Tournament Chess Set Triple Weighted – As per USCF
I received this neat chess set from a friend who lives in the US and I must say I have treasured it more than the wooden chess boards (that I collected from Kolkata at a discounted price after a GM tournament was over). So much so I am waiting for some more sets that can be used in my training academy. I am talking about the Tournament Chess Set Triple Weighted chess combination.
What is a tournament chess set?
The tournament chess set for tournament play is available with different specifications to keep in mind.
The United States Chess Federation (USCF) specifies that the square size should be anywhere from 2 inches to 2.5 inches.
The King’s height around 3.375 inches to 4.5 inches.
The standard USCF tournament set has 2.25-inch squares and a king’s height of 3.75 inches though you do get 2.5 inches, square-sized boards, too.
It also depends on the country you are playing in.
For example – as per FIDE (International Chess Federation) each square size for competitive play should be between 5 cm to 6 cm (1.97 inches to 2.36 inches), with a king height of 9.5 cm (3.74 inches).
Did you know?
There is a special relationship between the diameter of the King’s base and the square size on which the King stands.
The base diameter should be roughly 80% of the size of the square.
It is this ratio that dictates whether a chessboard and pieces combination has the proper matching parameters.
This makes sure that the pieces are properly spaced.
How big is a tournament chess set
One test you can perform to see if your board has the proper dimensions is to see if you can fit two pawns in one square. This should be possible with most tournament sets.
This means the typical size of the Chessboard would be around 20 to 24 inches including the border.
Where to buy a tournament chess set?
If you’re looking for an affordable, high-quality chess set of weighted plastic Chessmen, look no further than this one – Tournament Chess Set Triple Weighted.
These combos are ideal for schools, chess clubs, and academies as they are quite sturdy. I just order a few sets whenever someone comes from the US.
Our students using the Tournament chess sets in our academy (Golden Chess Centre)
It comes with everything you need to play to play serious Chess!
It comes with a full set of Triple-Weighted Regulation Plastic Chess Pieces, a Quiver Chess Bag, and a Regulation Vinyl Chess Board.
Complete set of 34 pieces – Includes two additional queens for pawn promotion!
Manufactured out of plastic and are meant to withstand the toughest abuse.
Triple weighted for improved stability and performance.
Vinyl Tournament Chessboard (2.25″ Squares)
Features rank and file labels on all four sides – ideal for beginners!
Manufactured out of high-grade vinyl and will resist dirt, tearing, and spills
Rolls up into a tight tube shape for easy transport
Quiver Chess Bag
21″ x 6″ in size (flat)
Easy to open/close zipper secures the chess pieces during transport.
Large enough to hold all of your chess pieces, rolled-up vinyl chessboard, and other small items.
Features an adjustable shoulder strap for easy transport.
Manufactured out of high-grade canvas and will resist dirt, tearing, and spills.
What is meant by Triple weighted?
A triple-weighted piece would have three weights inside the piece that make them heavier to play with.
The basic pieces are hollowplastic with felt on the bottom. These will not stand if there is a breeze while playing out in the open.
Superior quality pieces are fully plastic, meaning they’re slightly heavier than the hollow basic pieces.
The Heavy Tournament pieces (Quadruple weighted chess sets are nothing but the basic pieces with metal filings or weights in them.
When I asked a few Grandmasters about their taste, they seem to prefer medium-weighted pieces.
Maybe they became used to the weight of the standard tournament sets of today.
This is usually the DGT set, used in just about any FIDE rated tournament for quite some time.
This means you can crumple it, roll it, press it in your hand – and when you put it on the table it will fall straight and flat without any sign of crease or wrinkles.
These boards are stretchable in addition to being very crease-resistant.
And you can wash them clean using water and soap.
I have found this board is quite thick, sturdy, and can handle any abuse.
It comes with a non-slip surface which means the pieces do not slip easily.
This may be a let-down for those who like to slide their pieces but that is just a very minor irritant.
This board is best suited for serious classical time control chess which is where I do all my online training.
Now that you are about to buy a tournament chess set, why not take online chess classes from a professional coach and take pleasure in beating other chess players?
Classes can be scheduled as per your convenience and level.
There is always a dearth of quality chess material for training once you climb up the ELO ladder. When my students join they are raw beginners but later I find it difficult to set them challenging tasks as they slowly master the techniques. And therefore I keep looking out for new avenues for training them with. Today I have a reason to be thrilled. I have seen Dvoretsky’s latest book on the art of prophylaxis that seems to have come after a long hiatus. Dvoretsky’s latest book on the art of prophylaxis is something that most of chess books have been lacking and that isRecognizing Your Opponent’s Resources: Developing Preventive Thinkingwhich is by the way the title of Dvoretsky’s new book.
