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When it comes to your chess set, the Knight chess piece is often the defining piece in the set. This piece offers the most chance for variety and uniqueness in a chess set and it is often the piece with the most detail. When it comes to the game of chess, the Knight chess piece is often the favorite piece and most unpredictable piece in the game. Many a game has been ended because of the make-or-break tactics with the Knight.
How A Knight Chess Piece Moves
The Knight chess piece moves in a very mysterious way. Unlike Rooks, Bishops or Queens, the Knight is limited in the number of squares it can move across. In fact, it’s movement is a very specific movement. The piece moves in a shape similar to the uppercase “L”. Here are the specifics:
- The Knight piece can move forward, backward, left or right two squares and must then move one square in either perpendicular direction.
- The Knight piece can only move to one of up to eight positions on the board.
- The Knight piece can move to any position not already inhabited by another piece of the same color.
- The Knight piece can skip over any other pieces to reach it’s destination position.
Basic Tactics
Most experts prefer their Knight pieces to be “close to the action”. Because of their strange movement, the can often cover weaknesses that other pieces leave. Knight pieces are also best employed near the center of the board and they are often one of the first pieces to reach the center area of the board. The Knight also has a unique ability to attack another piece without risking being attacked by the same piece (aside from other Knights, of course).
Favorite Chess Pieces Sets
Here are some of our staff favorite chess sets with beautiful and unique Knight pieces:
Columbian Series Wood Chess Pieces ($349.99)
Alexander Series Wood Chess Pieces ($659.99)
French Rosewood Chess Pieces ($39.99)
Reykjavik Ebonized Chess Pieces ($89.99)
See All Chess Pieces
They’ve been here for a little while now, but we thought we’d take the time to introduce you to our newest color of basic plastic chess pieces. That’s right, we now have Gold & Silver offered as colors for our colored chess pieces.
Our colored plastic chess pieces have been very popular. We offer our basic pieces now in ten different colors, available as half sets. They are standard sized chess pieces without weights, making them perfect for chess clubs and chess players on a tight budget. Our basic pieces also come in black, white, red, blue, yellow, purple, green and pink.
These chess pieces pair great in chess sets with our vinyl chess boards or mousepad chess boards. They are great for chess clubs, schools and homes.
Buy Basic Colored Chess Pieces
Buy All Ten Colored Sets
Finding the perfect tournament chess set takes time and consideration, but it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. While there are definitely a lot of standards involved, you do have some room to make the perfect set for you.
At Wholesale Chess, you’ll find a great variety of tournament sets to get you geared up for the next big event. We have both weighted and non-weighted pieces in a variety of colors, shades, and heights. We also have many board colors, textures and weights to choose from. It can be confusing to find the right set, but we’re here to help you get started. Here are some of the industry-standard tournament sets we have available.
The most basic tournament set we have is the Quality Tournament set. This set features a basic board with 2″ squares and unweighted pieces standing at 3 3/4″ king height. The package also comes with a carry-all bag that holds the board, pieces, and a few other supplies you may want to bring along. The vinyl board is well constructed and will last for a long time. it’s quite lightweight and portable. It also comes in three colors: black, forest green, and navy blue, meaning the board and bag will be in those colors. The pieces are all black and natural colors. This set is excellent for the beginning chess player and the player on the go.
Our least expensive set with weighted pieces, the Heavy Tournament Chess Set includes pieces, the vinyl board and the carrying bag. Like the Quality Set, the Heavy Tournament Set comes in navy, black and forest green. The pieces are a set up from the Quality Set, featuring triple-weighted pieces standing at 3 3/4″ king height. The king weighs in at a hefty 52 grams, giving the pieces that comfortable, weighted feel. The board and bag are the same as used on the Quality Set. This set is our best value set for the serious tournament player.
With a slightly taller set of pieces and a mousepad board, the Executive Tournament Chess Set is a step above the Heavy Tournament set. This set features the carry-all bag, the 2″ vinyl board and a full set of Executive Staunton pieces. The board rolls very well and handles abuse quite well. The set is also available in black, navy and forest green. The pieces have an ivory color or black color and are triple weighted. The king weighs in at 45 grams, slightly lighter than the Heavy Tournament set.
Our Premier Tournament Chess Set is one of the highest quality tournament sets available. This set features our Premier pieces paired with a full-size regulation mousepad board and our Premier tournament bag. Our Premier pieces stand at a towering 4 1/8″, our pieces feature a king weight of 65 grams, making them some of the best pieces in the industry. The mousepad board features squares at 2 3/8″, and comes in three different colors: black, navy and forest green. The set also includes our 27″ premier tournament bag that can easily fit the set along with any other supplies you may need to bring. The set is highly durable and will last a long time.
