Table Of Content

BEGIN CHESS MflNUELHHRON Begin Chess Manuel Aaron Chess Mate, Chennai, India First published June 2003 ©Chess Mate 2003 All rights reserved, No part of this book may be re produced, by any means, without prior permission of the publisher. Typeset and edited by Arvind Aaron at Chess Mate with help from P.D.Sagari. A CHESS MATE publication P.O. BOX 2051, ADYAR CHENNAI (MADRAS) 600 020 INDIA Tel +91-044-24902051 Fax +91-044-24918503 E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] www.chess-mate.com CONTENTS A. Introduction by the autor 5 B. Begin Chess 1. Chess For Beginners 7 2. Relative Value Of The Pieces II 3a Opening Chess Theory 14 3 b Important Principles 16 4. The Two Sides Of The Board 18 5. Basic Tips 20 6. Elementary Items 22 7. Common Mistakes 25 8. En Passant 27 9. Common Mistakes-2 30 10. Planning 33 11. Zugzwang 36 12. Attack On h7/h2 39 13. Simple Ending 42 14. Remember Patterns, Not Moves 4? 15. Attraction 49 16. Blocking 52 17. Discovered Attack 54. 18. Line Closing 57 19. Clearance Tactics 62 20. The King Hunt 66 21. The Double Attack-I 68 22. The Back Rank 71 23. The Overloaded Piece 74 24. Which Opening To Play 77 25. Pawn Endings 79 26. Attacking The Castled Position 81 27. On The Queen 84 28. Attacking 0-0-0 88 29. The Stalemate 90 30. Draw By Repetition 94 31. Control The Centre 97 32. Pawn Structures 101 33. Castling On Opposite Sides 105 34. The Advanced Passed Pawn 108 35. Blockading The Passed Pawn 112 36. Deflection 116 37. Using The Rook For Attack 120 38. Pawnless Endgames 125 39. Pawn Endgames 129 40 Queen Versus Rook 134 41. The Pin 138 42. Double Attack-11 143 43. Destroying The Defender 148 44. The Uncastled King 152 CONTENTS CONTINUED 45. Rook Versus Pawns 156 46. The Pawn Storm 164 47. Don't Blame The Blunder 168 48. Simple Rook Endings 171 49. Queen Endings 175 50. Rook+Pawn Versus Queen 179 51. Outposts For Knights 182 52. Outposts 185 53. The Outposts 189 54. Be Your Own Doctor! 192 55. More Pawn Endings 195 56. Weak Squares Part-1 198 56. Weak Squares Part-2 201 57. The Bad Bishop 204 58. Bishop Against Knight 207 59. Bishop Versus Knight 210 60. Study The Classics-1 214 Study The Classics-2 217 61. Bishop Endings Part-1 220 Bishop Endings Part-2 223 62. Opening Traps And Tactics 226 63. Opening Traps And Pitfalls 230 64. Unnatural Squares 235 65. Giving Odds 239 66. Sacrificing The Queen 243 67. Queenless Middle Games 247 68. After Game Analysis 250 C. Indexes 1. Theme index 253 2. Opening index 254 3. Player index 254 A. Introduction by the author Foreword This book is a collection of articles for beginners published in Chess Mate during 1989-1997. The objectives of these articles were to make the beginner a more knowledgeable and better player. They showed the beginner how to avoid common mistakes and gave him a good understanding of the Laws of Chess. Each such article in a particular month did not necessarily con centrate on one particular theme at a time as a book usually does. For example, in one article there might be explanations and illus trations of the pin motif in chess. That same article may also con tain a small bit on the pawn ending or queen ending. The idea of each article was to give the beginner different interesting things in chess so that his interest was heightened and he did not view chess as a dull and tedious game. After going through this book, no player will remain a begin ner. The basic principles of the opening, the middle-game motifs and various endings explained in different sectors of this book would ensure that he plays a decent game and he makes his move after logical thinking. However, despite all the explanations and annotations, un known situations will arise over the board. The variety of tactical motifs and the hundreds of intricate combinations that abound in chess can still puzzle and worry a player. In such a position the player should recall the basic principles and do his best to tackle the situation. Sometimes, he might still fail. This should not be viewed as a failure but as an opportunity to