So You Want to Know How to Play Chess

If you want to know how to play chess, you're not alone.

A lot of people want to learn how to play, but they get very scared.

See, once you learn the rules and how each piece moves (which are fairly straightforward, by the way, and can be mastered by children) - there's a bit more to work on. There's nothing too hard, but for the sake of being thorough, here's everything you'll need to learn:

First off, it might take you a little bit of time to learn the pieces. There are a lot of them, and each of them have different roles.

Once you get that down, you need to figure out how to think a number of moves ahead of your opponent. That requires extreme focus and patience.

You also need to exhibit patience while waiting for your opponent to figure out his next move. Some people get very impatient at sitting and waiting for people to figure out what they think their best move is.

Beyond that, master chess masters have to learn detailed strategy and how to force checkmates or stalemates starts with medium difficulty and up.

(If this terminology is confusing you, don't worry - once you learn how to play chess, it'll be fine. And I assure you - it really isn't hard.)

The other thing is, there are thousands upon thousands of different moves and ways in which any chess game can go. It's not a game in which you can master a few moves and then effortlessly win every time.

There is great news, though. Like I said before, a lot of people want to learn how to play chess, so there are a lot of ways in which you can learn.

There are books, you can get a mentor, play chess online, get chess video games, and play through trial and error.

And once you do play often, you'll really improve not only your game, but your mind. Chess will help open up your mind and make you more intelligent. It's also one of the games in which you get a lot of respect if you're a good player.

So, although it may look difficult on the onset, there is a lot of value to come from it once you push through and persevere.

Chad Chesterson finally became a Chess master about four long years, and he's now passionate about teaching people how to play chess

Visit his site at HowToWinChess.com