other words, we will try that in the analysed games is used a rigorous language, but simple, which allows both the initiates and the stronger players to withdraw their lessons.

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We hope that the reports of the tournaments thatt we will post are of your pleasure and we are available so that you send to us suggestions, doubts or criticize whenever to find them relevant.

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We will put new texts and analyses, trying not to be any more than three days without putting new articles, having certainly days with multiple entries.

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What joins us all is the magic of 64 squares, let us be your masters and be our masters in this beautiful travel that is only to begin...

Chess Rules X - The annotation

For being possivel to all the readers to accompany the analyses of the plays that we will do, I start to explain how the annotation is carried out in chess.

The system used at present is the Algebraic annotation, this system numbers the eight Lines from 1 to 8 and eight Columns of A to H, the annotation is always carried out from the White's point of view.

To write down a play, each player registers his move and the adversary's move.

To write down the move:

• Normal move:

1st - It Is Written down by capital letter, the initial of the Piece that was moved;

2nd - Next, with small letter, the square for where the piece moved.

Important: The square is identified writing first, with small letter, the corresponding Column of the square, following the corresponding number of the Line that belongs to target square of the piece.

• Capture's move:

1st - There Is Written down the initial of the Piece that moved;

2nd - following it's Written down an "X", that is the sign of capture;

3rd - finally, it's written down the square of the Captured Piece.

Obs.: 1-It's not necessary to write down the name of the captured piece, just identify correcly the square where the captured piece was.

2-when the piece is a Pawn, it is not necessary to write the initial of the Piece. So, whenever a move is written down without the initial capital letter, it is already known that is a Pawn's move.

• Promotion's move:

It is written down normally the movement of the Pawn up to the final rank. After the written down move, there is registered a sign of equality (=) and the initial capital letter of the new piece that is promoted. Ex.: c8=Q or cxd8=R. In the first case, the Pawn who was in c7 advanced for c8 and promoted a Queen; in the second case, the Pawn who was in c7, captured a piece (Knight e.g.) in d8 and the Rook was promoted. In both cases, the player is free to chose what piece is promoted.

Example:

White, Black

1- e4, e5

2 - Nf3, Nc6

Conventional signs: There are several signs used during the play or in annotations of the play, with the objective to point out determined specific aspect of the move. Let's see the most used ones:

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Captures x

Check +

Checkmate ++

Good move !

Very good move !!

Bad move ?

Very bad move ??

Castle King Side 0-0

Castle Queen Side 0-0-0

' en passant ' e.p.

Proposal of Draw (=)

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Attention: It is very common among beginners not wanting to write down the plays because of thinking that it loses the concentration (generally, in tournaments among not federated).

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NEVER THIS MISTAKE IS ALLOWED!

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The accomodation of this task, it obstructs the player of later to analyse the play and to correct the committed mistakes. Then, if his wish is to become a good player, it follows the example of the best.

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WRITE DOWN YOUR PLAY!

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It still can happen, that the habit of writing down the moves favors the development of the concentration. So that, the annotation of the play, it must always be stimulated.

Chess Rules X - The value of the pieces, the importance of the centre

The value of the pieces



Has come the time of talking about the value of each piece:

Pawn - 1

Bishop - 3

Knight -3

Rook - 5

Queen - 9

King - infinity

These are approximate values, but gives an idea of the value of these pieces. It attributes infinity to the King because, in spite of being a weak piece, it is on his protection that the whole play depends.

The values are not always like these, because if a piece is well positioned it can worth more, in the same way, if it is badly positioned it worth's less.

The importance of the centre

In the beginning of the play, one of the most important things to do is to control the centre, a good rule that we should follow while developing our pieces is to move them for central squares or near to the centre, so it is where they manage to reach the whole of their strength. We can exemplify the importance of the centre with the next images referring to the possibilities of Knight's movement:

In this position the white Knight is at one of the extremities of the board and can move only for 2 squares where there are the black Pawns

Here, while being at a central square, it reach his whole power and it has 8 squares to move

Chess Rules IX - Exceptions in the movement of the pieces - Castle

Castling is the only movement where it is possible to move two pieces in the same move, the King and the Rook. this move allows to place the King more near to one of the corners of the board, where it will be more protected.

