Author: mike d.

Resources

mike d. 0 Comment Chess
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

As you get started with Chess, it’s helpful to be aware of some the best resources for learning. Here are my favorites:

Online Resources
In my studies I’ve come to appreciate three websites most:

  1. Chess.com – Very well designed site with a decent amount of quality free content. Personally I gravitate towards this site first for general play.
  2. Lichess.org – Lichess is completely free and beginning lessons might be better for nascent players. So this might be a better starting point for those with no chess knowledge whatsoever.
  3. Chessable.com – A highly repetitive (in a good rote sort of way) educating tool for learning chess basics and concepts. As of the moment, I think their website navigation is wanting – but they are a growing site and will likely improve.

If you’re just starting out, check out the “Lessons” section of these sites to learn how the pieces move and the goal of the game. My Dad taught me chess basics when I was a kid, and I toyed with the game through my youth so for me these were mostly review. But it was a good exercise either way.

IMPORTANT FACT FOR NEWBIES: I got a little confused when I first started looking at computer chess because I didn’t know which way the pieces were suppose to go. Like… if it says white to move but it’s showing an endgame where the pieces are all over the place… are my pawns moving up? or down? This is a super simple thing, but it is never explained: Your color is always on the bottom of the screen moving up. The opponent’s color is always moving down. Again, if it says “White to move” then that’s you. And you’re moving Up.

Mobile Apps
I have the Chess.com and LiChess apps, but find myself mostly using Chess.com. At one point I tried Magnus trainer, but I think I tried it too late in my education. It might be great for those just starting out, but I found it a little tedious.

YouTube
Once you’ve got basic moves under your belt, start building your conceptual chess understanding with John Bartholomew’s ‘Chess Fundamentals’ YouTube series. It is FANTASTIC.

  1. Undefended pieces (54m)
  2. Coordination (51m)
  3. Typical Mistakes (1h 33m)
  4. Pawn play (1h 25m)
  5. Trades (1h 27m)

Adding to your YouTube education, enjoy the series Beginner to Chess Master by Jerry from ChessNetwork.

One more I really enjoy: Hanging Pawns by Stjepan
It’s a chess journey youtube channel dedicated to education. I love the way Stjepan teaches and communicates. He talks through ideas not as tactics but more as strategies. I LOVE THIS.

Literature
Here’s the problem with chess literature. It takes too much space to show the board after every move, so the authors rely on chess notation for most game presentations. Chess notation is not for the beginner. I’m still terrible at reading it and keeping track of what’s going on. If you want to read books on chess, make sure you read them with a board in front of you that you can use to move the pieces while you’re reading.

My System by Aron Nimzowitsch
This is really well written for the layperson. It’s accessible and thorough. But again, you can’t read this at a beach. You need to read it at a desk with a chess board.

Fundamental Chess Openings by Paul van der Sterren
So far I’ve only used this as a reference book for the specific games that I’m playing. I wouldn’t recommend this until you naturally realize it’s time to learn opening strategy.

For Kids
We just recently purchased Storytime Chess for our kids. It’s a board game that comes with a story book to explain who the characters are and why they move like they do.

It can be slow at times, but it’s designed appropriately. The intention is you read the story for the piece and then re-read it and play games that just use that one character. It’s pretty good. I recommend it.

Lastly: if you have any chess resources you’d like to recommend, please comment below. I’m always eager to explore

Next Chess Post: Introduction to the Board/Piece Value –>
<– Previous Chess Post: Chess, the beginning

Quarantining

mike d. 0 Comment A Day In The Life..., Blogpost ,
Aching for the outside

We’re about 40 days into the pandemic Quarantine. It’s a uniquely fascinating time to experience, though admittedly a little scary. We DiDonatos are lucky enough that we have a comfortable place to live in, jobs, a swing set for the little ones, and a netflix subscription.

Our biggest challenges are temporal in nature. Anyone who is taking care of kids right now are feeling the amplification of time. No longer are there plans or activities… just minutes to consume.

Beyond that, our burden is the annoyance associated with a lack of eggs. Oh how convenient it would be to have chickens… it’s times like these that rekindle those dreams of off-grid farmesque living.

Things that keep me up at night:

  1. Maintaining positive cash flow
  2. The abnormal consumption of raw materials and the looming inflation
  3. The tenuous societal balance that seems to be maintaining our social cohesion

New Stuff.

mike d. 4 Comments Blogpost, The Page
Johnny enjoying gravity

We did it! The website is fixed… almost. I’ve got the basics up and running, even if there’s some formatting and back end clean up still necessary. Overall, it’s good enough to move forward, so let’s go with it.

For now I’ve decided on three segments. Up top we will have the three most recent blog posts. I’m not going to even pretend that this will be updated daily. But maybe one a week or every other week. Something along those lines.

Next, we will have a monthly photo, likely family related. We’ve got two kids now, Johnny and Ava. I don’t doubt there will be plenty of pictures to keep this area active.

Lastly, I recently got into chess. So I’m playing around with a third segment exclusively about my chess adventures. If you don’t know how to play, or if you’re interested in learning, I intend to walk through my process. Maybe you can tag along! It’s madly fun.

Please feel free to share your thoughts or critiques about the new website design. I’m still educating myself on CSS so I appreciate your patience as this place gets cleaner.

Chess, the beginning

mike d. 2 Comments Chess
Chess, the beginning

It started with an unassuming statement. While playing a board game with some friends during lunch , a coworker casually dismissed our choice of game, commenting on their proficiency in chess and how we should instead play “a real game”. Irritated by the pretension, I made a pledge to start a long con: I would quietly practice and study chess and when I felt I was ready I would agree to a game and crush him.

That was November of 2018.

And now I’m in. Oh boy, I am so deeply in. Chess has become more than a practice or study, it’s a passion and an obsession. The depth of this game is staggering. I remember in 4th grade I went to my dad with a claim that I had mastered mathematics: “I already know addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. What else could there possibly be?” As I stare up at the Chess learning curve I feel like I did in 1991 when I was exposed to the vast cavern of my own ignorance.

Learning chess isn’t for a destination, it is not to achieve mastery. It is to pursue mastery and that’s what I love about it.

I’ve set up this section of my website to talk about chess. I don’t know if this is a short term thing, or a long term thing. But I like it, so I figured I’d give it a try. Stay tuned for more.

Next Chess Post: Resources –>