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| Posted by throneseeker www6conf.org 12/11/2007 11:13:05 Play online chess |  Subject: Best books to have?Message: 1) A book on opening strategy? 2) A book on opening lines? 3) A book on general strategy? 4) A book on tactics? 5) A book on the middlegame? 6) A book on the endgame? 7) A book on a specific opening? Any and all suggestions are solicited! Regards, ThroneSeeker | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by rt4sm www6conf.org 12/11/2007 11:27:40 Play online chess | Message: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by throneseeker www6conf.org 12/11/2007 11:44:16 Play online chess | GK Database Message: ——— Kamsky Defends U.S. Chess Title — It was deja vu all over again for Gata Kamsky as he carved through the field of his opponents with relative ease and defended his title at the 2011 U.S. Chess Championship in St. Louis. Miss, this week. The 36-year-old world championship candidate defeated GM Yuri Shulman, 35, in the final match 1.5 - 0.5. From the $170,000 total prize fund, Kamsky brings home $42,000, Shulman gets $30,000. In the battle for third place between two 19-year old chess players, GM-elect Samuel Shankland beat GM Robert Hess 2-1. The top four chess players qualified from two 8-player preliminary groups. The field included 14 grandmasters and two International Masters. The 2011 Women's Chess Championship went to ... Posted by muppyman | www6conf.org 12/11/2007 13:08:13 Play online chess throneseeker,Message: The fact is that chess is a mixture of all the facets you mention in your question, and if any of those things were unimportant, then very few books would be written on those subjects. Chess is also an example of the old adage "Knowledge is power" so the more knowledge you can comfortably handle, the more you will tend to enjoy your chess progress. I think it will always be true that knowledge comes from books, so choose what aspect of chess you want to explore first and get yourself a good book on that aspect and enjoy the experience. Good fortune to you. ——— Kamsky to Defend Title in Finals of U.S. Chess Championship — Over the weekend, experience triumphed over youth at the United States Chess Championships. Robert Hess and Samuel Shankland, two 19-year-old chess grandmasters, were eliminated in the semifinals of the championship, which is being held in St. Louis, by older, seasoned former chess champions. Shankland lost to Gata Kamsky, 36, the defending champion, while Hess was beaten by Yuri Shulman, 35 (who will be 36 on Friday), the 2008 champion. In a reprise of last year’s final, Kamsky and Shulman will play for the title on Tuesday and Wednesday. The winner will earn $40,000, while the runner-up will receive $30,000. Hess and Shankland will play for third place, which ... Posted by dullmove | www6conf.org 12/11/2007 22:53:02 Play online chess e4 vs d4Message: I have read that e4 opening will mean a tactical game whereas d4 will be one requiring strategy. Couldn't realy make any meaning out of that soh ... ——— Chess: Pure beauty of the pawn endgame — The shadow of the pawn endgame hangs over all chess endgames. DK: After the splendid chaos of the King's Gambit, we turn to the purity of pawn endgames. It's worthwhile studying pawn endgames as their shadow lies behind every other kind of endgame that we play in chess. This may be a constructed position, but it illustrates highly practical themes. RB: The first move is obvious: 1 Kc3, gaining the diagonal opposition. But I'm making the move instinctively when what I really need is a plan. Am I trying to queen my a-pawn or my h-pawn? Or do I make a feint on one flank, then dash to the other wing? At the very point when precision is most needed, I often ... Posted by rt4sm | www6conf.org 12/12/2007 01:28:21 Play online chess Message: ——— Hikaru Nakamura gives hometown US Chess Championship a miss — The annual US Chess Championship is the most valuable national contest in chess, thanks to a Saint Louis investment billionaire. Rex Sinquefield plans to make his home city globally known and to promote young American chess talent on the world stage. The 2011 title event has a $166,000 prize fund including $40,000 for the winner, and reaches its semi-finals this weekend. It has already sparked controversy due to the absence of the world top-10 chess grandmaster, twice former champion and crowd favourite Hikaru Nakamura. Nakamura is a Saint Louis resident and has been present this week as a spectator. This might sound