News & Updates
Recently, we were made aware of something interesting going on in India. The program is called D.A.A.N. (or Development Action Awareness Nationwide). The program was introduced to help out a few select areas in India. As part of the program, Irinette brought in some chess supplies to help teach the game to kids. As you can see by the article, chess was a huge hit! We are proud to be a part of this. You can read more by visiting the D.A.A.N. Blog. Click Here.
If you’ve ever been shopping for a chess clock, it can be hard to choose between digital chess clocks and analog chess clocks. Both types of clocks have their own unique advantages, making the choice even more difficult. Here are a few tips:
Analog Chess Clocks
Often, analog clocks are the first types of chess clocks you may be familiar with. Analog Chess Clocks traditionally feature two separate clock faces in the same chess clock, one for each player. The most basic ones feature two buttons at the top for each player to press. With analog clocks, you typically set the time on each clock individually.
Analog clocks are short on features but huge on style. These clocks often have little more than an ability to turn each face on and off and a way to set the clocks. Some chess clocks feature a wind-up design, freeing you from batteries. Others have batteries inside, freeing you from constantly winding your chess clock.
With analog clocks, it’s all about looks. Analog clocks can be very beautiful and offer a greater range of styles. Clocks are often manufactured in elegant woods with interesting patterns. Clock faces are designed to match and these clocks look just great.
Digital Chess Clocks
These clocks are more about utility and accuracy than analog clocks. Digital chess clocks are available in simple to advanced models. The higher the price, the more features and the better the quality. Digital chess clocks often have many different buttons and the user must learn how to operate each type of clock.
Features, features features. Digital clocks are pre-programmed to work as chess clocks, but can do so much more. Digital clocks often have dozens of different timing modes, giving you and your chess game much more variety in types of games to play. Chess clocks can handle blitz modes, delays and more.
When making your decision, make sure you consider why you are buying a chess clock. Analog chess clocks may not be able to withstand the abuse of a school chess program or have the accuracy required for a true chess tournament. Digital chess clocks may just look tacky when you pull out your beautiful rosewood or oak chess set to play your old friend. No matter which clock you choose, though, chess clocks can sure make your chess game more fun and improve your abilities as a chess player.
Digital Chess Clocks
Analog Chess Clocks
Chronos Chess Clocks
BHB Chess Clocks
That’s right! We’ve received some new Chronos clocks here at Wholesale Chess. We now have the Chronos GX Digital Button Clock in Beige and the Chronos GX Digital Touch Clock in Beige. You can get your own here at Wholesale Chess! Supplies are limited and there’s no telling when Chronos will be sending us more.
by guest author Greg Delaney for Wholesale Chess
Let’s state the obvious right from the beginning: losing chess games is not fun! Okay, now that we are past that, we can now move along to the real subject of this article – how to handle losses and make them work for us. I recall reading somewhere long ago a statement by a tennis coach that went something like this: “Tennis must be a great game, because half the players who play it lose – and they keep coming back.” I think our wonderful game of chess is no less “great.” Everyone who plays chess loses sometimes, but we keep playing anyway. Two important aspects of chess learning that have taken me awhile to accept (albeit grudgingly) are that losing chess games is okay, and that it can help us become stronger players.
One of the strongest roadblocks in my own path to chess progress has been the thinking error that my worth as a person rides on the result of every chess game I play. This irrational belief has led me to do the following: 1) put tremendous pressure on myself to win or, barring that, not losing, 2) play cautiously and passively – “not to lose” rather than trying to win, 3) avoid playing at times so as not to risk a loss, 4) feel so ashamed of my losses as to avoid post-mortems and replaying the games for understanding, 5) criticize myself unmercifully for errors and blunders, and, 6) fail to share losses with strong players who could point out patterns of mistakes and thinking so change could happen.
