THE IDEA BEHIND CHESS QUESTS
When medieval knights( at least the storybook variety) went on a quest, they often came back a better man for having made the journey. After Sir Gawain set off in search of the Green Knight, all of the really important things that happened to him occurred before he met his foe; the things he learned about himself made him a better person and, ultimately, saved his life.
While nothing that dramatic is likely to happen on a Chess King quest, there is an underlying purpose to these chess challenges. And, as with Sir Gawain, the journey really is the true reward.
Regardless of a quest ' s challenge level or the material you start with, all of Chess King ' s quests share a central idea and a goal. Sure, you ' re supposed to checkmate Houdini ' s King, and earn coins, experience points, and awards, but there ' s a very practical reason for playing the quest challenges in Chess King, one which has a long-term effect on your chess play and is far more important than the immediate gratification you ' ll get from earning rewards in the program.
Frank Marshall, a great American chess champion, once said of chess,“ The hardest thing to do is to win a ' won ' game”. That ' s a curious sounding statement, but those of us who have lost chess games when we were ahead material( myself included) know exactly what Frank Marshall meant.
Having more material than your opponent is generally a good thing, but it carries with it several potential problems( yes, I did say“ problems”!). One problem with being ahead is that you tend to relax:“ Hey, I ' ve got this game in the bag! I ' m up two pawns! Hmmm, I wonder what I ' ll have for dinner tonight? Gee, maybe the Cubs are winning, too...” When you relax, you get sloppy, and when you get sloppy, you make mistakes. Meanwhile your opponent( who is, of course, behind in material) starts fighting for his life. He ' s concentrating harder, looking for( and often finding) good moves, while you ' re looking out the window wondering whether or not you should mow the lawn. The next thing you know, your“ win” has turned into a draw( or worse!).
A second problem occurs when you ' re materially ahead but realize you have no idea how to proceed. Some types of material advantages have known techniques which should be applied(“ techniques” in chess are“ standard procedures” and guidelines which make it easy to know what to do, such as how to win when you ' re ahead by a Knight with pawns on both the Kingside and Queenside). If you don ' t know these techniques( as I didn ' t in that Knight endgame I mentioned in the previous section), your material advantage won ' t mean as much since you don ' t know how to win with it.
211 chessking. com