BETH HARMON

for musings, dark academia, chess related stuff, and chess notation… ( 21+ writer) << hiatus >>

[beth-harmon-by-atlas]

BETH HARMON

musings by Atlas

independent and canon divergent Beth Harmon blog — for musings and occasional roleplay. dark themes and mentions of substances (alcohol, cannabis, and fictional sedatives)

Writer is over the age of 21 and lives in a state where cannabis is legal for recreational use.

INFO-DUMP ON CHESS HERE

[ultrafacts]

[liluglydudefromdetroit]

So play like a noob? got it

[filipfatalattractionrblog]

You’re joking, but it actually is a popular theory in chess that a complete noob potentially can beat a master by confusing them - as the noob doesn’t know what they’re doing the master is unable to recognize which of valid strategies they’re pursuing and cannot deploy proper counterstrategy.

[direwolf-distributor]

Chessmasters when their opponent doesn’t make one of the five approved optimal opening moves:

[mil4n0]

[chessdrama]

Best Openings for Beginners: Queen’s Gambit Declined (#5)

Today I will go over one of the best openings for beginners – The Queen’s Gambit Declined. It is a very good opening for any novice player.

[28whitepeonies]

This is the greatest scandal that I’ve seen in months and it involves a chess competition and accusations of a player cheating against the long standing winner of the chess version of Eurovision by using AI anal beads to signal moves, I kid you not

This is from The Guardian

[35mmartina]

Paris, 2022.

By Martina Vilar del Valle

[quotemadness]

“You cannot find peace by avoiding life.”

— Virginia Woolf

[beth-harmon-by-atlas]

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Photo of Paul Morphy

“ The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life. “

— Paul Morphy

[bubbles-3000x]

rate my setup

[hopscorched]

— 2.7

[aherastore]

the queen's gambit merch!

Buy it Now!

the queen's gambit merch! - by Ahera

[golden-letters]

an experimental mood board of my favourite aesthetic: light academia 

[wildbeautifuldamned]

Wood Inlay Game Table Vintage EXQUISITE MARQUETRY, 2-sided tablechessboard ebay robmag12

[nk-salinger]

[lookninjas]

Was thinking about the whole “Elon’s playing three-dimensional chess!” argument that gets bandied about, and genuinely, even if he was, I fail to see how it helps him.  He’s in a standard, ordinary, two-dimensional chess tournament.  Those are the rules that apply, and those are the rules the judges will be enforcing.  Elon can sit and argue that in three-dimensional chess, his bishop can teleport, no really! until he’s blue in the face.  In two-dimensional chess, if you try to teleport your bishop, you will look like an idiot and then lose.  Which is exactly what he’s doing.

[beth-harmon-by-atlas]

WHAT IS CHESS?

64 squares - 32 light and 32 dark, each before the other in a checkered pattern in an 8 by 8 frame.

Each player gets 8 pieces of either white or black ( 16 if you include the pawns, although the pawns are not actually considered pieces. ) You must take turns with the goal of checkmating your opponent's king.

Chess has a lot of components to it that are called elements. Two different elements to chess is development ( element of time ) and material ( element of force ).

If one player deploys a great deal more force than their opponent, their opponent will struggle immensely in defending against the invasion.

The desired end of a game of chess is known as checkmate. Checkmate is when a king is under attack and has no legal moves to escape. If the king cannot escape the incoming attack, then the game is over. If the king can escape the attack, then it was simply just a check.

Sometimes, despite both players best efforts, neither side can checkmate the other's king. Sometimes one player is pushed into a position where they suddenly have no legal moves to make. Because chess is a two player game that requires you to make a move when it's your turn, if one player is unable to make their move ( legally ), the game ends in stalemate. This is a kind of draw.

Let's talk about checks // checking.

Several checks can happen in a single game as a check does not guarantee a win. Sometimes, if you see your opponent can successfully escape the check beforehand, checking would be a waste of time. Instead of checking at every possible chance, you should work on advancing your pieces, moving to maintain control over the board or its center, or literally doing anything else.

Some chess moves are so common, they have their own names. Some of these 'special' moves are en passant, promotion, and castling. I'll go into detail about these later on.

In order to make talking about chess games easier, a naming system and language was created for the game. This is known as notation.

You do not need to learn how to read, write, or understand notation to understand chess or have a good time playing chess, but in tournaments where players are required to record their moves... it helps to be fluent, so as little time as possible is spent on ciphering and recording moves and more time is spent actually making the moves and playing the game.

After all, a lot of chess games in tournaments are timed... time is valuable, and you don't want to spend most of the game with a pencil in your hand as your clock ticks on.

Let's move on as I will discuss notation later on as well. Here is a link to a video on notation for the time-being.

Remember, just because you have an advantage in one or more elements, does not guarantee a victory or a success. While the side with the most advantages is favored during the game, anything can happen and you should never let your guard down on your pieces and pawns.

An advantage that can be turned into a victory are sacrifices. Knowing when and how ( and if ) to make a sacrifice is very important and can ultimately lead you to winning or losing a game. How a player makes their sacrifices ( or doesn't ) says a lot about their play-style and personality.

