Chess QuickStart Guide: The Simplified Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Chess Fundamentals, Learning Proven Tactics, and Executing Game Winning Strategies

By Tyler Cruz

THE ULTIMATE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO LEARNING CHESS IN 2024!
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Master fundamentals, learn traps to avoid, and develop your own competitive edge to consistently put your opponents in checkmate. Perfect for totally new players, casual players, ranked players, or anyone who wants to learn how to play chess!

The Easiest Way to Learn How To Play Chess In a Step-by-Step Comprehensive Guide

Chess is an exciting and compelling game with a growing community of players of all skill levels.

Despite being nearly 1500 years old, Chess has never been more popular or accessible. And with good reason—chess is an exciting and strategic game that improves memory, concentration, focus, and patience while developing creativity and decision-making skills.

New players are often hooked after just a few games and credit the skills learned and perspective gained from chess as benefiting their personal and professional lives.

Written by an Internationally Ranked Competitive Chess Player and Chess Coach

In Chess QuickStart Guide, internationally ranked competitive chess player, mentor, and chess coach Tyler Cruz makes learning how to play chess accessible for everyone.

From basic fundamentals to the same chess strategies used by grandmasters, this book contains everything a new player needs to understand the game, get playing, and put their opponents in checkmate.

Chess is a fun and rewarding game that develops strategic thinking, focus, and concentration.

Despite appearing complex at the outset, learning how to play chess is easier and less time consuming than you think. Whether you want to play as a hobby, start a competitive career, or just exercise your mind, truly anyone at any age can learn to play chess and put the tactics and strategies in this book to good use!

Chess QuickStart Guide Is Perfect For:

• New or returning chess players who want to get a handle on the game
• Existing chess players who want to become ranked or improve their game
• Parents who want to pass their love of chess on to the next generation
• Anyone who wants to pick up a new hobby, improve their focus and concentration, or indulge their competitive side

With Chess QuickStart Guide, You'll Easily Understand These Crucial Concepts:

• Essential Chess Fundamentals - The Role Each Piece Plays, How It Behaves, And Its Strategic Purpose
• How To Win - The Best Opening Moves, Effective Counters, And Getting Into Your Opponent’s Head
• Proven Chess Strategy - Mastering The Midgame, Dominating The Endgame, And Securing Checkmate
• Play Like A Pro – Learn How To Make Tactical Decisions And Implement Grandmaster-Tested Strategies
• How To Level Up – Build And Improve Your Chess Skills, Sharpen Your Competitive Focus, And More!

Go Beyond the Book with Exclusive QuickClips Videos

Look for QuickClips QR codes when reading this book. Scan to access exclusive videos directly from the author at key points to enhance your learning and go beyond the book!

**LIFETIME ACCESS TO FREE BONUS RESOURCES**

Chess QuickStart Guide comes with lifetime access to FREE digital resources you can access from inside the book! Each of these bonuses is crafted with our expert author to help you level up your game and learn chess faster including:

• Comprehensive Game Tracker
• Opening Traps To Avoid Video Content
• “Talking To Yourself

• Language: English
• Publisher: ClydeBank Media LLC
• Release date: Jun 24, 2024
• ISBN: 9781636100883

Tyler Cruz

Tyler Cruz is an internationally ranked competitive chess player based in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, BC. He has participated in over 30 nationally and internationally rated chess tournaments while also coaching and mentoring more than 120 students. He shares his passion and knowledge of chess through his YouTube channel Always Dizzy (@AlwaysDizzy), and streams chess games frequently on Twitch as ModulusTheGamer.

Book preview

Introduction

It has always struck me as odd that while there are countless chess books available for experienced and even professional chess players, there seems to be a lack of comprehensive resources specifically tailored to beginners. Many of the existing beginner books seem to resemble glorified instruction manuals or are targeted toward children rather than the many players who attempt to learn the game as adults. This realization motivated me to write a different kind of chess book—one that can be embraced by individuals completely new to the world of chess while still offering them a complete chess education that might otherwise take years to acquire through personal experience.

