Shamefully, here I admit that I've never learned to play chess

AuburnTiger

Solution? Find a PC game.

Can anyone recommend a fun game for learning chess? I'd prefer it to be on Steam or GOG, but I suppose I could go elsewhere if needed. An ideal solution would be one that actually teaches, as opposed to just throwing me in there.

Cantido

If you have a droid, drop the money for Shredder Chess. It's amazing, it will hand your balls yet has highly adjustable difficulty, as well as lots of puzzles. During play it tells you when you're making mistakes as well. It has a desktop equivalent as well.

Chessmaster is a bit more kiddie and clunky, but good too. Fritz is considered the most professional trainer.

AuburnTiger

Would Chestmaster 9000 on GOG be a good selection?

Disco Terrier

I too want to know this. Lots of people lin my family are into chess, and I'd like to get into it too. I've heard good things about Chessmaster 9000, but are there any better options for PC?

Cantido

If you had a droid, I'd say get Shredder and never look back. As for PC you have three options: Chessmaster, Fritz and Shredder (for desktops). And Fritz is the creme de la creme. Chessmaster is better for beginners, and you are one, so you'll do alright with that one while saving money. If you're intermediate or advanced, Fritz has the nicer analysis tools.



EDIT - Damn, I can't find the unedited one. That line is just some editing shenanigans.

Derrick

This is all you need:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Chess

Cantido

FOR THE EMPEROR!

acidlacedpenguin

I learned to play Chess from The RZA. That's right, Wu Tang Chess ain't nothin' to fuck with.

Alecthar

acidlacedpenguin wrote:

I learned to play Chess from The RZA. That's right, Wu Tang Chess ain't nothin' to fuck with.

Indeed. If I recall correctly, Ghostface Killah was one of the youngest Grandmasters in the history of the game.

DiannaoChong

Cantido wrote:

FOR THE EMPEROR!

uh, are the kings/queens facing each other on that board? And bishops/knights are the same symbol. I guess its neat but isn't practical.

Edit: and yeah, Wu Tang has a long history of high level chess play, and they referenced chess in their music pretty often if I remember right.

Antihippy

Just find a local chess gathering or something.

Real life chess with another person is way more fun than computer chess.

DietarySupplement

Battle Chess was indeed the superior chess game.

When you say you "never learned how to play chess" do you mean you have no idea of the basic rules (such as set up, movement, etc), or are you looking to learn strategies, like openings, movement sets, etc?

Bedlam

Man paying for chess seems kind of assy to be honest. Just go to wikipedia or what have you and learn the rules for how the peices move and the simple stuff then jump on yahoo chess or gameknot and play with someone you can talk with and ask questions of.

vamen

I had the same shameful problem. I got some software several years ago called (I believe) Chessmaster 10th anniv. It had some fantastic tutorials, all with demonstrations and voice instruction by some champion chess player. Despite it being about 6 or 7 years old at this point, I could highly suggest that. If the new Chessmaster releases are somehow even better, then go for that!

DisruptorX2

Learning Chess is pretty easy. Just learn how each piece moves, how victory works, and the handful of special rules. Its a simple game.

Winning, on the other hand....

theSquid

Rook OP

AuburnTiger

DietarySupplement wrote:

Battle Chess was indeed the superior chess game.

When you say you "never learned how to play chess" do you mean you have no idea of the basic rules (such as set up, movement, etc), or are you looking to learn strategies, like openings, movement sets, etc?

I have no knowledge of the basic rules.

SteevL

AuburnTiger wrote:

DietarySupplement wrote:

Battle Chess was indeed the superior chess game.

When you say you "never learned how to play chess" do you mean you have no idea of the basic rules (such as set up, movement, etc), or are you looking to learn strategies, like openings, movement sets, etc?

I have no knowledge of the basic rules.

I definitely suggest looking around for a chess class or club and see if they're willing to bring you up to speed. I run a chess club for kids at my library and occasionally we'll give a free class on how to play.