The movement consists in moving the King two squares for one side and pass the Rook for the square immediately situated in the opposite side. The castle can be made to the King side (Castling King side) or the Queen side (Castling Queen side).

There are some rules to Castle:

1. The King and the Rook must be at his initial position;


2. None of the two can already have moved;


3. There cannot be pieces between both;


4. The King cannot be in Check, pass or be at a square that is being attacked;

Castling King side:

Castling Queen side:

Cases in which it is not possible to Castle:

The white King is in Check

white King cannot Castle since it would be going to be placed at a square that is being attacked by the adversary's

Both Kings moved already, because they cannot Castle

Chess Rules VIII - The King (check, checkmate and stalemate)

Such as it was told before, the chess play finishes with the Checkmate to the adversary's King. The King is never captured and removed from the board, but when it is attacked (put in check), it must go out from the check in the next move (if this rule is not respected, the player will turn back and effectuate a new move, an illegal move is written up).

If there is no way of going out from check, the position is " checkmate ", and the player who took the checkmate loses the game.

If you are in check, there are three ways of playing:

1. To capture the attacking piece;
   
2. To put one of your pieces between the attacking piece and your King (unless the offensive piece is a Knight);
   
3. To move the King for a square where it is not being attacked.

If the player who's in check is not able to carry out any of the operations above mentioned, he is in checkmate and the play finished.

Both Kings have to maintain at least 1 square of distance between them, in order to not place themselves in check.

If a player is not in check, but it will not be able to do any legal move (not even with the King or the remaining pieces ), the position is of "stalemate" and the play is a drawn.

Examples of Checkmate:

Examples of check:

Example of stalemate:

In this position is the White to play and they have not any legal move to do.

Chess Rules VII - The King

The King is the most fragile piece, but also the most important of the whole game, since the play ends when we give a checkmate to our adversary's king. The initial position is:

O Rei pode mover 1 quadrado de todas as direções, and it can capture the adversary's pieces that are in these squares, only if these are not protected by other pieces (such as it is exemplified in the next image).

The King can never be captured! The objective of the play consists in imprisoning the King, in other words, attack it in way that it can not escape, what will be explained in the next post.

Chess Rules VI - The Knight

The Knight is considered the most elegant piece of this game, it is the only piece that can jump over the others (of his color or the adversary's colour). His initial position is the next one:

Movement - Moves two squares for a side and one for other, forming an "L" (or a square for a side and two for other, which is the same thing), alternating his movement between a white square and a black square, such as it is exemplified in the next image:

Hint - This piece captures only the piece that is situated at the square for where it moves. The Knight's movement can be difficult at the first side, but being put in the centre of the empty board and putting Pawns of the opposite color at the squares for where it is possible to move, you'll see that quickly memorize the correct movement of this piece.

Chess Rules V - The Queen

The Queen is a mighty piece, whose movement is easy of being learnt, she moves by the diagonals (such as the bishop), and for the lines and columns (such as the tower), being the mightiest piece of the board and being placed in the initial position beside the King (white Queen at white square, black Queen at black square).

The Queen's movement is exemplified in the next image:

Capture - The Queen can capture such as the Bishop or the Rook, being able to capture any adversary's piece that stands in his way, occupying the place of the captured piece.

Hint - By being the mightiest piece, the initiates in this art usually move it frequently, however such it is not advised, since due to his power it can be attacked by adversary's pieces weaker than it, what will oblige it moving back. The development of the Queen must be quite prudent.

Chess Rules IV - The Rooks

The Rooks, in the initial position of the pieces, are put in the corners of the board, having each player two Rooks in the beginning of the play.