Victor Kortchnoi once said with great insight –If you do not check what your opponent is doing, you will end up complaining about bad luck after every game.
So understanding your opponent’s next move could be or what agenda he is trying to accomplish, is one of the most important core skills required climb up the ELO ladder. It is what makes a difference between a good chess player and a strong chess master.
The reason why many students stagnate is because they are aware of most of the direct methods of attack and will thrive in many a tactical melee, but give them a position where they are at the receiving end of the opponents’ blows, or where the tactics are not yet present on the board, they will be all at sea.
What is special about Dvoretsky’s latest book on the art of prophylaxis ?
What is prophylaxis in chess?
I have a 1200 player who attacks ferociously with tactical claws that will tear any ripe position apart. One day when we played a game that was steered into positional waters, he was stuck for 2 hours in getting the best move! I had to reset the clock many times as he was floundering for a move and in exasperation he asked me (after having reset the clock for the 4th time) – “What is the move I must play here, Master?” – to which all I could say was “I think your best move is to resign as I myself do not know how you are going to disentangle from your mess”.
That is the power of prophylactic thinking for you.*
Dvoretsky is known for advocating the art of prophylaxis as a key to mastery in the higher levels of chess playing arena. To put it in his own words (Secrets of positional play), Prophylaxis or prophylactic thinking is “the habit of constantly asking yourself what the opponent wants to do, what he would play if it were him to move, the ability to find an answer to this question and to take account of it in the process of coming to a decision.”
Dvoretsky is very famous for his classical books that are considered as must-read for those beyond 2000 ELO upto 2400 ELO. In this book, Dvoretsky embarks on a classical but neglected training on this theme, with high-quality training material for independent analysis.
Contents of the book – on the subtle art of prophylaxis
Each chapter has a introductory theoretical section followed by plenty of exercises, from easy to difficult. Each chapter begins with a small explanation on the chapter’s theme, and this is followed by positions for solving with their solutions.
This book consists of four chapters, all dealing with identifying what your opponent’s next move or moves could be. They are:
Pay Attention to Your Opponent’s Resources (180 problems).
The Process of Elimination (106 problems).
Traps (36 problems)
Prophylactic Thinking (154 problems)
To summarize –
The best part is that among the approximately 500 exercises, there are opening, middlegame and endgame positions. This provides you with challenges in searching for a move and calculating variations as per the given pointers, that will help you at any stage of the game, be it the opening or the middlegame or the Endgame scenario.
The crux of the book is the solutions offered for the training position which are very detailed, as is typically expected of Dvoretsky’s work. Throughout the book, the author guides us by leading us through the schematic thinking for a solution in each position, to show how a player can come to the right choice of move at the board.
Recognizing Your Opponent’s Resources is a must buy as it comes from the master himself. I suggest going through this book with your student if you are a Coach or Trainer – this will open up a few hidden insights in his/her chess brain.
*I keep harping on positional play many times and prophylaxis is my main forte while playing with some upstart students, as it is a complex concept. And whenever they start watering in the mouth with an upcoming tactical warfare and an impending win over me, I pull the plug, and play positionally to get the grip back. That way I enjoy the looks on their face when they hit a wall. This actually makes them understand that tactics has to coupled with positional concepts for chess mastery.
Order Dvoretsky’s latest book on the art of prophylaxis from the Bookdepository if you are in the UK.
It’s a known fact that has been stressed for a long time. Chess is 99% Tactics! And that is the theme of today’s Review: Tactics Time! 1001 Chess Tactics. Tactics Time! 1001 Chess Tactics from the Games of Everyday Chess Player is different from other regular tactic chess books, in that the positions are all taken from everyday amateur games.
You just need to find a tactical solution, without any hints whatsoever.
Some positions are dead easy, while some are really difficult.
What appealed to me about this book is that each and every position is typical of problems that the majority of the chess players are likely to face (in the weekend local tournaments or clubs).
Who is this book Tactics Time! 1001 Chess Tactics aimed at?
Tactics Time! 1001 Chess Tactics from the Games of Everyday Chess Players
One caveat though – this book is not for the rank beginners, since the problems are not arranged by any theme and the answers can be difficult and lengthy for them.
