The Finegold Rules
Graciously forwarded by Coach B, and approved by Ben Finegold himself (Coach B is from Michigan and plays Finegold periodically, I believe). Thanks guys for letting me post this.
If you follow these rules you will never lose. Kasparov lost to Kramnik only because he broke three of these Rules. Recall that principles in chess are exceptionless universal laws and you should never consider violating them. Watson calls this the Principle of Rule Dependence, I believe, and has been a crusader for Rule Dependence for many years.
So, with that caveat, enjoy this wonderful list of rules. Speaking seriously, there are some excellent heuristics here.
The Finegold Rules
1. Always play Bf1.
2. Never play f3.
3. Castle and avoid a hassle!
4. Take your time.
5. Be calm when you play chess.
6. When you play in a tournament, always get a LOT of sleep at night, and take a nap during the day for 20-40 minutes, if you have time.
7. A piece is worth 9 pawns.
8. Study chess EVERY day! Study tactical problems, openings you play, GM games. Study something!
9. Never offer or accept a draw. Fight like a man, and die like a dog!
10. Never trade!
11. ABC – Always be confident.
12. Never move pawns!
13. Always play Kb1.
14. Never sacrifice!
15. Always play a4 when they play b5. (Note the corollary – if …a4 play b5 - is not necessarily true)
16. Always repeat!
17. Never resign!
18. Queen + Bishop is better than Queen + Knight.
19. Never capture a pinned knight with your bishop before being provoked (ex – with Bg4 pinning Nf3 to Qd1, don’t play Bxf3 before h3)
20. Never play Rg8.
21. Never play g3 if you can’t fianchetto.
22. Never Check!
23. Never play Bd2
If you follow these rules you will never lose. Kasparov lost to Kramnik only because he broke three of these Rules. Recall that principles in chess are exceptionless universal laws and you should never consider violating them. Watson calls this the Principle of Rule Dependence, I believe, and has been a crusader for Rule Dependence for many years.
So, with that caveat, enjoy this wonderful list of rules. Speaking seriously, there are some excellent heuristics here.
The Finegold Rules
1. Always play Bf1.
2. Never play f3.
3. Castle and avoid a hassle!
4. Take your time.
5. Be calm when you play chess.
6. When you play in a tournament, always get a LOT of sleep at night, and take a nap during the day for 20-40 minutes, if you have time.
7. A piece is worth 9 pawns.
8. Study chess EVERY day! Study tactical problems, openings you play, GM games. Study something!
9. Never offer or accept a draw. Fight like a man, and die like a dog!
10. Never trade!
11. ABC – Always be confident.
12. Never move pawns!
13. Always play Kb1.
14. Never sacrifice!
15. Always play a4 when they play b5. (Note the corollary – if …a4 play b5 - is not necessarily true)
16. Always repeat!
17. Never resign!
18. Queen + Bishop is better than Queen + Knight.
19. Never capture a pinned knight with your bishop before being provoked (ex – with Bg4 pinning Nf3 to Qd1, don’t play Bxf3 before h3)
20. Never play Rg8.
21. Never play g3 if you can’t fianchetto.
22. Never Check!
23. Never play Bd2
posted by Blue Devil Knight at 4/28/2009 09:41:00 AM
15 Comments:
"1. Always play Bf1."
Why develop the B on f1 at all then?
"4. Take your time.
5. Be calm when you play chess.
6. When you play in a tournament, always get a LOT of sleep at night, and take a nap during the day for 20-40 minutes, if you have time."
Intresting but just advise. Except maybe for the nap.
"8. Study chess EVERY day! Study tactical problems, openings you play, GM games. Study something!"
So the ICS course is a good start.
"9. Never offer or accept a draw. Fight like a man, and die like a dog!"
Women will find this rule sexist. As if only men can die like a dog.
"18. Queen + Bishop is better than Queen + Knight."
I believe ICS course also mentions this.
Tiger: Women are nastier. We'll fight like cats with claws bared. If we lose we'll do what any self respecting cat would do, swish her tail with a bored look, walk off and say "next time, if I so desire. " :-)
9.to most women, aren't men dogs anyway?
I think we are on the right track with the ICC.
Hey....
Didn't you got to a tournament recently?
So what's the deal, how'd it go?
Wang: awful. I'll probably write about it eventually.
I should say it was awful, but I did gain like 5 rating points. :)
Also good is that I have done some postmortems and hopefully learned from them, and I haven't yet gone over the games with a stronger player. That should be even better.
I plan on playing in another tournament this coming weekend. We'll see how it goes.
PPS I'm writing less here, more at the ICS Forum. I am finding the idea of blogging to be a block to chess improvement to some degree, as everything I have to say I am saying at the forum now.
But I still will likely do a couple of posts on Rowson's book, and updates on the ICS course as I actually get inside of it a bit more thoroughly.
ICS forum? You mean I have to subscribe and pay a fee to get your views now?
Phooey!
Learn Free or Die! ( Wait, I'm too close to New Hampshire)
BP: Nope. The forum is free and open to everyone. Perhaps your confusion is from the fact that the ICS Chess Course costs money. The forum, which I started and have been talking about for about a month now, is not sanctioned by the ICS.
Castling Queenside has been hanging out there, and some others who are not doing the ICS course.
Writing one post introducing myself hardly qualifies as hanging out. :-) However if keep playing such crappy openings, I may have t break down and jump on the opening modules.
Polly: lol. I figure if people think you are there, all the people will join.
In that light, because of Polly, I too am now "hanging" out there!
It's sort of lonely there without my blog buddies...
Sorry I blew your cover. I guess I'll have to show my face over there more and put my 2 cents in. Though I have like 3 different things I want to post about. NO TIME TO WRITE!!!
LOL the word verification was ritin. Reading, ritin & rithmatic. Or maybe ritalin?
know when to resign and not be an asshole
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