Chess

Maintain control of the middle of the board. That was the one piece of advice I remember from fairly intense study of the game as a youth.

 

You're not going to win in one move. Basically the same rule that goes for everything else.

 

You can win in 4 moves though

 

Shhhhhhhhhh!

 

This did need to be done. Good job, Bubler.

Rusty - I used to be into chess pretty hard. Even did chess club in high school. My advice is play a lot, for sure. But I would also recommend getting a good book (or online manual, I guess. But a book is definitely preferable, IMO) which goes over basic strategies, 'point values' for pieces, etc. Game strategies fall into 3 phases: openings, midgame, and endgame. If you have a good idea of opening strategies and concepts, you will become a better player right away. There are some really good books out there. I can't remember the name of the book I used, but I'm sure you can look some good ones up on Amazon, etc.

Chess is as much a memorization game as it is a strategy game, if not more. Repetition and knowing what the 'best' move in a given situation is are the keys to success. I actually got away from the game because I felt like it was less strategy and too much memorization. But I still love it, I just play far less frequently.

Have fun. It's a great thrill.

 

I'll play Yahoo chess sometimes. Days I beat guys with 10,000 wins then lose to someone with 18 wins. But I'm not a student of the game, either. Anyone wanna play, PM me.

 

Great thread, Rusty. I couldn't have written it better myself since it's almost the exact same thing.

Thanks for all the tips and pointers too.

And yes, I've lost in four moves.

 

Think ahead is great advice. In my world civilization class in high school we took two weeks to study chess. One week was learning the game (I already knew, so I was just learning new moves). The second week, we did a class-wide tournament. I got lucky enough to have a bunch of jocks who didn't pay attention the first week in my class, but when it came down to the championship, it was me vs. one of the football players. I don't remember who won, but I remember the game being really good and taking almost the entire hour before it was over.

 

Here's some game:

 

Justifiably so. I have Chessmaster 9000, and at least one new edition has since been released.

It has some outstanding learning tools, and its ability to teach at so many levels - from the beginner who thinks the game is cool and interesting but has no idea how a knight or rook moves - to a much more advanced offering is highly impressive.

Learn the pieces, what they do, then learn some opening sets, learn how to checkmate when given the opportunity to close, then learn to think ahead more and more and more and more. Easier said than done, but anyway ...

spup, I got lucky in gaining some revenge on who was supposedly the best player in a class full of pretty sharp people (excluding my dumb self, of course). The real fun was taking him out in the class championship ... though he was a pretty decent guy. No celebration or in-your-face necessary. Even in sixth grade.

 

I can't believe no one's posted this. D'Angelo from The Wire:

"This the king pin. He da man. You get the other dude's king, you got the game. But he tries to get your king too because that's the game. Now the king he move any direction he damn choose, because he the king. But he got no hustle. The rest of the other motherfuckers, they got his back and they run so deep, he ain't got to do shit.

"Now you see this?" He picks up the queen. "This the queen. She smart, she fierce. She move any way she want, as far as she want. And she is the go-get-shit-done piece.
"And this over here is the castle, it's like the stash, it move like this and like this."

One of the kids points to the pawns and says, "What about these little bald-headed bitches here?"

"These the pawns. They the soldiers. One space forward only. Except when they fight, they go sideways. They like the front lines. They be in the field."

"How they get to be the king?"

"It ain't like that. See, the king stay the king. Everything stay who he is, except for the pawns. Now if a pawn make it to the other dude's side, he get to be queen. Like I said, the queen ain't no bitch. She got all the moves."

"The king stay the king."

Brilliant.

I used to play a lot of chess and when my eldest was about 10, I bought him one of those electronic chessboards where you could play against the board. Great learning tool.

My problem was the middle game. I always seemed to screw myself by one bad move.

Haven't played in a while.

 

Too busy sucking cock down at the bus station?