a mega-snub to the sponsor but Nakamura is preparing for his ... Posted by muppyman | www6conf.org 12/12/2007 01:37:09 Play online chess not sure, but...Message: ——— Finding That Eight Years Is Too Long to Stay Away — When this year’s United States Chess Championship began in St. Louis on April 15, there was a notable absence and an interesting return. The missing competitor was Hikaru Nakamura, the country’s top chess player and a two-time champion who is ranked No. 8 in the world. He did not play because he wants to compete only against the world’s best, usually in elite chess tournaments in Europe. But for the first time in eight years, Yasser Seirawan was in the tournament. He is a four-time chess champion and last won the title in 2001, when he shared first place with Joel Benjamin and Alexander Shabalov. Seirawan is 51, and the best part of his chess career appears ... Posted by throneseeker | www6conf.org 12/12/2007 02:32:38 Play online chess Thanks and not off topicMessage: Regards, ThroneSeeker Posted by potus | www6conf.org 12/12/2007 15:58:11 Play online chess Message: Posted by dullmove | www6conf.org 12/12/2007 22:23:19 Play online chess Thanks guys ... Message: On another note (and now to move really off-topic - sorry throneseeker) Fischer rarely opened anything other than e4!!! rt4sm finds my username exciting :) Posted by spurtus | www6conf.org 12/13/2007 01:12:26 Play online chess Message: Strategy = Positional speculative plan ( the war ) i.e. My strategy is to control the dark squares and get castled quick, in doing so I found a good tactical pin which renders his knight immovable. I think? Spurtus. Posted by mrmarmalade | www6conf.org 12/17/2007 10:31:43 Play online chess Message: Posted by steverand67 | www6conf.org 12/17/2007 10:45:19 Play online chess mrmarmaladeMessage: In the example, his overall (long-term) strategy was to control the dark-squares and castle quickly. While he was in the midst of controlling the dark squares and castling, he found a useful tactic, the pin on the knight. I think I remember a thread titled a strategist vs. a tactician in this forum...that might be worth looking at. Posted by mrmarmalade | www6conf.org 12/18/2007 20:27:09 Play online chess Message: Posted by wschmidt | www6conf.org 12/19/2007 12:28:54 Play online chess mrmarmalade,Message: Strategizing based on color complexes is one of many ways players organize their thoughts when looking at the board. At my local chess club, I play regularly against one guy who bases virtually all his decisions on control of the dark squares, even if the position doesn't indicate it. Knowing that, I can often steer the game in a direction favorable to me. I.e., it's a useful concept at times, but like a lot of chess ideas, shouldn't be taken as gospel. Posted by sf115 | www6conf.org 12/19/2007 12:33:16 Play online chess Message: Posted by throneseeker | www6conf.org 12/19/2007 13:25:01 Play online chess Plans and strategy Message: That is probably rather simplistic but it seems to reflect an overall consensus of what I have seen herein. Regards, ThroneSeeker Posted by lighttotheright | www6conf.org 12/19/2007 14:45:55 Play online chess Message: 99% of chess is tactics. So most people will benefit most from a comprehensive book on tactics. But that is not going to be true for everyone. You can learn tactics that are more prevalent in a specific opening. You can learn tactics while becoming proficient at the endgame. You can learn tactics that are common when using certain strategies. So if you ask me which is most important, then I will say that they are all very important. Posted by i_play_slowly | www6conf.org 12/20/2007 10:46:30 Play online chess Tactics and StrategyMessage: * Strategy, which is also called positional play, involves longer range thinking; the benefits may not be immediate, e.g., siezing an open file with your rook, posting your knight deep in enemy territory, or obtaining a passed pawn. * Here's a list of quotes that elaborate: * "Tactics is what you do when there is something to do; strategy is what you do when there is nothing to do." - Saviely Tartakower * "Tactics flow from a superior position." – Bobby Fischer * "Positional superiority is almost always a necessary prerequisite to decisive tactics." – Source Unknown * "The scheme of a game is played on positional lines; the decision of it is, as a rule, effected by combinations. This is how Lasker's pronouncement that positional play is the preparation for combinations is to be understood." – Richard