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The People's Hero

Chess

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Any chessists here?

 

I'm a reasonable player, without ever having learnt any openings or patterns etc and have taught my son who has really embraced it.

 

He recently won a competition of 30 ish kids, up to 13 or 14 years old and he's 8, so I'm quite surprised at how far he has come!

 

Looking for recommendations on best way to improve ie:

 

- good books

- good youtube content

- to play online/ to not play online (i've heard various things about people using engines?)

- when to introduce him to proper timed matches

 

Also keen to discuss the game as I am becoming interested in it again myself.

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Good on the lad. 

 

One of the people I watch on twitch/youtube got into chess earlier this year and did a few training videos and what not with a woman called elisabeth paehtz, a ridiculously talented grandmaster chess player. They were quite an interesting watch and in general he doesn't allow adult language in his channel (although some might slip through) so should be alright for a young lad to watch.

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrLlamaSC/videos (just type chess in the search bar :D)

 

Plenty of high level players stream on twitch regularly, but I don't watch them myself so I'd be reluctant to send an 8 year old into it. But could be fairly easy to nip on and ask for decent resources for kids to learn with, most I've seen are really friendly and helpful. Good luck in the hunt :thumbup:

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Just now, Innovindil said:

Good on the lad. 

 

One of the people I watch on twitch/youtube got into chess earlier this year and did a few training videos and what not with a woman called elisabeth paehtz, a ridiculously talented grandmaster chess player. They were quite an interesting watch and in general he doesn't allow adult language in his channel (although some might slip through) so should be alright for a young lad to watch.

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrLlamaSC/videos (just type chess in the search bar :D)

 

Plenty of high level players stream on twitch regularly, but I don't watch them myself so I'd be reluctant to send an 8 year old into it. But could be fairly easy to nip on and ask for decent resources for kids to learn with, most I've seen are really friendly and helpful. Good luck in the hunt :thumbup:

 

I'll get involved in that and check it out - and the lad can follow up.

 

He watches a fair bit of Ben Finegold - who apparently used to teach chess and has now made those videos available on youtube.

 

He wants to learn more theory and openings and after having to teach myself some of the Sicilian Defence lines (I was a rigid Ruy Lopez kinda guy!) just to stay a step in front, I think its time to find him some decent youtube instructional videos.

 

Thanks for the tips!

 

For anyone with kids by the way - I've found that even though he embraced chess prior to lockdown, its really been a great thing for us to do during lockdown since we can play indoors, it doesn't have to involve a screen and it engages his brain! I reckon it might even have kept me from going mad. If you have kids of the right age and the weather is terrible, maybe get them to turn away from the screen now and then (says me, talking about youtube chess!) and get the board and pieces out!

 

 

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6 minutes ago, Innovindil said:

Good on the lad. 

 

One of the people I watch on twitch/youtube got into chess earlier this year and did a few training videos and what not with a woman called elisabeth paehtz, a ridiculously talented grandmaster chess player. They were quite an interesting watch and in general he doesn't allow adult language in his channel (although some might slip through) so should be alright for a young lad to watch.

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrLlamaSC/videos (just type chess in the search bar :D)

 

Plenty of high level players stream on twitch regularly, but I don't watch them myself so I'd be reluctant to send an 8 year old into it. But could be fairly easy to nip on and ask for decent resources for kids to learn with, most I've seen are really friendly and helpful. Good luck in the hunt :thumbup:

****ing chess can be a right ****ing ****storm. When those ************s get their **** going on, then it's like. ****ing ************'s night in a **********ing ******* ****hole! They need to ****ing clean their game up, ****s!

 

 

 

 

I've been known to play.

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I play on-line chess every day, but more fun than that is chess problem solving. There are a dozen or so chess problem books on one of my bookcases, containing some truly mind-bending mates in 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on. Also some studies - checkmates and stalemates in an unspecified number of moves. Each August, the British Chess Problem Society organises the Winton Chess Solving Championship. This involves an easy first postal round then a harder second postal round of mates in 2, 3, 4 and so on, a helpmate, a selfmate and a study. Then there's the final, which used to be held at Eton the following spring. Each year, I enter, and managed to qualify for the final four years ago. Grandmasters like John Nunn are regulars at the finals.

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45 minutes ago, String fellow said:

I play on-line chess every day, but more fun than that is chess problem solving. There are a dozen or so chess problem books on one of my bookcases, containing some truly mind-bending mates in 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on. Also some studies - checkmates and stalemates in an unspecified number of moves. Each August, the British Chess Problem Society organises the Winton Chess Solving Championship. This involves an easy first postal round then a harder second postal round of mates in 2, 3, 4 and so on, a helpmate, a selfmate and a study. Then there's the final, which used to be held at Eton the following spring. Each year, I enter, and managed to qualify for the final four years ago. Grandmasters like John Nunn are regulars at the finals.

That's interesting. I bet some of the mate in 4/5 etc are difficult. I mean sometimes you 'know' the move your opponent has to make becasue it might be the only legal move (ie to get out of check) but otherwise, surely you can't predict that with any certainty.

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Learnt to play as a kid, but had to buy a chess board that played against you a there was literally nobody else I knew who could play. So whilst I know the rules and the moves and can have a simple game, I'd get battered by anyone that had more than a passing interest in it. 

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I'm a big fan and play on chess.com each day. I do 5 minute games so there is less chance people are cheating. The downside is that it sometimes just becomes a race against clock and you don't get an opportunity to study the board and strategise properly.

 

I peaked in that format at about 1,500 ELO and reckon I'd need to study openings and all the rest to go much beyond. 

