BUILD UP TO CHESS
© Charles James
COPYRIGHT ASSERTION
© Charles James
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means without the permission of the author.
The author wishes to express his thanks to www.chessvideos.tv for their tremendous software. As the software does not work on this WordPress site, you may view 30% of the book for free on my Smashwords site. Then you may purchase the entire book for $0.99. Details at the bottom!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1 Why play chess?
Chapter 2 Good manners and rules
Chapter 3 How the men move
Chapter 4 Training games to build your skills
King and 2 Bishops Against King
Chapter 5 Setting out the board and pieces
Chapter 6 How to think -Controlling the centre
Chapter 7 Forks, pins, and skewers
Chapter 8 Exchanges and sacrifices
Chapter 9 Endgames
Chapter 10 How to Open
Chapter 11 Recording the game
Chapter 12 I Keep Losing!
Chapter13 I’m good, I’m confident, now what?
Chapter 14 Fun variations on chess
Introduction
This is the book I needed when I was a child learning to play chess. I hope it will help many other children towards having fun in chess.
I started a children’s chess club at a YMCA more than 30 years ago. Within months we had 22 children playing and learning. Since then I have taught chess to many other children, and sometimes to adults.
I have seen what problems people have in learning chess, and with this book I think I have made it possible for anyone to succeed in playing chess.
Many people are not taught chess properly. Far too often someone seems to say,
“Here you are – 16 men who move in 6 different ways – get on with it!”
That is not the best way to teach people to play chess.
When you learn to play a piano you do not start with a piano concerto. Instead, you start with scales and exercises. As you master each level you move on gradually to more complicated pieces, with lots of practice at each level. Then by the time your teacher gives you a piano concerto you are ready for it.
This collection of build up games works the same way. You start with a simple game involving one or two men and work on it until you really deeply understand how each piece moves. Once you deeply understand how a man moves you will never forget.
You also need to gain experience in using the men as a team. This is not easy so you build up to it slowly. Simple games that require thought build the mental muscles.
You have to gain experience in making plans, having strategies, and thinking what the other player might do.
When you have completed these games you will have a far better understanding of chess than most beginners. When you have mastered this book you will be a very competent beginner.
Then you need to play many games of chess against dozens of opponents. You will lose lots of games. It is sad but true that you learn much more from the games you lose than from the games you win. I learned a lot!
Chapter 1: Why Play Chess?
The most important reason to play chess is because chess is fun! Chess costs nothing to play, you can play as long as you like, and nothing breaks or gets used up.
You normally play chess across a table or desk, but you can play on a low wall, or even on the floor. You can play chess by letter, by email, or over the internet. You can play chess against a chess programme on your computer or on a hand held games toy.
On a desert island you can mark out your board on the sand and use sea shells and rocks for pieces. You can even practice chess by playing both sides. In most towns there are cheap shops selling really cheap chess sets. If your parents can afford it, ask them to buy you a decent chess set.
If you play chess, people will think you are brainy. It will also be true. Like any muscle, if you use your brain a lot your brain improves.
The first few times you rode a bicycle you were wobbly. Your bicycling skills improved by practising. As you get used to balancing – and moving your legs at the same time – and watching the road – and then you move on to doing wheelies – you forget how difficult the first few rides were. It is the same with chess except that in chess you do not get hurt.
The first day I was given a bicycle I found myself going down a steep hill, in traffic. I could not slow down because I could not remember which was the front brake and which was the back brake. Eventually I hit a kerb, flew over the handlebars, hurt myself, and the bicycle had a broken front fork. Nothing as bad happens in chess- honest!
You meet people. In chess you want an opponent. You can go anywhere in the world, put a chess set out in front of you, and play chess against yourself. Soon you will be talking with a foreigner, even if he doesn’t speak your language and you don’t speak his. Try it the next time you go on holiday.
Other children in your school or club will play chess. If you become a good player you might play for your school or for your club against other teams and meet more people.
Chapter 2: Good Manners And Rules In Chess
RULE What is the difference between a “man” and a “piece”? A pawn is only a “man”, but it is not a “piece”. Everything else is a “piece” and is also a “man”. Your “men” are your pawns and your pieces.