learn something hith erto unknown. Consult a stronger player and find the way to master the situa tion. Good Luck! Manuel Aaron Chapter One Chess For Beginners Il is presumed that the student already knows What is checking' the king? When the king is how the pieces in a game of chess move. In case attacked by an enemy pawn or piece it is said to this is not known, he may go through the Laws of be under check. Four examples of checks are Chess'. Which is available for free download given in the diagram above. from I IDE's website www.chessdaily.com. How Chess is played: When a king is under check, it should be After you know how every piece and either moved away or the attacking piece pawn moves in a game of chess it is time to should be captured or the king should be start play ing a game. shielded from attack by interposing some Before you start, check whether the right piece. And this has to be done in the next hand corner square of the board is a white move itself because a king cannot be left ' on square It should not be a dark square. Also, it take' at anytime. If a player leaves his king is easy to make a mistake putting the king in on take and makes some other move, that the Queen's initial position and vice versa. move is illegal and according to Laws of Always remember that when the game be Chess Article 7 (The touched piece) and Ar gins the white queen is on a white square and ticle 7.4 (Illegal position) that move should the black queen is on a black square. be retracted and another move made. In chess, the player with the white pieces Any check must be parried by the move always moves first and makes the first move. immediately following. If a check cannot be Then black makes his first move and the parried, the king is said to be-checkmated, or game proceeds with the players moving al mated, and the game ends immediately in ternately. No player may move twice in suc victory for the player making the check. cession. or pass his move. Captures are not compulsory. Object of the game The object in a game of chess is to checkmate Checking the King: the opponent’s king. Examples of checkmates are given in the diagram in the next page. At the beginning of the game the object is to place ones pieces on squares where they will exercise their power to the maximum. The pieces should be developed in such a fashion that an attack on the enemy king would be effective and lead to material advantage and checkmate. Each player safeguards his own king and attempts to weaken the defenses of the enemy king to facil i- tate checkmate. Quite often a player picks on some enemy weakness, hammers away at it, wins material and uses this extra material to checkmate. During this process several exchanges of pawns and pieces also take place. 7 move the black king cannot go bey ond the fifth rank. 1.. .Kd4 If l..Kf4 2 Qd5! restricts the black king's freedom still further. 2 Qf5! Kc4 If I ...Ke3 2 Qg4 Kd3 3 Qf4 Kc3 4 Qe4 and the restriction process goes on 3 Qe5 Kb4 If 3...Kd3 4 Qf4 and the black king is re stricted to the first three ranks only. 4 Qd5 Ka4 If 4...Kc3 5 Kdl Kb4 6 Kc2 Ka4 7 Kc3 Ka3 X Qb3o. 5Qb7! This move restricts the black king to the a-file. Basic Mates 5.. .Ka5 6 Kd2 Ka4 7 Qb6 Ka3 8 Qb5 Ka2 9 I'he basic way to check-mate the oppo Qb4 Kai 10 Kc2! nent is to reduce his material to a lone king and then mate him with our own material. l ite black king cannot be restricted fur Some of the basic mates are given below. ther. 119 Qb3 ?? black has no move and. as he is not under check it is a stalemate which is Queen and King Versus King: only a draw. 1.K0a..2 11 Qb2 # I Ins is tile most basic mate that a beginner To suin up. the Queen keeps on restrict should start itll. ing the lone king's mobility to fewer ranks and tiles. When the biack king is finally cor nered and has only two legal squares to move in. the white king moves up to help the Queen to checkmate. King and two Rooks Versus King I Qh5 Some beginners go on checking the en emy king without any plan and finally stalemate the enemy king. After the text 8