Centaur Chess

Posts Tagged ‘Strategies’

The skewer and pin can be one of the most powerful weapons that a chess player has but they are not always easy to come by. Your opponent usually will not leave his most powerful pieces hanging for you to skewer and pin. In this video we take a look at some advanced techniques that all chess players should know when looking for different skewers and advanced pins.

‘Have you done your homework?’

‘In a minute. I’ll do it in a minute.’

How many times and in how many homes does the refrain ring out each night?

Getting a child to do homework – without nagging – is one of the main problems of parents with school aged children For many parents, it is a nightly balancing act between helping and supporting their child – and standing over them.

How Can Parents Help?

* Set a regular time for homework. This immediately eliminates the most common homework hassle. You and your child might decide it will be after school and a snack, or before school when they are fresher. Once that homework time comes around, cling to your cannons and send them off to do it.

* Help them stick to it. A few subtle reminders such as ‘Do you want help with the African project now?’ are better than the more blunt ‘Time for homework now.’

* Provide an area for study. Some kids can concentrate in the busy family room, – just don’t turn on the TV or all eyes go to the flickering screen and the brain quickly follows. Other kids like the seclusion of their bedroom, usually with the radio blaring. (Take solace from recent findings – IQ is raised higher by listening to rock music than to classical music.)

* Brainstorm Ideas. Make it a family game. If the project is to design a toy with wheels, it could be a billy cart. Or, with a few zany ideas from you it could be a Ferris wheel, a merry go round, a wheel of fortune…

* Help them locate information. Show them the library is not the only place with information about Cairns. The travel agent, Uncle Pete who lives there, the neighbours who holidayed there are all great sources of facts and fun.

* Discuss problems. Two brains are always better than one. Four or five brains all firing at once are fantastic.

* Teach time management skills. Show children how to break up a major assignment into smaller chunks of work. Make a list of things to be done, suggest deadlines and always allow extra for the trivial finishing touches that take up so much time.

* Never actually do the work yourself. It might be difficult to see the headings crooked and the lines smudged, but grit your teeth and let it go. Homework is about learning, not perfection.

And if They Still Don’t Do Homework?

‘That’s the school’s problem, not the family’s,’ says Rhonda Fitch, a psychologist with many years dealing with school children and their families.

‘Fights about homework can be very detrimental to family relationships. If the homework isn’t done, let the children go to school without it – and experience the logical consequences of their actions.’

For long term problems, she suggests talking with the teacher. Perhaps the homework is too hard. Or too easy. Perhaps not enough feedback is given.

Frequent, friendly talks can provide valuable information about how the child is working and forge strong links between children, parents and teachers. But in the end ‘it is more important to be a parent to your child than a substitute teacher,’ says Rhonda.

Am I Doing it Right?

Research has shown that one of the most important things to come out of homework is the quality of time parents and children spend together – not the actual work.

You were your child’s first teacher. They learnt to walk and talk didn’t they? They learnt to negotiate and share, they understand the importance of helping others, of telling the truth, of loving and giving. After that, helping them with long division should be a cinch.

Besides, you don’t have to know all the answers. If you’re a bit hazy about why the Wall of China was built, there’s nothing wrong with saying ‘I’m not sure. Let’s see if we can find out.’

That way homework becomes a journey of discovery, a search for knowledge together.

SIDEBAR: The School’s Role

It is up to individual schools to set homework guidelines and amounts. The majority of parental complaints to schools are about not enough homework set. However recent research casts doubts on the assumption that homework increases a child’s learning performance.

Schools’ guidelines should include the following:-

* If children are to value homework, it must be valuable. ‘Busy work’ will soon be recognised – and just as soon not completed.

* Homework should be linked to classroom activities. If ‘Animals’ are studied in class, a grammar sheet on England is not particularly appropriate.

* Homework should always be assessed and meaningful feedback given. Written comments tell a child more than a mark out of ten.

* There should be a reasonable time period set for completion. Homework due in ‘tomorrow’ does not allow for other events in a child’s life.

* Schools should remember that learning takes place in many different environments. After school activities such as chess, tennis, woodwork and music lessons, all extend children in a broad and healthy way.

(c) Jen McVeity, National Literacy Champion.

Interest, Application and Goals. These three basic but essential strategies are important when it comes to teaching the next generation of students. Educators have to up their game in order to engage this group of students.

