CHECKMATE in 3 moves? What's your secret to winning FAST?

Question

I'm an average chess player wanting to get better. Thanks for the replies.

Answer 1

If you just focus on tricks and traps to try and win fast, you'll have no clue what to do in a game where your opponent doesn't fall for those. Of course, it's still good to know the most common traps so you don't fall for them, but don't think that'll help you win a lot of games.

Here's the advice I posted for someone else looking to improve their game, which should be useful to you, as well.

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The first thing you need to do is be sure you know all the rules. It sounds dumb, but are you positive you know all the details of castling, en passant pawn captures, and the touch move rule? A good beginner's book, such as The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess or Teach Yourself Chess in 24 Hours, is a good place to start. Those will also give you some history and basic strategy pointers, as well.

Next, you need to get good at tactics. Tactics are specific moves that will help you gain an advantage, as opposed to strategy, which is more long term ideas. Having a long term goal of controlling the center of the board or attacking on one side won't help you much if you overlook a specific move that allows your opponent to win your queen. So study tactics before strategy.

The best way to practice tactics, besides just playing a lot, is to get a good book of chess puzzles. There are many out there, so I'd recommend going to a book store and looking through some of them. Go with an easy one first, and just go through the whole book several times, until you can spot the solutions instantly. The goal here is to be able to spot common tactical motifs INSTANTLY every time they come up in your games. Just being able to see them after looking for a minute or two isn't good enough when you're playing a game with a time limit. So repetition is key. Work your way up to harder books, and apply the same method to studying all of them - go through them over and over until you can spot every solution instantly.

The other key is practice, practice, practice. Don't fall into the common trap of thinking that you can get better just by reading lots of books. I had that problem. I like doing puzzles more than playing, I think, but I know that I should spend roughly equal amounts of time on both if I really want to improve. Also, be sure to review the moves of your games afterwards to see what you did wrong and how you can do better. Get better players to help review them with you and give you advice on your moves. If you don't know any better players who can do this, post your games to chess discussion groups on the internet (or here!) and ask for analysis.

Once you get good at tactics, endgames should be your next area of study, before moving on to openings and middle game strategy.

Also, if you're serious about improving, play on a really good online site like FICS (freechess.org) instead of something cheesy like Yahoo! Games. No offense to those who play on Yahoo, but there are just a lot of very immature people there, and the interface really isn't very good.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Answer 2

Fast Checkmate Moves

Answer 3

Either black or white can checkmate in 3 moves, as long as the opponent makes the exact wrong moves as follows: (white plays first, second move is for black) 1. e4 f6 2. d4 g5 (white is taking the center) 3. Qh5# (checkmate). White could be mated too, this way: 1. f4 e6 2. g4 Qh4# (IN TWO MOVES FOR BLACK). Buy a book on Openings or a book on intro to chess and you´ll find a lot of these checkmates (they are all called FOOL´S MATE). John Pittsburgh

Answer 4

Okay. You're probably referring to the scholars mate (1. e4 e5 2.Qh5? Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5?? 4 Q x f7#) It's cheap, easily thwarted, and I throw fits every time one of my students tries to use it.

If you like to play, you eventually like winning, and if you like winning, you want to be able to do so effectively, and learn how to do it fast.

One does not need to study their whole life to reach an expert/master level of play.

Anyways, I consider myself a fairly fast player. Most of my games are decided within 30 moves and its tactically oriented. I know other people who work on endgame technique and stategy and the games can be fairly lengthy that way.

If you like fast games and fireworks, here are a few pointers:

Learn gambits. A gambit is an opening where a pawn or even to is sacraficed for developmental purposes. The faster one can get their pieces into play, the faster tactics and combinations will show up. I reccomend the Scotch, Goering, the Danish if you wan to be really agressive, The smith morra againist the sicillian, and the Benko against queen pawn as black. You can even look these up in Wikipedia! Give them a try. They're loads of fun. BTW, when studying openings, know the IDEAS and NOT the MOVES. Memorizing moves is a waste of time. And practice them alot against different people.

The next thing I'd reccomend is to study combinations. Combinations are critical in competive chess play. You can get books on these, check the internet (my favorite site is the chess tactics server on http://chess.emrald.net )

There are several other ways to improve your game, but here are two that will lead to faster play. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

Good luck!

Answer 5

To win that fast, you must play against a really really bad opponent.

Against a decent player, you won't be able to win in less than 10-20 moves.
To get better, just keep playing against people at your own level or higher, learning from your mistakes.

Answer 6

Quickest game is fools mate

1. e4 f6 2. Nc3 g5 3. Qh5#
{White mates} 1-0

Learn chess traps and gambits and then you will win fast. Most good players are familiar with traps but will get caught in one every so often

Answer 7

not four, two it is possible to chemate in two

HOWEVER to improve, I do consider my self a decent player, 2nd at my high school tournament. You play only against people that will demolish you. You will then learn their tactics and develope your defenses against them. of course, this metheod makes you a more defense player. However you will get so much better if you be observant and play against people that will beat you

Answer 8

I think the minimum required is actually 4 moves.