 

The problem I have with books is the notation. I haven't got fully used to the way moves are notated so it just takes me too long to follow and I get frustrated. Would be good to hear any suggestions on how people have improved their game outside of books?

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Long time ago I was captain of the Leicester University team and played for Leicestershire in a couple of county matches. Now I'm older and rather rustier, but I do still like to play. Mostly online on chess.com witha  real board available to me so I can study it rather than just looking at a picture on a screen, I find it helps me.

 

Talking about openings, the best thing I can say is to mix it up - have at least three or four that are familiar to you. I'll usually open with d4 as White and defend against e4 with the Sicilian and d4 with the King's Indian, but it's best to vary things somewhat.

 

7 minutes ago, James. said:

I'm a big fan and play on chess.com each day. I do 5 minute games so there is less chance people are cheating. The downside is that it sometimes just becomes a race against clock and you don't get an opportunity to study the board and strategise properly.

 

I peaked in that format at about 1,500 ELO and reckon I'd need to study openings and all the rest to go much beyond. 

 

The problem I have with books is the notation. I haven't got fully used to the way moves are notated so it just takes me too long to follow and I get frustrated. Would be good to hear any suggestions on how people have improved their game outside of books?

Unfortunately from what I have gleaned (and read), natural talent takes you so far but you're right in that to go further than decent club level you simply have to stick an awful lot of time in learning theory - there's no way around that. It's one of the reasons why I didn't improve when I took the game more seriously, I didn't have the time to invest.

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I watch The Queen's Gambit on Netflix a week or so ago and it got me wanting to play again. I signed up to a website called play.chessbase.com and have played 4 or 5 games a night. I must have played 50 times and won 1 game lol 

 

I seem to play people who can think 3 or 4 moves ahead and I'm just not there yet. On the plus side, it's taking me 10-12 minutes to lose instead of 4-5 minutes, so that's progress in a way haha

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8 hours ago, filbertway said:

I watch The Queen's Gambit on Netflix a week or so ago and it got me wanting to play again. I signed up to a website called play.chessbase.com and have played 4 or 5 games a night. I must have played 50 times and won 1 game lol 

 

I seem to play people who can think 3 or 4 moves ahead and I'm just not there yet. On the plus side, it's taking me 10-12 minutes to lose instead of 4-5 minutes, so that's progress in a way haha

Why not download a chess app and set the level low and work your way up.

Playing stronger opponents all the time can’t be good for moral and means you

likely wont be learning end games or how to close a game out.

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9 hours ago, James. said:

I'm a big fan and play on chess.com each day. I do 5 minute games so there is less chance people are cheating. The downside is that it sometimes just becomes a race against clock and you don't get an opportunity to study the board and strategise properly.

 

I peaked in that format at about 1,500 ELO and reckon I'd need to study openings and all the rest to go much beyond. 

 

The problem I have with books is the notation. I haven't got fully used to the way moves are notated so it just takes me too long to follow and I get frustrated. Would be good to hear any suggestions on how people have improved their game outside of books?


The notation thing is a huge challenge to me as well; I just can't visualise it and it takes me ages to work it out.

 

 

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Maybe we should set up some social games against each other. That could be cool.

 

It'd be great if Foxestalk had some Chess functionality. @Mark ?

 

Possible?

 

Did I dream that this sort of thing existed on here once?

 

Why am I dreaming about Foxestalk?

 

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I play on Lichess a fair bit in 2+1 games. Nice and quick and fairly low chance of cheaters due to time limit. One of things on Chess.com and Lichess is the puzzles they have. They're a good way to spent some time improving on. I watch a bloke called Agadmator on YouTube who does some pretty decent analysis of games which I've learnt a fair bit from. 

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Chess. Com is really good as you get a ranking and play similar levels for free. You can pay and they analyse your mistakes and tell you what you should of done. Starting playing in lockdown after 35 yr break. Loving it although I reach a certain level and then lose a few, to get back to square one

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1 hour ago, Spiritwalker said:

Why not download a chess app and set the level low and work your way up.

Playing stronger opponents all the time can’t be good for moral and means you

likely wont be learning end games or how to close a game out.

I've signed up to chess.com and seem to be playing people at my level now. The people I was playing on chessbase were making literally no mistakes at all. Felt like I was playing a computer on grandmaster level haha

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On 11/11/2020 at 21:11, The People's Hero said:

Any chessists here?

 

I'm a reasonable player, without ever having learnt any openings or patterns etc and have taught my son who has really embraced it.

 

He recently won a competition of 30 ish kids, up to 13 or 14 years old and he's 8, so I'm quite surprised at how far he has come!

 

Looking for recommendations on best way to improve ie:

 

- good books

- good youtube content

- to play online/ to not play online (i've heard various things about people using engines?)

- when to introduce him to proper timed matches

 

Also keen to discuss the game as I am becoming interested in it again myself.

 

This may be of interest to you.

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My grandfather taught me chess when I was 11. When we first started, he'd handicap himself not by playing deliberately weak moves, but by starting games without his queen. This meant that I had the chance to learn strong moves from him, but it also gave me a good chance of winning. Looking back now, I really appreciate what a great way to learn this was. (The way to guarantee not losing is to start a game without your king!)   

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  • 1 year later...

Wondering if anyone is following the Nepo vs. Carlsen world championship?  Classical format is a very slow burner, but really interesting to see the top guys given the time to think the game through.  Post-game analysis highly recommended rather than watching with the missus!

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Just now, Zear0 said:

Wondering if anyone is following the Nepo vs. Carlsen world championship?  Classical format is a very slow burner, but really interesting to see the top guys given the time to think the game through.  Post-game analysis highly recommended rather than watching with the missus!

Was the atmosphere any good?

🤣🤣

 

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