Help! (General)

by Mahout, Tuesday, April 24, 2007, 15:42 (6569 days ago) @ CharlieJ
edited by Mahout, Tuesday, April 24, 2007, 15:48

Well I was in the exact same position just a few years ago so here are some tips from my experience:

I clearly remember wishing there were some books that didn't use notation and just taught me some chess but there is very little so you'll just have to bite the bullet.

As I learned chess with my kids I found the resources for kids very useful at first as the information was bite sized and easily digestible. Tim Onions, a primary school teacher has written three booklets one for each of: Openings, Middle Game & Endings. "Winning Chess puzzles for Kids" by Jeff Coakley has some good stating out puzzles - mates in one and basic tactics.. this can be read without notation - so long as you don't mind the cartoons (friendly for ages 6 - 12 ish.)

www.chesskids.com covers the basics and is worth looking through. Believe it or not both "Chess Tactics For Kids" and "How to beat Your Dad at Chess" whilst they are very good resources - I found them hard at first even though they are aimed at kids!

Moving on to books aimed at the adult market and starting with a word of caution. Try to think of a chess book as something to study rather than something to read and avoid books that are too advanced. I still have the highly acclaimed "Chess Strategy in Action" by John Watson but last time I looked it was just too hard going for my level - maybe one day!. Think of chess books like language books where you need to do the elementary work first.

Anyway "Discovering Chess Openings" by John Emms is great in explaining the basic principles of the first moves and is written in a very personable and enjoyable way. He seems to have got under the skin of a players first steps and working through this will be a good foundation.

For tactics and checkmates you could try: "Starting Out:Chess Tactics and Checkmates" by Chris Ward. I really like Chris Ward as an author and the Starting Out series are usually very good - and there's lots of titles to chose from. I also recommend Yasser Seirawans book on Tactics as well as his book on Endings - he is another author who stands out for being accessible.

If you do join www.redhotpawn.co.uk (which I also recommend) then you could PM me (on RHP) and we can have a game - to send a personal message click: Find Player < Mahout < send message.

The chess tactics server www.chessemrald.net will be a good warm up for the puzzles here... I much prefer the puzzles on this site (and it's why I subscribe) because they are from real games and the games are referenced...meaning you could look them up and study the whole game. You also get a sense that they have been well chosen for the ideas they illustrate. But unless you're a wizz...they will be very tough at first...well they are for me anyway!

Some lessons with a chess coach will be good and you could see about joining a local chess club...all listed on the English Chess Federation website... a good chess club will get you into competitive play over the board. This competitive play is for me the heart of chess and what all the study is for.

Finally, once you reckon you're out of the starting blocks and can notate and use chessbase etc. then the online coaching here is brilliant - it made a huge difference to me and I'd recommend it to anyone. Stick with it and good luck!