I never liked chess! Huh? Nope, never did and I could not quite see why. First of all I am a board game geek with a semi-analytic brain so it came as a surprise to me that I didnt like chess very much.

Today, a wee bit older and maybe a bit wiser I decided to give chess another try. I think I know why my previous flirts with chess failed:

The game was too complex and I always felt like underachieving. Also, I found it to be too slow paced.

Well, today as a happy middle aged geezer I think I am mature enough to appreciate the beauty of chess and to have fun playing chess.

So, last week I bought Chessmaster 10000 and today I ordered a few swedish chess books by IM Jesper Hall (one of them might have been translated to english).

Why pick up chess as an Ol' geezer? Well, I love playing games and I love to learn stuff. I think a semi serious Chess study will add some thrills to the daily chores.

"Training schedule" (input most welcomed!)
1. "daily" ranked games using chessmaster
2. some reading when the books arrive

"Goal"
1. Measure my developement as a "chessplayer"
2. exercise the brain
3. Having fun!!!

Book recommendations are most appreciated!


Cheers, sydsad

Yeah, I know what you mean. It is good to keep your mind and body active. The last time I played was in high school about 45 years ago. My wife gave me Chessmaster for a Christmas present. I love it. So, here I am learning how to play chess in my old age.

Enjoy

Thats nice!

I have played live chess every 15th(!) year or so.... playing a few games a reading a few books will be a nice dose of mental training...

Well, No harm in asking! I would like to kindly ask for (detailed) suggestions on how to design a weekly "training" schedule. All ideas are appreciated.

I think I might be able to squeeze in three hours/week or so....

I have been playing a few ranked games vs "suggested opponent". So far, so good but the AI opponents tend do do a few very odd moves:

1. Leaving pieces unguarded
2. Walk around a bit with the King instead of developing the position

Yea thats just how chessmaster plays when it wants to weaken itself. It will hang a piece or two and then play stronger for the rest of the game. As the personalities become stronger they tend to hang pieces less often, but even some 1400ish personalities still do it.

As for a chess training schedule, I suggest doing a few tactics problems everyday, combined with some reading on strategies/openings/endgames at your leisure.

Eric,

Thank you! Great input! Did you have any special books in mind? There are just tooooo many books to chose from.

Books...books...there are a million books.

For tactics I'd suggest something like Bains "chess tactics for students" or Woolum's "Basic chess Tactics" ( I did that one and I liked it.)

There are lots of cool tactics programs for computer as well, if you prefer computers to books. CT-ART is well liked, as well as the free chess tactics server. http://chess.emrald.net/

For opening/endgame/strategy everyone prefers something different.

I think books on the endgame are boring as all hell so I got karsten mueller's endgame training DVDs from chessbase and find them VERY good.

Chessmaster lectures are really good for strategy but beyond that I would suggest Jeremy Silman's "The amateur's mind". It's all about thought processes and imbalances and helpful thinkings. I'm reading this now and I find it much easier to digest than other strategy texts which tend to be very dry.

For openings I suggest just buying a big book like "Nunn's chess openings" to get a feel for many different types of openings. Once you find a couple you really like you can buy some books (or chessbase DVDs if you prefer to watch movies, they're really good) on your specific opening.

I think the best site on the web for helpful instruction is NM Dan Heisman's "Novice Nook" column. http://mywebpages.comcast.net/danheisman/Articles/Novice_Nook_Links.htm

I hope this has been somewhat helpful

Oh, and for playing chess I suggest FICS for blitz and classical time controls, and Redhotpawn.com for really slow games. Red hot pawn (and correspondence in general) is great for learning openings as you have enough time to consult your books and databases before moving. Also its excellent if you only have a limited time to play, or you feel like more relaxing games.

Oh! and one more thing!

Here's the best article (its from novice nook) on a structured chess improvement plan you can find anywhere on the net.

