Making Sacrifices

Making Sacrifices

Hey guys!

For my last post I wanted to go over important things I learned from reading Yasser Seirawan's book and share the final thing I learned. When I did my first blog a couple months ago I knew nothing about chess except the basic rules. I did not know of the countless strategies players could use to there advantage and how hard the game really was. Now I am feel confident enough to call myself a good chess player and its all thanks to Yasser Seirawan and his amazing book. The most important think I think I learned from reading his book is that anyone can become a great chess player if they try hard enough.
The final thing I learned from reading Yasser Seirawan's book is that you must sacrifice key pieces if you want to win. One strategy I learned was the Queen sacrifice tactic which is when you sacrifice your queen in return for tactical or positional compensation. A lot of times a queen sacrifice at the right time can lead to a quick checkmate. In the picture below you can see that by letting the opponent take my queen it distracted him and I am able to get near his king.

 

This is a very risky Strategy to use against very good players since they will be able to see that you want them to attack the queen however when playing against a casual player sacrificing the queen is a very good strategy because they will want to attack the queen the first chance they get.

How do you think Sacrificing a players own pieces can benefit them?

The X-ray Tactic

The X-ray Tactic

I'm back and I just wanted to let you know how progress is going. Chess has gotten much easier for me and I have made a lot of improvement to my game thanks to Yasser Seirawan. His tips have been very helpful to me in getting better at chess.
In his book he talks about the X-ray tactic and its a very interesting way to look at chess and can be very useful. This tactic allows for a piece to start an attack even when other pieces are in the way and also allows a piece to defend a friendly piece while attacking the enemy piece in the process.

In this positon below the white piece has placed the bishop where he can execute the X-ray attack. When the bishop attacks the queen she will be moved but the rook will remain under the bishops watch. Its like attacking the rook through the queen and once the queen has moved the rook will be captured. This is a great example of the X-ray tactic because you are able to attack the enemy through the body of another. This is also a very good tactic because it puts the king in danger of a checkmate.

One of Yasser Seriawan's greatest quotes when it came to the game of chess is "Though most people love to look at the games of the great attacking masters, some of the most successful players in history have been the quiet positional players. They slowly grind you down by taking away your space, tying up your pieces, and leaving you with virtually nothing to do". this is a very strong quote and it can also relate to the X-ray tactic because its a tactic that leaves you with virtually nothing to do.

How has the X-ray tactic changed your view of chess?

Take No L's

Winning Chess

Its been a while since my last post and I am really starting to understand the rules and mechanics of the game. I've started to play against other people online and its been very fun trying to beat really good players. I'm a very competitive person and have been for a very long time now, so I hate to lose when I play against people. In this blog post I will be showing you some of the new moves I've learned to make sure you never lose while playing chess.

Everyone knows that the most important part of chess is getting checkmate. Some people struggle to ever get a checkmate and some do it without breaking a sweat. Getting a checkmate can either take hours or minutes to accomplish. One of the most deadly checkmates in chess is known as the back rank.

In the book winning chess: strategies Yasser Seirawan brings up a checkmate known as the back rank which if done right, can do some serious damage. This checkmate is delivered by the Rook or Queen along a back rank where the King is unable to move because it is blocked by friendly pieces.

In this picture you can see that I was clearly a

victim of the back rank checkmate. My king is in the very back with no options. I am unable to move forward in anyway because my own friendly pieces are blocking my way. The only move I can make is move my queen next to the Rook blocking its way to my king However after the Rook takes down my Queen its checkmate.

This is one of the most common mistakes made by rookie players because they worry to much about protecting the king often leading to the king being surrounded by its own friendly pieces leading to the king having no way to escape.

Have you ever been a victim of the back rank checkmate and what do you think is the best way to prevent it from happening?