Review by Guest Author Greg Delaney
England’s Andrew Martin, International Master and Senior FIDE Trainer, is in my mind, one of the foremost teachers of chess in the world at this time. I have watched numerous DVD’s featuring IM Martin, and have had the occasion to witness in person his edifying and entertaining presentations. Martin’s personality, presentation style, and material are engaging and always interesting. So when I saw this three volume series of DVD’s produced by ChessDVDs.com, I knew I would get Volume Two (which targets players of about my strength) and possibly Volume Three. I asked Andrew if the first volume would be of value to me, and all he would say is that there are some new ideas and new games presented. So, thus intrigued, I obtained all three.
Logic suggested that I begin with Volume 1, which I was able to watch in two sittings, as it contains a little less than two hours’ worth of material. The content of the DVD seems to be suited for someone who is beyond the basics of chess (how pieces move, how checkmate is administered, etc.), but who is still learning fundamentals of strategy, tactics, and principles. The DVD has a brief introduction by IM Martin, and then quickly moves into his ten suggestions for improvement, each presented with an illustrative game. Martin selects as examples games ranging from players at Grandmaster level to those of his students, and goes through them each in some depth, highlighting the application of his suggestion. Andrew Martin repeatedly demonstrates his ability to keep ideas simple and concrete – a necessity for the improving player.
Some of IM Martin’s “suggestions” for improvement are to be found in any chess improvement book, while others are a bit unique – but valuable nonetheless. Personally, I could have used ideas like “not being afraid to lose” and “not ignoring the endgame” while I was learning chess in my early teens. It is in the presentations of the games where Andrew really shines. While much of the material was review, I could not help but get energized and enthusiastic about playing chess while watching this DVD. Clarity, simplicity, and a smattering of humor make this DVD a good buy from the standpoint of content.
Unfortunately, the production quality of the DVD falls quite short of the standard achieved by its presenter. At the beginning one finds the familiar fire + chess pieces + orchestral music of the “Foxy” series of DVD’s, a clip that appears to have been copied numerous times. The level of audio between “suggestions” varies quite a bit, and I found myself often needing to use the “volume” control of my remote from section to section. Some of the sections begin abruptly following the end of the previous clip, as though careful editing was not done. Nearly the entire DVD is only a full-screen chess board with the audio of IM Martin playing, so if the viewer is interested in “getting acquainted” with the presenter, s/he will be disappointed.
I know that chess players can be quite fastidious and critical, so some may be unhappy with the DVD’s production problems, but if one can look beyond this and focus on what Andrew Martin is sharing, 10 Easy Ways to get Better at Chess Volume 1 is a useful and edifying bit of work.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of Wholesale Chess. We welcome open discussion on all aspects of chess on the Wholesale Chess Blog. If you would like to be a guest author on our blog, please contact us at marketing@wholesalechess.com.
by Guest Author Greg Delaney
Over the past few years, I have come to appreciate the efforts made by the English Grandmaster Nigel Davis to help club players grow in chess understanding and strength. Davies is the featured presenter on a fair number of Chessbase Software ranging from opening theory (“The Closed Sicilian” and The Scotch Game”) to psychology (“Chess for Scoundrels” and “How to Beat Younger Players”) to strategy (“French Defense Strategy”).GM Davies is an articulate and well-prepared instructor via this medium, and I have purchased a number of these Fritz Trainers for those reasons.
But for me Davies’ skills and insights stand out even more clearly in the books he authors. In the past two years, GM Davies has produced two excellent books for club players: “The Rules of Winning Chess” (2009) and “Ten Great Ways to Get Better at Chess.” (2010)
These two volumes (published by Everyman Chess) are a treasure trove of improvement ideas and 
well-stated axioms of chess, suitable for most everyone except perhaps a rank beginner. What Davies does so exceptionally well in these books is to provide clear, concrete examples of each and every idea. Full games, fragments, and very readable prose both edify and entertain. In “The Rules of Winning Chess,” no less than fifty “rules” are presented to the reader. Some of the “rules” are Davies’ take on very familiar chess principles while others are rather unique presentations of psychological factors as well as tactical and strategic ideas. Games and game fragments abound, as do anecdotes about Davies’ own career and the lives of famous Grandmasters. No part of the game of chess is left out – the “rules” are placed into five Chapters covering the following topical areas: “The Player,” “Preparation,” “The Opening,” “The Middlegame,” and “The Endgame.” There is truly “something for everyone” in this book.
