Three pawns beat the bishop.

The battle between three pawns and a piece is usually exciting. While in theory the race is equal, normally one side or the other wins. In the following example the pawns have the edge because they are passed,and the black king is tied down in order to stop the king-side pawns.

Note: (a passed pawn is a pawn that has no enemy pawns between it and it's queening square)

Black's bishop attacks the a-pawn but if it moves then after Ba4 black will be able to hold the queen-side pawns and draw! So I found a better solution b5! After black takes the a-pawn I played a move which destroys blacks hopes of stopping white from queening. Can you see it?

That's right b6! wins, since after black takes the pawn with the a-pawn and we re-capture, our pawn cannot be stopped. The black bishop cannot go to c6 due to the pawn being in the way. And white then wins by queening the b-pawn.

Queening at all costs!

This is a game I played on-line. You can play it out on a board, or use a pgn viewer such as Chesspad (which is free). If you don't know how to read chess notation you can learn at, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_chess_notation

[Opening "Caro-Kann: advance variation"].

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5

The advanced variation of the Caro-Kan

3...Bf5 4.f4 h5 5.Ne2 e6 6.Ng3 g6

I would have kept the Bishop with Bh7.

7.Nxf5 gxf5 8.Be3 Nd7 9.Bf2

With the idea of being able to go Bh4 in some positions.

9...c5

Black tries to break up white's center.

10.Bb5 a6 11.Bxd7+ Qxd7 12.dxc5 Qb5

Black attacks two white pawns. Which white then defends.

13.Qd4 Rc8 14.b4 a5 15.a3 b6 16.Nc3 Qc6

It looks like white's pawns are falling apart, but white has a trick move.

17.cxb6

White sacrifices a piece, but black loses right away if he takes it. 17...Qxc3, 18.Qxc3...Rxc3 19. b7 and black cannot prevent the pawn from queening!

17...axb4 18.axb4 Ne7 19.Ra3

Now white is a pawn to the good, and making things even sweeter, the pawn is close to queening. White's plan here is to castle, then work on queening the pawn or forcing black to sacrifice a piece to stop the pawn.

19...Ng6 20.O-O Be7 21.b5 Qc4 22.b7 Rb8 23.Qxc4 dxc4 24.Ra7 O-O

Black could have taken the pawn on f4, but white would still win quickly in that variation.

25.g3 Rfd8 26.Rd1

White is happy to trade rooks since the lone rook will not be able to hold back whites b-pawn from queening.

26...Re8 27.Rd7 Nf8 28.Rc7 Bb4 29.Na4 Re7 30.Rxe7 Bxe7 31.Bb6

Preparing Bc7, winning the rook.

31...Kg7 32.Bc7 Nd7 33.Bxb8 Nxb8 34.Ra8

Black resigns since the knight is now lost and white will soon queen one of the b-pawns.

*

Winning Pieces

Win a piece and you will usually win a piece. There are different methods to winning material. Some possible ways are; Attacking a piece that cannot move, attacking two pieces at once, threatening a piece and checkmate, pinning a piece to the king or queen, and some more I cannot think of right now.

In the above position find the move that attacks a piece with no good squares to move to, and you will have found the solution.

More Double Attacks- Lateral Vision

We present a Black to Move and win position here. The win is achieved by making multiple threats and winning material. Even good players often miss double attacks that involve lateral movement. Can you see how black can win a piece?

Is there a way to attack the knight and the king ?

Diagonals and the powerful "Battery"

The bishops and queens can work together on the diagonals, especially when no enemy pawns are in the way. Two bishops can work together to control diagonals of both color squares and sometimes wreak havoc on the enemy kings or pieces this way. Lets look at a couple of examples of checkmates on the diagonals.

In the first diagram white is threatening mate on the

g7 or h8 squares. Black has no way to prevent this but tries moving the bishop back to e8 which gives the king an escape square (f7) if white does not deliver mate next move. Now white can mate on g7 or h8 since the white bishop defends the queen. This setup is called a "Battery".

