Family Chess Site – A place for learning and playing chess

We will have 2 teams, Leaders and Legends. Team names and members may change daily. Team makeup is based on ability, team sympatics and likelihood of playing. Games will be ~40 minutes long (20’ per side, 10’ +15” increment per move or 15” + 30” increment per move). Each participant will have two matches per competition. Games will be initiated by challenging your opponent.

Report results on the Match ledger on the dinner table. Note the winner with T.O for time out win or C.M. for checkmate win and place under the appropriate Team column.

The format will consist of groups of 4, 2 members from each team in a group, with each team member playing the other. At the conclusion of the tournament. The winningest participant within the group will move up to the next group and the participant with the most losses will move down a group.

Rankings:

Crystal
Paul
Jack
Patrick
JP
OJ
AK
Victoria
Coleman
Josh
Adron
Nellie
Richard
Maria
Hope
Trevor
Jace
Skylar

Team makeup:

Leaders Legends

Group A

Crystal Paul

Patrick Jack

Group B

JP OJ

Josh Maria

Group C

AK Coleman

Victoria Adron

Group D

Nellie Richard

Hope Trevor

Here are the matchups, complete them at your convenience in no particular order, play over the board on the chess set or over the board on an iPad or if you have a lichess account and your opponent does as well play them over your cellphone wherever you maybe.

For a quick strategic chess lesson click here

liches.org is a great site for playing and learning chess. Mouse over the Learn tab and click Training or Openings for good exercises that are moderately enjoyable 😊. You can also mouse over the Play tab and click Create a game then click the black/white king’s crown and play a game with someone else anonymously, no registration required. Click here for the mobile app.

Current family members on lichess:

jandy – Jack – me, 1293 lichess rating
ciciandy – Crystal – Wife, 1458 lichess rating
murphypat – Patrick – Brother, 1151? lichess rating
jscarb – Joshua – Nephew, 1291? lichess rating
pma1 – Paul – Brother, 1433? lichess rating
GimmeUrKing – JP – Nephew
queenak – AK – Niece
coleman7 – Coleman – Nephew

To follow someone click their link then click the thumbs up button in the right upper corner.

To challenge someone click their link listed above then click the crossed swords symbol in the upper right corner. This will bring up the challenge box which has 3 choices explained below.

Variant: Standard is Chess as we know it.
Time control has 3 choices:
- Correspondence – game in which one can vary the days to make a move.
- Real Time – pick the time for moves in minutes with or with incremental seconds added with a move
- Unlimited means there is no time limit for making a move.
Rated vs Casual – rated is played for rating points, casual just for fun no rating points.

There is also a really neat feature that allows you to voice chat live with your opponent. To activate this click the telephone receiver button located on the left side of the chessboard in the chat area when your game starts. I think you have to be on a computer for this feature.

Chess Basics

Opening pawn moves

Opening pawn moves should exert some pressure on the middle 4 squares of the table.

Chessboard for how to win at chess in 4 easy steps

Early Moves

Develop your knights and bishops early to the 2nd, 3rd or 4th rank if white (7th, 6th & 5th ranks if black) preferably exerting pressure on the middle 4 squares again. This early development will lend itself to castling which should be done fairly early. Castling will also help one of your rooks enter the fray earlier than it might otherwise. Develop the queen after the knight and bishop.

Do’s & Don’ts

Do not advance your pieces (pieces = rooks, knights, bishops & Queen) too far too early as this will likely just lead to your wasting moves in retreat when they are pushed back by the opposing players pawns or other pieces and even worse potential loss of your prematurely advanced piece.

When possible position your rook on long open files or ranks.

Middle Game Strategy

During the “middle game” (about 10 moves into the game) try to get one of your pieces to occupy the middle two squares of the fifth rank if white (4th rank if black), with adequate support of course. This makes it very hard for the opposing player to move his pieces.

During the 2nd half of the middle game (about 20 moves in) start moving your pieces with a plan for attack on the opposing players king. And in the END GAME (~30 moves in) execute your plan for checkmate.

Good habits

After each move ask what does the opponent’s newly moved piece threaten to capture or do in subsequent moves. What does your newly moved piece expose or open up for you.

I have developed a mantra I try to repeat when playing: develop, defend, protect, attack.

What is Castling?

Moving the king two squares to the left or right and placing the rook (castle) just next to the king on the other side. The involved pieces cannot have been moved nor can the moving king or any of the squares it moves through or to be in check.

My favorite Lichess streamers

Marc Esserman is my favorite. He is off the wall entertaining and teaches well too. twitch.tv/whyyyyyyysoserious & lichess.org/@/MassterofMayhem

Eric Rosen is a good teaching streamer. lichess.org/@/EricRosen & twitch.tv/imrosen

Tryfon Gavriel aka King Crusher does a good job of teaching despite playing super rapid games. twitch.tv/kingscrusher & lichess.org/@/Kingscrusher-YouTube

Family Team Chess Match