Chess Opening

A group of moves, made in the beginning of a game of chess, is called a chess opening. This typically involves the first ten to fifteen moves.

Chess opening moves have been exhaustively analyzed in chess literature. Each combination of opening moves is given a specific name. Chess opening guidelines A good chess player uses this information to select the best possible opening for a game. He also follows specific guidelines to gain maximum advantage in the opening moves. These guidelines include:
Game development Favorable game development is achieved through good chess opening. When a chess piece is moved from its position, its mobility generally increases. The move also increases the mobility of pieces blocked by the moved piece, thus developing the game. Typically, in the starting position, only the pawns and the knights can be moved. All other pieces are blocked. If you advance your pawn by one of two squares, mobility of bishop increases. Control over centre The centre portion of the chess board is where the major action happens. The player who acquires better control over the centre through his chess opening game plan, is at an advantage. He controls more squares on the board and thus can restrict the development of the opponent?s game. King safety Castling is a typical chess opening move to safely position the king on the board. Castling also results in rook development as castling unlocks the rook. Many good players decide on the time of castling in their chess opening game to get greater advantage.

Basic guideless for learners of the game Learners of chess may keep the following points in mind during their chess opening moves Never move the same piece twice, either in same direction or back and forth Moving a piece twice only signifies that you have wasted one move. The wasted move could have been used for achieving a better position on the board.. Typically, in the starting position, only the pawns and the knights can be moved. All other pieces are blocked. If you advance your pawn by one of two squares, mobility of bishop increases. Move pawn first and follow it up with knight Pawn movement unlocks the pieces at the back. Knight gives good positional power, if planned carefully. Choose between open, semi open or closed game The option you choose in chess opening moves should depend on the risk you are prepared to take in the game. Open games that expose more diagonals can be risky as the opponent can attack easily, unless you are careful.Closed games with fewer diagonal openings developed, are less risky. This results in more moves to develop the game.Semi-open is the intermediate between the two and new players generally prefer this option during their chess opening moves. Develop rook and bishop pieces Bishop and rook in combination can help to control horizontal, vertical and diagonal squares on the board. Do not expose queen too early in the game Avoid exposing your queen during chess opening as your opponent may threaten your queen though his own moves.In such a situation, your concentration turns to protecting your queen rather than making chess opening more effective.

CHESS OLYMPIAD

The chess Olympiad is a chess tournament that was organized by the FIDE since the year 1927. Since then it has been taking place on even days; however before the World War, the chess Olympiad was sometimes played once a year. In addition these chess Olympiads, there was also an ‘unofficial’ series of Chess Olympiads which ended in the year 1976.
Although chess Olympiad has coverage in most sports sections of newspapers around the world, it is not a recognized Olympic sport. However there is a possibility of it becoming an Olympic event in the future as the FIDE is presently a member of the International Olympic Committee and keeps to its rules. On the contrary, some knowledgeable observers feel that the chess Olympiad will not become an Olympic event.
Before the start of the chess Olympiad, there was a world team competition of chess that took place in Paris in 1924, along with the Olympic Games. This competition brought 54 players from 18 countries to the competition where Czechoslovakia was the country that won the Gold Medal. Hungary got the Silver medal, and Switzerland, the Bronze. Herman Mattison of Latvia was the winner of the individual gold medal. There was another world team competition in 1926 in Budapest where only 4 teams showed up. Hungary had won the event then. The first chess Olympiad of 1927 was held in London where 16 teams participated and Hungary won the gold medal. However women did not participate in a chess Olympiad till 1957 while the official title of Chess Olympiad did not occur till 1952. It was Alekhine who first scored 100% out of 9 games while the second person to accomplish the feat was by Robert Gwaze of Zimbabwe in 2002. There was an attempt to hold a chess Olympiad in Munich in 1936 so that it coincided with the Olympic Games. However as Germany was not a member of the FIDE, it was an unofficial chess Olympiad. The first woman to play in the Chess Olympiad was Chaude de Silans in the year 1950 when she was a member of the then French team. An interesting fact of the Havana chess Olympiad of 1966 was that Tal, one of the players of the tournament, was hit on the head with a bottle in a bar as he was flirting with the wife of another player. This was why he had missed the first five rounds of the chess Olympiad. In the year 1970, Andrew Sherman participated in the chess Olympiad as a representative of the Virgin Islands. He was only 11 then. Ion Gudju of Romania participated in the 1984 chess Olympiad that was held in Thessaloniki Greece when he was 87 years old. He is probably the oldest player to participate in a chess Olympiad and also takes pride in having played in the first chess Olympiad of 1924, in Paris. The next chess Olympiad is slotted to be held in Dresden, Germany after it had successfully beat the other bidder for the spot, Tallinn.