Two bishops or a queen and a bishop can work together to control the diagonals of both colors.

In this diagram checkmate has been delivered by the two bishops. In this case either bishop could be a queen and it would still be mate.

Believe in yourself, you are supersmart.

Expectations are the most underrated part of achievement. Take a moment; meditate, breathe, relax. Your brain in constantly sending you messages of what it expects from you, whether it is good moves or bad moves, these expectations often come true. Players that know they are skillful will take an extra moment to find a great move because they expect it from themselves. People that expect to lose often do solely for that reason. ----- Why? Because people hate to prove themselves wrong. If you expect to win you become vested in winning, while this is not always healthy it will in general lead to higher results. At the same time if you expect to lose playing a move you know is losing becomes O.K. and now there is an excuse to not spend the time to find a better move.

No Fear only Fun

To perform at our best it takes courage to face unknown paths that many will shy away from.

Many times a variation will be unclear yet correct. Another common theme involving fear is that one player makes a sacrifice that would blow open the opponents king cover. The defender fearful of this the sacrifice does not accept it and the first player wins a pawn or other strategic victory without even giving up a pawn.

The quote "there is nothing to fear but fear itself" is great one. It does not mean play recklessly but simply means, fear for fear sakes improves the quality of nothing. By being afraid of things, our games gets limited by to many rules. You can still be careful and thoughtful, live in them moment and analyze every variation you can, just play the best move even if it is scary.

"There is nothing to fear but fear itself"

Last note playing without fear is fun! You can enjoy the game and the variations without spending a lot of time and brainpower on the possibility of losing, your ego, or other things unrelated and therefore detrimental to winning and playing your best.

General Advice

So many positions to learn, so many ideas to keep track of. Where to start?

In chess there are a few (hundred) key things to learn. In general you will need an opening system for each of the key opening moves, or at last a general idea of how to bring out your pieces and pawns logically.

1. Opening- Bring out at least two pawns, one or more them being your king or queen pawn, also bring out at least one knight and most likely a bishop in the first few moves. Do not let your opponent take all the center squares, and keep your king safe.

2. Endgame. We will cover the key endgame ideas, and there are good books which cover endgame ideas. You need to learn King and pawn basics (opposition), how to win with a rook and pawn versus a rook, or draw if you are the one with only the rook. In general you can increase 200 rating points just by knowing which endgames are likely a win when one side has an extra pawn, and which endgames are draws with a pawn deficit.

3. Middle game and Tactics. Two separate things except for the fact that the person better at tactics will win most middle game battles. You will also need to know some common middle game themes, pawn structures (which are good and bad) and learn how to transform a good position into a winning one.

For books to help your game, email me or check out the Amazon chessbook store on this site.

If you are looking for language books please check out www.multilingualbooks.com

thank you,

Kenneth

multilingualbooks@gmail.com

X-Ray Checkmates

X-ray Pieces.

Sometimes pieces can work through other pieces, X-ray style.

Lets look at an example of an X-ray checkmate.

In the first position black has has just checked the white king with the rook. Normally this would be stupid because the bishop can take the rook, (see the second diagram) but because the black queen can work through the white bishop, mate happens in the end.

Here are the three diagrams!

Focus

When I sit down at the chess board, I like to imagine the board as cone
connecting to my eyes. Nothing else exists, my concentration is on the chess pieces, the board, occasionally my opponent. Everything else fades away, sounds, thoughts, dreams. Only by focusing on the task at hand, the moment, the decision around which piece to move next, do we have any hope of playing the best move consistently.

The beauty of the moment is enough, focus on it, and your play will improve.

Double attack- Double defense

Today's tip is to use double attacks to win pieces and sometimes to checkmate.

A "double attack" is when you threaten two things at once, such as a knight and a rook, or checkmate and a queen.

In this position black is threatening a double attack can you find the right move?

