Chess games
The person who invented chess is a genius. Chinese chess or English chess, it is the same. To those who do not know how to play chess, shame on you and learn how to play it because you will learn so many valuable lessons hidden beneath the wood and plastic pieces on the board. Taught myself to learn it the hard way- by observing people play because no one wanted to teach this complicated game. Took part in a chess competition once and made it to the semi-finals before crashing out in 4th position. N yes, it taught me many things. Here, are the list of things you will learn from playing chess. Sorry if the things I will mention can be confusing as it will be both literal and figurative thoughts played together as one.
Try to put yourself in the shoes of your opponent. Anticipate his moves and then you will find that winning will be much easier. The problem is that no one is truly a psychic and your opponent's thoughts and actions can only be truly known to him or her unless of course the person verbally tells you their strategy which is highly unlikely. Finding out the person's strategy through their actions can often be misleading and lead to fatal mistakes so best is to stay true to yourself, concentrate on YOUR strategy first and then pray that yours is better than your opponents.
There is no shortcut. Amateurs would often be told of a 4-move checkmate and yes, such a thing exist. A checkmate is when you trap the opponent's king and it has nowhere to go except "die". You can win a game in less than 10 seconds which I did during the 2nd round of the chess competition. Thought that I could win all the other amateurs easily with this deadly knockout move but my arrogance almost cost me the game. In the 1st Round, this big sized kid killed off my queen, the most important piece apart from the King when I used the 4-move checkmate and I was doomed to lose. Eventually I had to fight with just my two surviving knights to outwit him the long way. It was tough as the odds are stacked way too high. The shortest way often has the biggest risk so please do not be tempted to take it. Go the long way because more importantly, you will learn to be harder and stronger.
There are more than one way to get from point A to point B. Anything is possible on the board as long as you abide the rules. Always remember to have a standby plan. Sacrifice now to reap the rewards later. For example, there is a move called castling whereby you can switch the position of the king and the castle IF ONLY you did not move either pieces in the first place and I use this move often. It is like saving for a rainy day. You sacrifice the usage of the rook/castle to save the king when the need arises.
Never underestimate the value of your pieces. Sometimes you have to truly believe that every pawn is worth saving. And there will be sacrifices. Only the pawns, which are the "weakest" can be transformed into the "queen" although it is hard and almost impossible to do so. The weak is also the strongest. That is why, pawns move as a group to protect themselves. When you break the backbone of the pawn from behind, the "V" formation that protects every single pawn pieces is threatened. Which just shows that everyone needs a backing in every thing that they do in life or they will crumble.
Bishops and knights both have the same number of points: 3 points. However, though the face value may be the same, they are very different indeed. To me, the knights are much more important than the bishop. It is more practical for me to sacrifice a bishop than a knight. The reason why is because knights are like "ghosts" and their moves are erratic. They can ravage the entire enemy backlines although they are not as useful in trapping the opponent's king. Bishops are straight forward and lethal but too predictable.
Sacrifice. My style of chess is to ensure that all the major pieces are wiped out of the board first. that was exactly how I won the 3rd and 4th Round of the chess competition. I had to sacrifice my large major pieces in a one-for-one exchange and when we have minimal pieces left: it is all about the battle of wit which is when the fun starts. The choice of sacrifice has to be wise of course. The utility and worth of any chess pieces is weighed by how much you can actually use it on the board BETTER than your opponent. That is why I would always kill off my queen in exchange for his own because I am not in a position to utilise the Queen's use better than him.
Finally, beware of a well-thought out trap. Sometimes the best of all moves is when you are ten steps ahead of your opponent. The 4 move checkmate can also be hidden into a thirty move random checkmate beautifully hidden in the confusion of the "battle" area. Be the wiser person and always look at the picture. My most painful lesson happened during the Semi-finals where I fought with one of my closest friends, JiaPeng. He taught me this: To never let go of your pieces after you have made your move so that you can amend yourself when you spot the slight hint of danger. get the hidden meaning? In a game of chess, you can undo your move if you have not let go of your chess piece. "TouchWood" is a term you call it I think if you had let go. I was on the winning edge of course against him, was about to kill his queen but I was too rash and he saw my strategy while still holding his previous chess piece so I lost. By deceit.