Something else than can help you achieve victory is by learning how to recognize patterns in chess. When you spot a pattern on the board that you are familiar with, the right moves come to mind and almost play themselves.

While the only piece you can move at the start of the game is the Knight, due to the lineup of the pieces and pawns, you must learn to move and place your pawns in ways that are out of the way, applying force and attacking, are close enough to guard, but not so close that you are pinning your own pieces or tripping over them. Pawn placement is very important to the game of chess, despite the pawn being seen as the most worthless "piece" as they are plenty and their moves are greatly limited in comparison to the Rook or the Bishop... or the Queen especially.

Speaking of patterns, there is a thing called mating patterns. Certain checkmates have appeared in so many games that they have been named by players. The same goes to openings in chess.

Remember, when playing chess, you want to play with strategy. The last thing you want to do is play with no game plan. Chess strategy, as you can imagine, is a very important part of understanding and playing chess well. It is something that has to be learned, observed, and even worked on through experience on the board ( OTB ) or via online matches.

Chess is a game that is a bit militaristic in nature, due to the nature of having two opposing sides, a battlefield, attacking forces, and the need for strategy and teamwork on your own side. While chess does not allow for friendly fire, it is not impossible to shoot yourself in the foot if you don't plan ahead.

In every chess game there are three parts. Much like in sports, Chess is divided as well. Let's take a look at baseball, football, hockey, basketball, and soccer.

In baseball, there are nine parts called innings.

In football, there are four quarters, with two quarters equalling either first half or second half.

In hockey, the game is divided into three periods of 20 minutes playing time, with a 15 minute intermission between periods.

In basketball, there are four quarters.

In soccer, there are two halves.

Finally in chess, though not exactly timed parts, there are three parts.

Part One: The Opening

The opening of a chess game is where you start to advance your pieces to effectively activate your forces. This is also known as development.

Part Two: The Middlegame

This is when the most clashing of opponents goes down. This is where you will find terms like tactics and combinations thrown around.

Part Three: The Endgame

This is the part of the game where there are usually less pieces on the board due to the events of the middlegame. The end is near, but checkmate has yet to be delivered by either side.

Fun fact: The most common chess piece shape or style is known as Staunton. It was registered in 1849. The desgin bears the name of the greaat English player Howard Staunton.

This design became so popular that it has been adopted as the one and only desgin allowed in official tournaments. It is so widley used that if you bring anything other than Staunton, people will assume you are trying to pysch them out by bringing pieces they are not familiar or comfortable with.

Another fact: The reason people use green and white or blue and white squares over black and white, is because headaches. Staring a such high contrast colours for long periods of time can really strain your eyes.

How you orientate the board matters. When you are playing, no matter what color your pieces are, you need to have the light square on the right side of the board.

Before we move on to the next section ( the pieces and how to move the pieces ), let’s talk more about the board itself.

A white square needs to be on the lower right hand corner as you face the board. A common mistake for beginners is to position the board incorrectly.

This will disrupt notation.

This is a mistake Hollywood tends to make a lot.

The board is composed of eight ranks and eight files and some diagonals. Most people call them rows and columns, but chess players are too good for that apparently and they call them ranks and files instead. ( I’m being cheeky, don’t mind me. )

The ranks are rows that go from side to side. Each chessboard has 8 ranks and are numbered from the bottom of the board to the top. The 1 rank is on white’s side. The 8 rank is on black's side.

( The bottom being where white is/starts. )

Files are columns that go up and down the board. Each chessboard has 8 files from a to h. If you are playing white, the a file is on the left with h being on the right. If you are playing black, the a file is on the right with h being on the left.

Ranks are numbered and files are lettered. Each square has it's own name. They are called file first, rank second. Think of files as the square’s first name and the ranks as their last name — or think of it in alphabetical terms ( f is before r // file then rank ).

So, for example, the square that sits on the h file and the 1 rank would be called h1 and not 1h.

The square that sits on the 4 rank and the d file would be called d4 and not 4d.

The squares are not the only ones with names on the board ( besides the pieces of course ) as the diagonals also have names. However, unlike files or ranks, their names are 'defined' by their starting and ending squares.

Maybe think of them as shipping two squares? Maybe? Maybe not?

The thing with diagonals is that they are always composed of like-colored squares; you cannot have a two-toned diagonal.

But since I brought up pieces, it is time to talk about the chess pieces. There are the king, the queen, the bishop, the knight, and the rook. There are also the pawns, I suppose.

Meet me in the next post.

NEXT PART: MEET THE CHESS PIECES

BACK TO HOME.



[beth-harmon-by-atlas]

Introduction to Chess

( In this post, I will cover the basics of chess and chess terminology. This will be ongoing for a hot minute — this blog entry will have several ‘chapters’ with corresponding links. )

!!!ONGOING!!! WILL BE UPDATED!!

Chess is a game that features elements of art, science, and sport - all combined into one. You need to have the discipline of a scientist, the creativity of an artist, and the drive of an athlete to master the game of chess.

Chess is a fascinating and stimulating mental activity that has a rich history that dates back more than 1,400 years ago.

As old as the game is however, no one has yet to play the perfect game of chess.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is Chess?

Meet the Chess Pieces.