GREAT CHESS BOOKS SERIES

They also have fascinating life stories, and chess is about hot human emotions as well as cold calculation. Morphy (HarmonвЂ™s favourite), Alekhine, Capablanca, Tal, Korchnoi and Shirov are other legendary figures with whom the aspiring player might identify. Fischer is a great starting point вЂ“ his play is clear and comprehensible, and beautifully described in his famous book My 60 Memorable Games. Find a player you like and follow their careers. Study the games of great masters of the past. Find human opponents, either online or, when the pandemic is over, in person.Д«obby Fischer was stripped of his world title in 1975 after he refused to defend the title due to a row over the format. And donвЂ™t endlessly play against the computer. You need to engage your own brain on the analysis. But donвЂ™t let the computer do all the work. There are also plenty of sophisticated, all-purpose programs, usually called chess engines, such as Fritz and HIARCs that, for around ВЈ50, help you deconstruct your games and take you deeply into positions. attempts to explain chess moves in laypersonвЂ™s language.

is a brilliant resource for watching top tournaments. , and are great sites for playing and learning. Once you have established the basics, start using computers and online resources to play and to help you analyse games. Find a good teacher вЂ“ your own Mr Shaibel, but without the communication issues. Understand the potential of each piece вЂ“ the way a pair of bishops can dominate the board, how the rooks can sweep up pawns in an endgame, why the queen and a knight can work together so harmoniously. Start with the pawns, and then add the pieces. If you are a beginner, donвЂ™t feel the need to set out all the pieces at once. Play people who are better than you, and be prepared to lose. Eventually you will start winning, but there will be a lot of losses on the way. Garry Kasparov, another former world champion, likes to say you learn far more from your defeats than your victories. Every game should be an education and teach us something. Be willing to embrace the complexity enjoy the adventure. You need to be endlessly fascinated by it and see its infinite potential. вЂњYou can only get good at chess if you love the game,вЂќ Fischer said. So how do we get good?ДЇirst, by loving chess.

GREAT CHESS BOOKS SERIES

She is a prodigy, just like world champion Bobby Fischer, on whom Walter Tevis based the novel from which the TV series is drawn. The daughter of a maths PhD, she sees the patterns and movement in chess immediately, can visualise effortlessly вЂ“ being able to memorise moves and play without a board is the sign of chess mastery вЂ“ and sees whole games on the ceiling of her orphanage dormitory. T he first thing to say about chess is that we are not all natural geniuses like Beth Harmon, the star of The QueenвЂ™s Gambit, who is taught the game by grumpy but lovable janitor Mr Shaibel at the age of nine and is very soon beating him.

Great chess books