(I'm actually pretty terrible at chess too; a lot of these kids can beat me easily)

Sir Carcass

vamen wrote:

I had the same shameful problem. I got some software several years ago called (I believe) Chessmaster 10th anniv. It had some fantastic tutorials, all with demonstrations and voice instruction by some champion chess player. Despite it being about 6 or 7 years old at this point, I could highly suggest that. If the new Chessmaster releases are somehow even better, then go for that!

I would recommend either Chessmaster X or Chessmaster XI. They both have tutorials by Josh Waitzkin and Larry Christiansen, which I felt were really good. I don't know if it was in XI, but X had where Waitzkin would walk you through certain famous games and explain why moves were good or bad, and why they did what they did.

vamen

Sir Carcass wrote:

vamen wrote:

I had the same shameful problem. I got some software several years ago called (I believe) Chessmaster 10th anniv. It had some fantastic tutorials, all with demonstrations and voice instruction by some champion chess player. Despite it being about 6 or 7 years old at this point, I could highly suggest that. If the new Chessmaster releases are somehow even better, then go for that!

I would recommend either Chessmaster X or Chessmaster XI. They both have tutorials by Josh Waitzkin and Larry Christiansen, which I felt were really good. I don't know if it was in XI, but X had where Waitzkin would walk you through certain famous games and explain why moves were good or bad, and why they did what they did.

Ah yes, that's the one I meant. Chessmaster X, not Chessmaster 10th Anniv.
Josh Waitzkin was the fellow indeed and he did a fine job with all of the lessions. The basic tutorials were great, the tactics stuff was fantastic and watching those famous games was pretty cool while he described what was going on. A really outstanding product overall, I felt.

Sir Carcass

vamen wrote:

Sir Carcass wrote:

vamen wrote:

I had the same shameful problem. I got some software several years ago called (I believe) Chessmaster 10th anniv. It had some fantastic tutorials, all with demonstrations and voice instruction by some champion chess player. Despite it being about 6 or 7 years old at this point, I could highly suggest that. If the new Chessmaster releases are somehow even better, then go for that!

I would recommend either Chessmaster X or Chessmaster XI. They both have tutorials by Josh Waitzkin and Larry Christiansen, which I felt were really good. I don't know if it was in XI, but X had where Waitzkin would walk you through certain famous games and explain why moves were good or bad, and why they did what they did.

Ah yes, that's the one I meant. Chessmaster X, not Chessmaster 10th Anniv.
Josh Waitzkin was the fellow indeed and he did a fine job with all of the lessions. The basic tutorials were great, the tactics stuff was fantastic and watching those famous games was pretty cool while he described what was going on. A really outstanding product overall, I felt.

They're both available on Amazon for under $20. I'd probably go with XI.

Drovek

Sir Carcass wrote:

vamen wrote:

Sir Carcass wrote:

vamen wrote:

I had the same shameful problem. I got some software several years ago called (I believe) Chessmaster 10th anniv. It had some fantastic tutorials, all with demonstrations and voice instruction by some champion chess player. Despite it being about 6 or 7 years old at this point, I could highly suggest that. If the new Chessmaster releases are somehow even better, then go for that!

I would recommend either Chessmaster X or Chessmaster XI. They both have tutorials by Josh Waitzkin and Larry Christiansen, which I felt were really good. I don't know if it was in XI, but X had where Waitzkin would walk you through certain famous games and explain why moves were good or bad, and why they did what they did.

Ah yes, that's the one I meant. Chessmaster X, not Chessmaster 10th Anniv.
Josh Waitzkin was the fellow indeed and he did a fine job with all of the lessions. The basic tutorials were great, the tactics stuff was fantastic and watching those famous games was pretty cool while he described what was going on. A really outstanding product overall, I felt.

They're both available on Amazon for under $20. I'd probably go with XI.

Yeah, I second that recommendation. Very amazing tutorials (I even ended up reading and loving Josh's book.)

I think XI is a bit buggier than X, but it includes a bit more tutorial with more commented games by Josh. Not sure if that was patched and fixed, though.

Now if I could only get a game with a similarly good enough tutorial for Go...

Sir Carcass

Drovek wrote:

I think XI is a bit buggier than X, but it includes a bit more tutorial with more commented games by Josh. Not sure if that was patched and fixed, though.

