How to play with evaluation of your position: 

A player asks himself: What is my best move now? The answer is making an Evaluation of your position and then decide what to do!

An experience player makes the evaluation of the position subconsciously (this in any game, as well as in chess). After several years of chess playing the evaluation comes automatically. However, if you do not have such an experience the main steps to follow are:

What are your advantages/disadvantages in a given moment of the game? Here is a checklist:

 There is an 11th rule under discussion: Can you ruin your opponent's capability for castling?

------------------------

A GENERAL RULE: You must attack to win. When you see that you are better positioned you must attack. Otherwise you will soon lose the advantage. Needless to say that you have to find opponent's weakest spot and attack, even if the spot is not this moment the King' s surrounding area of the opponent.

Setting the KNIGHTS in a real game: A good advice (David. S.) is to set the Knights to always face towards their monarchs at the beginning of the game, and then stay that way for the remainder of the game.  How else can we tell which is the King's Knight and which the Queen's Knight?

------------------------

EXERCISE

In your PGN viewer or Chess playing software open a game e.g. Kasparov vs. Someone, etc. and go to a move at the start of the middlegame (around let's say after move 12). Stay there at a given position and pretend to play with white. Take a deep look and count the time you need to do all the checks for the evaluation of the current position as we mentioned above.

How long did it take? Did you now decided for a move? Did you forget something, e.g. did you check the diagonals?  OK! How compliant is your decision for the next move with that of the Grandmaster. Check it also with an Engine analysis. Try again a second example. Make a hobby out of it when you have time. Soon the process will run automatically in your brain each time you have to play after a move of your opponent.

Now, tell me how did you find this exercise. Is it effective? Would you suggest something additional or different? Write to me at eurocon2000@hotmail.com

The game of Chess: A nice Introduction is presented by Mr Mark A. Lowery and you can see his web page at:  http://chess.markalowery.net/index.html .

PS: Using Chess Engines?   There are up to now approx. 155 well known chess engines to load in various chess playing software (GUIs). Of these Engines, 99 were produced in the European Union and 21 in the United States.

RULES: 10 OPENING and 10 MIDDLEGAME Rules

10 Opening Rules
================
1. OPEN with a CENTER PAWN.
2. DEVELOP with THREATS.
3. KNIGHTS before BISHOPS.
4. DON’T move the same piece TWICE.
5. Make as FEW PAWN MOVES in the OPENING as possible.
6. DON’T bring your QUEEN out too EARLY.
7. CASTLE as soon as possible, preferably on the KING SIDE.
8. ALWAYS PLAY TO GAIN CONTROL OF THE CENTER.
9. Try to maintain at least ONE PAWN in the center.
10. DON’T SACRIFICE without a clear and adequate reason.
For a sacrificed pawn you must:
a) GAIN THREE TEMPI
b) DEFLECT the enemy QUEEN
c) PREVENT CASTLYING
d) BUILD UP a strong ATTACK.

10 Middlegame Rules
===================
1) HAVE ALL your MOVES fit into definite PLANS.
Rules of Planning:
a) a plan MUST be SUGGESTED by some feature in the POSITION.
b) a plan MUST be based on SOUND STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES.
c) a plan must be flexible,
d) CONCRETE, and
e) SHORT
Evaluating a Position:
a) MATERIAL
b) PAWN STRUCTURE
c) PIECE MOBILITY
d) KING SAFETY
e) ENEMY THREATS
2) When you are material AHEAD, EXCHANGE as many pieces as possible,
especially QUEENS.
3) AVOID serious pawn WEAKNESSES.
4) In CRAMPED POSITIONS free yourself by EXCHANGING.
5) DON’T bring your KING out with your OPPONENT’S QUEEN on the board.
6) All COMBINATIONS are based on DOUBLE ATTACK.
7) If your opponent has ONE or MORE pieces EXPOSED, look for a
COMBINATION.
8) IN SUPERIOR POSITIONS, to ATTACK the ENEMY KING, you must OPEN a
FILE (or less often a diagonal) for your HEAVY PIECES (Queen & Rooks).
9) IN EVEN POSITIONS, CENTRALIZE the action of ALL your PIECES.
10) IN INFERIOR POSITIONS, the best DEFENSE is COUNTER-ATTACK, if
possible.

