Rookery Chess

Helping others learn and improve in the game of chess.
Home     Chess Club     US Amateur West     Links / Downloads     Contact Us      
Welcome to Rookery Chess!
Rookery Chess is dedicated to providing the community of Tucson and Southern Arizona
with quality chess tournaments and instruction.
 
Recent updates:
  • Updated Chess Club page (05/03/10)

 

Quotes to think about:

 
"I prefer to lose a really good game than to win a bad one. "
 --- David Levy, International Master
 
You can't win every game, but you can play your best in every game. Sometimes even your best isn't enough to win, but at least you're trying. A "good loss" is one you can learn from. Often times I'll ask my students how their game went or what happened that caused them to lose. Often the answer is "she took my queen and then got me in checkmate". While technically correct, those aren't the answers I'm looking for. Why was the queen taken without getting something equal in return? What happened in the game that allowed your opponent to checkmate the king? By reviewing the game we can learn from our mistakes to avoid help avoid making them again in the furture.
 
At the same time a "bad win" is one that we can not learn from. An example of this is the Four-Move Checkmate (or "Scholar's Mate"). A game that ends in four moves does not teach us anything. Not for the winner anyway. At least the loser can learn that his king is always vulnerable and next time protect the king better. But the winner learns almost nothing. Worse yet, if the winner thinks this is the best way to play, they're very likely to lose their next game when the opponent knows how to stop the checkmate! The same is true for someone that is winning the game and decides it would be more fun to take all of the opponent's pieces or to get as many queens as possible before winning the game. These strategies do not help us become better chess players and they should be avoided.
 
I've always said that you can learn more from a loss than you can from a win. Every game of chess should be two things.
1) A summary of everything you've learned about chess up to this game. Play your best and use the things you have learned.
2) A learning experience to be used in your future games. Review your games (both wins and losses) to help you improve for the future.
 

"I really can't remember what my current rating is. I wouldn't like to sound immodest,
but when you become World Champion, you don't pay too much attention to ratings anymore."
  --- Vladimir Kramnik, (then) World Champion

 The reason I find this quote interesting is because GM Kramnik is not the highest rated player in the world, but he was the world champion.  Being the best (or at YOUR best) has nothing to with ratings. A rating is number that indicates your history, not your future. (Think of it like a batting average in baseball or a field-goal percentage in basketball.) Just because you're high rated doesn't mean you can't still lose a game to someone lower than you. And just because you're lower rated than someone else doesn't mean you can't beat them. You always have to play the game to the best of your ability. The past helps you learn so that you can prepare for the future. Once the game has started it's your 16 pieces versus their 16 pieces and ratings don't change that.
 

 

Daily Puzzle from Chessgames.com

 

 

In each puzzle, you are given a chess position from actual play, and told which player had the move (White or Black). It's up to you to figure out the best move in that position.

The difficulty of the puzzles increases as the week progresses, with Monday puzzles being very basic, and Sunday puzzles almost impossible.

 

To see the answer, just click on the diagram. You will not be shown the answer immediately, but instead go to the game from which the puzzle was taken. From there, you can play through the game and when you reach the position from the diagram you can see the move played in the game.

The move played in the actual game is almost always the solution, although every now and then the correct move was not actually played in the game. On these occasions, the notes to the game will explain what should have been played.

 

Upcoming Events