Interesting, Mintyboy. I knew a young Lithuanian guy who I thought was pretty good. He said he played a lot in the army, everybody in the Lithuanian army played chess all the time. There, he was one of the worst players. I wonder if that's still common, or if there has been enough time lag that people who are army age now didn't have the chess focus when they were school age.

Well I'm a 19 year old Lithuanian. I don't have many friends or family my age that play very well in Lithuania. Obviously there are those who are very good at chess, but you get that everywhere now. But as in most countries I think it's more the minority that are very good than the majority. For example one of my grandparents neighbours is a young boy I think he's around 9-10 now. And apparently He beats my grandad about 1/5 games. For such an age that's a good standard in my opinion, as my grandad is a good player.

It also depends on what one would class as being good. I'd consider myself to be a good player, but in no way a great one. I just classify a good player who has decent knowledge of fundamentals and decent and varied opening theory. Good forward vision, (such as seeing 5-6 moves in advance), and strong checkmating ability, rather than constantly checking the opponent hoping to get lucky etc.

Obviously I no longer live in Lithuania, but I do spend around 6 weeks every year on holiday. And from my family and friends there I no longer see it as a large cultural thing, but instead more as a game that most young boys learn at a young age at some point, but as is the case everywhere now, only few pursue it and actively play in tournaments as they get older. (as I did)

I'm going to be on holiday in around a weeks time. I'll ask around my relatives about it. Do people still play it in the workplace at all anymore, or in the army. I don't know my guess is that they don't, but I may be wrong.

Tihs thread is very interesting, where can one learn how to play better?

Are there sites to play AI or others of novice skill? I'd like to learn the theory/strategy behind it and become decent at the game.

Chess.com is a good site. It has everything you could possibly need, several levels of computer AI, articles on theory, tactical trainer, virtual chess mentor, daily puzzles, database of openings, etc. There's a ranking system too, so you can easily find others of similar skill to yours.

Thanks Fairfax!

Speaking of chess, anyone feel like playing a game now?

THM, I play slow games at gameknot.com. If you'd like to play one (2 /m sort of thing), I'd definitely be down.

For learning, chess.com is probably the best. For playing any old moves quickly, play on chesscube - it's pretty fun in its own way.

I'm playing the AI computer right now....and I am freaking terrible! I thought I would be alright...

is this as hard or harder than picking up how to play diplomacy? It took me 50 games to get a solo...

Let's do it, Yonni! PM me if you're still around.

Easier to pick up, much harder to get any good, though I picked up diplomacy pretty easily by playing a lot of games against myself in Realpolitik and learned chess as a kid so maybe I didn't have as normal an experience of either.

check out chesstempo.com for chess tactics/puzzles and chessbomb.com to follow the professional players live! there are dozens of sites to play chess on, but i prefer FICS (free internet chess server)

you'll need to get a client to connect to the server, like babas chess, but its lots of fun after that!

@mendax: playing with yourself isn't as good as the real thing.

I've played FICS, i prefer chesscube. The standard isn't so good, but that doesn't really matter, and the interface is pretty. There are some limitations on use until you get good on there though.

dont take this the wrong way, but chesscube is for patzers ;)

For any family-type player a 1200 will look very strong. On a competitive level though it is very weak. Chess takes study to get at a high level. Even the player with the greatest talent will need years of prectice/study before hoping to get to GM level.

I beat the 400 computer. ;-)

So anyone want to post the moves...

For learning how to be a better chess player for someone that as never read a chess book, I'd suggest by doing just that :)
You'll find many beginner chess books i any library that will explain the basic endgames, basic opening rules and basic strategy/tactics.

chesscube is for patzers. That's why i love it - i can turn most people over on there :)

As for improvement, learn some basic guiding principles (control the centre, get castled etc) and then do tactics. And then do more tactics. And then do even more tactics. And then for good measure, do another load of tactics. Seriously, for <1600 level players this is by far the most important thing.

E4 (!)

No.

crap, I got the 800 computer down to a king twice, but I goofed it up and got a draw.