i am an extreme beginner at this game. i know the rules and pretty much nothing more but i started playing with my friend who isnt too much better off. anyhow...this is a game i've always wanted to learn. does anyone have any good resources where i can start learning some stuff?
Whenever I want to learn something the first place I start is Google. So I'd say run a google search for like Chess Strategy and that sort of thing and I'm sure you'll find lots of things.
This site seems pretty good (link #11 for learn chess in Google): http://www.chesscorner.com/tutorial/learn.htm Most libraries have a decent selection of beginning chess books. (As you get better, though, the selection worsens greatly.) Check 794.1 in the nonfiction section.
yes i've already done that but i was hoping someone could use someone elses expertise to direct me to an especially good site without me having to thru a ton of not very good sites.
if your ever in a big bookstore they have a whole shelf just for chess. i havent ever got to play the game as much as i wanted, but i have always loved it. its really the only game i get really mad if i lose. somehow it seems to be a insult to my intelligence or something.
any books in particular that one would recommend? i kind of feel like people are on me for asking about where to learn about chess. all i wanted was just some of the best sites or best books or best freeware progs. there is a lot of bs out there and i was just hoping to cut down on that and get to the best stuff.
I always felt that with chess, the best way to learn is to play. When I first started, I lost like straight games to a friend, before running off an 11 game winning streak vs. the same friend. Anyway, try yahoo games and just jump into some matches. That way, you are competing against anonymous players, and you don't have to worry about not doing well at first. I think you'll tend to develop your own strategy, but also get a feel for what other people try to do as well. Anyway, I absolutely love chess. It's a game where the emphasis is the mind. You'll be amazed at how many moves you can look ahead, and what you can anticipate, the more you play. It stops becoming so reactionary, and much more premeditated, and strategic. Damn, I'm hyping myself up to play just talking about it. Good luck, and have fun.
That's funny, I'm teaching my 8 year old nephew to play the last few days. He's still having trouble with wanting to take back his moves but I don't care bc he's 8 and I still always win. Kids also actually care about who's going to be what color, as if there's some significance to it. And when we play with my Lord of the Rings set, guess who's the army of Mordor every damn time?
Go get a copy of something like Chessmaster for the PC or Mac (whichever you have). Learn when you want and at your own pace against as strong as an opponent as you want to create. I haven't played seriously in years. I'd be lucky to have a even an 1100 rating now...
That was probably partially directed at me -- I honestly didn't want for my post to sound like that. I looked through the first handful of sites that Google turned up for "learn chess", except I didn't use quotes in the search, so I underlined it in my prior post. I didn't mean for the underlining to be a form of emphasis -- I see how you probably interpreted that, and I apologize for that. The link I gave you was the one that I thought was the best. As far as actual books go, I don't really remember which beginner's books I've read. Going through Amazon.com and looking through the comments, along with what I know about the authors and publishers, I'd suggest these books: Learn Chess, by John Nunn Chess Fundamentals, by José Capablanca The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess, by Patrick Wolff If those books aren't in your library, I'd just grab whatever they have that looks like it's at an introductory level. (Now that DoD mentions it, Chessmaster does have good tutorials.)
http://zone.msn.com/en/chess/default http://games.yahoo.com/games/login2?page=ch MSN and Yahoo are good sites for Chess against a human opponent. It will be hard if you are an absolute beginner like you said. Even the worst players there already know half-way to play chess. Players with rating ~1000 are beginners and they already know to make moves. Those around 1500 are under average but can still make good moves and think ahead 2, 3 moves. If you go to those sites, most of them are over 1500. You need to: 1) Pick up a beginner book, the list from Kimble14 looks good. 2) Get a computer Chess player program, ChessMaster 2000 for example, a Half price bookstore near me sells them for just a few bucks. 3) Join a chess club. If they don't have instructional classes, people there are always willing to give you lesson. Which part of town are you in? Maybe there is a club nearby.