News & Updates
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
Now is your chance to save! Friday, April 1st through Sunday, April 3rd, save on three DGT clocks. View the DGT Clocks at Wholesale Chess.
DGT’s basic chess clock and game clock. This clock works well for chess, checkers, scrabble and other games needing a timer. Features basic clock functions and a few select pre-programmed modes. Available for just $24.99 at Wholesale Chess.
DGT’s mid-level clock, the North American is perfect for chess competitions and chess clubs. Clock is very durable and has some great chess features built in. The North American also has 13 different pre-programmed modes. Available for just $39.99 at Wholesale Chess.
From the top of DGT’s chess clock line, the DGT 2010 Chess Clock is your swiss army knife. The 2010 features a great selection of preprogrammed modes and a large display for easy viewing. The clock is available in a beautiful crimson color. Available for just $59.99 at Wholesale Chess.
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.
The Thursday Deal of the Day is sure to please traditional chess players who like that feel of nice wood chess pieces against a wood chess board. Nothing quite like it–is there!
We are offering our American Staunton Wood Pieces in ebonized hardwood. The king stands 3 3/4 inches tall with a 1 5/8 inch base. The knight has the traditional raised head–ears laid back, teeth bared and nostrils flared–ready to do battle! This set—today only—is $42.49, half the regular MSRP. If you have been waiting for a nice wood set, now is the time.
You can also choose a compete wood set, The Kramnik Chess Gift Box. This boxed set features weighted Golden Sheesham Chess Pieces with Drawstring Bag (featuring a 3.5″ King), a folding wood Walnut & Maple Chess Board, a DGT Easy Plus Clock and a special CD featuring 120 games by the World Champion Kramnik, all in an attractive gift box. The MSRP is $154.99. Our regular everyday low price is $99.99. But today only you can get this fine set for just $63.99—an amazing value.
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.
The always popular Thursday Chess Deals from Wholesale Chess will begin again today, January 6. (The deals have been on hold through the holiday season.)
We know you have been anxious for us to start these up again. Although you will never know ahead what the deals will be, you will always get a true bargain.
Some of the items offered at huge savings last year included Fritz 12, several types of chess clocks, tournament chess sets, wood chess sets, chess pieces and chess boards, chess software and chess books, and chess tournament supplies. These same types of great chess items will be available this year. Although Chess Deals will change from week to week, the savings will always be significant.
These deals are available only for orders placed online on that Thursday. (12:00 am to 11:59 pm Pacific Time). Each customer may only buy one of each deal, but can buy both deals for that day. In order to only send notification to those who want it, you must sign up for the emails of the Thursday Chess Deals. You can do that in our free membership. You can also find the deals on our homepage each Thursday at www.wholesalechess.com
This article, written by the manager of Wholesale Chess, was first published in The Link Homeschool Publications (Copyright, 2009). Reprinted by permission.
With all the technology out there, it is a bit ironic that Chess, arguably one of the oldest games in the world, is still leaps and bounds ahead of today’s 
electronic games in helping youth improve their cognitive skills and learn real lessons about life, according to Lyndia Graham, manager of Wholesale Chess.
“Chess not only teaches children critical analytical skills, but it teaches them about choices–that each action is followed by a natural—but very real–consequence and that each of those choices must be carefully considered” she said. “Chess can help the IQ, memory, pattern recognition, analytical skills, overall comprehension, as well as develop patience.”
“It is an ideal game to use in a home, school or home-school setting because the implications of choice and consequence can be casually discussed and reinforced in a positive, but fun setting,” she said. “Bad choices — or chess moves — have immediate consequences and will impact the rest of your game — or the rest of your life. There are rules of play that must be followed, or the end result is not what you want. It’s an age-old lesson as relevant today as when chess first began.”
Nobody really knows just how old the game of chess is. However, Mrs. Graham said, some experts claim that chess is more than 2,000 years old. Some evidence suggests that chess, in its earliest form, was played in India in the 6th century AD and from there spread around the world. Of course, over the years, the pieces and rules changed somewhat. In the 15th century, chess began to more closely resemble the game we now play, she added. But chess really started taking off in the 1800′s when tournaments, chess pieces, chess clocks, championships, and titles like Grandmaster were introduced.
Chess is now thought to be the most popular game in the world and growing especially fast among children, as schools and parents recognize the social and intellectual benefits associated with the game. There are hundreds of millions of players in thousands of clubs around the planet. Women and girls are learning chess in record numbers. Younger and younger players are achieving Grandmaster status and a few are not even teenagers yet, she said.
The overall skill level of chess players is also increasing because of the Internet and computers. Players are able to play a game at any time online and can use chess computers to help them train and learn. There are huge numbers of software programs, some that even pit a player against famous grandmaster games. There are also many hand-held computer games for chess that give those die-hard electronic users a chance to have chess on–the-go without the need of a partner.
Part Two, hints on teaching children chess, will publish next week.
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