Novag Citrine Game - 2006 Computerized Board

 Set at 3 minutes per move the Novag Citrine held it's own. I played my moves but blunder checked in half a dozen places to keep the game at a high level. Some of the tactics that the Novag made it's way through were pretty impressive for a 2006 computer.

Click the 3 dots to bring up options. Like an analysis board in any position.

Amazon Fire Tablet - Install Lichess, Aimchess, and more.

 I have a Amazon Fire 7 9th generation. Amazon's app store is void of key chess apps. See my article on installing Chess.com on a Fire 7 (click here). Today I installed Lichess and Aimchess apps on my tablet.

First you will need to install an apk downloader in your browser (Google's Chrome). 

Also I use Dropbox to transfer to the tablet. Dropbox is available in the Amazon App Store. 

Find the chess app in the Google Play store. Run the apk downloader. Select your device configuration as close as you can. Download it to Dropbox.

Open Dropbox on your tablet and run the apk. You may have to try a several versions to find one that works. I had to use Aimchess version 1.3 instead of the latest 1.7. I don't know the difference. I think they are just a way of connecting to the website anyway.

So I've installed Chess.com, Everyman Chess Books Viewer, Lichess, and Aimchess using this method. They all work on my tablet. I hope this helps someone. Be sure to follow the blog if you like the content. Also let me know if you have another technology issue. I'll try to find a solution. 

Chess Books Still A Great Study Resource

 I admit it. I love chess books. However I find them hard to follow. So I really like the Everyman Chess books. You can buy and download a book as an ebook, Kindle book, Chessbase format, and PGN file. This gives you options to view the material and have a board to move through the variations. The ability to go off on variations and jump back to the main line. Also you can check the evaluation of a line with a chess engine. Here is a link to Everyman's guide to the various formats.

There is just one problem. They don't actually sell the hard copy of the books any more. So I wanted a couple of books to work on an opening repertoire. I found them at Thriftbooks.com and Abebooks.com. 

So now I have these two books in every format. Here are some screen shots of the books in various viewers.

Kindle Book

Chessbase

As a pgn file in SCID vs PC a free chess database program.

I hope this helps you rediscover chess books and using them to study. Let me know if I can provide any additional information. 

Aimchess The Computer As Coach!

 Aimchess Review

A data driven Chess Coach. My favorite feature is Aimchess will pull your games from Chess.com and/or Lichess.com and use them to develop study plans for you. Find your weak moves and pose them in the form of a puzzle.

You can have Aimchess pull games from as far back as you want. It will analyze them and give you data driven charts on your weaknesses and strengths.    

Then Aimchess develops a daily study exercise plan to improve your play.

Their video is wild but buried in there is the info they want to share.

Check it out at Aimchess.com. I think this is a game changer (pun).

The analysis board has tabs that link to Videos and Courses as well as the Notation. They appear to be geared to the position on the board. Nice!

Chessquid

I decided to get a refund for now. Chessquid is promising but largely in development. In my opinion they shouldn't be offering it for sale yet.    

I recently purchased Chessquid Pro. It's in development. I hope they get more of the database features working soon. I'll edit this post to include a review of the software soon. Here is a quick game I played against the program. It does have a big selection of opponents tuned to different playing levels.

Chess In The Times

 I am a New York Times subscriber. Recently I found a really fun and educational chess feature. Chess Puzzles. It allows you to play a puzzle position from a famous players game. It does cost $1.25 a week extra. I did a trial example. It appears to be well done. Do you know of other places where chess is a feature? 

  Click this link https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/chess-puzzles.

Finding The Best Move

 What goes into making the best chess move? Well it's not just the move. It has to be part of a plan. I decided to try to mind map the process. Strongly influenced by the book "How to Reassess Your Chess" by Jeremy Silman.   What do you think? Did I miss anything? Click the picture to make it bigger. If you like the content be sure to comment and follow.

Chess Class

I taught a basic class on how to play chess. It took the students from beginner to an introduction to advanced ideas. I created a mindmap to organize my thoughts while creating the class. I'm posting it here in case it can help someone. Also I'm thinking of creating a new mindmap of how to approach the game.

Chess Lessons Part 2 lichess & Chess24

 After Chess.com (see Chess Lessons Part 1) lichess is another all in one chess site. It has a vast array of tools to play and study chess. Including structured lessons. 

Chess basics are divided into Chess Pieces, Fundamentals, Intermediate, Advanced, and What's Next.

Practice contains Checkmates, Basic Tactics, Intermediate Tactics, & Pawn Endgames. This is where many will discover the beauty of the game. If you already know how to play I would highly recommend this section.

 

Another mega chess site is Chess24. They too have lessons.

Under courses the lessons are grouped into three sections. Each section becomes available as to complete the previous one.

Likewise you can progress through the lessons as you complete them.

So I've given you 3 very good resources to begin your road to improvement. I'm sure there are others out there. I'm going to stop here and try to put together a post on advanced learning options. If you like the content please consider following the blog. Have something to add? Be sure to leave a comment below. Thanks again.

