First Chess Lesson (7/22)

I want to use this blog to keep track of the things Jeffrey tells me at lessons. This is late, but in the future, I'll be more timely and complete.

1. We worked on the rook-and-king and queen-and-king endgames - Jeffrey with just a king, and me with the two pieces pushing him around the board. The queen was so simple! The rook took me a few tries, and I'm still not satisfied with my ability to recreate it every time. The difference is that the rook can be taken, whereas the enemy king can't get close to the queen (unless you really screw up) since it can move diagonally.

Dean and I were practicing at home on Thursday night, and he has a more systematic way of checking with a rook-and-king. There are set steps, and you just rinse and repeat. I will try to add a diagram or animation illustrating the differences for myself once I figure out how. The way Jeffrey taught me, or at least what I took away from it, is quicker, but it's easier to screw up.

2. Three questions to ask myself every time it's my turn:

Am I defending?
Am I attacking?
Am I building up?

Your priorities (and therefore your move) will follow from there.

3. Sweep the board! Just because you found one good move doesn't mean there aren't others. Look at the whole board.

4. On a related note, beware of tunneling. Don't focus on a single part of the board or a single series of moves you want to do, and don't assume that an opponent will move the way you want them to just because you're excited about a tactic. I lost more pieces this way.

5. Keep your hands beneath the table until you're ready to move. Look with your eyes, not your hands. Touch-move is a bastard.

6. Keep your hands beneath the table until you're ready to move.

7. Keep your hands beneath the table until you're ready to move.

8. SERIOUSLY STOP TOUCHING THINGS, ARK!

9. Homework: do tactics on chess.com. Tomorrow.