So if you are probably somewhere in the range of ELO 1000 – 1600, solving this book’s puzzles every day should help in your gameplay as they will simulate a real chess game.
This training method is best suited for the serious beginner and helps as a daily warm-up course. If you are using the Kindle version use it while commuting or waiting.
I know this sounds a bit difficult to understand as the usual perception is that the harder the problem the better the result. Trust me, it’s crucially important to master BASIC tactics.
It doesn’t matter if you can solve most of the 4-5 mover tactics if you are regularly missing on the smaller 1 and 2 movers. I hope this explains why people stagnate for years despite doing hard work studying tactics daily. You must burn in the basic patterns into your subconscious mind, so it doesn’t even require any thought.
In the well-optimized Kindle version, you get one problem per page with the answer seen on the next page. This helps to keep the answer hidden from prying eyes. If the answer is not possible just flip the page!
Pros of this book:
Contains a huge number of chess positions (1001 to be precise)
Diagrams are clear and easy to view
Problems are not too hard just apt for post-beginners.
Problems are taken from real games and are not composed.
Each position has additional meta info like players names, ratings, date of the game, etc
Puzzles in this book are from many sources like blitz, correspondence, rated USCF games, weekend tournaments, scholastic tournaments, etc
Solutions are easily understood.
Affordable price.
If you are a Kindle owner, you’ll love it as it is specifically for Kindle with problem and solutions on an alternate page
A random mix of tactical themes (pins, forks, skewers, double attacks, etc)
Cons of this book:
Has no grading of tactical themes.
Not apt for higher levels as the positions may be easy for them.
Affiliate Disclosure Note: The links on this page are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at absolutely no extra cost to you
Question: Hi Coach @GoldenChess! I’m a newbie in the chess scene and am from Madipakkam (near Nanganallur) in Chennai. I have a problem and that is – Chess Openings – how to study – for beginners especially. The doubt is: should I study all the major openings and if so which ones do I have to study as priority?
To be more specific, my concern is – I am very familiar about the Sicilian but after 1. e4 if my opponents do not play any Sicilian line but takes me into an unknown territory that I can’t manage, what must I do ?
Do I have to study all the openings in this case ?
Last week somebody advised me that I have to study the openings that fit my playing style. What is your take on this?
Thanks for all you tips! – Aadhithya (age 15)
HiAadhithya – First of all, I guess that your question is basically about building your White repertoire. In the long run, if you are serious about improving your chess, the answer is – yes! Hard work does pay. For example – you may start with 1.d4 and play the Colle system – or the Sicilian Grand Prix with 1.e4 as white. But there is every possibility that you will soon feel bored with that opening.
Chess Openings – how to study – for beginners (or how not to study!)
What openings you choose is up to you, and depends on your goals in chess and your personal tastes. So if you are already rated 1800 or thereabouts, you can pick theoretical lines to build your repertoire and polish it everyday.
However if you are lower rated – you said you are a newbie so I assume you are a post-beginner – then you need to only understand and remember the major lines in a selective set of openings and more importantly, improve your middlegame understanding.
Try completing the combination books selected from this link from Amazon.
Note however that you will not have a ‘style‘ of play until you have a quite decent understanding of the game by which I mean 2200 elo rating.
Until then you don’t have a style – what you have is a collection of responses and weaknesses.
So in summary –
Study only the important openings that you will play and encounter and choose the 4 or 5 common variations of that opening, to begin with by reading books by the great Grandmaster of the past (I have listed some suggestions below).
Play them regularly with friends or at online chess playing sites such as Chesscube.com, Chess.com, ICC or Playchess (ChessBase).
Try playing with chess software like Lucas Chess (read a good review here)
Don’t hesitate to change openings if you feel you are not enjoying it.
Don’t waste your time on off-beat openings that are not important, you are not a master yet and
I suggest to really master tactics by doing them daily on a real chess board rather than openings for your age and level because you will lose mainly by tactics and not because of the minimal advantage that was gained by that uncommon variation.
Book Suggestions: I suggest you to get a few books that are a collection of GM games annotated by the Grandmaster himself and go through them with your coach or another player who is stronger than you.
I have avoided providing the latest Grandmaster’s book list as the above list of older books gives a good understanding of an opening’s evolution. These books will discuss about the opening plans and ideas and that will be a good foothold to begin with. I hope I have answered your question on Chess Openings – how to study – for beginners
Once a grasp of these ideas are absorbed in place, we can then continue our learning with the later day Grandmaster’s books such as those by Shirov, Anand, Gelfand, Karpov and Kasparov.
