I suck at chess

Gavin_86

New member
It's very sad, but very true. I suck at chess. Lately I've taken to playing chess with some friends from school after and in between breaks for class. How incredibly dorky of me. Anyhow, I've been getting my ass thoroughly bashed in pretty much every game. I've gotten a little bit better, but I don't really know what I'm doing.

I've started to practice with GNU Chess + xboard in an effort to stop sucking so bad, but unfortunatly when I lose I don't seem to realize why. This all comes back to me lacking any real stategy.

So what I'm really curious about is if anyone has any good links to strategies online. I've done some googling but mostly came up with people trying to sell me a book or something to the effect of, "the point of chess is to kill the oppononts king".
<P ID="signature">Call me Deacon Blues</P>
 
> Chess is about thinking ahead, making moves in your head 3
> or 4 moves later that you will use to capitalize on your
> opponent's mistakes. The game is more involved than the move
> you are on.

I'm trying to keep that in mind as I'm making my moves, however I'm curious if there are any trusted attack patterns or general movements that seem to work better than others?
<P ID="signature">Call me Deacon Blues</P>
 
> I'm trying to keep that in mind as I'm making my moves,
> however I'm curious if there are any trusted attack patterns
> or general movements that seem to work better than others?

Well, I only play Chinese chess, but the strategy isn't terribly different than regular chess.

The best advice I can give you: do not underestimate your pawns. It's a huge mistake a lot of people make and something you can seriously abuse. If you can get a pawn to the other end of the board, all you need is one other piece (any piece) to put the king in checkmate.

People don't pay attention to pawns, and they tend to get insulted if you use pawns in an offensive.

Last piece of advice, abuse the opponent's own defense. If you can trick them into guarding their king with what seems like a good series of moves, all you need is a knight to come in, and they will have no way to move out of checkmate.

For an example, here's a game against the advanced Qianhong computer where I took the king in 11 moves.

1. E7+5 h8+7
2. C2.3 r9.8
3. C3+4 p3+1
4. H2+3 e3+5
5. H8+7 h2+3
6. P3+1 r1+1
7. H3+2 p9+1
8. H2+1 h7-5
9. C3.2 r8.9
10. H1+2 r9.8
11. H2-4
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> So what I'm really curious about is if anyone has any good
> links to strategies online. I've done some googling but
> mostly came up with people trying to sell me a book or
> something to the effect of, "the point of chess is to kill
> the oppononts king".

I don't know about links online, but any book or resource that talks about chess openings and defenses is the best start. "think ahead 3-4 moves" will never help anyone START the game...you need to know how to start the game for the first 5-6 moves at least before trying to look ahead.

Beyond that, it's just particular strategies. Forking his king and a rook with your knight, pointing multiple pieces at one weak square of the opponent's (weak being a square he can barely defend, usually occupied by a piece), and what my chess team leader said back in high school, "spaaaaaace"....trying to control the most space on the board is a good way to get ahead and win too.

I don't know what to say beyond that though...just play a bunch and you'll get the hang of it. I once drew a 2600 ELO level program in a 10 minute game (something it should have handily beaten me in), and when playing the drawn position against itself a bunch of times, I found I actually would have had a winning position in another 15 or so moves but didn't quite know how to get there. Meanwhile, I'm not really that good...I rock in speed chess though. Generally the move that comes to me right when I see my opponent's move is the best move I'm going to think up, strangely enough.
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> I'm trying to keep that in mind as I'm making my moves,
> however I'm curious if there are any trusted attack patterns
> or general movements that seem to work better than others?
>

I think the best "overall" strategy is to start with a plan, and modify it as the game progresses. Try to formulate a plan which ALLOWS itself to be changed in your favor depending on predicted actions your opponent would take to foil it. Meaning, balance the efficiency of having one plan going and another one to back it up. Try to make the second plan look like its part of the first plan, so that they don't suspect. I guess this isn't very clear advice...Another cool thing to do is make it look like you have no idea what the fuck you're doing, but then out of nowhere they're in checkmate.
<P ID="signature"></P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by JadussD on 12/17/05 04:28 AM.</FONT></P>
 
> Well, I only play Chinese chess, but the strategy isn't
> terribly different than regular chess.

Xiangqi is cool. I wish more folks played it around here. We do play the game of Go though.

Though as far as comparing strategies, it's not quite the same. Pawns do have value in both games, though if you get your pawn to the end of the board in chess, you can get another queen in your arsenal. In Xiangqi, it merely is stuck on the back row. Pawns away from the center tend to be late game material in chess for that reason.

The best strategy in chess: Drink a gallon of water in front of your opponent to intimidate him. This happened to me at a game. He would make his move, unscrew the cap, and go GUZZLE. <img src=smilies/cwm11.gif>
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- Sivak Drac</P>
 
I almost lost once to my 11 year old cousin. <img src=smilies/cwm27.gif>
*covers face in shame*
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