
Chess Tactics Explained in Plain English - wang42
http://www.chesstactics.org
======
ideonexus
I was in Chess Club in high school. It was our first year establishing the
club, the teacher hosting it didn't have any great insights into chess, we had
no books, and so we just sat for hours every afternoon staring quietly at
chessboards playing one another. I remember our minds being blown when we
discovered you could achieve mate with just a king and a rook versus a lone
king. We had formerly believed this meant a draw.

Skipping around on this site is a delight for me. We discovered so many of
these tactics in our many hours of play, but we didn't have names for them
beyond "fork" and "pin." Now I suddenly find I have a vocabulary for
describing these tactics and situations to my kids when they get older. I
can't wait to show them the "Back Rank Mate" with just a king and rook left on
the board.

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diminoten
I love chess, and own these books. It was a pleasant (if a little bewildering)
surprise to find this submission on HN.

One thing I don't love about chess is how eager everyone seems to be to apply
concepts and principles from chess to non-chess situations, implying that an
understanding of these principles within the game will provide a better
understanding of their analogous situations outside of chess.

People tend to claim that being good at chess will make you good at other
things too, but I've always found that being good at chess makes you... good
at chess, and that's about it.

Edit: My favorite article on chess is from an 1859 Scientific American, and
can be found here:
[https://books.google.com/books?id=90hGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA9&dq=%22...](https://books.google.com/books?id=90hGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA9&dq=%22a+pernicious+excitement+to+learn+and+play%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjv_tfRs7HTAhUL9YMKHTO5C4MQ6AEIOjAD#v=onepage&q=%22a%20pernicious%20excitement%20to%20learn%20and%20play%22&f=false)

An excerpt:

> ...chess is a mere amusement of a very inferior character, which robs the
> mind of valuable time that might be devoted to nobler acquirements, while at
> the same time it affords no benefit whatsoever to the body.

Oh, if they knew the kinds of things we spent our time on now...

~~~
joshuaheard
Chess taught me many things about life: think ahead, sacrifice for an
advantage, patience, and setting the stage in preparation to execute a
strategy which I use as a lawyer often.

~~~
kaishiro
I don't mean to offend, but aren't these all sort of...common sense?

~~~
mpol
Yes, if common sense was common, it would be common sense :).

In my "career" of chess, I still learn things after 12 years. This year my
focus is to not downtalk myself before a game against a strong opponent. It is
part of my personality to do that. I also do that in more common situations.
Chess just provides a way to battle your own shortcomings and improve
yourself.

Other things I learn by playing chess... Always play till the end, untill
there are no more chances. Only then give up. I learned to lose better, and am
still learning that. The less I am afraid of losing, the more freeflowing my
gameplay is. I learned to find my way better in chaotic situations and I
actually love them. I like to find the moves and game-style that gives a bit
of bewonderment and inspiration.

And yes, you can learn something everywhere. You just have to pick your
battles and where to fight/play them. Chess fits my personality, it does a lot
to me.

~~~
MeghdeepRay
I can relate to this a lot. The lessons of finding one's way in chaotic
situations and learning not to fear them in particular did carry over into
real life along with several other lessons.

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netvarun
This book is a masterpiece with some amazingly lucid writing. I have spent
many hours reading this book just for the prose.

Fun fact: The author is the dean of the University of Texas School of Law -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Farnsworth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Farnsworth)
IMHO, his chess writing reminds me a lot of pg's writings on startup and tech
(and I could only imagine how lucid his legal writings would be)

If you are looking for the deadtree version of this - it's available as a two-
part book series on Amazon titled 'Predator At The Chessboard' \-
[https://www.amazon.com/Predator-At-Chessboard-Field-
Tactics/...](https://www.amazon.com/Predator-At-Chessboard-Field-
Tactics/dp/1430308001)

~~~
strictnein
I was wondering who would write books on metaphors, language, the law, and
chess, and the dean of a law school definitely fits the bill.

From the site:

> "Book versions of this site are available: over 700 pages in total in a two-
> volume set. Here are links to book one and book two. You can check out other
> books by the author about language here, metaphor here, and law here and
> here."

Ordered his first chess book. Just yesterday I was thinking how I would like a
version of "The Impostor's Handbook", but for chess. This seems to fit the
bill.

~~~
Singletoned
Which Imposter's Handbook do you mean? I've looked and found a couple, and
both look interesting.

------
partycoder
Another resource: [http://www.chesscademy.com](http://www.chesscademy.com)

Has a step by step tutorial from scratch, videos and interactive exercises.

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alasdair_
This is a fantastic book.

I have little interest in actually playing chess - I far prefer games with
hidden information, some luck and the ability for the rules of the game
themselves to be changed - but as someone who loves games in general, this is
exactly what I've been looking for to understand chess theory.

It's basically all the interesting bits of chess, without the stuff that
demands memorization of opening moves or that can be otherwise handled better
by a computer than a human.

~~~
koide
There are lots of chess variants that can be interesting as well, some have a
component of luck, and all are bending of the rules. Hidden information is the
thing they lack, though.

Fischer Random Chess, Antichess, Atomic Chess and Crazyhouse are some of the
most popular.

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akkartik
Fun random puzzle from the book:
[http://www.chesstactics.org/index.php?Type=quiz&Topic=4,2](http://www.chesstactics.org/index.php?Type=quiz&Topic=4,2)

~~~
logicallee
Thanks! Yes, this was fun. It's also cool that you can get an explanation
(like of the general principle) which lichess won't do after you solve
something successfully.

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irrational
Does anyone know if there is the equivalent for Go?

~~~
dfan
The closest thing in English is Tesuji by James Davies
([http://senseis.xmp.net/?TesujiTheBook](http://senseis.xmp.net/?TesujiTheBook)).
It already presumes that you know a bit about Go, though (the very simplest
tactics are taken for granted).

~~~
nandemo
Also Cho Chikun's _All About Life and Death_ and Fujisawa's _Dictionary of
Basic Tesuji_.

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euyyn
Very nice! Thanks for sharing.

