The new registration form
Every member, new and old, needs to fill in the club’s new registration form. Paper copies at the club from Saturday 5 September, or download and print one at home before you come…
Read moreOver the coming weeks an Improving your chess skills course by chess master Nelson Lopez will enable you to build up to a chess level which would be the envy of any club member. We will go through it a few sections at a time rather than all at once.
This week we start with the basics, for anyone new to chess. Follow the YouTube videos, which fully explain the lessons. Even if you are not new to chess, it may be beneficial for you to watch the short videos to refresh your abilities.
This week
- Section 1 — rules of the game. Board setup, piece movements, check, checkmate and stalemate, castling, promotion, en passant, notation. Video for section 1
- Section 2 — point value of pieces. Understanding good trades from bad ones. Video for section 2
- Section 3 — very basic opening principles. Control the centre, develop your pieces, castle before move 10, and don’t bring the queen out early. Video for section 3
The rest of the course
The full list of sections, with the video for each, is on the chess skills page. It follows a course by Nelson Lopez, on his Chess Vibes channel — we work through a selection of his topics rather than all of them, and more sections will appear here over the coming weeks.
Watching the videos
The links above open on YouTube rather than playing on this page. Watch them at home in your own time — we go through the detail at the club on a Saturday, 10am–12 noon, so bring your questions with you.