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Take the Chess Aptitude Test and Know Your Score

Your chess talent will be tested with the self-test written by chess grandmaster Jonathan Levitt. The quiz depicted in this article is a portion of his book, "Genius in Chess."

Chess Notation

Before you take this exam, you first need to study the chessboard using algebraic notation. Veteran chess players can disregard the topic of chess notation and jump to the test. Algebraic chess notation utilizes numbers 1 through 8 in proportion to each of the chessboard's 8 rows starting from white's side. Counting from left to right of the white side, the columns are labeled with letters "a" to "h." Each square is labeled with a letter-number combination based on the intersection of the column and row that both contain the square. Thus, a8 is the designation of the upper leftmost square on white's side of the chessboard. My website which is indicated above contains a diagram showing h1 located on the top rightmost part of the chessboard.

You can visit my chess tips site. The website has a chessboard with the algebraic notation. The figure is found in the resources link at the bottom of the webpage.

What you need to get ready prior to taking the test include a chessboard, some sort of clock or timer, a white knight, and a black queen.

Objective

The purpose of the quiz is to move the knight to all the squares other than those where it can be caught by the queen.

Rules

What you need to do is to position the black queen on square d4 and the white knight on square b1. The order in which the knight has to move is c1, e1, f1, h1, a2, c2, e2, g2, h2, and so on until it reaches g8. There are times when the white knight can return to a previous square in order to get to a certain square.

You should do the test once only, although you might want to try this again only to determine how your speed will get better. According to the author, Jonathan Levitt, you have "real chess talent" if you can finish the test in ten minutes or less.

What may seem to be an easy quiz is actually a quiz of extreme concentration and perseverance, especially for the beginners. You have to think well on how the knight should move. Thus far, not all who had taken the exam was able to even get to c1.

The solution to this test and the results of several of the finest chess players are in the resources link of my chess tips site.

So I guess it is now time to get up, pick up your chessboard, and give this exam an attempt. As the saying goes, there's no harm in trying.

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

Some people, especially beginners, are tempted to memorize the moves. They are merely taking the test for the heck of it and not to really learn chess. You have to have a plan to have a real chess aptitude. Playing chess is about strategy and how well you adapt. As in every game or sports, you need to learn from experience and practice, practice, practice.

Bio: Chad Kimball has been playing chess even as a small boy. Besides playing chess, he has written, edited, and published chess books. His books are published on the Internet. He also offers chess courses on the Internet. One of his greatest achievement is the online resource, "The Grandmaster Strategy Video Training Library." This is a very helpful resource found on the Internet.

This video training set has twenty-nine training videos and fourteen training e-books that have a total of 2,213 pages of first-class winning strategies. You can obtain all these just for the price of a single chess book that you can buy at your local bookstore. The sure way to learn chess and defeat your challenger is at your fingertips. You can learn more information found in the chess game resource site