Articles

This section contains articles, guides and downloadable PDF documents designed to assist the beginner player to progress quickly into a full fledged chess playing card holder. Feel free to download as many documents as you like. They are all free, and all for you.

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Chess Pocket Guide

Click the link below to download a two page chess pocket guide. This tiny guide is an ideal companion for any beginner player. It contains:

A brief introduction to each piece.
Details of how to initially configure the board.
Examples of legal moves for each chess piece.

View: Chess Pocket Guide

Chess Algebraic Notation

Algebraic notation is the most common means by which chess games can be represented in textual form. All chess notations can represent chess moves (including special moves) in a non-ambiguous way that is easy to read and easy to replicate. One advantage of understanding chess notation is that a beginner player can then make use of thosands of games and openings detailed in books and on the Internet. This article explains the inner workings of Algebraic Chess Notation.

View: Chess Algebraic Notation

Chess Special Moves

The following article describes in detail three special moves in chess. The article makes use of diagrams and examples to help explain the concepts of each move and gives advice on the reasons for playing them. The special moves covered are:

Pawn promotion
En Passant
Castling

View: Chess Special Moves

Chess Terminology

Chess terminology often bewilders beginner chess players. This article describes the meaning of:

Tactics
Strategy
Special Chess Moves
First Move Advantage

This document is a work in progress. We will endeavour to grow this article as new terms are introduced by other articles added to this section.

View: Chess Terminology

First Move Advantage in Chess

The following article introduces the theory behind the first-move advantage in chess. The first-move advantage simply states that white has an advantage as white always moves first. Statistically, white does have an advantage, but it is not quite that simple. Download the article for full details.

View: First Move Advantage in Chess

Chess Tactics

Tactics are a series of moves or a single move used to advance a strategy or obtain a short term advantage. There are numerous tactics one could use at any point in a game of chess. This article lists some of the more common tactics.

View: Chess Tactics

Relative Piece Value

Relative piece value is a measure by which a player can determine how valuable each piece is at any point in a game of chess. This skill allows a player to determine whether it would be advantageous to sacrifice one or more pieces in order to advance a strategy. Calculating the relative piece value is however not that straight forward explained in this article.

View: Relative Piece Value

Seven Deadly Chess Mistakes details several easy to ovoid mistakes commonly made by beginners.
History of Chess as the name implies contains an interesting chess history lesson.
Chess Strategy for Beginners contains a comprehensive guide of easily learned chess strategy for beginner players.
Chess Traps and Tricks lists several quick and dirty tricks that you can play on your opponent.
Chess Notation is used when describing a game of chess. It is not often required by the beginner, but it may be worth learning all the same.
50 Ways to Gain the Upper Hand lists 50 simple methods that may be employed to beat your opponent.

Selected articles are submitted to Ezine Articles or Scrbd.