Another great chess app for iPad / iPhone

e+Chess is a chess book reader that comes with one free title, Capablanca's Chess Fundamentals. (This is the same book I started to excerpt on this blog and will get around to finishing someday: it's out of copyright.) As you might imagine, displaying both the text of a chess book and an interactive chess board is a bit much on an iPhone, but it's legible in landscape mode.

Here's a screen capture from my iPhone: I touch "1.f5" on the left side (the text of the book), and the move is made on the board. And I can shuffle the pieces investigating my own variations (as long as the moves are legal). Cool.

Here's a screen capture from my iPad: as you can see, there's a lot more room on the larger screen.

Silman's Complete Endgame Course is available in this format for $17.99. You're much more likely to study the iPad version than the paperback! But unless you absolutely love your iPhone, I wouldn't buy the book to read on the tiny platform: just too darn small. But that's not the fault of this great app.  There are even nuggets of Silman's wisdom sprinkled through the text as audio files.    To be clear, e+Chess falls far short of the true multimedia available through ChessBase, but this is a promising start.

There's also a Valeri Beim book on middlegame strategy available in this format (Beim is one of my favorite authors, but I'm not familiar with this book), and a few oddball titles.  It remains to be seen how popular this format becomes (e+Chess could go the way of Betamax).  And the serious player is more likely to get more utility from ChessBase or PGN formats.  But ease of consumption is a strong counterargument: the platform looks very promising to me!

If you own an iPad and you want to join Vince Hart in studying Silman's Complete Endgame Course (an excellent book for anyone from complete beginning to aspiring master), you can't go wrong downloading e+Chess.  If you own an iPhone, download it anyway, if only to read a free interactive copy of Chess Fundamentals, one of the greatest chess books ever written.  But I wouldn't spend money on content unless you're buying for the iPad.

White to play 

As long as we're on this page, here's a famous passage.  Capa writes, "In the above position White can't win by 1.f5.  Black's best answer would be 1...g6, draws.  (The student should work this out.)"  Your thoughts, students?

"Chess Fever"

Let's enjoy everyone's favorite Soviet silent comedy! Capablanca is our dashing leading man....

Chess Fundamentals: king and queen against king

Example 4—We now come to Queen and King against King. As the Queen combines the power of the Rook and the Bishop, it is the easiest mate of all and should always be accomplished in under ten moves. Take the following position:

White to move

A good way to begin is to make the first move with the Queen, trying to limit Black's mobility as much as possible. Thus: 1.Qc6 Kd4 2.Kd2 Already Black has only one available square.

Black to play has only one legal move

2...Ke5 3.Ke3 Kf5 4.Qd6 Kg5

Should Black play 4...Kg4 , then 5.Qg6+.

5.Qe6 Kh4

If 5...Kh5 , then 6.Kf4 and mate next move.

6.Qg6

After 6.Qg6: the Black King is confined to four squares

6…Kh3 7.Kf3

King moves, and Queen mates.

7...Kh2

Or 7...Kh4 8.Qh6 mate.

8.Qg2 mate.

In this ending, as in the case of the Rook, the Black King must be forced to the edge of the board; only the Queen being so much more powerful than the Rook, the process is far easier and shorter. These are the three elementary endings and in all of these the principle is the same. In each case the co-operation of the King is needed. In order to force a mate without the aid of the King, at least two Rooks are needed.

Chess Fundamentals: king and two bishops against king

Example 3—Now we come to two Bishops and King against King.

Example 3

White to move

Since the Black King is in the corner, White can play 1.Bd3 Kg7 2.Bg5 Kf7 3.Bf5 and already the Black King is confined to a few squares.

Example 3—After 3.Bf5

(Black to move is already confined to the six yellow squares)

If the Black King, in the original position, had been away from the last row, White should have advanced his King, and then, with the aid of his Bishops, restricted the Black King's movements to as few squares as possible. We might now continue 3...Kg7 4.Kf2 In this ending, the Black King must not only be driven to the edge of the board, but he must also be forced into a corner, and, before a mate can be given, the White King must be brought to the sixth rank, and at the same time, in one of the last two files; in this case, either h6, g7, f7, or f8, and as h6 and g6 are the nearest squares, it is to either of these squares that the King ought to go. 4...Kf7 5.Kg3 Kg7 6.Kh4 Kf7 7.Kh5 Kg7 8.Bg6 Kg8 9.Kh6 Kf8

Example 3—After 9…Kf8

(Black is limited to three squares)

White must now mark time and move one of the Bishops, so as to force the Black King to go back. 10.Bh5 Kg8 11.Be7

Example 3—After 11.Be7

(Black is now limited to two squares)

11...Kh8

Now the White Bishop must take up a position from which it can give check next move along the White diagonal, when the Black King moves back to g8. 12.Bg4 Kg8 13.Be6+ Kh8 14.Bf6 mate.