Chess traces its origins back approximately fifteen hundred years, making it one of the oldest games in the world. Throughout the centuries, chess has left its mark on the pages of history. Notable historical figures such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin were avid chess players. In 1972, during the height of the Cold War, millions across the world watched the American Bobby Fischer take on the Soviet Union when he played Boris Spassky for the World Chess Championship. In 1997, Garry Kasparov’s loss to IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer marked a pivotal moment in artificial intelligence (AI), highlighting its power to surpass human capability in complex thinking.

But chess is not just a game of the past. In fact, it is more popular today than ever before, thanks in part to the internet, where chess has not only survived but thrived. In a technological age with realistic video games and virtual reality, the simple and ancient game of chess still captivates millions of players from around the world, and for good reason. The game is easy to learn, though difficult to master. Its rules can be learned within a lunch break, yet many players play and study their entire lives and get nowhere close to master level. It is also one of the few games where luck does not play any role, meaning that players can only blame themselves for losing a game. This can be a good thing for some and perhaps a hard pill to swallow for others. Regardless, throughout its long history, chess has transcended borders, cultures, and time. It is a game that people of all classes, genders, ages, and geographies can and do enjoy for its strategic, tactical, and artistic beauty.

My goal in writing this book was to cover all the essential knowledge required for a complete beginner to transition into a confident and knowledgeable chess player. Coupled with dedication and practice, the content within these pages will provide you with the knowledge you need to become proficient and skilled in this wonderful game we call chess.

From Childhood Passion to Adult Obsession

I was first taught chess by my father when I was four years old. My older brother knew how to play, and so I wanted to learn too. My father was far too strong a player for me, so he started by giving me queen odds—that is, he would play without a queen (the strongest piece). I soon learned to beat him with this advantage, and so queen odds quickly transitioned to rook odds, then bishop odds, until, finally, my father would remove only a single pawn from his initial setup. Eventually, after countless games and many attempts, I was able to beat my dad without any handicap at all, although even those wins were, for years, few and far between.

I can recall many fond memories of evenings during my childhood. After dinner my dad would ask me, Tyler, do you want to play some chess? I would go and get the chess set and set it up on the kitchen table while he finished washing the dishes. We would often play for two to three hours while my mom watched TV in the living room. Halfway through our session, my dad would usually offer to make us a snack, like fried rice or popcorn (playing chess is mentally tiring!), and we would enjoy it in silence, engrossed in the game, savoring the simple joy of playing and eating together.

Having been bitten by the chess bug from an early age, I would often plead with my friends to play chess with me. They might humor me for a game or two but would quickly grow tired when they realized that wasn’t enough to satisfy my craving. I attended the local chess club a handful of times. I remember the first time I went, when I was seven or eight. The club met in the basement of a pub, and I followed my dad into the dimly lit room. The strong aroma of cigarettes and coffee greeted me as my dad put two two-dollar coins into the club’s coffee tin for each of our drop-in fees. I played in all my school chess tournaments, making it to the provincial championships one year. A couple of times, my dad took me to tournaments outside of a school environment. Living on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, there weren’t many tournaments nearby. Almost all were held on the mainland, which meant a two-hour ferry ride and getting a hotel room, which my family could not comfortably afford.

I quit chess entirely when I was around twenty years old. It wasn’t exactly a conscious decision, but I’ve noticed that many players tend to drift away from chess around this age as they transition into adulthood, pursuing higher education or entering the workforce. However, fifteen years later, in 2018, I decided to play a game of chess online and was once again instantly hooked. Fast-forward five years to today, and I have played nearly every single day since.

My passion for the game after a fifteen-year hiatus was rekindled, now with a much stronger flame. My competitive nature quickly compelled me to return to competitive tournament chess, and as an adult with my own finances, I seized the opportunity to make up for lost time. In my first year back, I traveled to compete in seven chess tournaments.