Additionally, I would request you to share some of your OTB (On the Board) games or online games to make this discussion more meaningful.
Do drop in at Golden Chess Centreat Nanganallur (Chennai) and we will see how to guide you in your self study.For others who have found my suggestions useful why not visit my Facebook page and follow it by liking it so that you can be notified for more such articles like this?
Note: The links in this page are affiliate links which means I earn a small commission from any purchases. Prices are exactly the same for you if your purchase is through an affiliate link or a non-affiliate link. You will not pay more by clicking through to the link.
Chess in the Digital Age is an enchanting 356 pages guide that explains almost all aspects of using ChessBase.
Let us start with the basics first.
What is ChessBase?
ChessBase is an amazing chess database software mainly used by top professionals and by amateurs. It has evolved constantly from a very basic chess data reference tool to a full-blown chess database software.
Much like the Swiss knife of Chess
What is the book about?
For those who have been using the ChessBase Software (and I am pretty sure at least 75% of chess players around the world have used it at one point in time or the other) for straight forward game collections and annotations or for mundane tasks like viewing a game or playing a game online, this book will show what ChessBase software is actually capable of doing.
Here a small caveat – though the author has done a very good job explaining the key features with real-time case studies, it can by no means be labeled as ‘complete’. However, that does not take any credit away from the utility value of the book which is a path-breaking one.
Why this book?
I am sure most of you would have by now figured out a few basic functions in Chessbase, but a lot of the nerdy stuff features are not obvious unless you see them in the true perspective of results.
You may argue that there is a user-manual in the program as is the case with all software, and pretty much is explained in there, but it’s written more with an eye for technicality, than the utility point. The how is explained, but not the why and when and what if.
When one opens Chessbase it appears as a mysterious piece of software that appears easy to operate but you get a gut feeling that it has some secrets that are hidden deep inside waiting to be unraveled.
After going through this book you will realize that you have been actually right all along. There were many functions that you did not even have an inkling of.
In other words this book is like the hitch-hiker’s guide to the Chessbase galaxy!
How does the book deliver?
Showing hundreds of helpful screenshots from the program, Jon Edwards explains the following tasks with ChessBase:
Effective Opening preparation is de-mystified with suitable examples.
How to get a collection of important games in any opening, middlegame position type, or even endgame positions
How you can install and see what engines think about any given position.
How you can perform an analysis and see where you and your opponents erred.
How you can publish your games in a book or the web/Facebook
What about practical examples?
What the author Jon Edwards has done is to take pains explaining 14 general features (aptly called ‘scenarios’), such as training and teaching, position searches, opening preparation, playing on the Playchess server using ChessBase, etc, and explains clearly how to go about accomplishing these activities.
The fact is that this book is a ready-reckoner because Chessbase is one life-saving utility for 99% of today’s chess professionals.
Do we need to have the Chessbase software?
The book is full of screenshots, which are helpful so that the program need not be open in front of you (though that would be highly recommended) and he does not miss anything major.
So is Chess in the Digital Age a complete reference manual?
Though every little function is explained to the point, I should add that this book is not a complete reference manual. The author merely elucidates how he uses the various features of Chessbase for his specific purposes (scenarios).
That said however if you are a serious chess player, this book should be in your collection of essentials. And although the book was written with Chessbase 12 in mind, it still works with the latest release of Chessbase 16.
The only sore point in Chessbase Complete Chess in the Digital Age is that the images used in the book could have been good quality color images to better illustrate and engage the reader’s eye. Hence my half-star less in the rating. It has nothing to do with the content – which is 5 star!
The new ChessBase Reader conveniently displays all installed databases and training titles – with a modern menu ribbon look. With the free ChessBase reader, you can
Open all standard file formats (.cbh, .cbf, .pgn),
Play through games on a stunningly rendered board,
It is not possible to save a chess game in a database (.cbh or as a .pgn) in chessbase reader. You can use SCID Chess (free) to do this then transfer this .pgn into Chessbase Reader. Reader allows one to use Chessbase products for training but to analyse game I suggest using Arena or SCID.
I would also recommend ChessDB which is quite powerful for a free program with the ability to download from TWIC from within the program. Also import from a player’s ICC history is a good tool. You can hook up to UCI engines to assist your game analysis.
Most importantly you can save your games into a PGN database (but you cannot import Chessbase format). It has good search capabilities for a free program like player reports and search for games with exact position match. I will be explaining all that in a separate article.