Chess Lessons Part 1 Chess.com

 For free you can go to www.chess.com and begin lessons. 

Just scroll down and click the Start Lessons button.

They are devidedd into four sections. New To Chess, Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert. They are professionally done. I've played hundreds of tournament games. I am a USCF Local Tournament Director (there is a test). So I know the rules. However I never had any formal training or coaching. So I decided to do all the lessons, even the New To Chess and Beginner sections. I recommend them.

The systematic method employed makes sure you cover all the bases. It's a fast way to learn and get up to speed.

The Advanced lessons can go on after you complete the courses.

I've completed all the Guide lessons, but I still study from some of their unguided lessons. This is a wonderful free resource. I highly recommend it. I recently added a Follow button in the upper left just under the title banner. I hope you will like the blog enough to follow and leave feedback. Thank you.

What About Chess Engines? Part 2

 In What About Chess Engines Part 1 we saw how powerful chess engines can give deep analysis of a complex position. This tool is helpful to point out what moves are strong, but this leaves you to figure out why and the ideas behind each move. This is where Decode Chess with it's AI (Artificial Intelligence) can be a real help. Using Stockfish running on it's servers Decode can analyze a game or position and give a lot of explanations as to the why and ideas behind each move.

I put in our position from Part 1 and let Decode "think" on it. The summery tab came back with a lot of good info. Explaining why Stockfish NNUE (what is NNUE) likes the idea of castling in this position. What are the forces at play. I like the graphics on the board too.

  Clicking on the + sign next to "How to find the best move. +" yields additional information. What is the Idea? the Problem? the Solution? It's all spelled out in a more human way of thinking.

If you click the tabs across the top you can learn even more. What is the role of the pieces involved in this continuation? Again the graphic is very well done.

The next tab deals with the Threats in the position. Before Black makes his move...

... and after.

So besides the best move. What are some other good moves? The "Good Moves" tab shows us.

Next are the "Plans". What is Black wanting to do? What is the problem? and the solution.

Finally the Concepts tab.

Here after expanding the Black uses the open d file concept. We see my original idea Nb6 wasn't totally without merit. I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into chess engines and how they can be used. I'd love to hear your thoughts if you would care to leave feedback below.

What About Chess Engines? Part 1

 Is one computer engine better than another? Should I let it "think" for a longer time? What about cloud computer engines? I decided to run some tests. First I setup SCID vs PC with a position I've been trying to figure out. It's a middle game with a lot going on. Not easy to say what is best. Below is the FEN (Forsyth-Edwards Notation) of the position. In case you want to do some tests yourself.

r2qk2r/1bpnppb1/p2p1np1/1p4Np/3PP2P/2N1BP2/PPPQ2P1/2KR1B1R b kq - 5 10

I thought Nb6 was interesting. It had only been played twice in my database of over 5 million games. Black appeared to be the winner of both games by the graph. I ran Stockfish for 20 seconds. Stockfish liked the number one entry from the database e6. With Nh7 as it's second choice which comes in at number 10 on the database list.

So I let the engine run while I did some errands. When I came back Stockfish had looked 36 moves ahead. Still e6 was it's favorite.

Well what would Komodo think? With only 20 seconds to "think" Komodo liked O-O with e6 coming in second. Note Komodo 12 only looked 18 moves ahead in 20 seconds compared to Stockfish's 27 moves.

Next I loaded the position into the Fritz 16 GUI. Again I let Fritz 16 analyze for 20 seconds. It looked 27 moves deep and liked the castle move O-O. While I was setting up the cloud engines were researching the position. Over 20 seconds but less than a minute I think. This time Stockfish looked 42 moves deep and again liked e6.

So I stepped through the database and decided e6 really is the best continuation. So back to the questions. 

Is one computer engine better than another? Yes Stockfish is King, but it never hurts to research with other engines. Should I let it "think" for a longer time? Yes if the position is complex enough that the engines don't all agree. What about cloud computer engines? They are more powerful. It may not always matter but it's worth consulting them.

If you liked this article please let me know below. Have thoughts on this subject you care to share?

Want to know more about chess engines? Here is a blog dedicated to them.   https://www.chessengeria.eu/

Here are the analysis boards from Lichess and Chess.com. Click Here for Part 2.

Chess Websites

 Here are the biggest most important chess websites. I will give the cost for a one year full membership where applicable. Most have other purchase options. They are listed in no particular order, and I do not claim that this list are the only sites to be recommended.

Pay To Play:

Chess.com : It's the biggest. To enjoy all the features you will have to pay. Still there is a lot. Matches of just about every kind. Tournaments, news, puzzles, problems, computer play, bots, articles, and lessons. If it has to do with chess they probably have it. Currently $99 for a year of full access.

Chess 24 : Another big site with lots to offer. Again to have full access you will have to buy a membership. 1 year membership at the time of this writing $149.99.