If you chose Qxb2 then you are correct.

In this case as a bonus we win a pawn and now white

cannot defend the knight and the rook.

Look at this diagram to see how white is busted.

Next tip will be very similar and include the ideas

of how similar positions are not always the same,

and introduce the idea of a double defense!

Mate On--

Kenneth

Rooks in the Mist - Control of the Seveth Rank

Vocabulary Note- The chess board has Files and Ranks - Ranks go across the board, all of your pawns are on the second rank, your opponents pawn are on the seventh rank.

Now onto today's Lesson.

In this diagram

Black's rooks dominate the seventh rank

(from Black's perspective) and the rooks are ready to mate white. Do you see how?

First we check the white king.

Then again, now that we have the rook file covered with one rook we can use the other rook to deliver mate. Remember a key to mating the king is, " Take away all potential flight squares from the king, then deliver mate."

What is the key to Chess?

There are many tips to help learn chess better , but is there a key to chess? A single elements or elements to help you play better? Yes and no. Each position has its own beauty and best moves.

However at the beginning of the game there are some very important physical truths to chess.

1, Space. Occupying more space than your opponent is most often beneficial. We will define space as squares on the board that are under your control either by pawns (best for key squares) or by pieces.

2. Center space . Since the center is well "the center" and because many pieces have more options when placed in he center of the board than when they are on the side. It is true that center squares are in general more valuable than side squares.

3. Time and development

the player with their pieces developed to good squares should have an advantage, it is important at the start and middle of the game to develop your pieces and do so efficiently with regard to time.

4. King Safety

Keep your own king safe, with pawns and pieces in front of it and near it, and try to attack your opponents king whenever possible.

Keep Your Cool- Have Fun

Chess should be fun. Like life most people perfom best when they are calm and collected. Happiness people say is for hippies, but to me happiness and good results go hand in hand.

Tips of the day:

1. A calm mind perfoms better than a stressed out one. Stay calm, and focused on the game, not on your emotions.

2. Enjoy the game, being happy is great, let other be stressed out and unhappy if they want to be.

Winners have fun!

Watch those Holes - Mate that King (intermediate-advanced)

Note the squares are laid out on a grid, if you need help

reading the notation email multilingualbooks@gmail.com and we will

send you a guide to it.

In this exciting game played on-line, El-tio (an expert) allows holes in his king-side to be exploited.

The main problem is that the white light-squared bishop is on the d3 square and is not able to defend the hole around the black king. It is black to move, please take a minute and see if you can visualize how to mate white.

In some variations white survives but the main line that was chosen in the game led to a quick checkmate for black (me).

In the diagram position on the right, white is in serious

trouble. Black played the correct Bg4 threatening White's queen and getting into position to cause immediate disaster for white.

Now in the game white moved the queen which loses fast, lets look at that line first.

2....Qc2 ???

3. Bf3!

After this move it is curtains for white. If the Knight moves black plays Qh1 checkmate. If the knight stays put black plays Qg2 checkmate. Either way it is the hole on the g2 square perfectly used by black that was whites downfall.

Tomorrow we will look at what happens if white plays the tougher defense 2...Qe4 or 2...f3!?

Pawns are Good. Everyone Work Together.

Welcome to a fun project, everyday another tip will come your way. In addition my twitter account is plugged in here to provide additional tips and other random game news.

Tips will vary in strength and some days we will have an advanced and a beginner tip. For those that need chess materials, I have built an affiliate game store through amazon, with the best chess books, and other game books in print.

Tip One: In this position white has mate in one, it is because White's pawns and bishop can work together to mate the black king. Notice how blacks pieces are not really doing anything constructive. (Answer below)

When playing chess try to keep your pieces working together. In this problem when white plays mate, each of the three white pieces (other than the king) are playing a part. Pawns while the weakest of the pieces can be used to defend each other, control parts of the board (so that no opponents pieces can find home there) to promote to a queen or to mate the king.