Movement - The Rook moves in straight lines, in other words, along the lines and columns, as it is demonstrated in the next image:

The Rook can only move along the lines and/or columns if they are unoccupied, if not, his mobility is compromised. As we can see in the next image the Rook is enclosed by pieces of his color, seeing so his mobility come down only to 5 squares instead of 14 when the lines and columns are unoccupied.

Capture - The Rook, such as the Bishop already previously explained, can capture the adversary's pieces which stands in his way.

As we can see in the image above presented, the Rook can capture the adversary's Bishop.

Hint - The Rook has tactic functions of dominating open columns (without Pawns) where his movements can be well used, not being therefore much played in the initial phase of the play,but yes in the middlegame and endgame.

Chess Rules III - The Bishops

The Bishops, in the initial position, are placed beside the King and the Queen, having each player 2 Bishops in the beginning of each game, one placed in white square and other in black square.

Movement - The Bishops can only move in diagonals, as it's shown in the next image:

This piece's exclusive movement in the diagonals, gives it an interesting characteristic, the fact that it can only move by squares of his own color. So, the Bishop who begins at white square will only move in the white diagonals, and the Bishop who begins at the black square will also only move in the diagonals of the same color (black).


Capture - The Bishop can capture the adversary's pieces which are placed in his way.

As we ca see in the previous image the Bishop can move along his two diagonals, beeing able, in thi case, of capturing the adversary's Queen.

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Hint - The pair of Bishops is a very powerful weapon, being, in most cases, considered superior to the pair of Knights. The bishop reaches his whole splendor in positions where there are no pieces or pawns to limit his movements.

Chess Rules II - The Pawns

The pawn is the weakest piece in the Chess. 8 of the 16 pieces that each player has in the beginning of the play are pawns and they are put in the second and seventh rank, such as it is demonstrated in the image above.

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Movement - The Pawn can move 1 or 2 squares ahead when it is in his initial position. After it moves, the Pawn can only move 1 square in front, but only if that square is not occupied by any piece. The Pawn is the only piece that never moves backwards.

Capture - The Pawn captures in diagonal but only 1 square.

In the image above we have represented the Pawn's movement (black circle) and the capture possibilities (by X).

Exception - There is only one exception to this rules which is the capture en passant (in the passage).

Tha capture en passant is when we have an advanced pawn (5th rank for white and 4th rank for black) and the adversary plays the Pawn beside this one 2 squares, so that the Pawns are side by side, and in this particular case we can capture the adversarys pawn as he have only played 1 square.

The next images show this proceeding:

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Step 1 - The white has one Pawn in the 5th rank.

Step 2 - Black plays his side pawn 2 squares, and they are side by side.

Step 3 - White can capture black's pawn as it had played only one square.

Hint - Normally, the beginner has an exaggerated tendency in moving all or almost all the Pawns in the first moves of the game, this must be avoided because the Pawns are weak and once played cannot be moved backwards, so it is more prudent to advance only the central Pawns and develop the rest of the pieces, in order to control the centre of the board, and this way, control the play.

Chess Rules I - The Board/The Pieces

The initial position of the pieces in the chess board is the one represented in the image above. The chess board consists of 64 squares arranged by 8 columns and 8 lines, 32 white squares and 32 black squares.

Each player, in the beginning of the game, has 8 Pawns, 2 Knights, 2 Bishops, 2 Rooks, 1 Queen and 1 King (in the next posts will be explained the movements of these pieces).

The objective of this game is to give Checkmate to the adversary's King (imprison the adversary's King, this subject will be explained in the "King's movement" post).

From now I must alert you for the importance of the central squares, being chess a game that represents 2 armies in combat, the center of the board it has an extreme importance in this battle, since it's here where most of the pieces can manoeuvre more easily for any extreme of the board.

Welcome!

In this space we are going to publish several texts which will help you to improve the quality of your game. We will also going to put some interesting videos and commented games, and whenever it is justified we will present reports on the most important tournaments of the present.

Here you will find everything what you always wanted to know about this fabulous art!

If you have any doubt, please contacts us, we are here to help you.

Join in this journey and improve your knowledge about this game!