Mate-problem training

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Start with the basic king-and- pawns mini-game. Press > until your display looks like the dia- gram below.

wdwdkdwd 0p0p0p0p wdwdwdwd dwdwdwdw wdwdwdwd dwdwdwdw P)P)P)P) dwdwIwdw

Make your first move. Your object, as in regular chess, is to checkmate the king. Normally, this means both sides will try to force a pawn through to the other side of the board safely to promote it to a queen. You’ll learn lots of principles, tricks,

mating-practice exercises will make sure you know the tech- niques.

After pressing MODE until “TrAIn” appears, again press > until you come to positions without pawns and with the Black king in the middle of the board. These are the mate-train- ing positions. The three different mate-training positions give White, besides his king, either two bishops, two rooks, or the queen. These are excellent exer- cises, used by the greatest chess teachers in the world. In all three positions you can force mate in a number of ways. Work on these mate-training exercises until you can mate Black efficiently.

lem you’d like to solve. Problems 1-31 are mate-in-two problems, which means White can force mate in two moves. There may or may not be other ways to win, but you’re looking for the two moves that will result in checkmate. Most of the time, the first of these moves is the hardest to find. Problem 32 is a mate-in-three.

If you can’t find the solution, make King Arthur show you the correct moves to a problem by setting his level to 73, and then pressing the MOVE key.

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8.3Opening book train- er: learning book open- ings the easy way, with King Arthur’s help

One of the most stunning innovations of King Arthur is his special ability to teach you “book openings.” Book open- ings are the beginning patterns of moves that have been worked out by chess masters over the centuries as the best ways to begin a game. Previously, play- ers had to spend tedious hours searching out lines of play from hard-to-follow columns in books. This practice required a confus- ing process of looking back and

and traps in this training mode that will win you many full- fledged chess games!

The mating-practice positions

To win at chess, you have to know how to checkmate! Just knowing that you have enough material to mate doesn’t earn you the point. King Arthur’s

8.2

You can further hone your checkmating skills and have fun at the same time by solving the 32 separate problems available on King Arthur. At the start of a game, press MODE until “MATE” is displayed. Then press > or < to select the prob-

All of these training modes can be made even more effective by combining them with other teaching features of King Arthur:

Ask for a HINT any time it’s your move.

Get King Arthur’s position score. (See section 3.8.)

Switch sides when you want to practice from the Black side.