While I have a genuine love for the game itself, it is the continuous pursuit of improvement in this demanding and challenging game that truly captivates me. Over the past five years, I have devoted the majority of my free time to trying to enhance my skills as what chess players call an adult improver—an adult player dedicated to getting better at chess. In addition to traveling and participating in chess tournaments, my nights are filled with playing numerous games online and meticulously studying them, obsessively refining my opening repertoire, delving into the complexities of the endgame, reading chess books and courses, and receiving guidance from a chess coach. I hope to share some of what I have learned over these years to help fast-track your learning of the game and provide helpful insight from my experience.

I’d like to add a disclaimer that I am not a titled chess player—I am far from being a grandmaster, international master, or even national master. However, I am in the 99.8th percentile of players on Chess.com and in the 98th percentile on Lichess.org. For officially rated tournament chess, my international chess rating—as defined by the International Chess Federation known as FIDE, from the French acronym for Fédération Internationale des Échecs—of 1830 is a little higher than the average rating of competitive tournament players.

Though I lack professional chess credentials, it is worth noting that the gap between a beginner and an 1800 FIDE-rated player is substantial, to put it mildly. Therefore, you can rest assured that my qualifications are more than sufficient for writing a book tailored to beginners. In fact, I believe that my status as a non-titled player can be advantageous. Some grandmasters, for example, struggle to coach beginners effectively because the fundamentals come so naturally to them after decades of playing, causing them to assume beginners possess a certain level of knowledge. As an adult improver, I know where beginning players are coming from. Having personally guided and shared the joys of chess with over one hundred beginner players, I am equipped with invaluable insights on what content to incorporate in this book and how to convey it with clarity. Welcome to the enchanting world of chess!

I hope you’re ready for an extraordinary journey.

Chapter by Chapter

This book is divided into three parts, with each part encompassing four comprehensive chapters. Part I gently guides readers into the essentials of the game of chess by teaching the absolute basics: showing how to set up the chessboard, introducing the chess pieces, explaining the rules, and teaching chess notation. Readers learn about checkmate and how to win the game in part I, and part II focuses more on general principles. This section explores fundamentals such as tactical motifs, opening principles, the concept of tempo, and middlegame strategy. Finally, part III tackles some more technical and advanced concepts including playing with a chess clock, pawn structure, and endgame essentials. By following this structured approach, readers will begin by familiarizing themselves with the basic building blocks of chess before expanding their knowledge and skills, layering new concepts and ideas onto their foundation.

PART I — The Essentials

Chapter 1: Setting Up starts from the very beginning, introducing readers to the sixty-four squares of the chessboard that they will soon be well acquainted with. Readers will learn how to properly set up a chessboard and orient it correctly, setting the stage for their chess journey ahead.

Chapter 2: The Pieces acquaints readers with the six chess pieces: pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen, and king. It provides explanations about the unique characteristics of each piece, how they move and capture, and their relative values.

Chapter 3: The Rules presents a thorough explanation of the fundamental rules governing the game of chess. It covers essential concepts such as what a check is and how to win the game with checkmate. Additionally, it introduces important elements such as draws and two special chess moves: castling and en passant. By the end of this chapter, readers will have the knowledge and skills required to play a complete game of chess.

Chapter 4: Chess Notation dives into the important topic of algebraic notation, which is a shorthand form of writing chess moves used in chess books to describe moves efficiently. Through clear explanations and practical examples, readers will develop proficiency in reading and interpreting algebraic notation.

PART II — The Principles

Chapter 5: Tactical Motifs looks at common recognizable tactical patterns called motifs. A total of seven such motifs are covered in this chapter: pins, forks, discovered attacks, skewers, removing the defender, overloaded pieces, and zwischenzug. Plenty of examples with clear descriptions of the tactical themes are provided, as well as relevant quizzes.

Chapter 6: Opening Principles equips readers with all the tools they need to be able to handle any opening their opponent throws at them. Rather than demonstrating specific opening moves, this chapter teaches the core principles and tenets that all strong chess players adhere to in the opening, such as king safety, controlling the center, and the development of pieces.

Chapter 7: Tempo delves into the crucial concept of tempo in chess, which revolves around the notion of time in terms of moves or turns. In this chapter, readers will learn about pointless checks and hollow threats, learn how to avoid wasteful moves, and gain valuable insight into how tempo can change the balance of power in a game.

