Tuesday, December 30, 2008

A Chess Primer for Beginners

By Jared Conley

Chess is one of the oldest traditional board games you will ever play. The beauty of chess is the almost infinite level of skill and strategy that you can employ as you climb the ranks and go up against increasingly skilled competitors.

Irrespective of your age or skill level, you can find opponents to play and challenges to face. It truly is a game for all ages.

Of course, as a beginner, you'll find it challenging to play chess with other players, especially when you're beginning to learn the elementary moves. What you can do is practice on an electronic challenger until you become more familiar with the basic moves. There are plenty of online services or PC-based games that you can try to improve your skill level.

Personally, I greatly prefer a three-dimensional layout, so I generally play on an electronic board when I want to play by myself. There are plenty of competent electronic chessboards that can increase in difficulty level as you improve, which is a strength that they hold; and they also work as an objective measure of your skill level at the game. Some boards will even calculate a ranking for you based on how fast you play and how competent your moves are.

As you begin to play against these computerized opponents, your aim is to learn the board, learn the assorted moves of each chess player, and learn the basic defense and attack strategies.

Once you've mastered the basic movements of the pieces, and you can construct move sequences without thinking to yourself "okay, one up and two over," you're ready to challenge a real player.

So find yourself an entry-level board or chess computer, get another novice, and start playing one of the world's oldest and best games.

The unlimited possibilities in game play make chess a terrific game choice for the whole family. - 16887

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