WHAT IS BLINDFOLD?   Blindfold is a way to play without seeing a chessboard or without any chessboard at all! The ability to develop is that you have to memorise all of your moves and those of your opponent. It requires some skills of pattern imagination. Not all are capable to do that. Maybe it is possible for players above 2,200 elo. However, you have to test yourself if you have this natural gift to easily memorise moves. What is the idea of blindfold chess? Well, if you learn to climb a mountain with a rucksack on your back of about 15 Kg, then without this burden you will climb the mountain easier. This is the reply. Besides, it sounds like a joke, if you are in a crowded Bus with a chessfriend commuting home you can play a game with him, simply talking one to the other. Further, your chessfriend may ask you: tell me about your recent game at the Club? You need to answer something. Some blindfold chess players can play at the same time with more against 10 different players or even more. How to exercise to play blindfold? There are apparently two means: 1)      Reading chess papers: Find those miniature real games from books or in the web (Google search: chess miniature games) that are finished in 7 to 20 moves. Try to imagine how the pieces are moving. However, there is a more concrete method.       Click HERE to see a nice list of short games. Follow the suggestion to print parts of the page for your exercise. It is simple and very effective.  2)    Using Chess Software: First of all you must know a priori the co-ordinates if of white or black squares. For example, e5 is white or black? Download Winboard chess. In the Options, General select Blindfold. The Board becomes blank. Load an engine and start playing against it. You will see the notation of the opponent’ s moves on top at the messages. At a certain point the software will tell you that you made an illegal move! Return to Options, General and unselect Blindfold. The game you played appears with the pieces on the board. Play back the game and see what you did. Check the number of moves you reached e.g. 8 and write it down. Restart again changing opening (ECO) and see at what move you get now the illegal move. When you have reached freely up to 30 moves come back here and teach us what to do! (provided the engine has not checkmated you, so better get a weak engine or get Delfi and set in its ini file the lowest strength and set 1 sec response time at Options-Time Control of Winboard that is 60 moves in 1 minute).       If you feel comfortable to try other options, try this. Play a game till the end of        the middlegame and then turn the board to blindfold to play the endgame.             You can also play Blindfold with ARENA free Chess Software (see the How-To pages)       Details with Arena: 1) First save your curent appearence before any change. go to       Options >Appearence and select tab Istallation. There click Save Appearence (e.g. as           Standard) , press APPLY and OK. The setting is saved as a file with the extension cfg.       2) Then go to: Options>Appearence>Pieces  and select Diagram fonts: Diagram TTBlindALL        or DiagramTTBlindBlack or DiagramTTBlindwhite then press APPLY and OK.       Stay in Options>Appearence and select tab Istallation. There click Save Appearence (e.g. as       BlindfoldALL) , press APPLY and OK.  3) Return and load from Options>Appearence your       standard settings. When you want to play BLINDFOLD got to Menu>Options>Load       Appearence... press and select BLINDFOLD. When you have finished your blindfold game, go       back to Menu>Options>Load Appearence... press and select your Standard settings.             TRAINING: You can "hear" a blindfold game in ARENA if you load an engine and you press       the 'IC engine button' to make a moves from both sides. The moves are announced but you        cannot see them (hide the engine moves list). With some engines you can use the       spacebar to start-stop the engine and hear the moves.                    Another free software you can download and try for blindfold is Jester       (java). In this you can hide either white or black pieces or both (on and off).   You can try to play Blindfold with JESTER right here:                                Click PLAY NOW There are also some exercises. I have seen the following somewhere on the Internet, but I cannot remember where (if you know tell me!). Try them as well! 15 BLINDFOLD exercises   You should not use any Chessboard or other visual facilities. There is no time limit for this exercise. Write your reply (chess notation) and check it after with a real chessboard. 1. After the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 c6 3.e3, what should black play here? 2. After the moves 1.b3 e5 2.d3 Nc6 3.Na3, what should black play here? 3. After the moves 1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 c5 3.e4 dxe4 4.Bf5 Qxd4, what should white play here?  4. After the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 b6 4.dxc5 bxc5, what should white play here?  6. After the moves 1.e4 c5 2.b4 cxb4 3.a3 d5 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.axb4, what should black play here? 7. After the moves 1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 h6 3.Bh4 g5 4.e3 gxh4, what should white play here? 8. After the moves 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Qe2 Ngf6, what should white play here? 9. After the moves 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3 d6 5.Bc4 g6 6.e5 dxe5, what should white play here?  10. After the moves 1.Nf3 d6 2.c4 Bg4 3.Qb3 Qc8 4.h3 Bh5, what should white play here? 11. After the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Nxe5 Qg5 5.Nxf7 Qxg2 6.Rf1, what should black play here? 12. After the moves 1.e4 e5 2.d4 cxd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qe3 Nf6 5.Bc4 Ne5 6.Bb3 Bb4+ 7.c3 Bc5 8.Qg3, what should black play? 13. After the moves 1.e4 e5 2.d4 cxd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qa4 Qe7 5.Nc3 Nf6 6.Bg5 d5 7.0-0-0 dxe4 8.Nxe4 Qxe4, what should white play? 14. After the moves 1.e4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.e5 d4 4.exf6 dxc3 5.fxg7 cxd2+ 6.Bxd2 Bxg7 7. Qh5 Bxb2, what should white play here? 15. After the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 d6 4.Bc4 Be7 5.d3 a6 6.Bg5 0-0 7.Nd5, what should black play?   For any additional information about BLINDFOLD CHESS please write to: eurocon2000@hotmail.com   You can see an empty Board here. You can copy and print the image for your exercises.