Play Free Chess Games to Keep Your Mind Fresh

There are websites where you can play free chess games online. On some you can play chess against the computer using a java chess applet or a flash chess program.
Everybody gets older. Learn how to play chess. This will enrich and add a new dimension to your life. Researchers recommended if you get older to play chess to keep the braincells activated. They say it may even avoid some mental diseases.
To play Chess forces you to stay mentally alert as the game confronts the mind with lots of problems to be solved. The mind is constantly searching, elaborating, questioning and weighting options to find the solution to the actual problem. The problem is to find the best move in a particular chess position that you have in your game and this position is changing all the time.

Playing Chess games changes your thinking pattern. Chess creates a thinking pattern that breeds success in other aspects of life. The pressure in a game of chess forces complete concentration as you don't want to lose.
In general Chess creates an environment of learning and the wish to improve. Every real chess player wants to get better and is willing to learn more chess variations and chess principles. This attitude carries over to real life situations.
Improve Focus and Concentration. Chess focuses your mind and you learn to concentrate and to play carefully. Visualization and Calculation abilities are getting better. The power to visualize improves as a chess player is forced to move the chess pieces in his mind first, before making the actual move on the board. While playing, he is forced to look ahead and visualize countless variations on and on during the game to avoid running into a trap or making an inferior move that loses outright.
Real passionate chess players are annoyed quite easily when they make a fatal blunder. To avoid this, they try very hard to avoid errors and recalculate variations over and over before they finally execute the move. Be patient! Chess requires patience and thoughtfulness. To succeed you have to identify alternatives and consider the pros and cons of various variations. Concrete Analysis is necessary in evaluating chess positions. Chess teaches you to evaluate the results of specific moves. This carries over to real life situations. Does this action help me or hurt me? Your decisions will be guided by logic and not so much on impulse.
It's like in real life. In your chess games you develop ideas and plans and compare them to find a concept that works. Patterns are used and compared to different related situations. You should develop a long range goal that leads to success.

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Learning Tactical Chess Against Computer Opponents

Can anything really be learned by having a student play chess against computer opponents? Many people believe that playing chess is a purely human skill. After all, the ability to formulate a plan and execute it against thinking opposition is one of the primary markers that defines us as human, or Homo Sapiens. The problem with this idea is that the top chess grandmaster in the world (Gary Kasparov) was beaten by a computer several years ago. The idea that computers have nothing to teach us about chess is quite wrong. While computer chess programs have as yet quite poor strategic thinking, they do excel in tactical awareness. Playing strength in chess is determined by many things but at the lower end of the spectrum it is largely dictated by two factors only - tactical awareness and avoiding blunders. Of course knowledge of opening theory plays a role but please note that I do not here say that opening knowledge is important - opening knowledge is a different thing altogether. Far too many beginners spend too long attempting to memorise openings by rote with little understanding of why the pieces should be moved in a particular fashion already.

If a beginner develops sound tactical awareness and avoids blunders they will grow in strength rapidly.

Providing a beginner has knowledge of basic chess tactics such as pins, skewers, overloading and so on, then a chess program can teach them to improve and develop this aspect of their game in a rapidly increasing manner. Some programs will show pieces under threat whilst playing in tutorial mode, others will allow takes back of poor moves or open a window where an electronic coach will offer "hints" to the player so they can avoid a poor move and so on.

The really great thing about a chess computer though is that it can often be set to play at a particular level of ability and will play like that relentlessly. If the machine is set to play slightly stronger (roughly 100-200 Elo) than the player then it is still possible for the player to win, but only if they concentrate and avoid blunders. This will focus the mind wonderfully and it will also instruct the player rapidly as they will always be playing against stronger opposition.
Overall a chess computer can be an exceptionally useful instructional tool, but only if applied in the correct fashion. So, is it possible to improve tactical understanding by playing chess against computer opponents?

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