ELO CHESS RATING

The most widely used chess rating system that is in use today actually is of fairly recent origin. In fact, organizations like the United States Chess Federation and similar types of organizations and associations around the globe implemented what has become known as the Elo or the ELO system beginning in the early 1960s. The so-called Elo or ELO system (hereinafter “ELO” for ease of reference in this article) was the creation of a gentleman born in Hungary but who was a physics professor in the United States named Arpad Elo -- hence the moniker Elo or ELO. The chess rating scheme oftentimes if signified in all capital letters although it really is not an acronym. The ELO chess rating system actually was created in order to improve the overall chess rating system that previously was in place. In time, ELO has been used in many other arenas beyond chess rating. In addition to chess rating, ELO can be used as an appropriate rating system for any competitive game situation that involves multiple players, including computer games. Indeed, the ELO chess rating scheme has evolved so far as to be applied to such sports as international football, U.S. football and U.S. Major League Baseball. At the heart of the ELO chess rating system was the substitution of statistical estimation in place of a system that is based upon competitive rewards. Rather then subjective evaluations based on so-called “greatness” in relation to game related or play related achievements. An easy to understand example is to consider a chess tournament. Previously, chess rating could be based upon a rather arbitrary determination that one chess tournament is three times more important than a less competition. Therefore, “points” would be awarded to the winner of this more significant chess tournament in a more significant proportion under this subjective system of chess rating.
On the other hand, the ELO chess rating system engages a purely statistical model that considers the actual game or tournament results to underlying variables that are intended to reflect the actual abilities of a particular chess player. Of course, competitors can still contend that the ELO chess rating scheme still rewards success and failure in a particular situation; however, many experts in the field of chess rating believe that this system more accurately evaluates and reflects the actual abilities of a chess player. The contention is that the ELO chess rating system is a much more reliable chess rating scheme than anything else that has come before or anything else that might be available for utilization today.In developing the ELO chess rating system, ELO operated on the basic premise that the performance of each and every chess player in any particular game is what technically is known as a “normally distributed random variable.” At the heart of the normally distributed random variable is the conclusion that while a chess players performance will vary from one game to the next, sometimes even significantly, the mean or median “value” of a particular chess player’s performance over time in fact would change only slowly.

CHESS RATING

All sports in the world have their independent ratings; similarly expertise in the game of chess is measured through one’s chess rating. The experts in chess have chess ratings that range around 2800 while the chess ratings of average chess players are around 1600. Sometimes, chess rating is referred to as Elo rating, in remembrance of the inventor of the chess rating system. When competing in chess competitions, the players with the same rating have equal chances of winning when competing against each other. Players having different chess ratings, with the same difference in the chess ratings, have similar chances of winning at a game of chess. This means that two chess players having chess ratings of 2100 and 1900 have equal chances of winning in a game of chess as two players with chess ratings of 1300 and 1100 as the difference in chess ratings in both cases is 200 points. However remember that the chess ratings that different agencies offer need not be the same or comparable with each other. Chess players usually use their chess ratings when introducing themselves when meeting each other for the first time. It was Garry Kasparov who was the first player to break the 2800 barrier in the year, 1989. This was in comparison with the other players; both current and historical. The criterion employed in a chess rating system seems to be rather mysterious, but a chess rating is basically based on statistics of the players in their previous matches and chess playing expertise. In 1959, the USCF rating system in chess used 2000 as the upper level chess rating level for strong club players. These chess ratings then had divisions of 200 points that helped assign the different players in different classes of players. Elo had developed these measures as he thought that they were steep in the tradition of chess playing. There are lots of calculations associated in getting a chess rating. The game results of a chess game naturally play an important part in the calculation of the chess rating. When calculating the chess rating, the expected percentage of the results of a game and the difference with that expected result is taken into consideration. Along with this, the number of wins, losses and draws against the opposition in the chess games too are taken into consideration. With all this information, it is possible to calculate the initial chess rating for a new and previously unrated player. However, the higher is the results of numerous games in the calculation of chess rating, the more accurate is the initial chess raging. The chess rating is a very important factor determining the expertise and prowess of a chess player in a chess competition. The players in a chess competition are usually matched against each other, after taking into consideration their individual chess ratings. This is why it is important to work at improving your chess rating by playing as many chess games with chess players having similar, if not equivalent chess ratings.

PLAY CHESS ONLINE

Chess is the game of strategies and tactics. If one has an opportunity to play chess with different opponents with varied skill levels, chances of learning are much higher. However, such opportunities are not always feasible but chess online makes this possible.
Advantages of chess onlineChess online has suddenly opened up a new avenue for growth for chess lovers by giving them international exposure. Sitting at home, a chess enthusiast can play chess with anyone in the world.Online forums offer immense opportunities to discuss strategy with great players and share opinions for mutual benefit. Many chess online websites also have databases of chess games. These databases are continuously updated and provide an understanding of the game. Like your own chess board, chess online is available to you 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Choose your convenient time and day to play chess on chess online. Websites to play chess onlineMany websites are now in the offing and it becomes tough to decide on registering with a particular site to play chess. This is particularly difficult when sites charges for membership. Following points may help one select the best site:
www.chessboss.com is a website that is worthy of your choice to play chess as it satisfies many of the parameters outlined above. Immense resources on chess amply supported by state of the art technology in terms of the hardware and software, makes this the number one chess online website. Selecting a suitable website to play chess online on a continuous basis is a crucial decision if you are serious about the game. An ideal option would be to look for a chess online site that offers various avenues to strengthen your game. It should be remembered that once you outgrow a website, one should move in to a higher league of chess online, in order to grow continuously.