Chapter 8: Middlegame Strategy covers strategic ideas that can be employed during the middlegame phase of a chess game. Some of the chapter’s contents include sections on the importance of preserving material, identifying and exploiting weaknesses, the concept of simplification, and the concept of prophylaxis. While adopting a less technical approach, the chapter offers practical insights and strategic concepts that can greatly enhance a player’s decision-making abilities and overall approach to the middlegame.

PART III — The Mastery

Chapter 9: Playing with a Chess Clock provides a comprehensive exploration of the chess clock by covering its history, mechanics, time controls, and management strategies. Readers will gain a thorough understanding of the purpose and operation of the chess clock as well as insight into how it originally came to be. This chapter also offers valuable tips and strategies for effective time management.

Chapter 10: Pawns: The Souls of Chess explores the profound significance that pawns have in chess and their immense influence on the positional and strategic aspects of the game. This chapter examines various characteristics of pawn structures including passed pawns, isolated pawns, pawn islands, backward pawns, and overextended pawns.

Chapter 11: Endgame Essentials tackles the final and arguably most important phase of a chess game: the endgame. This is the longest chapter in the book by far and covers a lot of endgame techniques that are a must-know for every chess player. Readers will find detailed walk-throughs on essential checkmating strategies involving a lone queen against a king and a lone rook against a king, as well as strategies for both winning and defending in a king-and-pawn endgame.

Chapter 12: Continuing the Journey: Next Steps for Continued Improvement steps away from specific technical and strategic content and provides readers with a road map for ongoing progress in their chess journey after finishing this book. It includes valuable information like tips for playing online, general improvement recommendations, and how to analyze your own games. Moreover, it delves into the importance of managing your own expectations as your chess journey continues.

PART I

The Essentials

| 1 |

Setting Up

Chapter Overview

The chessboard

Six chess symbols

Initial chess position

A lot of people think they know the rules of chess, and many of them are more or less correct. But if you asked a random person on the street if they could set up a chessboard, you’d be surprised at how many wouldn’t get it quite right. Plenty of us learned chess as kids growing up, whether from an uncle, babysitter, or family friend. But just like the telephone game where messages quickly get lost in translation, so do the rules of chess. Some people might play by special house rules, others might insist rooks can only move one square, and many casual players have never heard of the en passant move (don’t worry, you will learn about this in chapter 3). So it’s important that in learning how to play chess, we start with the absolute basics and build upon a solid foundation.

This chapter will introduce you to the chessboard and teach you how to set up the pieces and correctly orient the board. Even if you don’t have a physical chess set and only plan to play online or on your computer—environments where these things will be taken care of automatically—it is still a useful chapter to read. Besides, chances are you will eventually obtain, or at least play on, a physical chess set one day. This author certainly hopes you do!

Chess is one of the most complex games that has ever existed, but fortunately for us, setting up the board is simple and takes only a few minutes to learn. If you feel self-conscious about learning these bare basics, please don’t. I can promise you that every world chess champion in history also learned these essentials once upon a time. In fact, your reading of this foundational chapter is an indicator that you are prepared to build up the knowledge base you need to learn the game of chess.

The Chessboard

All that matters on the chessboard is good moves.

– Bobby Fischer,

former world champion

Chess is played on a board consisting of sixty-four equally sized squares in an eight-by-eight grid of alternating colors (figure 1.1). Despite what some people think, the squares do not have to be of particular colors, such as white and black, as long as they are contrasting colors that can be easily differentiated.

The 64 squares of a chessboard.

We therefore refer to these different-colored squares as light squares and dark squares (not white squares and black squares); some boards use white and black, but others use green and white or even different types of wood in the case of wooden boards. The pieces themselves, however, are referred to as white and black pieces, even if they aren’t literally black or white. Just remember: regardless of specific colors, squares are light and dark, and pieces are white and black.

Chess players refer to the eight vertical squares in a column as files and the eight horizontal squares in a row as ranks. Groups of squares that run diagonally are aptly called diagonals (although in the case of diagonals, they don’t have to consist of eight squares, as long as they reach from one end of the board to the other).