One of the best ways for children to learn is when their interest is captured. Notice how children are very motivated in winning when playing games like Monopoly and Chess, or how an entire class of rowdy students become quietly enraptured by a rare video screening session.

Imagine if you could use Mathematical games in class to motivate all your students, including the weaker ones, into learning Maths of their own accord. Word-game sessions can similarly be organised to encourage the learning of the English Language, when students are allowed to pit their language skills against each other before the eyes of their respected teachers. Games such as Hangman can be organised for the entire class with a little preparation, and you can get free samples of Mathematics games which may be played with students at www.shimes-education.com/extra_info_pages.php?pages_id=43

Good videos for class instructions may be hard to come by, but you may surf YouTube and bookmark interesting videos which you may use for the next science lesson such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r2YRkTSAG4.

Making subjects applicable to the lives of students makes learning liveable for the less motivated students. A lesson in Science on nutrition may be started with an announcement that “students who wish to grow as tall as Lebron James or girls who want a good figure should study this topic intensively!” Children have the most diverse dreams you can imagine and by reinforcing the message that they can learn it from the books would motivate a fair bit of self-learning.

Helping students set meaningful goals would give them a strong sense of direction and focus. This is needed most of the time as not all lessons may be 100% engaging to every single student of the class. Take the time to set personal goals with each of your students. These goals should put a smile on their faces when they think about it. A hard-working student may ‘Aim for 80 marks and above in all major tests’. A less academically inclined student may ‘Aim to be a pilot when I grow up’, which a teacher must explain, involves getting rather good grades in school. Have your student design an A4 poster of his/her dream or goal and have them paste it on their bedroom wall. Such ‘vision boards’ have proven to work miracles for adults, so can they for children.

PvP is not just a side-quest part of the game in World of Warcraft. Some players just dabble in it, getting some honor points and arena points to land trinkets and basic gear upgrades. Others spend hours every week tweaking and perfecting their characters to a level high enough to actually dominate the game. Whatever you choose to do, you’ll need to spend some time determining what it takes to be the best when you step into that battleground or PvP arena.

•    Having a Strategy Every Time – PvP is like a chess match. If you go in and wing it, you’ll never come out a winner. You need a good strategy and that means studying your opponents. Watch videos, read about certain classes, and prepare for arena grounds or battlegrounds carefully.

•    Plan Ahead – Secondly, plan a strategy for how you’ll handle each class. If you are a Rogue, determine which classes you’re most likely to handle and then adjust your strategies to match how you’ll fight those classes.

•    Know Your Group and Practice Often – Get a group together early and practice often. The only way to be truly effective in PvP is to have a well tuned and highly prepared group of players who know how each other play extremely well. Without that practice and that knowledge, you may as well PUG it out, running around randomly hoping to get lucky. Against good teams, you’ll be toast in a matter of seconds.

Like a general preparing for battle, you need to not only know what you’re facing, but have a strategy for every possible outcome when you step onto the battlefield. Spending hours and hours running the same content and messing up in the same way is pointless.

Well, if you want to get out of that rut – to be the best – to completely dominate anyone in your line of sight – get over to Best World of Warcraft Guide Revew site and check out WOW Leveling Guide and WOW Gold Guide Now. This is the real deal folks. You don’t have time to waste.

Copyright (c) 2010 John Howell

Strategy is key when it comes to short term trading. Many investors dream of achieving success with short term trading strategies, but few succeed.

This is where strategy comes into play – how will you enter and exit a short term trade? Think of it as a game of chess – one move forward, one back – with actual monetary reward at the checkmate.

Here are a few short term trading strategies that have been proven to work.

Trend trading — This type of trading is a little bit uncommon in the world of short term trading strategies, but trend trading happens when an investor buys a stock after it has established a trend of extremely high highs and better-than-average lows. The investor’s strategy is then to stay with that stock until the trend is over, then selling as quickly as possible.

Counter-trend trading – Most counter-trend trading strategies look for potential reversals in market trends. This strategy is very short-term in nature and involves purchasing stock when prices are low and selling when they’re high. Unlike trend trading, counter trend trading is more popular with short term traders and works best for those who work around large, core trades because gains are usually quite low.

Pullback trading – This strategy involves buying a stock when it’s been weak for a short time and then selling that same stock when it’s temporarily strong. Pullback trading is considered a short term form of reversion trading. Investors look for stocks that been inflated beyond their normal levels and buy them until they level out again.

