Reddit mentions of How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (Gambit Chess)

My dad never let me win in chess, not once. My dad was an air traffic controller and thats all they did every day at work. They controlled planes for an hour, went to the break room and played chess for an hour, then controlled airplanes for an hour, then back to chess for a quarter a game. He used to come home with his pockets full of quarters after a midnight shift.

I went years and years before I could beat him but one time he slipped up and left his queen in front of his king on the white diagonal line, I can still picture that to this day. I didn't dare brag though. I was 99-1. I practiced hard, I put chess on my phone, I read booksI joined the college chess team, all to get back that feeling of seeing his queen lined up in front of his king. I still try to get together with him once a month and eat lunch and play chess. I know someday he will pass away and I don't want to ever miss a month eating BBQ and playing chess with him. Even though he beats me two out of every three games. Every damn time.

I have just the book for you.

As a beginner who knows the rules, I suggest you watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao9iOeK_jvU

Afterwards, if you need more videos, watch the rest of his chess fundamentals series.

Also, go on lichess.org and make an account (It's free) and start playing 15 minute + 15 second games.

You can also buy this book on your kindle or on hardcover:

https://www.amazon.com/How-Beat-Your-Chess-Gambit/dp/1901983056

https://www.amazon.com/How-Beat-Your-Chess-Gambit/dp/1901983056

How to Beat Your Dad at Chess (Gambit Chess) Hardcover – October 1, 1998

You are welcome.

How to beat your Dad at chess - Murray Chandler is the book I have used to learn a bunch of common mating patterns, I've still not got all the way through the book but it's certainly helping a lot.

> I know the general rules of chess, but I am inexperienced in the different tactics and openings and what not.

Zeroth, make sure you know all the rules of chess. In particular, en passant, stalemate, pawn promotion, and castling, since these four rules are the four rules most misunderstood or not known by beginners.

First, don't concentrate on openings. Openings usually only give you a very small advantage, which beginners won't understand how to utilize.

Second, the only tactics you should really be focusing on are hanging piece tactics, ones where you can take a piece for free. They're as simple as tactics get, are a good way to train your board vision if you're a beginner, and are very simple to check for. Most games at your level will be decided by one player hanging a bunch of their pieces, so be prepared to punish your opponent for doing so. At the same time, make sure you don't hang your own pieces.

Augmenting this, you'll want to learn about the (rough) values of each piece. This will tell you what piece trades are favourable. It's no good trading a queen for a pawn since a pawn is worth less than a queen, for example.

Third, learn your basic endgame mates. Just the first three will do for now; if you think you're up to it, you can also learn KBBvK. It's no use being ahead two rooks and a queen if you can't finish your opponent off, because the goal of chess is to checkmate your opponent, not to get the most material. Like I said, most beginner games are decided by one person having lots of material, so you had better make sure you know how to win when you have lots of material (and how to make it as difficult as possible for your opponent should you be on the losing side!).

Finally, play as much as you can! Practice is very important; you can't just become a Grandmaster without ever having played a single game in the same way that you can't just get a PhD in mathematics without having ever actually proved any theorems (cough cough, /u/math238).

> Is there any resources or books you would recommend to someone trying to become good at chess?

Resources include ChessTempo (you should probably sign up, and you'll probably have to fail a lot of tactics before you're given the easy stuff) and ChessCademy. You can play chess against others on Lichess.org or Chess.com. (Chess.com also offers a good amount of resources but they're behind a paywall and can usually be found elsewhere.)

Books include How To Beat Your Dad At Chess (I've heard good things about it but haven't read it) and Logical Chess, Move By Move (which is a bit more advanced but explained very well).

My son likes this book, How to Beat your Dad at Chess. There are tons of kid friendly books. He likes taking his book with him to Chess Club.

A quite fun book that I got a lot out of at your level was How to Beat Your Dad at Chess, which is also in fitting with the tactics recommendations of others.

How to Beat Your Dad at Chess

>This is not just a book for kids - for 'Dad' read any opponent who beats you regularly! This book teaches the 50 Deadly Checkmates - basic attacking patterns that occur repeatedly in games between players of all standards.

I have really enjoyed the book how to beat your dad at chess as a departure from the "norm" of chess books. This book is much more focused on teaching you pattern recognition than just drilling you over and over and over, which you can get from any tactics trainer online or one of those giant puzzle books. Don't let the title fool you, it's not a book aimed at children (obviously would be fine for an ambitious youth, just mean that it's not a "kids" chess book per se).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beat-Your-Chess-Gambit-chess/dp/1901983056 ?

This book comes to mind, How to Beat Your Dad at Chess