Internet Chess Club : AKA ICC Has been around a long time in internet years. Another big site with a lot of content. USCF holds rated tournaments through this site. 1 year $69.95.

Free Chess Sites:

Play Chess : By Chessbase. This used to be a paid site but now appears to be free to non professionals. Chessbase is the professional chess database software company. Also home to Fritz, and other chess engines. Certainly worth checking out.

FICS Free Internet Chess Server : Before there were chess websites you could download an interface and play over a chess server. Both the ICC above and FICS date back to those days. You can still download a GUI Graphical User Interface and play that way. Also you can play through your browser. It's free. "We do it for the game not for the money". Appears to be their moto.

Lichess : Last but not least is Lichess.org. "lichess.org is a free/libre, open-source chess server powered by volunteers and donations." The name is derived from live/light/libre chess. It is another full featured website with game to play, watch, or analyze, videos, etc. I love the look and feel. The analysis graphics are excellent. It compares well against the paid sites and it's free.

Others: This category I could use some help filling if you know of a site to recommend please leave a note in the comments.

Decode Chess : Using Artificial Intelligence AI to analyze your games and explain why a move is good or bad. If you haven't tried it you really should. I find it interesting.

Chessable : A chess teaching platform. Using advanced teaching methods. You can use many free courses and samples and purchase full blown chess lessons.

Bill Wall's : A huge research and links site. Looking for pgn game collections, and books, this is the first site to look at.

Well that's all for now. Let me know what you think. Leave a comment / suggestion.

Favorite Video Sources

 Chess Videos

These are not in any order. Read the brief description to determine if you want to view the material.

Hanging Pawns on YouTube covers all facets of the game. I find his delivery pleasant and understandable. He gets right to the point. So be ready to pause and review.

Anna Rudolf is very entertaining. She branches into other areas but her chess videos are both instructive and entertaining. 

Krishna Prem for beginners openings. He has other videos but his coverage of openings is what I like. he gives the basic ideas and main moves.

agadmator's Chess Channel a lot of chess here. Coverage of events as well as study material.

Chess.com has instructional videos, news, and game reviews. Plus videos from other producers.

I'm just getting started. I'll be editing this list and adding videos. If you have a favorite please share it in the comments or send me a message.

Here are some that were shared with me on Chess.com by Dr_Risiko. I will have something to say about each one as I have time to check them out. Let me just say that as you look for help with your game or entertainment. Take a quick look at one of their videos. If you don't care for the delivery or can't understand the presenter you are not going to gain much from watching that persons videos. The good news is there are plenty out there so keep looking.

GothamChess IM Levy Rozman's Youtube channel covers a lot of topics. From exposing cheaters, to analyzing top games in the news, to playing various bots. It's entertainment with some learning thrown in.

GM Benjamin Finegold A lot of game analysis and lessons.  

chessbrah's A couple of masters with a variety of content.  

John Bartholomew Chess IM John B. Again a lot of learning here. The main thing is for you to take a look at each of these and see what you want and like.

Rosen Chess IM Eric Rosen. The formula is consistent. Lessons and analysis of top games.

Jonathan Schrantz A chess teacher out of St. Louis Missouri. Lots of lessons here.

I hope you will find two or three here that you enjoy. If you have a channel you want to share leave a comment below.

 

Chessvision.ai A New Way To Read Chess Books!

 Chessvision.ai

So with Chessvision.ai you can upload any pdf and study the diagrams in a live sidebar. As you read you can move the pieces, even analyze with Stockfish 10. Here is a short video showing how it works.

It's free to try. To join is $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year. Give it a try and come back and let me know what you think.  Click  to go  >>Chessvision.ai<<

I tried it. You do have to grant cookie permissions in your browser to get it to work. They provide instructions. Quickly in Chrome it Settings - Security and Privacy - Cookies and other site data - Sites that can always use cookies - add lichess.org.

I think it's a great idea. Let me know your thoughts on it. Oh do you need a pdf book? Try https://www.pdfdrive.com/ it looks like they provide a lot of free pdf chess books. I'd really like some feedback. Do you like what I'm doing with this blog?

Another source is https://u1lib.org/s/chess? thanks Chess Fool for the tip.

Study Chess Books On Your Computer

 Study From An ebook!

I like books I really do. However following variations and getting back to the main line leaves me scratching my head. I like to get the book in pgn and ebook formats. Then use readers to follow and study.

Here is my desk setup.

On my laptop is the Kindle reader. The book in this case is "The Modern Defence move by move".

The big second screen is showing the book in pgn format. Using SCID vs PC I can step through the moves and variations and jump back to the main line along with the flow of the book.

If you look closely you will see the text matches the book. With the advantage of comparing the book with a huge database of games, and analysis by an engine (Stockfish 14.1 in this example). I hope this gives you some ideas that will help you study chess from a book / ebook / pgn file. 

Free ebooks http://billwall.phpwebhosting.com/#PGN

Purchase ebooks with pgn files https://everymanchess.com/