Rook's Rudimentary Resources - Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess

Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess has gotten a lot of criticism, from complaints that it was "ghost written" (i.e. Margulies and Mosenfelder wrote it while Bobby just lent his name) to condemnation that this book doesn't really teach you chess. I don't disagree - both these criticisms are well taken - and yet I still think it is ONE of the best books to read for the absolute chess novice.

Without an understanding of checkmate, most beginner's lose track of the ultimate object of the game and aimlessly move their pieces around or gleefully try to capture ever piece within range. Reading this book, after having learned how the pieces move, will help focus a new player on the real goal of the game - the ultimate checkmate of the opponent's king.

So let's be clear about this. If you are looking for a single book that "teaches chess" this is NOT it. This book does not even TOUCH on the subjects of algebraic notation or opening principles or simple endgame positions. If you already know a bit about chess and what checkmate is and how to do it, again, this book is NOT for you. However, if you have JUST learned how the pieces move, and you need to understand ultimate the object of the game - checkmate and how it is achieved - THIS IS the book for you.

The book really should be titled Bobby Fischer Teaches Checkmate. This would be an accurate title that would squelch the main (and truthful) criticism of the book - that it fails to teach you all you need to know to play chess. But it does do a great job of making sure you understand what checkmate is and how it is accomplished. You also learn some of the basic tactics - pins and forks and the like - that are put to use in the process of giving checkmate.

So learn how the pieces move first and then, with the aid of this excellent book, learn the goal of the game. Once you have done that, you can then proceed to learn more of the basics with a general purpose instructional book on chess. More on those books later...

The Next Big Match - Fischer vs. Karpov !!!

Don't count on this ever really happening... but the report is that Fischer will play Gothic Chess against Karpov for $10 million. What is Gothic Chess? It is a chess variant with a 10x8 board and two new pieces! Check it out (sorry about the pun) at the official site www.gothicchess.com and at The Chess Variant Pages article "Gothic Chess - Ed Trice's improvement to Capabalanca's chess, played on a 10x8 board with the Archbishop and Chancellor as new pieces."

"The Mad Genius of Bobby Fischer" Cable TV Special

PROGRAM LISTING

The Mad Genius of Bobby Fischer - Repeat. "The tactics Bobby Fischer used to become
one of the world's best chess players."

... is showing on the Game Show Network (GSN) ON September, 23rd from 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM EDT. You can find the GSN channel and program guide for your region here.

I probably watch TV less than 98% of the American population - maybe about 4 or 5 hours per week. However, because we have a Microsoft Media Center PC I can search the program guide for the word "chess" - which is how I came across the program when it aired back in August. It is now being repeated if you care to see it.

Needless to say, the show is less about chess than it is about the tragic life of the man himself. However, I did find the show interesting because there was a lot of video of Bobby Fischer playing chess from his early career up to the point when he abandoned serious play. The other great thing about the show is that they interview many famous US chess personalities. After hearing some of these names mentioned for years and years it was nice to actually match their names up with faces.

The 2nd half of the show had a lot of coverage (and video) too but it was less interesting from a chess perspective and probably of more interest to behavioral psychologists.

Whatever one thinks about Bobby Fischer, with all of his appalling behaviour and hateful invective, he did inspire a whole generation to get involved chess and made the game an exciting thing for those of us growing up in the fifties, sixties, and early seventies.

NOTE: The picture above is from the Time Magazine covering the 1972 match - which I still own and treasure to this day.

What Happened to the Woodpushers?

Is it just me or are people playing chess a lot better than they did 25 or 30 years ago?

Since I've taken up chess again I've played maybe 50 games over the Internet, first mostly using Chessmaster 10 and lately at the Internet Chess Club (http://www.chessclub.com/). I also played in only my second OTB tournament - an "Unrated Beginner's Open" (my only other tournament experience being another "Unrated Beginners" tournament I played over 25 years ago).

Now I'm not great stuff by any means, but it sure seems like I have to fight a lot harder to win a game nowadays than I used to 25 years ago when I played in the school lunchroom or even in the low key college chess club I ran. And the kids I played in the beginner's tournament were remarkably skilled - I played one 5 year-old in particular that could very well have beaten me!

Chess players seem to be just plain better than they were 25 years ago - at least in terms of beginners, students and casual players.

Why is this? My best theory is younger people (and everyone in general) today have so much more resources for playing and learning the game.

More games...

Thirty years ago I had a heck of a time just finding someone to play chess with. Now you can find thousands of opponents on-line day or night. And if you can't do that you can use any dozens of chess playing software programs.

Side Note: Speaking of chess playing software programs - they are so tough to beat at any setting I think those that persevere beyond the initial novelty of playing against the computer simply must get better or simply give up. I wonder what percentage of Chessmaster buyers immediately put the program aside because of frustration at losing. Let's face it - a computer just can't play like novice even as much as the programmer's try to throw in "human behavior" characteristics.

More Instructional Materials…

For the motivated student of chess there are dozens of excellent training software packages out there - so many I can hardly keep track of them. And they're a lot more engaging than trying to read through a 400 page chess book by a Capablanca or a Nimzovitsch. Years ago the best thing I had as a beginner was the "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" book - thanks to a diagram on every page - but that was the closet we came to the likes of the "chess tactics" software packages of today.

More of Everything...

And my goodness - speaking of books, there were a good number of chess books back in the 70's but how many hundreds of thousands can you get now? But that is not the end to it. We have:

• chess TV (DVDs)
• chess radio (www.chessfm.com)
• chess web sites (thousands upon thousands)
• chess databases (on-line and off-line CD and DVD's)
• live Internet chess match relays
• chess coaches (locally and on-line)
• chess curriculums (for use in the schools)
• etc., etc.

Good grief!

Information overload for most, but to a motivated player there has never been a time in history were such a wide array of learning resources were so available.

My conclusion is that because of this huge mass of chess material the average player is no longer an average player.

As for me, I'm still trying to work through Fred Reinfeld's "Complete Chess Course" that I purchased at age 10 and still haven't finished :-D