I know that I cannot be the only chess player who has done some or all of these things, so I’d like to share a few tips about losing that I’ve learned the hard way. First and foremost, there is no connection whatsoever between our level of chess strength and our value as people. This sounds self-evident, but I have witnessed numerous times tantrums and unsportsmanlike behavior from players who have lost a game. Some people have a hard time losing any competition because they tie their self-worth to winning. Secondly, all that self-criticism does is to undermine confidence, which is a vital characteristic of a good chess player.
The third one took me awhile to understand: playing passive chess and thereby forfeiting the initiative is effective – only if you wish to lose! Chess is a war game and the object is to “kill” the opponent’s king. I have learned that the opponent will gladly take the initiative if we kindly hand it over. Making threats is what chess is about, and if we don’t make them, our opponents will. My fourth idea is tied to the tennis coach’s statement above: the possibility of losing is not a reason to not play chess. Personally, I have not yet died from a loss, and I imagine no one reading this has, either.
Finally, we need to look over our games with players stronger than ourselves – not just to learn from our mistakes, but to have pointed out to us all of the errors and blunders our opponents make. It is reassuring to see that our opponents are not perfect and that we may have simply not seen and taken advantage of the mistakes they make. Moreover, Mikhail Botvinnik was insistent that objective, thorough, and critical evaluation of one’s play in each game is essential to improvement. How else to not keep making the same mistakes over and over? I have begun to let go of my shame and fear about losses by sharing them with my chess coach, IM Yelena Dembo, and listening – really listening – to her constructive feedback. By viewing our losses in these ways, we can use them for improvement, rather than feeling bad about them and ourselves.
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 article was written by P.N. John for Wholesale Chess
Once the child has reached a FIDE rating level of 1500-1800 the right attitude towards effective study and practice are needed for further progress to mastery. The fun element has to be given top priority so that the child develops a passion to win at chess and acquires a learning mindset. World chess champion Viswanathan Anand said recently, “I enjoy working on chess. I try playing different openings, learning from other players. My curiosity in chess has remained unchanged since the time I started playing.”
It is very important to have drills to practice repeatedly the fundamental chess concepts-basic tactics, (WSC note: see Chess Tactics for Students) must-know endgame positions, various basic mates etc. This should be done daily with a chess clock attempting to solve within lower and lower time periods so that correct technique comes naturally and automatically over-the-board while playing. This can be done under the guidance of a good chess coach but the child should do it on his own as soon as he can do so. Only with this basic foundation can the child proceed to creative and more advanced chess.
Victor Korchnoi, a great Grandmaster has said, “Chess you don’t learn, chess you understand”. From this stems the most important tool available to the child to attain mastery- critically analyze by himself the games he has played to identify and learn from mistakes made. More time should be spent on games lost. When the coach goes through the games and analysis afterwards he can give the feedback needed to improve and identify the weaknesses and strengths of the child and suggest specifically what to study and which chess problems to solve. It is good for the child to have a large collection of chess books and chess software to refer to as suggested by the coach to overcome weaknesses and enhance strengths. Analysis with Fritz, Rybka should be done later to understand and learn from opportunities humans missed.
The child should go through as many Grandmaster games as possible using different approaches suggested by chess trainers-slowly, quickly, guess-the-move, analyze the moves before looking at the annotations etc., to get diverse benefits and enhance overall understanding of the game of chess so that he can play better and improve the quality of annotating his own games.
It is a good idea to start off with a good games collection book like Steve Giddins’ “50 ways to Win at Chess” which is focused on good technique. Going through Grandmaster games like Chessbase 11 or Chess Assistant 11 alone, with friends or a coach is a great way to absorb different ideas in chess.
A child should be encouraged, if he enjoys it, to record his thoughts on his improving chess experiences in a journal every day. Also, special notebooks can be kept to classify and then record important tactical and positional themes from his own games .Writing speeds up absorption of chess ideas and periodically reviewing the notes will help the child to apply the knowledge over-the-board.
Apart from serious chess study the child should play with chess players of varying strengths under different time-controls but mostly slow chess games of at least an hour each. As far as possible games should be analyzed with the opponent immediately or at least the same day itself on his own as immediate feedback is very important for improvement.
