Did those songs you were hearing end? Would you like to hear them again?

Touch Move: You Touch it, You Move it, Get Used to it

Although this rule is quite formal, and does not apply to just a friendly match between you and your friend, it does apply to tournaments that you might play in. The rule is very simple. Think with your brain, not your hands. If you touch a piece with your hands, you must move that piece if it has a legal move, if it doesn't you're off the hook. If the piece touched does not have any good moves, than you're stuck. The piece must then be moved to another square which can sometimes be fatal. This is something to keep in mind when playing a tournament match, I'm sure at one point or another most players have been caught up with this rule. However, beginner's should ignore this rule as when you begin you simply want to focus on learning how to play better, but keep it in mind!

Timing a Chess Game: The Chess Clock

Another formal rule that you might see in your chess endeavors is a funny looking clock beside the chess board in touranment play. You may ask, why time a chess game? Why the pressure? Well, imagine the scene, this story actually did happen. Two GrandMasters (a title given to players who achieve great success in the game, it is the highest rank a player can earn) are playing a chess game. One casually moves his piece and then sinks into deep thought.

After 9 long hours of thought, a rather adgitated chessmaster stands up and says to the other, "Will you make a move??". Suddenly the other player jerks to life.

"Wha...?", he says, "I thought it was your move!".

After incidents like this, players felt it would be a good idea to time chess matches, to limit a player's time so as to make a set limit the game could last and to inject some life into a game. The rules are very simple, if you run out of time, you lose the game, it's that simple. You may see this as unfair, but player's know beforehand of the rules and thus must budget their time. Many methods were attempted of timing the match, sometimes two separate clocks were used until eventually the two were joined together to form the almighty chess clock. It is characterized by two puch buttons on the top of it, and two clock faces. Each clock runs when the other clock's button is depressed, when the opponent's move is played, he then hits the button on his clock which begins the timing of your clock and stops his own so each clock times each player's individual time used to avoid any confusion. I hope to soon get a picture of a chess clock for you to view.

Only serious enthusiasts should invest in a chess clock as they do run for a steep price: The cheapest run around 60 dollars Canadian.

The newest addition to the chess clock family is the digital clock, it features exact timing so you always know how much time you have to the second. They run for a slightly higher cost, starting at about 100 dollars.

The Nifty New Ways to Time a Chess Game

Well, as technology improves, some rather unique ways of timing a chess game have been added, here some of the most popular.

• Hourglass - Hourglass timing is a very unique way of timing, it works exactly as it's name implies. Every second you use in your time is added to your opponent's time. A very interesting strategy for fast paced hourglass games could be to use as little time as possible to cause your opponent time trouble. This timing isn't used very often, but can lead to fun games.
• Fischer - This timing is set so that you have a certain amount of time per game, while having a certain amount of "bonus time" received for every move that you make. I haven't played this one very much so I do not know any characteristics of this timing option.
• Seconds per Move - to keep the game running at a smooth pace, a seconds per move timing limits thinking time to a certain number of seconds which you may not go over. I'm not fond of this timing as getting into a difficult position leads to not much time to think. I like the idea of being able to budget your time.
• Blitz - Each side is allowed 5 minutes for hte entire game! This type of chess is mostly for recreation, however blitz tournaments are held often. This is probably the most fun form of chess but can really mess up your mind! :)

Well, this concludes the "extra rules" portion of the tutorial, please continue on to learn some strategy.

lucky individuals have learned how to play better chess since this page hit the web on 06/28/97.