Using the Chess-Stack Website

WELCOME to the Chess-Stack Chess Gymnasium.  In the entire web, you won’t find a site quite like this one.  WITHOUT brute memorization - and with a willingness to return to this site and do some WORK – you WILL find that you are able to improve your chess game immensely – and you can do it all for FREE!

You'll come here to do what you would do in any gym.   You'll come here to train, to sweat, to work out.  You've got a lifetime membership and the machines are always available - but this site will make demands of you - as any gym does. This means that you will be encouraged to TRAIN, and to train hard.   This site highlights the stark difference between chess study and chess training.  Chess study is always the easier task - but to advance - to grow stronger - you need to drill, to practice your chess playing skills - in other word - to train!

What's the difference?

The difference is discipline.  With study, you know that the solution to your chess problem exists in the chess puzzle somewhere.  That's a bug hunt.  The payoff is to find it.  If that's what you want you can just call up a chess puzzle from the chess board gadget menu and have at it.

But - when TRAINING - you are building strong habits for playing chess.  Perhaps the target pattern is not on chess board - but you must train yourself to see it should it appear.  You must do the work just in case an opportunity to take control of the chess game does exist.  You must make this scan for every move - looking for every-thing - AND - you must do this quickly.  It is not easy - but then, what worthwhile effort is?.   The good news is that the more you do it - the easier it will become and the more control over your chess game will become evident.

We've provided first class training accomodations, for you.  In addition to the training facilities, this site offers you chess news, a complete chess reference (which includes chess databases and popular chess sites where you can play on line) – and MORE!  Sorry there is no chess juice bar - but I couldn't figure out to make that work over the internet.

Some people will find it useful to have tools at their disposal to improve their minds or to "speed up" and reinforce the chess training they will do here with certain tools that exercise the brain.  For them, there are numerous references to include chess links, chess books, even self-help news and chess articles, all made available to help these people to reach their individual goals.

You should make an appointment to visit this training site DAILY- to build your chess mind - even as you do with the gym you visit to improve your body.  Spend an hour here each day working on the specific areas in which you are weak - and watch your chess play bloom.

Take some time to explore the site – and then toss a towel over your shoulder and jump right in to a chess training session.  It’ll cost you nothing but some hard work.  For those who want to derive benefits beyond the scope of any web site – we offer you the chess training stacks – which enable you to work with more than one chess tactic at a time. These will DRASTICALLY speed up your learning of these tactics over studying on site alone. They also permit full integration of your chess training into your chess play and - they will serve as flash cards to keep your memory alert even when you aren't playing chess.  See the banner below on this page to learn more about them.

Before diving in to a training session, you should understand your training goal.  To begin, you are NOT attempting to learn chess.  We are not interested in improving your understanding of chess here.  We are attempting to develop your chess skills.  You should already understand the basics of the game if you hope to make any progress on this site.  This is a CHESS GYM.  Your goal here is to exercise your chess mind so as to  sensitize yourself to the tactical patterns that ultimately will make you a strong chess player.  To that end - you need to explore the site tools - and then design a chess training program that will improve your chess game. 

Do one thing well - that's our motto.  We train.  Teaching activities are held to a minimum.  A single diagram is all you will need to understand the chess pattern, and the philosophy of the chess tactic.  The accompanying text will spell out the tactical (or strategic) intentions and highlight important considerations for an effective chess play.  After this exposure however, you should be done looking at examples and pictures.  Time to quit dallying and go to work!

All of these chess tactics have a thousand faces.  The purpose in training - as opposed to studying - is that you don't have to try to remember them all.  Instead, your goal is to sensitize your chess brain to alert you if a tactic appears - in whatever form it chooses to take.

The going will be slow at first - as it is when aquiring any new skill.  Keep your training demands light - and then add more weight as you grow strong.

Take responsibility for your chess training program.  Order some of the self help products here to speed the process and to acclimate your brain.  Order the chess training stacks to boost your visual abilities tremendously and to speed up the learning process via exercises not possible on this site (I highly recommend them to the serious).  Meantime - you can master the chess tactics using ONLY the tools on this site - so go ahead and get started!

Finally, let me say that this chess site supports a discussion forum (see the menu bar).  You can't spend much time on this site without developing ideas that will help others who are just finding their way here.  If you have a suggestion for site improvement, for exercises, tips on how to make best use of this site - PLEASE post your thoughts to forum so that others might benefit from your insights.

Time now to learn how to use the site.  It’s simple really.  Here are the steps to setting up a chess training session:

• Decide on a chess tactic to study.  Just choose a topic from the menu below and you will be whisked away to a training page on pattern recognition for that tactic.  You can read all about your chess tactic in the place indicated on the training screen.
•  If pattern recognition does not suit you, then choose another chess exercise from the exercise menu on that page.  The tactical statement will persist, but a new chess exercise statement will be presented on the training screen.  This will describe your goal – and the training steps you will need to get there.
• The chess board gadget will be in auto-play. Stop the chess board gadget by pressing the “Stop” button.
• Load a fresh board into the chess board gadget by selecting a master's game to play through, or a chess puzzle from the drop-down menu or by simply clicking the “New” button.
• Load a time duration (count up) or constraint (count down) into the timer gadget.  Normally you will count down to time yourself against some goal but the choice is all yours.
• Follow the instructions given in the “Mission Statement” field to learn the specifics of your chess training program.

   Then just have fun! It’s okay to explore the various chess tactics either to gain an introduction to them or as you plan future training sessions. However, be careful not to bounce about too much.  Choose a topic and stay with it at least until a minimum of progress has been made.  Then move on to another topic.   I say again - to learn as many topics as possible in the shortest possible time you will need the chess training stacks.  In exchange, you will receive the benefits of owning a great set of chess training aids AND - of course - there is no better way of supporting your chess training site.  You will know that we will be here when you need us.

The banner below on this page will help you to order these.