More than just chess skills are needed to attain mastery. Physical and mental fitness are important for success in tournaments. This idea was well put by Anatoly Karpov, the former world champion, “To be champion requires more than simply being a strong player; one has to be a strong human being as well.” So it is important to have a balanced approach. Academics should not be ignored. The child should be encouraged to take up other interests like physical sports and reading. He should learn to take losses in his stride even as he strives to improve and win. The goal should be to improve at chess at least a bit each day.
P.N.John lives in India and has been totally involved in the stock market for past 25 years. He used to play chess only casually but for the past couple of years he has been studying chess seriously, played several tournaments and got his FIDE rating. Not surprisingly perhaps, improved chess thinking skills have helped him to take better decisions in the stock market.
Written by guest author Erik Czerwin for Wholesale Chess
The chess match begins, and 16 players frantically move chess pieces, slap chess clocks, and scribble down notation. The first five or six moves tick off quickly as each team member jockeys for opening position. Just as the pace slows down and players begin searching more deeply into positions to discover clever traps and zaps, one game ends with a player extending his arm over the board and the other player looking befuddled, frustrated, and angry. Sometimes games just end this quickly. Sometimes it just happens. However, they should never happen like they did once for a team member of mine…
He came over to me, beaming. Smiling over his speedy conquering of a relatively new player, he said to me, “She didn’t catch it.” After I asked what it was that she didn’t catch, he replied, “I started with two queens on the chess board to see if she would catch it. I replaced one of my bishops with a queen, and she didn’t even notice! I won, and now that the game is over, she can’t undo the results; those are the rules!” He was grinning ear-to-ear with his own cleverness. I, however, felt queasy and disgusted. Where had I gone wrong? When had I taught my players that abusing the rules of chess was a way to achieve victory? When had I taught them to gloat over cheating?
The answer to all these questions was that I had not, in fact, ever taught my team to play like that. This kid did it all on his own. After recovering from my momentary shock, I demanded that he go over and apologize to the other player. After a brief refusal, he complied. Personally, I apologized to the other coach. I have never been as embarrassed as chess coach before or since.
The fact of the matter is that some kids want the cheap wins. They don’t understand the pure joy of an intensely fought win. Heck, sometimes a hard-fought draw can be just as satisfying as a solid win. This particular student continues to show signs that he doesn’t care to improve his understanding of the game of chess, he only cares to rack up cheap wins.
As a chess coach, I struggle with this for many reasons. My goal is not to have the winning-est team, but the team that most enjoys the struggle to improve and continue growing. If a student like this doesn’t place the same value on intrinsic improvement, what am I to do? Unfortunately, he is a very talented player who could be much better if he stopped practicing poor chess.
However, if he never really wants to improve by studying chess books or working with a stronger player, why should I invest time and energy towards forcing him to? It is my job to encourage him to grow, but if a student doesn’t have the self-motivation to do so, should I continue to spend time trying to move a mountain? Shouldn’t his repeated losses to better players be motivation enough?
His wins are cheap and easy, and when the game is a difficult struggle, his board is more often than not a loss. His wins depend solely upon the mistakes of his opponents, rarely on his skill as a chess player. His team knows it, I know it, but he is blind to it because his win loss record blocks his larger vision. I’m still searching for a way to change this in students. As of yet, I have found no answer. Perhaps there is no answer. Hopefully, over time, he will discover a love of the deeper game. I sincerely hope.
Erik Czerwin is a self-taught chess player and also a self-taught chess coach. He founded the current Marengo Community High School Chess team, founded the Marengo Chess Club, plays at the Rockford Chess Club, and occasionally volunteers as a chess teacher at the Rockford Public Library, all in Northern Illinois. In his spare time, he’s also a full-time high school language arts teacher, part-time graduate student, part-time tutor, and full-time father of two and husband to a very understanding wife.
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