RULE When you put the board down to play chess or a training game, the rule is “white on the right”. The first row of squares on the side nearest you must always have a white square on the right hand end corner. You must, must, must do this. If you are not very good at remembering left and right ask someone to check you have got it right. Or wear a rubber band on your right wrist.
GOOD MANNERS You should always be polite and considerate to your opponent, because you are trying to have fun together. Do not talk to or distract your opponent while your opponent is trying to think.
If you are inconsiderate to people, they won’t play chess with you – or anything else! At the end of the game shake hands and say something nice to your opponent such as “Well done” or “You nearly got me with that knight!”
Or “I did not notice your Queen could take my knight – I have learned from that!”
GOOD MANNERS Do not boast about how good you are at chess. You are likely to meet a more skilled player quite soon. Be a little modest and humble and surprise people when you beat them.
GOOD MANNERS If you are playing someone younger or less skilled than you, you can suggest a handicap such as you playing without a queen or without both castles. It makes the game more fun because your opponent now has a chance to win. If they win you can reduce the handicap – perhaps to a knight rather than a queen or castles. Handicaps are for friendly games. In a competition game you use all your skills and knowledge and aim to win but you should still have good manners.
GOOD MANNERS With younger players a lot of squabbling can come about by people touching pieces. You must learn to think with your eyes and not with your fingers.
RULE
If you touch a piece you must move it.
If you touch your opponent’s piece you must take it.
These rules mean there can be no suggestion that a player is craftily moving a man “accidentally”.
RULE Sometimes a man really does need adjusting. Explain the problem to your opponent without touching the man and, with his/her agreement, you can adjust it.
GOOD MANNERS If you have the bad habit of touching the men, practice playing chess with your hands behind your back -or sit on your hands.
RULE “Taking a move back”. In chess you cannot take a move back.
GOOD MANNERS You must think about your move before you do it – not after. Even if your opponent is willing to let you take a move back, taking a move back is for babies.
If you are lucky a more skilled player will sometimes suggest you take a move back because you have made a serious mistake.
If you make a mistake you should either resign or learn from your mistake by fighting on. Next time you play that player, suggest that s/he gives you a handicap.
Chapter 3: How The Men Move
RANK AND FILE
The line of squares along your side of the board is your first rank. The second line is the second rank. The furthest line is the eighth rank. A line of squares running down the board from you to your opponent is a “file”. A file is normally named after your piece that starts the game there such as “Queen’s File” or “Queen’s Knight’s File”. There is a system for writing down moves (see Chapter 11) where files are labelled a-h, so many writers use “the d file” to describe the Queen’s file.
On Chess diagrams the black or white circle at the bottom left of the board indicates whether it is black’s turn to move or white’s turn to move. On many of my illustrations it does not matter.
Each Pawn can move forward one or two squares on its first move and one move forward each time after that.
The Pawn is the only man whose move when taking another man (pawn or a piece) is different to its normal move. The Pawn cannot take on the square in front of it where it would normally move to.
The pawn takes one square diagonally forward, left or right.
In the illustration above the pawn can take the knight by moving onto the knight’s square or it can take the castle by moving onto the castle’s square or it can move forward or it can stay still.
En Passant
There is a special move for Pawns called en passant. “En passant” is French for “in passing”.
For “en passant” your Pawn must be on the 5th rank. In Illustration 1 if your opponent moved a Pawn forward one square on an adjoining file, from his second rank to his third rank, you could take it.
If your opponent moves the Pawn two squares to the fourth rank your opponent thinks the Pawn will get past your Pawn.
Without the “en passant” rule it could.
With “en passant” you can take your opponent “en passant”, moving your Pawn to the 6th rank, as if the opponent’s Pawn had moved one square only, and you had taken it in the normal way.
You do not have to take en passant if you do not want to.
You cannot “save up” taking en passant. You can only do it when your opponent moves the Pawn, not on a later move.
It is polite to say “en passant” when taking “en passant”.
If the Pawn moves one square only, from its second rank to its third rank or from its third rank to its fourth rank, the “en passant” rule does not apply.
“En passant” does not happen very often, but you need to know it.
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