Many chessboards have letters and numbers on the edges of the board. These are used for identifying the squares, which we will learn about in chapter 4.

Ranks, files, and diagonals—oh my!

Orientation

An all-too-common mistake that beginners (and even some club players) make when setting up a board is orienting it incorrectly.

In chess, the board must always be oriented so that there is a light square at the bottom-right corner (see figure 1.3.) There is a rhyme to help you remember this: white on right (or, if you want to be more accurate, light on right, since the light square may not actually be white).

The correct orientation of a chessboard.

There are several reasons for this, including the placement of the queen and king on certain colored squares at the beginning of the game, and certain colored bishops being referred to in some openings.

An error that Hollywood, graphic designers, and advertisers often make is orienting the board the wrong way, with the bottom right square dark instead of light. In fact, I would bet that they somehow manage to get it wrong more often than not! The next time you see a chessboard in a movie or TV show, try to see if they set the board up correctly. You might be amazed at how often you can spot this surprisingly prevalent mistake.

The chessboard must be oriented so that the bottom-right corner is a light square. The phrase white on right or light on right should help you remember this.

Chess Symbols

Throughout this book, we will come across many positions on a chessboard that include the chess pieces. We will cover the pieces in chapter 2, but for now, here are the six symbols we will be using for them:

You will become well acquainted with these pieces.

Setting Up the Chessboard

At first it may take you a few minutes to set up the chessboard as you learn to recognize the shapes of the pieces and remember their starting locations. But soon it will become muscle memory and you won’t even have to think about it as you set up the board in mere seconds.

The initial chess position.

Figure 1.5 shows the initial board position for chess pieces. The rooks are placed on each corner, with the knights placed next to them, followed by the bishops. That leaves the two center squares for the king and queen.

Beginners sometimes set up the king and queen incorrectly. It’s an understandable mistake, because there is only one of each piece and they cannot be set up symmetrically like the others. The key to remembering how they are placed is that the queen always starts on her own color. Therefore, white will always start with the queen to the left of the king, and black will always start with the king to the left of the queen. It is simpler, though, to remember that the queens always start on their own color.

In figure 1.5, notice how, across the board, the black queen is on a dark square. If the opposing queens and kings don’t line up, then we know that one side was set up incorrectly. If they do line up but the queens are not on their own colors, that means the board orientation is incorrect and the board needs to be rotated ninety degrees (and the pieces set up again).

The queen always starts on her own color!

Finally, all the pawns are placed on the second rank (or seventh rank for black) to complete the initial setup.

Look at that, you already know how to set up a chessboard and can now spot an incorrect chessboard setup from a mile away! But unless your sole goal in reading this book is to learn how to set up chessboards for your day job as a set decorator for chess movies, there are still many rules to learn. So pack up your chess set and join me as we venture on to deeper depths.

Chapter Recap

Chess is played on a board consisting of sixty-four equally sized squares in an eight-by-eight grid of alternating colors.

The squares in the lighter of the two colors (usually white) are referred to as light squares, and the darker ones (often black) are referred to as dark squares.

Vertical columns of eight squares are called files, and eight horizontal squares in a row are called ranks.

Groups of squares that run diagonally are called diagonals.

The chessboard is oriented so that the bottom-right square is a light-colored square.

When setting up the chessboard, remember that the queens are always placed in the center on their own color and next to their respective king.

| 2 |

The Pieces

Chapter Overview

Six chess pieces and their powers

Moving and capturing

Promotion and underpromotion

Relative value of pieces

One of the things that makes chess so interesting and complex is the geometric and mobile differences between the pieces. Each of the six pieces is unique in its own way, and the relationships between these different pieces can create chaos, beauty, simplicity, and even art on the board.

Chess pieces have evolved over the fifteen hundred or so years since chess was conceived. Some of them were named differently; some even moved differently than they do today. For example, the queen used to be one of the weakest pieces, being able to move only one square diagonally, whereas today it’s by far the