Chess is a game of Castles & Kings, as well as bishops, knights, pawns, and of course, Queens. It is thought to have originated in what is now northern India or Afghanistan sometime before 600 AD.

  Now it is known in variations in almost every country of the world, and the subject of thousands of books dedicated to analyzing methods of playing. I believe Chess is misconstrued as boring, or "The game of nerds"... and I know I am not the only one who knows "Closet" chess fans.

   It is actually a great spectator sport, and to learn the basic moves of the game is very simple... I know four-year olds who know the basic rules... but chess also has very deep levels of complexity in advanced play, which can make even adults with high IQ's pull their hair out. This challenge however, is what makes it such a wonderful game.

I would like to thank Mr. George Laven, co-author of The Italian Gambit (and) A Guiding Repertoire For White: E4!, for his kind words about our site...

"Hello Shawn,

  Thanks for your interest in our site and book.  Really like your site's
logo!  Enjoyed navigating your well organized and easy to follow website.

Kind Regards,

George Laven"

1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate
by Fred Reinfeld

Important and indispensable
Reviewer: Diego A. from Norman, OK

   Pattern recognition is a very important skill in chess both for attack and defense. This book drills in this very matter testing your ability to recognize a pattern and to calculate the variations leading to checkmate.

I solved each and every puzzle in this book and I can honestly say that the skills gathered were put to the test almost inmediately: I was engineering simple checkmates and executing them over the board after reading the book.

  Objectively speaking the problems range of difficulty varies a lot. Some of the problems are as simple as calculating a mate in one while others require you to find a ten moves solution. Is this good? Sure it is! A plain diagram with the words "white (or black) to move" not telling you how long is your path to victory is in my opinion the best way to train tactics. [In fact, I would say that Reinfeld should not even divide the material in themes like queen sacrifice, attack to the uncastled king, etc.]

  A single pass over Reinfeld's problems is just not enough and the book demands a second or even third "reading." Why? Because it will save time and suffering in actual games...

In any case I wholeheartedly recommend this book