Chess Improvement

[Event "ICC 3 0"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.06.28"]
[Round "-"]
[White "RX-MEN"]
[Black "brianwall"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ICCResult "White checkmated"]
[WhiteElo "2251"]
[BlackElo "2300"]
[Opening "Ruy Lopez: Berlin defense, 4.O-O, Fishing Pole"]
[ECO "C65"]
[NIC "RL.07"]
[Time "22:44:41"]
[TimeControl "180+0"]

1. e4? e5 2. Nf3? Nc6 3. Bb5? Nf6 4. O-O?? Ng4!!
Fishing Pole

5. d4 exd4 6. Nxd4 h5
My favorite blitz position

7. Nc3 Bc5!! 8. Nb3 Qh4!! 9. h3 Qg3!! 10. hxg4 hxg4
Mate in 3. Tyler Hughes told me he’s had this exact game.

11. Bf4 Qxf4 12. g3 Qxg3# {White checkmated} 0-1
———————————————————————-

RXMEN-brianwall.pgn
———————————————————————-
[Event "ICC 3 0"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2006.06.28"]
[Round "-"]
[White "RX-MEN"]
[Black "brianwall"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ICCResult "White checkmated"]
[WhiteElo "2251"]
[BlackElo "2300"]
[Opening "Ruy Lopez: Berlin defense, 4.O-O"]
[ECO "C65"]
[NIC "RL.07"]
[Time "22:44:41"]
[TimeControl "180+0"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Ng4 5. d4 exd4 6. Nxd4 h5 7. Nc3 Bc5
8. Nb3 Qh4 9. h3 Qg3 10. hxg4 hxg4 11. Bf4 Qxf4 12. g3 Qxg3#{White checkmated} 0-1
————————————————————————–
————————————————————————–

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Would like to ask:

1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. Bb5 Nd4
5. Nxd4 ?

What should be the continuation for black?
*********************************

5…ed4 is forced and now after 6. e5 white is a little better.

I think 4…Bc5 is stronger than 4…Nd4

Interesting are also 4…Bb4 and 4…Bd6

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A while back someone asked about chess courses to improve their game and we had several good examples including websites where you could get a free trial for lessons. Well to add on to that here is another viewpoint on using different software for different parts of the classic game.

CT-ART 3.0 is just one program from the large series of products
devoted to all stages of chess game: opening, middlegame and endgame.

CT-ART is an excellent program on chess tactics, but for other stages
the best are the following programs:

Opening Instructor for opening
Chess Strategy for middlegame
Theory and Practice of Chess Endings for endgame

You can see this software and many other training programs at the
site ChessOK.com

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A few days ago someone was looking for a good chess course and we came up with a few good ideas. Some of them even free trials and some are programs you could download for free. Our good friend FM Eric Schiller wrote the following:

CT-ART is perfect for tactics, but it isn’t a chess course. Try www.chessmagnetschool.com. Grab the free month and see how you like it.

This is another example of being lucky enough to have so many good people trying to help us become better chess players. I had never heard of this website before but it looks great and I’m going to do my 30 day free trial. Even after that, it says it is less than $3.00 a month. I think everyone could afford that even in these tough economic times.

ChessMagnetSchool

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Sorry if this is waaay off topic, but why is it that board diagrams are
always facing from White’s perspective?

Seems odd to me, especially when your discussing “Black to Move”,
or looking at games from a Black perspective.

Is it just age old convention?
****************************************************

Yes, to some extent it is just age-old convention, but in the name of
standardization. It was found to be most practical to present the board in the same direction as a standard regardless of what the origin of the diagram is. That way, readers don’t need to wonder about the direction of advancing pawns, etc.

It would have worked just as well if it was from black’s viewpoint. The idea is consistency. While a few authors and publishers have inverted the diagram, the large majority have adopted the standard of white’s viewpoint.

One factor might have been that it is white that moves first, therefore the board is first seen from white’s perspective. Why should they change the board direction with successive moves? Another might be that it is consistent with algebraic notation, which assigns only one ID to a square and places the first rank at the bottom of the board.

Interestingly enough, Sudoku seems to have adopted a consistent notation system that is similar to algebraic chess notation but inverted (a1 is at the top, etc.). Most chess players that log Sudoku moves use chess notation rather than Sudoku notation.

Anyway, your question was welcome and it is not really off topic. When one is starting to learn notation, board orientation is a major issue.

Understanding of notation is essential for anyone to improve their game.

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