Breakout trading – This strategy is great for investors who can act fast. The goal is to buy up stocks that move up suddenly when prices have been flat or stalling. When a breakout stock is in a downward shift, it’s called a “breakdown”.

Perhaps the best strategy when it comes to short term trading is simply discipline. Create your own rules and stick to them, know when and how to sell a trade when it goes bad, have patience when it comes to the best time to work a strategy, and you’ll be ahead of most people who attempt short term investing. Just as it would in any other area of your life, discipline takes time and patience to master. However, if it’s the only short term trading strategy you try, it will be worth it!

Chess is a game of substitute war, so you will win more chess games by taking advantage of the ancient wisdom distilled from the art of military strategies. This includes a collection of strategies compiled in China at least 1,500 years ago.

These strategies are taught to school children all over China, Japan and probably much of the rest of Asia even today.

If you think Chinese children learn the 36 Strategies as “classic literature” the same way American children must read Mark Twain . . . you are too foolish and naive to be allowed near a serious chess tournament.

You also should never try to do business in Asia, but that’s another article.

You must first of all understand that the essence of warfare is deceit. This is challenging in chess, because both players can see the entire board and all the pieces.

You must learn to make moves that advance your strategies and tactics without revealing them to your opponent until it’s too late. Of course, this is easier to write than to pull off in an actual chess game.

And it does require you to work, study and plan.

Your opponent can see the chessboard — but not what’s going on inside your mind.

You must learn to use that to your advantage. It requires a mental attitude and preparation which studying the 36 Strategies can help you acquire.

Some of the strategies to adapt to your chess game include:

Surrounding Wei to Rescue Zao — do not attack your enemy where and when he is strong. Avoid direct confrontation. Aim for their weak points.

Make the Enemy Work While You Wait at Leisure — when you are in a weak position, delay the confrontation.

Watch the Fire Burning Across the River — Exercise patience and allow favorable events to progress.

The Plum Tree Sacrifices for the Peach Tree — this is an ancient stress tactic. Sacrifice a piece for the greater good of your game.

Walk the Sheep Home Just Because It Is There — take advantage of all opportunities to gain an advantage.

Trade Your Brick for a Piece of Jade — if you want to trade pieces to your advantage, convince your opponent your brick is worth more than their piece of jade.

Pretend to Be a Pig to Eat the Tiger — make your enemy believe you are weak so they will attack and fall into your trap.

Be Wise But Play the Fool — make your enemy underestimate you.

Provoke Strong Emotion — upsetting or angering your opponent can encourage them to make mistakes. You must learn to remain calm so that you don’t fall into this trap.

The Empty City — when you are in a weak position, emphasize your vulnerability, to confuse your opponent.

Chain Links — this simply refers to using a chain of interlinked strategies to attain your goal.

Of course, real chess masters apply tactics against their enemies away from as well as on the chess board. Boris Spassky was reportedly a master at keeping a poker face during games, so that his opponents didn’t know whether he was feeling good or bad about his moves, his position or his plans.
However, Bobby Fischer made so many demands during their famous tournament that he was able to Provoke Strong Emotion.

In MORTAL GAMES: THE TURBULENT GENIUS OF GARRY KASPAROV Fred Waitzkin relates how during one of his world championship tournaments against Anatoly Karpov, Kasparov’s business partner Andrew Page played a “dirty trick” to upset Karpov.

They were all flying from New York City to Lyon France. The tournament organizers had given First Class tickets to both Kasparov and Karpov and Economy class tickets to their trainers. Page bought Business Class tickets for Garry’s grandmaster trainers, paying for them out of his own pocket. Karpov’s group was made to feel angry and resentful of their inferior accomodations.

Later, Karpov may have gotten a blow of his own in. Gata Kamsky proposed that their chess organization change the rules so that defending world championships would have to compete to play in the world championship tournament just like all other contenders, instead of simply defending their title against the winner of the playoffs.

It was designed to make defending champion Kasparov angry, and one of his people told Waitzkin the idea probably came from Karpov who was friends with Kamsky. Gata was a teenager at the time and not likely to propose such a major rule change on his own. But if Karpov had proposed it directly, it would just have made him look bad, since he was the world’s number two player and would therefore most benefit from it.

Bottom line: learn the 36 Strategies if only to recognize when your opponent tries to use one of them against you.