Chessmaster Grandmaster Edition (Chessmaster XI)
Patch v1.02

New features:
- a new mini-game, Chain Reaction
- 5 new chess sets (African, Futura, Humana, Insider, MinimaSteel)
- 1 new skin (Metal)



Patch v1.01

Problems fixed:

Online Play:
- In tournaments, players are now able to join a match in any circumstances
- Contradictory messages received by the player in the last minute of an online tournament match no longer appear
- The message that informs the users that the game will start automatically disappears now when the user that plays with the white chess pieces moves a chess piece
- The game window is now changed when the player chooses to start another game

Chess variants:
- Players are now able to finish a progressive English match when they try to make more moves than the number of available pieces

Minigames:
- The revealed mines remain marked on the board
- The points from the last move in a “Fork my fruit” mini-game are now added to the total points in any circumstances
- Interface improvements

Puzzles:
- The game no longer freezes when the player presses repeatedly the "Another puzzle" or "Random puzzle" buttons

Other problems solved:
- Manual update
- Various interface bugs
- Various localization bugs
- Various tutorial bugs

So, probably.

Mmmm... Cocks...

Alecthar wrote:

acidlacedpenguin wrote:

I learned to play Chess from The RZA. That's right, Wu Tang Chess ain't nothin' to fuck with.

Indeed. If I recall correctly, Ghostface Killah was one of the youngest Grandmasters in the history of the game.

Really? This is hilarious. My google-fu is failing me though.

acidlacedpenguin

I'm not sure which one it was, but one of The Wu-Tang Clan is indeed a grand-master.

at one point they had a plan to introduce inner-city kids to chess through a competitive online matchmaking/leaderboard type system at wuchess.com (which no longer points to anything)

Jam Warrior

AuburnTiger wrote:

DietarySupplement wrote:

Battle Chess was indeed the superior chess game.

When you say you "never learned how to play chess" do you mean you have no idea of the basic rules (such as set up, movement, etc), or are you looking to learn strategies, like openings, movement sets, etc?

I have no knowledge of the basic rules.

10 minutes on google will teach you the basic rules. Chess is very simple mechanically. Where it gets complex is in strategy.

Cantido

Jam Warrior wrote:

AuburnTiger wrote:

DietarySupplement wrote:

Battle Chess was indeed the superior chess game.

When you say you "never learned how to play chess" do you mean you have no idea of the basic rules (such as set up, movement, etc), or are you looking to learn strategies, like openings, movement sets, etc?

I have no knowledge of the basic rules.

10 minutes on google will teach you the basic rules. Chess is very simple mechanically. Where it gets complex is in strategy.

And as for PC products, I recommend Chessmaster.

DietarySupplement

Cantido wrote:

Jam Warrior wrote:

AuburnTiger wrote:

DietarySupplement wrote:

Battle Chess was indeed the superior chess game.

When you say you "never learned how to play chess" do you mean you have no idea of the basic rules (such as set up, movement, etc), or are you looking to learn strategies, like openings, movement sets, etc?

I have no knowledge of the basic rules.

10 minutes on google will teach you the basic rules. Chess is very simple mechanically. Where it gets complex is in strategy.

And as for PC products, I recommend Chessmaster.

Yes. ChessMaster will teach you the basics; the problem with games like that (and especially online like Yahoo and ICC) is that people cheat rampantly; there are applications and other web sites that allow you to input the piece positions and get the best possible moves.

There are a ton of great programs out there that will teach you basic rules and strategy, but they will only take you so far; Chess is one of those games were people are predisposed to be better at than other people because of the different ways we are all wired. And there are ways to dealing with that of course; just like poker, you can feint and lure your opponents into moves. But you'll really only get "good" at Chess by playing straight up in front of another person.

joshofalltrades

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1HUlTKvDUI

Use Chessmaster to teach you the movements of each piece and how to achieve the goal of the game.

Then find real people to play with because that's how you learn to improve. You can actually learn a lot about your opponent by how he plays chess.

UEAKCrash

So I just realized I was like 6 when I was really into Battle Chess.

:shock: