Knight study resources?

Hey all, can someone recomend a book or other resource for learning knight strategy and tactics?  I don't think I've been using that piece very well.  Thanks!

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/fun-with-chess/knights-tour-puzzle

Practising a knights tour really helped my horseplay.

First, knight fundamentals.  It's all about practicing it's movement until you get used to seeing it better.

Lesson 1:  It moves in an "L" shape

Lesson 2:  Place a knight in the middle of an empty board and then use 8 enemy pawns to mark each legal move.

Lesson 3:  Notice it switches colors every move, thus it goes from attacking only light squares to only dark squares etc.  So when in check from a knight if you stay on the same color (move diagonally) it cannot check you again the next turn.  You cannot knight fork two pieces if they are on different colors.  As an extension if your knight is attacking dark squares, and you want to move it to attack an enemy piece on a dark square, it will take at least 2 move.  If you can't do it in 2 then it will take 4 etc.

Lesson 4:  Draw a 5 by 5 grid on paper and mark the center square with zero.  Pretend a knight is sitting there and lable each square on the grid with the minimum number of moves it takes to reach that square.  Notice adjacent diagonal squares are only "2" while squares two away diagonally are a minimum of 4!   So relative safety from a knight can happen while sitting on the same color as the knight despite lesson 3.  Or if you're trying to move a knight to a such a square you should realize it will take quite a while.

Lesson 5:  On an empty board place 3 or more white (or black) pawns in random locations.  Then place a knight in one corner and spend some time finding the fewest number of moves it takes to capture all pawns.

Second is knight tactics, the only basic tactic knights can preform are forks.  A fork is when you attack two enemy pieces with one move.  If your opponant can only deal with one of the threats with his 1 move then on your next turn you will win the other piece.

Similar to lesson 2 place a knight in the middle of an empty board and this time use two enemy pieces to mark each configuration of fork just to get used to seeing the pattern.  Notice in the starting position a king and rook fork is most likely to happen on c7 for black and c2 for white.

Last is knight strategy.  Knights are slower moving than other pieces, but their ability to jump over pieces makes up for their speed.  Because of this ability, on a closed board (pawns locked in the center) knights can really outshine bishops if you can find them outposts.  An outpost is an advanced and protected support point for your knight and generally is a square that is 1) protected by one of your pawns and 2) an enemy pawn can never attack that square.  This is better understood if you can see it.

Neiggghhhhhhhhh, laddie.  Too much work.

Yeah, I know :p  But it's easssssy to see where you bisohps and rooks can move... and if you want a bishop way over there it's eassssy to see it takes __ # of moves.  With knights though a beginner may spend too much time and energy trying to figure out if he can move it from f3 to d5 in fewer than 4 moves.  Or checking for forks when there are none.  For a knight's movement to become as natural as a bishops (or as close as possible anyway :) it just takes a bit of effort.

Of course the alternative is to do it like most people and just play a ton of games until you figure this stuff out on your own or intuitively.  I realize I was taking his question a bit too seriously, but I had fun with it :)

I remember when I first realized knights switch colors every move and I thought woah, crazy... ok confessions of a chess nerd

Waffles, my boy, you get tons of respect for the detail.  But...Just but.

Wafflemaster, you did a good job.  There is likely at least one gem in your post that a beginner will find instructive.

Thanks!

Oops, didn't mean to offend anyone.  The word "beginner" was not aimed at you.  There are many beginners (including myself) who read these forums, and instruction at any level is always useful.

www.troyis.com

lvl 10 on 2nd try... but didn't beat it, seems to get a lot harder on 10.  It says lvl 8 within 2 days is genius... so I finally have my genius certification.  I emailed troyis.com and hopefully I'll be getting my certificate later this month lol

You could try studying the chapters on Kt & P endgames in whatever endgame books you have. You could also begin studying K+R vs K+N and K+B vs K+N endings with and without pawns. I'd also recommend learning how to mate with K+B+N vs K, it will definitely give you some clues on how the Kts work  in conjunction with Bishops. There's even an entire book on Kt+P endgames out there by Averbakh (pub by Batsford in 1977) but I think it's OP (out-of-print) and probably too dense for "ordinary" players like us (ie non-Masters). 

Finally you could look for GM games played by GMs who favored Kts over Bishops in endgames, I believe Nimzovitch was one such player and I know there are more out there. If you have a decent chess program you can probably reset the value of the pieces to make Kts more valuable than Bishops, and of course you can practice Kt+P endgames vs the silicon monster.

Try developing your knight's before bishops, even if it means castling a little later. Here is an example:

 The main reason for this is that the knights' moves are usually to the same squares and are therefore less committal than the bishops.  Think about the area a knight on f3 controls - it is almost always going to be its best site.