I love playing chess, although I'm not much good at it. I haven't played any in the last several years due to a lack of time and willing partners, but back in school I would play every day. I found it both intellectually engaging and logically stimulating.
Even before the NetFlix miniseries "Queen's Gambit" came out, I was thinking of getting back into it, especially with all of the U.S. in lockdown during the pandemic. But how to sharpen up quickly?
I remembered that when I played all of the time, there was one book that changed my game dramatically for the better. It was, er, something about checkmate.
I spent several years off and on trying to find this book. I had quite fond memories of completing it and then kicking the ass of all of the people I usually played. But where could it be? I actually bought a couple of other books with "checkmate" in the title, hoping against hope that I could find it.
Finally, thank the pumpkin, I found it, somehow. It's out-of-print, surprise, and you can't even find very many used. It's "How To Force Checkmate", but Fred Reinfeld. Reinfeld wrote this book way back in the 1950s, so it was a luck thing I ran into it during the 80s.
The premise of the book is simple: Reinfeld shows you a position, then says "It's mate in 2. Can you see it?" You get to take your time and stare at the board, trying to figure out the combo to force mate. Once you've got it, or given up, he gives you the answer to the problem.
All of the problems are real chess games. These are not just imaginary chess problems. Once you finish the "Mate in 2" series of exercises, you're off to the "Mate in 3" series. You're building up chess muscles and, more importantly, developing a good feel for how to coordinate pieces during an attack. It's a great book for folks like me who were moving from beginner to lightly-intermediate. Going on Amazon, I see that every reviewer has only high praise for it, so if chess if your thing, this book is a must-buy.
From Space-X to a new inside-out Wenkel engine for DoD, it's been an amazing week for inventors.
Hey @bdkoepke , @dmrq70 , @fforfun , @MikeDwyer , @stevenMsmith , @AgileJazz , @XxWolfBanexX , @HappyDawn , @katamen , @SmileSyndicate , @DanielBMarkham
I've moved!
Locals is turning off their free accounts and I've decided that I'd rather go back to maintaining my own site than sign up for any more "free" services that end up changing the conditions of service later.
The new site is just like this one, only no "locals" in the name. It's https://danielbmarkham.com
Please give it a shot, and please let me know if you have any problems signing up. I think I have the configuration down but you guys will be the first 100 or so to sign up, so there'll probably be some snags.
Daniel
danielbmarkham.com
Hey @ShiroiKami , @osio , @btbytes , @QrzZDE2e , @jslezak , @gtramontina , @planti , @kavalau , @NzDan , @dadsfsadf
I've moved!
Locals is turning off their free accounts and I've decided that I'd rather go back to maintaining my own site than sign up for any more "free" services that end up changing the conditions of service later.
The new site is just like this one, only no "locals" in the name. It's https://danielbmarkham.com
Please give it a shot, and please let me know if you have any problems signing up. I think I have the configuration down but you guys will be the first 100 or so to sign up, so there'll probably be some snags.
Daniel
danielbmarkham.com
Hey @markthien , @vikdutt , @mavenllc , @Dauugavpiils , @rmonaghan , @Vic8888 , @GeorgiaLogCabin , @godfrey , @yumaikas
I've moved!
Locals is turning off their free accounts and I've decided that I'd rather go back to maintaining my own site than sign up for any more "free" services that end up changing the conditions of service later.
The new site is just like this one, only no "locals" in the name. It's https://danielbmarkham.com
Please give it a shot, and please let me know if you have any problems signing up. I think I have the configuration down but you guys will be the first 100 or so to sign up, so there'll probably be some snags.
Daniel
danielbmarkham.com