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman19.pdf

I've followed this plan (currently I'm on step 4) and its really given me a good idea of what I should be studying and when. Like I said I substituted a few things on Dan's list (which he says is fine) but overall I've found this an excellent guide. Enjoy!

Eric,

Thank you very much! Very much the kind of information I was looking for.

Cheers!

I started playing a few years back, am not very good at it, but I got chessmaster 10th edition for Christmas and am really enjoying it. I have been doing the tutorials, and I think I am going to get better, played some ranked games,before that, and got my butt kicked.

Yea, the chessmaster tutorials really are excellent. I recommend chessmaster over any "chess for idiots" book or other beginners software out there. I got chessmaster for christmas about a year back, not having played chess for a good ten years. Within a couple of months I was able to beat virtually everyone I know pretty easily.

Hi Eric,
Well I hope I get that good, maybe we will play sometime?
Jim Healey

Agreed! The tutorials is well worth the price of the software.

Thar URL provided by Eric higher up in the thread is an excellent read for poeple interested in Chess Training.

Mr. Leisure,

Sure! I'm always up for a game. My handle on FICS is KingMittens and EricMittens on Redhotpawn.

For those of you who like working with computers more than books here's a nice little article on recommended purchases.

http://www.chesscentral.com/buy-chess-software.htm

I have quite a few of the books recommended by Dan and the programs recommended by Steve so if anyone wants a review or recommendation I'd be happy to give.

Cheers!

After it leaves a piece it doesn't just become stronger, it literally becomes the strongest. It matches the Chessmaster advice utilities moves perfectly and I would go as far to say that if you don't sit there and ponder every move for a good minute or two, you lost.

It seems so unrealistic to pit my son for instance, against a 1000 rated opponent, have my son recognize the blunder then have to play against a 2000+ rated opponent. Trust me, if somebody is rated 1000 just because the other side loses a knight or a bishop this doesn't mean they will definitely have the game for my son is making blunders of his own...

Making computers play dumb is really hard. It's never the same as playing against a human opponent which is exactly the reason why I dont play computers anymore.

Here's a neat article explaining the subject.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2579

Eric,
Is FICS & RedhotpAWN ON CHESSMASTER?

If it's so hard and I am purchasing Chessmaster with my money then maybe I shouldn't buy the program if they spend enough damn time programming it right. Also, try playing Berry, he won't give away ANY material and will play like Chessmaster all game, hes rated 1068...

No, FICS and Redhotpawn are not on chessmaster, they are privately run chess websites.

http://freechess.org/
http://redhotpawn.com

I still think chessmaster is well worth the money just for the tutorials. The computer opponents are not perfect, some of them are a little underrated and some of them are overrated. All in all though I think chessmaster is the best beginner-centered chess program on the market.

If you beginner centered you mean being beaten by a 1000 rated player when my son is better than that.

Sorry, I do not quite get it? What is your point?

I played a game on ranked and was beaten by a eight year old

Okay, I realized that as soon as I sent you my reply, sorry about that.

You say he was beaten by a 1000 rated personality, but is better than that. All I can say is "are you sure?" People have a tendency to think they're stronger than they really are. I can't tell you how many times I've heard something like "I'm rated 1200, but if I REALLY tried my hardest I'd be 1800 easy!" There have been threads regarding the accuracy of the chessmaster rating system on this forumn before. Ubisoft has claimed that their ratings are accurate to within 50 points of USCF ratings, which is something that has been confirmed by testimonials on this forum. Myself, when I was still playing computer opponents my rating was in the mid 1400s. At the same time, my rating on other chess sites was...in the mid 1400s!

On the other hand, it has been noted that a few personalities (namely "marius") are underrated and can consistently beat much higher rated computer personalities. Maybe Berry is a little underrated, maybe not.

If your son has a particularily hard time with her, why not try another personality?

I agree

Hi,
Looking for Eric Mittens, can not find you on RedPawn?