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61 pages

English

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This book will teach you to play chess in two hours. Studied more carefully it can make you an average player. Both the authors have world-wide reputations as a chess player, writers and teachers. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

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Sport

Autour du sport

Histoire du sport

Chess

Games

Activities

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Publié par	Read Books Ltd.
Date de parution	15 janvier 2013
Nombre de lectures	6
EAN13	9781447482918
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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CHESS MADE EASY
by
C. J. S. PURDY, A.M.
(1906 - 1979)
International Master
World Correspondence Chess Champion, 1953-58
Champion of Australia, 1935-38, 1949-52
Champion of New Zealand, 1925
Champion of Australasia and S.E. Asia, 1960-63
and
G. KOSHNITSKY, M.B.E.
CHESS is easily the world s most popular game. It is played on an organised basis in nearly a hundred countries .
Chess will play a still greater role in the future when increasing leisure will draw people to worthwhile recreations. Chess is the King of Games, unrivalled, unchallenged .
Thousands see a big fight. But millions saw games in the last world title match. They played over the moves at home, from hundreds of newspapers in scores of languages .
Chess is not an old man s game . It does not need patience . Slow to watch, it is thrilling to play. A footballer, an ice-hockeyist, and a big-game hunter have placed chess first for excitement! Its extreme slowness is a myth. Average is a move a minute .
Chess is now widely played by both sexes; it has become a social asset .
CHESS MADE EASY will teach you to play in two hours. Studied more carefully, it can make you an average player. Both the Authors have worldwide reputations as chess players, writers and teachers .
ABOUT THIS CHESS
To die without having learnt chess is like dying without ever having heard music!
And chess is easy! That is, easy to learn to play well enough to enjoy it. Treated as a pastime, chess gives the most lasting pleasure because of its unending variety; you never tire of chess. But chess can be more to you than a game. Chess is an art, chess is a study, chess is one of the noblest inventions of the human mind (Joad, famous psychologist). Chess helps to mould character. It teachers equanimity in good or ill fortune.
Many think that to play chess well one must memorise numerous openings. This is wrong. An understanding of general principles will suffice to attain average skill.
There is no chess type . Chess appeals to diverse minds, for it is a blend of opposites. It is logical, yet quaint and picturesque. Some of its principles apply to modern war, yet it is redolent of ancient chivalry and romance. It combines the zest of struggle with rest from all cares. East and West meet in chess.
A thousand years ago chess was already the world s most widely played game, and it still is today.
Over 10,000 books have been written on chess. It has been a recreation of many of the world s famous men: Charlemagne, King Canute, Sir Walter Raleigh, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Leibnitz, Voltaire, Rousseau, Peter the Great, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, Buckle (the historian), Benjamin Franklin, Dickens, Ruskin, R. L. Stevenson, Lenin, Bonar Law, Fritz Kreisler, H. G. Wells - and too many contemporaries to mention.
CONTENTS
Background
Object of the Game
The Board
The Pieces
Drawn Games
Values of the Pieces
How to Read Moves
Mobility: Combinations
Three Phases
The Opening
Practice Game
Middle-Game
The End-Game
Time Factor
Planning
Laws of Chess
How to Improve
Method
Correspondence Chess
Chess Problems
Handicap Chess
Down the Ages
Women in Chess
Books for Further Study
General Advice
Computer Chess
BACKGROUND
Chess is a war game, 14 to 18 centuries old. Chess played on 64 squares originated in Ancient India. The pieces then represented the four main parts of an army (infantry, calvary, elephants, and war chariots) plus the king and his counsellor.
Chess may have been a Buddhist invention, designed as a bloodless substitute for war. Anyway, an early Indian writer remarked, after a long era of peace, Armies are now seen in action only on chessboards .
Today, the quaint jumble of names that the various languages (including English) give the chessmen, smack of the paradoxical, fairy-tale world of Lewis Carroll, rather than of the grim realities of total war. All over the world, people like chess that way, and ignore attempts to modernise the names.
In English the elephants have become bishops. The cavalry, carved like horses heads, have their mediaeval name, knights. The pieces in the corners were the war-chariots; these are carved as towers, and were long called castles, but now rooks . Rook is a corruption of the Persian Rukh , meaning a war-chariot. The counsellor is now a queen.
OBJECT OF THE GAME
Every unit, with one exception, is subject to capture by any opposing unit. That exception is the King, who is exempt from this indignity.
Yet the object of the game is the virtual capture of the King. This is called checkmate (Persian shahmat , the King s death), universially abbreviated to mate .
You will find this paradox resolved on p. 12, under the heading Check and Mate . Check is a threat to capture the King, and mate is a check from which there is no escape.
Much of the fascination of chess stems from the special end its inventor gave it. It gives chess a unique, mystical quality.
THE BOARD
The board consists of 64 squares. These are called black and white , but may be of any two colours. Always place the board so that each player s right hand corner square is white , that is, the lighter colour.
There is no point in having squares the same colours as the pieces. Black and white (or cream) are quite good colours for the pieces, but for the squares a sharp contrast is too dazzling. One of many satisfactory combinations is dark brown and buff.
The rows of squares are called lines . Cross-lines are ranks , vertical lines are files . Lines of squares of the same colour are called diagonals .
A natural question for prospective players is, what size should a board be? A good answer is that the squares should each be roughly 1 1/2 times the length of the base diameter of your largest piece, which is always the King. If the squares are a little larger than that, no matter; but if they are substantially smaller, the pieces will be crowded. This looks ugly and makes the game harder.
For starting chess, a small, cheap set is adequate. For big events, the King is usually 3 1/2 or 3 3/4 high and the squares 2 1/8 or 2 1/4 .
Staunton pattern is a stylised design, accepted internationally for all tournament play. Plastic Staunton sets, now in general use, are cheaper than wooden ones. Ornamental sets are for decoration.
THE PIECES
Diagram 1

Original Position
Each player has eight Pieces, which start on the back rank, posted behind the eight Pawns - see Diagram 1 .
Each player has two Rooks (in the corners), two Knights next to the Rooks), two Bishops (next to the Knights), and in the centre the King and Queen. Note that the Queen always starts on a square of her own colour .
Take careful note of one ambiguity in talking and writing about chess. The word pieces can be used to denote all the units including the pawns, e.g. in the heading that tops this page, or it can be used for only the major units as distinct from the pawns. It is so used in the first paragraph of this page, also in the heading in the second column, and indeed nearly everywhere in this book.
The word piece is often used in a still more limited sense. Winning a piece always means winning a Bishop or Knight. Strictly, these two pieces, which are about equal in value, are called minor pieces , and the Queen and Rooks major pieces but these expressions are seldom used.
THE PIECES MOVES
The players move alternately, one unit at a time. White moves first .
The first thing to know about the moves is that no unit, with the single exception of the Knight, can jump over another unit, either friend or foe.
The Rook moves forwards, backwards, or sideways, in one straight line - that is, along rank or file, and as many squares as it likes provided nothing is in its way.

The Bishop moves only along a diagonal, forwards or backwards, and as many squares as it likes provided nothing is in its way. (See next diagram).

The Queen combines the powers of Rook and Bishop - that is, moves straight ahead, straight back, sideways, or along a diagonal, and as many squares as it likes provided nothing is in the way. (See diagram below.)

The King moves in any direction, like the Queen, but only one square.

Thus the King can move to any one of eight squares shown in the diagram. See more about the King, pp. 12 and 13.
The Knight (symbolising cavalry) does not move in a line, but jumps, always the same distance (two squares) and always to a square of the opposite colour to the square it leaves.

In the diagram the eight squares available to the central Knight are indicated by white Knights. From a corner, a Knight commands only two squares.
CAPTURING
A Piece can capture an enemy unit standing on any square to which the Piece could move. It captures by placing itself on the square occupied by the enemy unit; the captured unit is removed from the board. Capture is not compulsory as in draughts.
Diagram 2

Queen takes any Pawn
In Diagram 2 the Queen can capture any of the five Pawns, but not the Pieces standing beyond them, as this would involve jumping over the Pawns.
Diagram 3

Knight takes any Pawn
In Diagram 3 the Knight can take any Pawn; the Pieces can take any Pawn; the Pieces in between make no difference, as the Knight s move is a jump.
THE PAWN
We have seen that Pieces move in all directions. Pawns move only straight ahead, and one square at a time, except that on its first move each Pawn has the option of moving either one or two squares. Another difference is that the Pawn does not capture with its ordinary move. It captures diagonally forward. Thus in Diagram 4 the White Pawn cannot take the unit immediately in front of it, but can take either of the other units.
Diagram 4

Note that in a diagram the White Pawns are always moving upward, Black Pawns downward.
PAWN PROMOTION
On reaching the eighth row a Pawn must take the rank of any Piece except a King. Naturally a Queen is the almost invariable choice. Th