Mind Bending The Hobby of Chess

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What is Chess?

Chess was the son of an ancient Hindu game, call chaturanga, and much like its descendant it had a checkered board and pieces to move on the board game

Wikipedia tells us that Chess is a two-player strategy game, played on a checkered game board with 64 squares in an 8x8 grid, there are a total of 16 pieces in the board and they each move differently: one King, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns.

Chess is definitely one of the most challenging and intellectually stimulating hobbies out there.

Life is nothing but a great game of chess, and every person we encounter is a piece on the board. Chess teaches that no one is irreplaceable, that sometimes, to accomplish something great, we have to give up things we love, that there's no victory without loses. Honesty is another great influence that Chess brings to our lives, in the game nothing is hidden on the board, a good way to live your life. When you play the game long enough you get to know yourself in ways Buddhist monks can only hope for, you get to know your own strengths and weaknesses and apply them accordingly to the daily life.

GETTING STARTED. WHAT DO YOU NEED?

A chess set, obviously, you can find them in all shapes, materials, and colors, although you can always play the game on your phones or computers (but hey, where is the adrenaline on that?) maybe a couple of guides for beginners.

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME

In Chess, every piece moves differently on the board. The King is both the most important piece and the weakest, it only moves one square in any direction. The Rooks are incredibly powerful when you have them working together, they move any number of squares along any rank or file. Bishops, like Rooks, can move any number of squares, however, they can only do it diagonally. The Queen, unlike the King, is very powerful and perhaps the most powerful piece on the chessboard, she can move in any direction any number of squares. The Knights are particularly interesting, they can move in any direction as long as the formed an "L", two squares in one direction and then another at a 90° degree angle. The Pawns are very particular, their movement is pretty straightforward, one square upward, but to capture an opponent piece, the pawns move one square diagonally.

SOME STRATEGIES AND TACTICS

Since you've taken Chess as a hobby, then as a beginner there are few simple strategies to follow.

Protect your King at all cost. Move your King to the corner of the board as soon as you get the chance using Castling (A move in which a Rook changes positions with the King). Don't lose pieces being careless, every one of them is precious to you and you'll need them to checkmate. It is imperative that you gain control of the center of the board, so you'll be freer to move around.


Free resources for getting started with chess 

Chess is a game of the mind and clever calculation and planning is done with every move you make. Since this is not about moving the chess pieces on the board you’ve got to have the basic knowledge on how to play this game. Becoming a pro in chess doesn’t happen overnight, so to master the game requires patience and commitment to learning. The rules are simple and the game operation enjoyable when you know how to play it. In order to understand the game, this article has laid down some basic resources for getting started with chess.

Use the internet 

The internet has been a great reference point for almost everything. The chess game is also focused on the internet. Using it to train yourself can open up the platform for you to be a master at the game. Websites like chess.com, chesstempo, and lichess have training that will give you the right tactics for the game. You can train with these sites for an hour or two every day to give you an amazing boost of your skills.

Find YouTube channel 

There are many options of YouTube channels out there than you can choose from to learn chess. To get started with chess find a good channel on YouTube that has a presenter who speaks clearly in a language you can understand better. The channel should also have teaching styles that you would be enjoyable to you. Depending on the level of expertise of your game channels like MatoJelic, Dereque Kelly, the Backyard Professor, St Louis Chess club and IM John Bartholomew can be suitable to give the skills for the game.

There are many players that record their games online. These games can be very enlightening as they bring the different tactics to your attention, in a way you never imagined before. Some of the channels you can go through which contain recorded online games include

• Chess24 YouTube channel-here you will find game videos from GM Jan Gustafson and GM Peter Svidler.

• Chess explained YouTube channel. You will find Christof Sielecki’s online games which have concrete ideas for moves and are highly recommended to use.

If the YouTube isn’t your best choice of reference you can use the following means to get knowledge of playing chess.

Puzzles 

Puzzles are a great way of putting your mind to task by thinking and analyzing. The effort required to solve puzzles is the same required to calculate the movement of your pieces on a chess board. Puzzle solving, therefore, improves your understanding of the chess game and gives you better tactics. You can check Google for chess puzzles and you will find a number of resources which can assist in perfecting the game skills.

Purchase chess books 

There are tons of chess books on the market today and visiting a bookshop will give you the chance to choose your preferred choice. These books are quite affordable so you can purchase as many as you like. You can also download chess books online from the many available copies which are free to use.

Use of chess engines 

Learning how to analyze your chess games by use of engines is one of the best resources. You can use an engine by installing an editor that handles the uci engines for chess. Every game you play can be run through the engine e.g. stockfish to find out the common mistakes and inaccuracies you make during the game. The engine will point these mistakes out if you use it often to practice on games played.

Online chess games 

The online chess games can be a great way to get started with chess. You can play the game on regular basis and choose the time of your preference. However, the practice will bear more results on the positive side if you play regular long games of an interval of 10 min, 15 min or more. Lichess and chess24.com are two online platforms that are popular and stable to play. On lichess, you can analyze your game freely on the cloud without having to preserve them locally then running them on your engine for analysis.

Be updated with chess news 

Following news about the chess games regularly will motivate you to follow and learn from the recent games of a top rated player. News sites such as chessbase.com and chessvibes.com often publish informative articles on the opening, closure of games and other related news. The news can be a great source of information which will enable you to get started with chess.yuo can also subscribe to their services where they can directly send you news for easy follow up.

Train with the pros 

To be a master you’ve got to train with the masters and there is no better way to gain chess experience than playing with the experts. This will give you a firsthand encounter of the game and will directly be able to learn the moves of your opponents which will give more knowledge about the game.

The sources for getting started with chess can be endless. You can plan your time to be able to cover the methods above as much as possible. Whatever decision you make don’t limit yourself to one method. Out the many uses the one that fits better with your style and level of play.


Chess is a Hobby that has it all, it can change your life dramatically, It will help you develop a more analytical mindset that you will use in your daily life.


 

Related hobbies: Crossword puzzles, Sudoku, Board games
 

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