Chess Exam: How Much Will You Score?

Your skills will be tested with the self-test written by chess grandmaster Jonathan Levitt. You can learn more about this quiz in his book, "Genius in Chess."

Prior to taking the test, you first need to understand the chessboard using algebraic notation. Veteran chess players can skip the topic of chess notation and just go to the test. Algebraic chess notation uses numbers one through eight in proportion to each of the 8 rows of the chessboard starting from white's side. Each column is assigned a letter from a through h, beginning from left to right from white's side. Every square, which is an intersection of a row and a column, is described by both a letter and a number. If you are on the side of the white player, the uppermost square, farthest to the right, is h8. My website which I have mentioned above contains a figure illustrating h1 as the square on the upper rightmost part of the chessboard.

Kindly visit my chess tips site. You can see a typical square checkered chessboard with the algebraic notation. The diagram is located in the resources link at the bottom of the webpage.

Now let me to explain the quiz:

The quiz involves some sort of clock, a chessboard, 1 white knight, and one black queen.

The knight is positioned on b1. The black queen is positioned on d4. Every square needs to be visited by the knight going in this order: c1, e1, f1, h1, a2, c2, e2, g2, h2, and so on until g8. The white knight won't be able to get to h8 because it is controlled by the black queen. While completing the exam you cannot move the queen, and you can't put the white knight en prise at any point.

It isIt's all right to visit the squares in the list out of sequence, as long as you are using them to get from one square to another, for example, c1 to e1. Nonetheless, the black knight still needs to return to the original order. Only do the quiz once, and clock yourself. Anybody who can complete the quiz in ten minutes or less on their first try reveals, according to Levitt, "real chess talent."

Unwavering attention and the will to learn is what is needed to pass the quiz. You have to prepare well on how the knight should move. Not all of the players who took the test made it passed c1.

The solution to the exam and the results of several of the finest players of chess are shown in the resources link of my chess game strategies site.

Now that you know what the exam is, why not give it a try? You do want to assess yourself on how great you really are at chess, right?

You don't have to be discouraged if you end up finishing the quiz after the ten-minute mark. Mastering the test takes intense planning and not memorizing the moves.

I know there are those who would just memorize the moves in chess. They are simply taking the exam for the heck of it and not to really learn chess. Real chess aptitude is determined only if you plan your move. Playing chess is about strategy and how good you adapt. Like in every game or sports, you have to learn from experience and practice, practice, practice.

Bio: Chad Kimball started playing chess at an incredibly young age. Other than playing chess, he has written, edited, and published chess books. He publishes his chess books on the Internet. He also teaches courses on chess via the Internet. He is the reason why we have "The Grandmaster Strategy Video Training Library." Several chess webpages have offered this exciting online resource.

This video training library contains twenty-nine training videos and fourteen training e-books that contain a total of 2,213 pages of top notch winning strategies. You can get all these just for the price of one chess book that you can purchase at your local bookstore. Beating any opponent on the chessboard is just a few clicks away. Learn more about this amazing training set at the chess game resource site.