It has taken fourteen moves to force the mate and, in any position, it should be done in under thirty. 

In all endings of this kind, care must be taken not to drift into a stalemate.

In this particular ending one should remember that the King must not only be driven to the edge of the board, but also into a corner.  In all such endings, however, it is immaterial whether the King is forced onto the last rank, or to an outside file, e.g. h5 or a4, e1 or d8.

Capablanca's Chess Fundamentals

I had the pleasure of reading Ken Marshall's interview (forthcoming in Chess Life) with one of the oldest active players in the world, 95-year-old National Master and Hyde Park resident Erik Karklins.  When Erik was a teenager in Riga in the 1920s, he learned German so he could read and understand his first serious chess book, Capablanca's Chess Fundamentals.  Decades later in Chicago, Erik's son Andrew became interested in chess, so Erik gave Andrew a copy of Chess Fundamentals. The book seems to work: Andrew became one of the twenty strongest American players of the Fischer era.

Capablanca's classic is no longer in copyright: I hope to put a version of it on the Illinois Chess Association website.  In the meantime, I'll post selections here: the first selection appears below.

Chess Fundamentals: Rook and King against King

CHESS FUNDAMENTALS

JOSÉ R. CAPABLANCA

PART I

CHAPTER I

First Principles: Endings, Middle-Game, and Openings

The first thing a student should do, is to familiarize himself with the power of the pieces. This can best be done by learning how to accomplish quickly some of the simple mates.

1. SOME SIMPLE MATES

Example 1. — The ending Rook and King against King.

The principle is to drive the opposing King to the last line on any side of the board.

 Example 1: White to play

In this position the power of the Rook is demonstrated by the first move, Rh7, which immediately confines the Black King to the last rank, and the mate is quickly accomplished by 1.Ra7 Kg8 2.Kg2 

The combined action of King and Rook is needed to arrive at a position at which mate can be forced. The general principle for a beginner to follow is to

keep his King as much as possible on the same rank, or, as in this case, file, as the opposing King. 

When, in this case, the King has been brought to the sixth rank, it is better to place it, not on the same file, but on the one next to it towards the center.  

2...Kf8 3.Kf3 Ke8 4.Ke4 Kd8 5.Kd5 Kc8 6.Kd6

Not 6.Kc6 , because then the Black King will get back to d8 and it will take much longer to mate.

6...Kb8

If now 6...Kd8 7.Ra8 mates at once. 

7.Rc7 Ka8 8.Kc6 Kb8 9.Kb6 Ka8 10.Rc8 mate.

On move 5, Black could have played 5...Ke8 , and, according to principle, White would have continued 6.Kd6 Kf8 the Black King will ultimately be forced to move in front of the White King and be mated by Ra8. 7.Ke6 Kg8 8.Kf6 Kh8 9.Kg6 Kg8 10.Ra8 mate.

Example 2: White to play

Since the Black King is in the center of the board, the best way to proceed is to advance your own King thus: 1.Ke2 Kd5 2.Ke3 As the Rook has not yet come into play, it is better to advance the King straight into the center of the board, not in front, but to one side of the other King. Should now the Black King move 2...Ke5, the Rook drives it back by 3.Rh5+. On the other hand, if 2...Kc4 then also 3.Rh5 If now 3...Kb4, there follows 4. Kd2, but if instead 3...Kc3 4.Rh4 , keeping the King confined to as few squares as possible.

Now the ending may continue 4...Kc2 5.Rc4+ Kb3 6.Kd3 Kb2 7.Rb4+ Ka3 8.Kc3 Ka2 It should be noticed how often the White King has moved next to the Rook, not only to defend it, but also to reduce the mobility of the opposing King. Now White mates in three moves thus: 9.Ra4+ Kb1 10.Ra8 Or Rook to any square on the a-file, forcing the Black King in front of the White. 10...Kc1 11.Ra1 mate.  It has taken eleven moves to mate, and, under any conditions, I believe it should be done in under twenty. While it may be monotonous, it is worthwhile for the beginner to practice such things, as it will teach him the proper handling of his pieces.