There are many things you can learn and it is indeed a beautiful game:)
Try to put yourself in the shoes of your opponent. Anticipate his moves and then you will find that winning will be much easier. The problem is that no one is truly a psychic and your opponent's thoughts and actions can only be truly known to him or her unless of course the person verbally tells you their strategy which is highly unlikely. Finding out the person's strategy through their actions can often be misleading and lead to fatal mistakes so best is to stay true to yourself, concentrate on YOUR strategy first and then pray that yours is better than your opponents.
There is no shortcut. Amateurs would often be told of a 4-move checkmate and yes, such a thing exist. A checkmate is when you trap the opponent's king and it has nowhere to go except "die". You can win a game in less than 10 seconds which I did during the 2nd round of the chess competition. Thought that I could win all the other amateurs easily with this deadly knockout move but my arrogance almost cost me the game. In the 1st Round, this big sized kid killed off my queen, the most important piece apart from the King when I used the 4-move checkmate and I was doomed to lose. Eventually I had to fight with just my two surviving knights to outwit him the long way. It was tough as the odds are stacked way too high. The shortest way often has the biggest risk so please do not be tempted to take it. Go the long way because more importantly, you will learn to be harder and stronger.
There are more than one way to get from point A to point B. Anything is possible on the board as long as you abide the rules. Always remember to have a standby plan. Sacrifice now to reap the rewards later. For example, there is a move called castling whereby you can switch the position of the king and the castle IF ONLY you did not move either pieces in the first place and I use this move often. It is like saving for a rainy day. You sacrifice the usage of the rook/castle to save the king when the need arises.
Never underestimate the value of your pieces. Sometimes you have to truly believe that every pawn is worth saving. And there will be sacrifices. Only the pawns, which are the "weakest" can be transformed into the "queen" although it is hard and almost impossible to do so. The weak is also the strongest. That is why, pawns move as a group to protect themselves. When you break the backbone of the pawn from behind, the "V" formation that protects every single pawn pieces is threatened. Which just shows that everyone needs a backing in every thing that they do in life or they will crumble.
Bishops and knights both have the same number of points: 3 points. However, though the face value may be the same, they are very different indeed. To me, the knights are much more important than the bishop. It is more practical for me to sacrifice a bishop than a knight. The reason why is because knights are like "ghosts" and their moves are erratic. They can ravage the entire enemy backlines although they are not as useful in trapping the opponent's king. Bishops are straight forward and lethal but too predictable.
Sacrifice. My style of chess is to ensure that all the major pieces are wiped out of the board first. that was exactly how I won the 3rd and 4th Round of the chess competition. I had to sacrifice my large major pieces in a one-for-one exchange and when we have minimal pieces left: it is all about the battle of wit which is when the fun starts. The choice of sacrifice has to be wise of course. The utility and worth of any chess pieces is weighed by how much you can actually use it on the board BETTER than your opponent. That is why I would always kill off my queen in exchange for his own because I am not in a position to utilise the Queen's use better than him.
Finally, beware of a well-thought out trap. Sometimes the best of all moves is when you are ten steps ahead of your opponent. The 4 move checkmate can also be hidden into a thirty move random checkmate beautifully hidden in the confusion of the "battle" area. Be the wiser person and always look at the picture. My most painful lesson happened during the Semi-finals where I fought with one of my closest friends, JiaPeng. He taught me this: To never let go of your pieces after you have made your move so that you can amend yourself when you spot the slight hint of danger. get the hidden meaning? In a game of chess, you can undo your move if you have not let go of your chess piece. "TouchWood" is a term you call it I think if you had let go. I was on the winning edge of course against him, was about to kill his queen but I was too rash and he saw my strategy while still holding his previous chess piece so I lost. By deceit.
There are many things you can learn and it is indeed a beautiful game:)
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