The game of chess is all about strategies and tactics. There are three stages in a game of chess, and each one is critical.

The first stage is the opening, a sequence of moves in which the players bring out their pieces. The opening sequence shapes a player’s overall results. The opening is often designed to take hold of the board, develop the pieces, protect the King, and make a strong Pawn structure. The overall objective is to create a position of strength to prepare for the middlegame.

The second stage is the middlegame. In the middlegame, the players maneuver for position and carry out attacks and counterattacks. The goal is to eliminate as many of the opponent’s pieces as possible and consolidate one’s own position.

The third stage is known as the endgame. Usually there are very few pieces left on the board. This is the stage that is considered to be safe enough for the King to join the battle. When eliminating pieces, the ‘Chess Piece Point Values’ become important. A set of points is assigned to each type of piece. A Queen is usually worth 9 points, Rooks five, Bishops and Knights three points each, and Pawns one. However, the actual value and importance of a piece varies based on its position and the stage of the game.

Chess combinations and traps exist in the form of positional weaknesses in the opponent’s pieces. Successfully implementing a chess strategy depends partly on recognizing these positional weaknesses and exploiting them with different tactical methods. Chess combinations usually cover a number of types of tactical methods that many middlegame students classify and provide as classic examples of strategic playing. These tactics go by such exotic sounding names as pins, forks, skewers, discovered checks, zwischenzugs, deflections, decoys, sacrifices, forcing moves, undermining, overloading, and interference.

In the tactical move called the pin, the opponent’s pieces are pinned down. From this, it is obvious that a pinned piece indicates a specific type of weakness in the opponent’s positional play that can be used to the other’s advantage.

Another tactical ploy, the fork, involves a piece being moved so that it attacks two enemy pieces simultaneously. Such a move makes it almost impossible for the opponent to protect both pieces under attack and forces them to sacrifice one piece so the other may be saved. Skewers are a kind of reverse pin in which a more valuable piece is placed in front of a less valuable one.

The discovered attack is a tactic in which a piece moves and uncovers an opposing piece in a line so that another piece can attack it.

In the endgame, Pawns and Kings become important as both sides try to promote their Pawns. Players with more pieces left on the board have an advantage. Controlling the time used by each move becomes important as fewer pieces remain. Sometimes a player may seem to have a tactical advantage but not enough pieces left to force a result. When this occurs the game is considered a draw due to insufficient material.

Improving your Chess Strategy

Chess is a game about strategy and tactics above all. Each player commands an army of 16 chess pieces. In the opening, the players bring up their forces as they prepare for battle. Players maneuver for strategic positions and carry out attacks and counterattacks in the middle game. During the endgame is when, with fewer pawns and pieces left on the board, it’s finally safe for kings to come out and join the combat. Here are some ways to improve your chess strategy.

1. Plan. Your chess pieces need to work in harmony as a team with you as a coach. You need to work all your pieces together so that their strengths support one another. Your opponent will have an easy time defending themselves if your strategy appears to be haphazard.

2. Know what each piece is worth. Consider the value of your pieces when thinking about giving up pieces for some of your opponents. The player who has the most pieces of great value usually has a significant advantage.

3. Consider your opponents move. Every time your opponent moves stop to consider what might be their strategy. Ask yourself why that move was chosen. Are one of your pieces in danger?

4. Develop quickly and well. One most important elements of chassis timing. Your pieces should be ready for action and then they will be able to quickly control the course of the game. You need to be able to get your pieces into key strategic positions as quickly as possible.

5. Keep your king save at all times. The object of this game is to capture the opponent’s king. If you forget this you have lost.

6. Make the best possible move by asking yourself a few questions. Will I improve my position by making this move? Will this move put my pieces in danger?

7. If it is a pawn you are about to move consider if you can keep it protected from attack.
8. If it is another piece consider whether the enemy can drive it away.

9. Be alert. Once you’ve reached a good strategic position in the game do not relax. Be on the lookout for your opponents threats.

10. Know when to trade pieces. The best time to trade pieces is when you can capture pieces that are worth more than the one you will be giving up.

11. Think about the endgame. You should remember that every time you make a move it might affect your chances in the endgame.

12. Control the center. The player who controls the four squares that are in the middle of the board will have a better game in many cases the victory.

Use these tips to help you improve your chess strategy. Now go practice and have fun.