News & Updates
Today only, (January 27,) you will find our Quality Chess Pieces 
and Basic Chess Boards on sale at a huge discount. (You can get 
5 of each.) Go to our Homepage and then click through on our Thursday Chess Deals to take advantage of today’s bargains. Even with this huge discount, you can still apply our shipping specials.
This Thursday only, get a beautiful set of American Staunton Wood Chess Pieces with a 3 ¾ inch king in Sheesham. It’s not only a striking chess set, but is a bargain for the price. You can save $21 of the retail price of $59.99 Thursday Deal: Only $38.99!
You can also get the great chess book “Fearsome Four Pawns Attack” by Jerry Konikowski is one of the most prolific chess authors in the world and holds the FIDE title of Master. The retail price of this chess book is $24.95. Today only you can it for the unheard of price of just $8.99
Go to the home page and click on the link to get either—or both—of today’s chess deals.
This article, written by the manager of Wholesale Chess, was first published in The Link Homeschool Publications (Copyright, 2009). Reprinted by permission.
You see the benefits of chess and want to teach them to a child. You don’t have to be afraid of not knowing what to do or how to play. There are plenty of resources to help you.
“Remember that you are passing on a wonderful gift to them,” Mrs. Graham, manager of Wholesale Chess said. “Learn or renew your skills right along with them. Make sure you use care, patience and respect while teaching. Also, try to be interesting! Use humor, funny voices, cartwheels — whatever it takes to make your chess students pay attention and have a good time.”
Mrs. Graham suggests each child have their own chess set. It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive. Most students use a roll-up vinyl board, plastic chess pieces, either weighted or not, and an inexpensive chess bag for chess pieces to be carried in.
“Wholesale Chess has a very basic chess curriculum that we recommend to work with beginners,” she said. Only move to the next step when you know your child has a real understanding of what you have already taught.
- How the pieces move and how to setup the board
- How to capture pieces
- Check and checkmate
- More advanced rules of castling, en passant, and pawn promotion
- The values of the pieces and making good captures and trades
- Developing your pieces and controlling the center
- Using multiple pieces to attack and defend
- Basic tactics – forks and pins
- Basic strategies – controlling squares, diagonals, and files
- Basic opening principles – control key squares, activate your pieces, get your king to safety
To be a good chess parent, teacher or chess coach you must be sure to get plenty of feedback from the student, Mrs. Graham said. “Make sure you know how your children feel about chess. If they are feeling burned out, then pressuring them may just turn them off more. If they are hungry for chess and you are not feeding that, they may become frustrated.
“If you have a child who enjoys learning and playing chess, you should encourage that as much as is healthy,” she said. “Chess has great social and intellectual benefits that can affect other aspects of life, but remember that chess is a part of life, not the purpose of life. I suggest chess parents watch or read Searching for Bobby Fischer with their child. “It is a great story. We also recommend the book, Survival Guide for Chess Parents.
“Another important thing, perhaps the most important, is to always make sure that your child knows how much you love them regardless of whether they are winning or losing their chess games,” she added. “Never show disappointment at their performance — they are most likely frustrated enough on their own!”
“Chess will certainly grow in the future,” she said. “Players will have to be more accurate in play, as chess computers and training becomes more and more available. But most of us hope that the essence and fun of the game doesn’t change at all!”
WSC Note: Our Book Category has a selection of books designed for parents or chess coaches to use as well as books for children who are beginnnig to play chess to read.
Okay, admit it. You procrastinated–or worse, you forgot someone! Now you wonder what to do about that last minute chess gift.
Wholesale Chess Gift Cards are the best answer. They will be delivered to your email before Christmas so you can print them out so no one will know you were late with their gift. They can be used for any chess set, chess clock, chess computer, chess board, or chess pieces on our site. They can even be used for chess software or chess books. The possibilities are almost endless.
Best of all—our $25 gift card is on sale! Thursday only you can get a $25 gift card for just $20. Go to our Chess Gift Card section and choose the $25 card, or a gift in any other amount. We will make sure it is sent to you by midnight Thursday night. (Gift Cards will NOT go out after 10 am Mountain Time on Friday.) Happy Holidays!
If you have fancied a nice Mousepad Chess Board this Deal of the Day is for you.
Our 22 inch Large Mousepad Chess Board is on sale today for 50% off. These are a little larger than our regular mousepad boards and will accommodate our Première Plastic Chess Pieces if you lucked-out and picked up a set of those chess pieces
when they were on sale earlier in the month. You can get one–or one in each color if you like. No restrictions on quantity. Enjoy!
It’s getting close! But if you still need a great chess gift for a chess player who likes to take chess on the road, this 12″ Magnetic Travel Wood Chess Set with Fitted Insert is the gift you’ve been looking for. The wood chess pieces really are magnetic and adhere nicely to the special wood travel chess board when playing. They fit inside when not in play.
The Majestic Staunton Wood Chess Pieces (Ebonized) is today’s chess Deal of the Day. This set of wood chess pieces has an eye-catching king that stands 4 inches tall with a 1 3/4 inch base. The knight is as noble a steed as we have ever seen in a chess set in this price range. You will be proud to have this chess set on permanent display for all your friends and associates to admire.
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.
Copyright 2012 Wholesale Chess. All rights reserved.