“Ten Great Ways to Get Better at Chess” is GM Davies’ most recent book, and I find it to be even more interesting and relevant to me than “The Rules of Winning Chess.” Each of the ten suggestions are thoroughly explained and illustrated by well-annotated games. Davies is one author who describes what’s going on with a minimum of variations and no Informator symbols. His explanations are readily understood and, as always, well illustrated by games and anecdotes. A very interesting feature of the book is the inclusion of “before and after” games played by Davies’ own students, once they had learned more about one particular “way” of getting better. Differences between the games help the reader “see” the concepts put into action. GM Davies includes some of his own games, as well, to show that he not only preaches but follows his own suggestions.
I was pleasantly surprised by the nature of the 60 total ideas offered in these two books. Many are novel ideas that are simply common sense once the reader has assimilated them. Because of the sheer number of suggestions made, the reader may select those which fit his/her needs and interests. I should mention, however, that a reader who thinks these two books contain easy ideas that require no work on their parts will be very unhappy. Chess is hard work, and GM Davies pulls no punches in stressing this. Like all good ideas, the material in these two books requires active implementation and practice – key ingredients to chess improvement.
Greg Delaney is Life Member of USCF who returned to chess in 2005 after a three decade hiatus from the game he loves. He is an educator, club player, and student of IM Yelena Dembo. For fun, he blogs about chess and his work to improve as a player.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of Wholesale Chess. We welcome open discussion on all aspects of chess on the Wholesale Chess Blog. If you would like to be a guest author on our blog, please contact us at marketing@wholesalechess.com.
by Greg Delaney
Chessbase has released dozens of very good training DVD’s in the past few years, featuring very capable and well-known presenters such as Andrew Martin, Alexei Shirov, and Viktor Bologan (and countless others).
The Secret to Chess, by first time presenter GM Maurice Ashley is one of the best that I’ve seen during that time. GM Ashley from New York became the first African-American to earn the coveted international title in 1999, and has since become a polished chess commentator for events such as Kasparov’s matches against computer programs and the Anand-Kasparov World Championship match in 1995. Ashley’s skills at the chess board and in front of the camera serve him well in this DVD.
“The Secret to Chess” has about 4 hours of chess instruction by GM Ashley on a simple but profound idea: every move in chess has at least one “drawback.” Beginners and club players have some general understanding of this (“pawn moves always weaken squares,” for example) concept, but Ashley presents the idea literally as a way to play each and every chess game. He provides numerous examples of what he calls “Drawback Chess” or “Aikido Chess” (Ashley is a martial artist who is familiar with the Aikido style, based on taking advantage of the opponent’s imbalances and weakened areas). The examples begin with positions in which the “drawback” to a player’s move is relatively easy to spot, and gradually progress in difficulty and complexity. GM Ashley’s explanations of the drawbacks and how they are “punished” are detailed and clearly illustrated with the colored squares, arrows, etc. frequently seen in Chessbase DVD’s.
Ashley’s delivery style is lively and engaging: even his few errors are entertaining. His verbiage is sprinkled with words that communicate Ashley’s inherently aggressive style, and he comes across as really enjoying the presentation he is delivering. A small number of examples are from Ashley’s own games, and he provides excellent insight into the positions as one might expect. In addition, however, GM Ashley takes the viewer into his thought process, his emotions, and some of the psychology that takes place at the highest levels of chess. The emphasis of the DVD is on recognizing the drawbacks to the opponent’s moves and on taking advantage of these drawbacks to find very strong and even decisive moves. As a viewer, I was thoroughly engaged in the material for the entire 4 hours.
While The Secret to Chess focuses primarily on identifying and exploiting the drawbacks of the opponent’s moves, I have found it even more interesting to use this idea to help me identify the drawbacks of my moves when I lose games. In the past I have often been perplexed as to why I lost some games (in ways other than outright blunders, of course), and I have started to analyze these games from the “drawback” perspective. It becomes much easier to see why I lose when I look for the drawbacks of my moves and how my opponent exploited them. I consider this DVD a “must own” for any club/tournament player.
