Chess 101 for Chess Competitors

Dear Skilled Chess Players of Chess.com

As a service to the young chess enthusiasts and spirited beginners taking up the game of chess, we should try to nurture their development with our words of wisdom.

Those who lack any potential or who view themselves as worthless players with no hope of improvement should just go and chat on some other topic because this is only for serious chess players with potential.

Perhaps we could assist developing chess warriors by providing them with words of wisdom that can guide their development.

Here is my first piece of advice to developing chess warriors:

RULE NUMBER 1:   BE PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE

Not unsportsmanlike but passive aggressive in your attack.  Being so does not mean that you should post insults or promote 5 Queens against a helpless opponent.  Absolutely not.  That is stupidity and I neither promote nor condone stupidity.

Believe it or not, the first step to becoming a great chess player is to develop a powerful understanding of chess psychology and philosophy.  Reading books about chess and practicing openings is of value as well.

However, if you lack a basic understanding of chess and what it takes to be a winner then you will never be great.  Take the time to sit down and listen to the words of great chess masters and develop an understanding of how they think or how they evaluate their opponents during matches. 

To me, I am a great chess player because I have that killer instinct necessary to just go out there and destroy an opponent with no mercy.  At the end of the match, I will type "gg" as a virtual handshake because I do not hate my opponent.  In fact, I appreciate the time that he or she has taken to compete against me.  There will be countless idiots as well, but you can deal with accordingly.

Please feel free to comment and discuss whatever words of wisdom the great chess players post on this topic. 

"You need not be a great chess player to learn from a great chess player." 

Darth Von Doom

Here is a helpful book title:

Encyclopedia of Chess Variants by David Pritchard (Oct 2001)

• Hardcover: 372 pages
• Publisher: Everyman Chess; 1 edition (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0952414201
• ISBN-13: 978-0952414209

I purchased a hard cover online a while back and it is a very good book to have in one's overall collection of interesting reads.

Here is another useful title that I added to my collection:

Thought and Choice in Chess by Adriann Degroot

• Series: Psychological Studies
• Hardcover: 479 pages
• Publisher: Mouton De Gruyter; 2nd edition (June 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9027979146
• ISBN-13: 978-9027979148

Be sure to always start from the first page and read it to the end before repeating the process.  It builds stamina and allows you to read the piece as it was intended to be read... in its entirety and from cover to cover.  Doing otherwise will only make you lazy as you will look to take shortcuts and there are no shortcuts to becoming great.

If you are serious, then a great chess book should take you a couple of weeks to read as you process its contents and incorporate the words into your game.

If you appreciate chess greatness, then I would recommend this title:

Bobby Fischer Goes to War:  How a Lone American Star Defeated the Soviet Chess Machine (2005)

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060510250
• ISBN-13: 978-0060510251

This title just promotes an overall appreciation and love of the game of chess.

But averaging over a couple hours a day a serious study of Secrets of Pawn Endings took me over a month to finish (counting problems admittedly).  Fine's Basic Chess Endings took even longer.  Maybe Turning Advantage into Victory in Chess will take a couple weeks.  It's a great book I went through it more than once.  Now that I'm collecting CCE volumes and orgering ECE when it's fully updated (pawn ending and rook ending volumes are remastered) I don't have to review BCE again (two entire play throughs), yay ^_^

Sorry to say this, but you're not exactly a "great" chess player, at least not yet. You're rated about 1650 in blitz, which probably puts you a little below expert level, let alone master or Grandmaster. Don't get me wrong, I'm even lower rated than that, but it's a bit much to go around calling yourself one of the "great" chess players. You seem to troll the forums quite a lot, so I guess it's meant to be a bit tongue in cheek.

I just defeated 1835 blitz rated Rodalbyo easily with Black

Are you sure that you really want to question my greatness?

Look, I understand that if you are not a great chess player that you will not likely be able to recognize talent when you see it. 

As you chose to ignore the topic entirely to criticize someone who is clearly superior to you in every way, I don't see how you can call me a troll on a forum topic that I created.

Ahahahahhahahah, you crack me up. You might have noticed that I specifically pointed out that I have an even lower rating than you. Both of us are good players, in the sense that either of us could beat 99% of non players very easily. My point is that while you're a good player, you couldn't possibly be described as one of the great players, in that there are literally tens of thousands of expert and master level players capable of kicking your ass in a simultaneous blindfold exhibition without breaking a sweat. Just on chess.com, there are thousands of higher rated players than yourself. In other words, don't take yourself too seriously.

So, let's assume that you consider yourself to be a 'good' chess player.  That's fine.

We're clearly not on the same level. So, if you epitomize what it means to be 'good' then I must by your own standard fall into the category of 'great'

In addition, you assume too much... what makes you think that I would lose to anyone wearing a blindfold and playing simultaneous exhibition games?  I have defeated those so called Expert and Master level players that you reference and they need all of their physical abilities to compete against me.  

If I played your so called Master players with them blindfolded, I would defeat those players easily and make it an embarrassing blood bath.

Chess.com has a lot of Overrated chess players rated higher than myself... for now.  However, that doesn't mean that I am not a better player.

"Chess.com has a lot of Overrated chess players rated higher than myself... for now.  However, that doesn't mean that I am not a better player."

Lol, another delusional player who thinks that they're underated, and everyone else is overrated. If you were a stronger player than them, then you'd beat them and their ratings would drop, and your's would rise, that's how it works.

"We're clearly not on the same level" Actually, we are. Both of us are intermediate level players, probably class B or C, although you'd likely fall on the high end of that and myself on the low end. In a tournament with expert level players you wouldn't stand a chance, and with titled players even less so, let alone Grandmasters. If you have aspirations to be a great player, say to reach Expert level (around 2000 FIDE) or even become a titled player, then genuinely, good luck, but if you go around boasting and calling yourself a "great player" before you've achived that, then don't be surprised if people don't take it seriously.

*Sees argument in comments*

*Grabs popcorn*

*Watches apprehensively*

yeah this looks worth tracking

sorry darth the force struck you down lmfao

As I stated previously, you underestimate me. 

For one thing, you are honestly not on my skill level. 

Just because my rating is 1672 right now, it says nothing about my true chess skill.  While I can continue to push my rating higher and higher until I reach 2300+, I seriously doubt that you have the skill to raise your rating over 150 points in 5 days playing opponents who average 1650 and even above 1800. 

I am truly a nightmare for anyone who even considers himself or herself to be rated above 2000+.  Meanwhile, anyone rated 2000+ who plays you would likely walk through you with ease.

My intention in creating this topic was to share words of wisdom with developing chess players while your intention is to steer the conversation to focus on your trolling. 

Yes, that was a long enough excursion to the rating debate, so let's get back on topic here!

I have already defeated so called Experts and GMs!!!  That's what I was saying!!! 

Now back to the original topic please....