Monday, after the Dental College Hospital nightmare… (I personally don’t like hospitals… gives me the bout of the jitters…)
After coming home from the hospital, Dad, bro, and I played a long game of Scrabble (probably about 2 and a half hours).
Scrabble… probably one of the best board games ever invented (My opinion it is), and maybe one of the most challenging…
And guess who won?…..
(Don’t worry, this didn’t happen to me…)
(picture: from Shaun the Sheep)
YES, YOU’VE DONE IT, BRO!!!
You’ve won the Scrabble game… for the first time without any help!!!
And with a whopper of two hundred and forty-seven points, too!
Well done, bro, well done!
(Before that game, on a different day, he and I played a game of Checkers and… well, yeah, he won… [if only I didn’t give him any hints!!]😒.)
“Checkmate!!” – Professor Calculus
(Picture from Flight 714 to Sydney) (Quote from Tintin in Tibet)
BTW, Scrabble is my favorite game. What’s yours?
Scrabble is probably my wife’s favorite game, although a friend of ours got quite upset once when she trotted out “khedive” (50-point bonus!) and I said “Of course it’s a word, it was the rank of the Ottoman official in charge of Egypt.” So he wouldn’t play Scrabble with us anymore.
Chess is my favorite. I am the chess champion of a college that no longer exists.
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Wow! “Khedive” is a very good word! I admit I’ve never heard that word before. It’s always nice when someone can put down all 7 letters on the board and get 50 bonus points! But it’s a hard thing to accomplish. It depends on the luck of the draw.
I would like to know how to play chess. I know checkers, but it’s much less complicating than chess. You must be a hard man to beat in chess, being a chess champion!
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Let me tell you a secret: one of my fondest dreams is to teach someone to play chess, from scratch, and see how I do. Are you game for this game? It’ll be tricky to do via email, but the commute would be too hard.
P.S.–It wasn’t a very big college.
But I’m about as good as you can get without computer support and a tutor.
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I’ll be very happy to learn chess from you! It will be quite an honor, sir!
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Let’s consider how to set it up. Suggestions?
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Thank you, sir! I’ll really appreciate your teaching. How about starting sometime soon, when we have some free time?
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OK–the first thing you have to learn is how to read the board. It’s the same as a checkerboard, but in chess, each square has a name. This is called chess notation.
Set up the board with a white square in the lower right-hand corner. The back row, the row nearest you, is lettered, left to right, “a” through “h”. The a1 square is in your lower left-hand corner, with a8 on the right. These horizontal rows are called “ranks.”
The vertical columns, 1-8, are “files.” Your back row is a1 through h1, if you’re playing White. Black’s back row is a8-h8. You need to learn this simple notation so you can read and replay chess games. That’s Lesson One.
When you’ve mastered the notation, we’ll go on to the next lesson.
Ask any questions you may have.
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P.S.–You’ll need a chess set!
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Thank you very much for Lesson One! I have learned new things already, that in chess each square has a name. I think I have mastered the notation!
I have two chess sets that I can work with.
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When I was learning chess, the current notation had not yet been invented and every square had *two* names. Your square, King4 (K4), was K5 to your opponent.
Chess notation is one of the very few things that have gotten better in my lifetime.
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Do we still say ‘K4’ today?
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For some of us it became a habit; but all official records of chess games are kept in the current notation.
Think about this: great masters used to play games **blindfolded** using the old notation. If Koltanowski’s opponent played “Pawn to King4,” Koltanowski had to remember the pawn as being on K5.
But I think we’ll save blindfold chess for a much later lesson!
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Lesson Two–later today, if I can manage it.
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Thank you, Mr. Duigon! One must be a genius to be able to play chess blindfolded!
I’ll be looking forward to the next lesson!
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Mrs. Koltanowski used to joke that her husband could remember the position of every piece on the chessboard after any given move, but couldn’t remember to stop at the store and pick up a load of bread on the way home.
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That’s funny! 🙂 Even geniuses have their weak spots. I sometimes forget to do things that I have to do, and that ain’t good!
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Lesson Two–Relative value of the pieces.
This is very important for beginners, who tend to make bad trade-offs. A good position is even more valuable, but it takes experience to gauge this.
For the time being, keep these numbers firmly in mind: Pawn-1, Knight or Bishop-3 (although two Bishops are a little better than two Knights), Rook (or Castle)-5, with both Rooks together being very valuable indeed, and Queen-8 (because it’s like having a Rook and a Bishop in one piece).
The King is priceless, because if you lose your King, you’ve lost the game.
These values become less important as you gain experience, but for the time being, they’re very important to your play and understanding of the game.
Chess is a game that simulates war, and it’s not a bad simulation. Think of the Pawns as foot soldiers, Knights as special forces, Bishops as tanks, Rooks as heavy artillery, and the Queen as a bunch of heavily-armed helicopters. And then always try to devise the best way to blend their different powers and abilities into a productive combination.
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Thank you for teaching me the relative value of the pieces! I’ll try to learn and remember them.
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I should have mentioned that you also have to learn to read and write chess moves. It’s not hard to learn. For example, if your Queen is on square a1, and moves diagonally all the way down the board to h8 (provided nothing else is in the way), you write Q-a8.
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I think I got it!
I have a question: If the Queen moves vertically, for example, from a1 to a8, do we write Q-a8 as well?
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Did I like a dunderhead write Qa1-Qh8 as anything other than a diagonal move?
Moving the Queen vertically from a1 to a8 is written as Q-a8.
How could I have messed up such a simple thing?
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Thanks. I think I understand now!
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lol
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🙂
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=)
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Lesson 3–Moving the Pawns (didn’t know where else to put this).
You start with 8 Pawns lined up on the 2nd rank, in front of your pieces. Individually expendable, Pawns are nevertheless important. Beginners often don’t realize that, because it takes experience to get good use out of them. But before that, the moves.
On its first move, and only then, a Pawn may be moved either one square forward or two squares forward. All other moves are either one square straight ahead–or one square diagonally, when making a capture.
In chess, all captures are made by moving one of your men onto a square occupied by an opponent’s man, who is then removed from the game. When a capture is made, the capturing man’s move ends.
So a Pawn cannot advance if there is another chessman directly in front of it.
If a Pawn is moved all the way to the opposite end of the board, it is cashed in for a Piece of higher value. Usually that’s a Queen; occasionally, a Knight.
During the course of the game, Pawns are valuable mostly in a defensive role.
Only the Pawn can never move backwards. Remember that when you decide to move a Pawn: it can’t retreat.
The next lesson will deal with some finer points about Pawns.
Feel free to ask any questions! I’ve never done this on line before, so I may sometimes leave out something.
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I think I understand this. Thank you!
I thought we use three ranks each in chess like checkers, but I was mistaken.
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Once you’ve moved onto any square on the 5th rank, as White, you have invaded Black’s territory. No chess player can do very wrong if he can successfully maintain pieces in the middle of his opponent’s territory.
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I got it, sir!
On the very first turn of a pawn, it can move two squares forward, but is that the same for all pawns?
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All pawns have the option to move two squares forward, but only as the pawn’s first move. You don’t have to move two squares: it’s a choice.
Same for all pawns in the game. One chance, and only one, to move two squares instead of one.
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I’m beginning to understand more now!
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