Reti * "It is an understanding of positional play that restrains the master from embarking on premature, foolish attacks and that checks the natural impulse to hunt for combinations at every turn. It counsels him in the placing of his pieces where they have the greatest potential for attack and tells him how to seize the vital central squares, to occupy the most territory and to cramp and weaken the enemy. And it is positional play that assures him that definite winning opportunities will then disclose themselves, and decisive combinations will appear on the board. The master does not search for combinations. He creates the conditions that make it possible for them to appear." – Irving Chernev * "Make the moves that conform with the requirements of the position, and you will be suitably rewarded. Play the moves necessary to establish a superior position! Develop your pieces so that they enjoy maximum mobility and control most of the territory. Direct your efforts to weakening the enemy position, cramping the movements of his pieces, and reducing the capacity of his resistance before you make the first move of a combination. When the time is ripe, the attack will play itself. The decisive combination will stare you in the face." – Irving Chernev * "Strategy is tactics with long-term consequences." – Ignacio Marin * "Although to many this seems strange, in general I consider that in chess everything rests on tactics. If one thinks of strategy as a block of marble, then tactics are the chisel with which a master operates, in creating works of chess art." – Tigran Petrosian * "Tactics decide all chess games. Successful tactical play involves recognizing, creating, and attacking weaknesses to win material, achieve a positional advantage, or to force checkmate. ALWAYS be alert for tactical opportunities and threats. One combination can be, and usually is, the difference between winning and losing a game." – Kelly Atkins * "By far the most critical feature is tactical skill. For the 1600 player everything else is secondary. The faster you spot tactics, the more accurately you calculate them, the more sensitive and creative you are in using them to your own ends, and the more alert you are to warding them off, the better all-around player you’ll be and the more success you’ll have. Most games between 1600 players are decided tactically in the opening or early middlegame and typically wrapped up by tactical simplification to a winning endgame. Of course you should also think strategically, with concern for space, pawn structure, and so on. But too often 1600 players exaggerate the importance of strategy, thereby blundering material and hanging mate." – Bruce Pandolfini * "It does not matter who gets the advantage out of the opening if one of the players is likely to lose a piece to a simple tactic in the middlegame. Losing a piece from an advantageous position will almost always result in a losing position. So study tactics, not openings, until you almost never lose pieces to simple tactical motifs." – Dan Heisman * "Most games between lower rated players are won or could be won on tactics, so studying tactics when you are lower rated is much more important than anything else." – Dan Heisman * "Until you are at least a high class A player, your first name is 'Tactics', your middle name is 'Tactics', and your last name is 'Tactics'." – Ken Smith * Throneseeker, perhaps these quotes indicate the direction for your chess studies. Posted by sf115 | www6conf.org 12/20/2007 11:43:29 Play online chess Message: Posted by i_play_slowly | www6conf.org 12/20/2007 13:33:25 Play online chess "Surely I must study some strategy"Message: * A good book for tactics: "Winning Chess Tactics" by Yasser Seirawan * A good book for strategy: "Logical Chess" by Irving Chernev Posted by throneseeker | www6conf.org 12/20/2007 23:07:45 Play online chess Concrete suggestions!!Message: Regards, ThroneSeeker Posted by greenrat777 | www6conf.org 12/20/2007 23:40:30 Play online chess no 7 a specific openingMessage: Posted by spurtus | www6conf.org 12/21/2007 02:34:33 Play online chess Message: ISBN 91-975244-2-5 A simply brilliant book to bring clarity to aid your mind in spotting & UNDERSTANDING tactics. ( it is not a strategy book ) It's very well written an clear, lots of pictures and words, and is not a boring endless list of GM games with variational analysis ad infinitum which nobody ever has time to analyse. Spurtus. Posted by ketchuplover | www6conf.org 12/21/2007 14:19:51 Play online chess Message: |