Chess Play

I've always been interested in chess. I father would teach me to play, but I have been killed in Afghanistan two years ago. The only people I know who play chess are now my cousins but they live far away. It seems that I might have to teach me. Can I show how p, ay failures and how?

Firstly, I am sorry to hear about your father. The country will always be indebted to him for his service.

You can certainly teach your self to play chess. While websites are very good, I personally think that the best way to learn is to sit down with a real chess game and a chess book.

You already have a chess ... if you do not, you can get a cheap game in many places .... stores such as Wal Mart, Kmart, Target has chess sets in the respective departments of games (most of the time, it will come in a package with other games such as backgammon and auditors, who are also fun to play).

A couple of good books that I highly recommend for a beginner are two books by Susan Polgar.

The first is called "Guide to World Chess Champion" and the other book is called "Chess Tactics for Champions". AWCG tell you everything you need to know how to play the game, including how to record the movements of a game (chess notation).

Once you learn the basics of the game these two books, you can even play against your cousins by e-mail if you want ... Make your e-mail and moves back and forth to each other ... This way, you'll both be looking at the same table. You can fix it so that you can take a day or two to think about your moves before you go and email each other.

"Chessmaster is a chess software good for beginners, because it contains excellent tutorials on the game, you can go far at your own pace.

Once you pass through these two books, there are many other good chess books for beginners. Bruce Pandolfini is a lot of good books for your level, well written and easy to understand. There are chess books out there for all skill levels, but do not worry about the stuff the most advanced at this point. You'll get there one day.

You can check with your friends around too ... You might be surprised that some of them could play chess, and perhaps you did not know before.


Another thing: In order to study and learn the game, you need to do is to study "Endgames" first, then the "middle game", then "".... that sounds Openings cons-intuitive, but trust me on this ... the game is much easier to learn when there are only a few pieces on the board, so you can see how the different pieces work together without worry about many other parts cluttering things.

World Champion's Guide (Polgar) has a section endgame in it.
You can also visit Bruce Pandolfini of "Endgame Course.


If you have the money to buy a good set, you can try to Yasser Seirawan "Winning Chess series. His books are excellent, written on a beginner / novice, which is what you want now.

The books should be studied in the following order:

1) Play Winning Chess
2) Chess Endgames drink
3) Winning Chess Tactics
4) Winning Chess Strategies

After that, you can go to:

Combinations 5) Winning Chess
Brilliance 6) Winning Chess
Openings 7) Winning Chess

Seirawan does a great job of explaining the game, it is an excellent teacher.

Anyway, they help you get started.

Again, I'm sorry to hear about your father. Once you get into chess, you will understand why he want.