Greg Delaney is Life Member of USCF who returned to chess in 2005 after a three decade hiatus from the game he loves. He is an educator, club player, and student of IM Yelena Dembo. For fun, he blogs about chess and his work to improve as a player.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of Wholesale Chess. We welcome open discussion on all aspects of chess on the Wholesale Chess Blog. If you would like to be a guest author on our blog, please contact us at marketing@wholesalechess.com.
Written by guest author Jason Repa for Wholesale Chess
This Rybka is the fourth generation of the popular chess playing/analysis program created by MIT Graduate, International chess master, and software developer Vasik Rajlich, who resides in Warsaw, Poland. To my knowledge, Vasik is the first titled chess player to introduce a competitive program into the market. Vasik’s wife, Iweta, who is an active member of the Rybka development team, is also an International chess master with a FIDE rating of 2450.
Since its inception, Rybka has consistently topped the charts in terms of playing strength according to reputable chess program comparison lists such as the SSDF http://ssdf.bosjo.net/list.htm. In recent news, Rybka 4 has won both the main and the blitz tournaments at the 18th World Chess Computer Championship which took place last month in Kanazawa, Japan. http://ticc.uvt.nl/icga/cg2010results/WCCC.html. In the main event it scored 8/9; a full point and a half ahead of its closest rival. It also scored 8/9 in the blitz event. Starting back from its original release, Rybka has always had an uncanny ability to win a large percentage of games with the Black pieces, which is unusual, not just for chess programs, but in human play as well.
When Rybka first arrived on the scene it was independently sold as a UCI engine that required you to have an existing UCI compatible interface, such as WinBoard (for Windows), or XBoard (GNU/Linux). But starting with the third generation of the program (Rybka 3), it is available preinstalled in the tried and true Fritz/Shredder/Junior interface as Rybka has teamed up with the Chessbase Company to offer the best of both words in terms of interface quality/functionality and engine strength.
Deep Rybka 4 is the multiprocessor version of the program. Although the regular Rybka 4 will also run on multiprocessor computers, the Deep version is specially optimized to take full advantage of the additional hardware resources. The drawback is the higher price tag. But for those seeking the strongest off-the-shelf chess program available, it is well worth the additional expense.
Rybka 4 also comes with a 1.5 million game database and purchasers are entitled to a free one year membership at the playchess.com online chess server. The server entitles you to online play against other human opponents in the normal rooms, or even pit your chess program (Rybka or others) in competition against other programs in the special engines room.
Jason Repa is a CFC rated national chess expert and part-time chess coach from Winnipeg, Canada. He has been a tournament chess player since 1995 and has been teaching chess since 2002. He can be reached at jasonrepa @ hotmail.com
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of Wholesale Chess. We welcome open discussion on all aspects of chess on the Wholesale Chess Blog. If you would like to be a guest author on our blog, please contact us at marketing@wholesalechess.com.
This Review was written by chess player Cub Noble for Wholesale Chess.
I needed a game clock for the scholastic tournaments that I play in. I wanted one that would be functional and digital for a decent price. The other game clocks that were digital were running for waaay out of my range and I found the DGT Easy Game Timer. The black is perfect for tournaments because it blends in to the board and bringing it together as one set, it is not too loud or obnoxious. It is the perfect size too for the bag that I have.
DGT Easy Game TImer Chess Clock
However if you want a clock with delay this is probably not the way to go. It is good for preset and creative time settings and its unique design always brings people to want to use it. I got the DGT Easy chess Timer just in time for a chess tournament and I found it works wonderfully. My opponents asked me where I got this clock because they wanted to get one just like it for their usage.
This clock is a lot better than a lot of the other chess clocks that I have used at scholastic tournaments mostly because it is light weight and durable, the screen is very easy to read, it is easily programmable. The DGT Easy Timer clock is different because instead of holding both sides of the buttons down to pause the time there is a button in the middle to pause it. Also the sound button is good for club and blitz play because it signals when you are running low on time, however, I don’t think I would recommend it for tournament play because it may annoy you or your opponent or the other games being played.
If you want to start it over you just need to press the power button again. I really like that feature because it enables you to change the time control if necessary by pushing the up button or handicap a player if you are playing someone stronger or weaker than you are. If you are in a blitz game, I don’t much care for the count up option that occurs when you run out of time however there is a flag that comes up to signal that the game ended on that side. There are 3 different features for this clock. I know I will be using this for years to come. I highly recommend this product for anybody who needs a good clock at a good price.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of Wholesale Chess. We welcome open discussion on all aspects of chess on the Wholesale Chess Blog. If you would like to be a guest author on our blog, please contact us at marketing@wholesalechess.com.
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