How Good Will You Do in this Chess Aptitude Quiz?

Jonathan Levitt, a GM with a great number of experience in chess under his belt, created what I think is one of the most useful "self-tests" to evaluate chess skill. This test is explained in the book, "Genius in Chess."

Prior to taking the quiz, you would have to understand the notations used in chess. If you know about chess notations, you can skip this part and just go to the test itself. If you observe the chessboard, it has eight columns and eight rows. Algebraic chess notation is commonly used to identify each row and column of the chessboard. Lowercase letters "a" to "h" are used to identify the columns beginning from white's leftmost column. Therefore, "a" is white's left column and black's right column. The rows are identified from "1" to "8" starting from white's side. So "1" is white's bottom row and black's topmost row. Each square, which is an intersection of a row and column, is designated by a unique blend of a letter and a number. The bottom leftmost square of the white player would then be designated as "a1" and black's bottom leftmost square is "h8." You can get a better view by logging into the website mentioned above.

Let me illustrate to you the exam:

The test requires some sort of clock, a chessboard, 1 white knight, and 1 black queen.

Place the knight on b1. The queen is placed on d4. The white knight has to traverse all the way around the board, visiting the squares in this sequence: c1, e1, f1, h1, a2, c2, e2, g2, h2,…,g8. There are squares like h8 that can't be visited because the black queen controls it. During the exam you can't move the queen, and you can't put the knight en prise at any point.

It's all right to move to the squares in the list in any order, but only if you are using them to move from one square to another, for example, c1 to e1. Nonetheless, the black knight still needs to go back to the initial sequence. The exam is time-critical and has to be completed only once. Jonathan Levitt considers anyone who can complete the test in less than ten minutes has "real chess talent."

Immense concentration, a know-how of the algebraic notation, and the motivation to be successful are some of the things you need to finish the exam at improved rate. As they say, the first step is always the hardest.

The solution to the exam and the outcome of the quiz taken by some of the finest chess players are shown in the resources link of my chess tips site.

Get a break and try this!

You don't have to worry if it takes you more than ten minutes to finish the quiz. bear in mind, it's not about memorizing the moves but to be able to analyze your move.

It's going to be trouble for you if you just memorize the chess moves and not learn to have a strategy of your own. Real chess talent is not about memorizing moves and tactics but about strategy. Spatial aptitude is also something that this test needs. Both of these skills are learned from experience on the board, excellent coaching, and regular study.

Bio: Chad Kimball started playing chess at a very young age. He is presently an editor and publisher of chess books. He publishes his chess books online. He also teaches courses on chess online. Because of him, we have "The Grandmaster Strategy Video Training Library." This is a very helpful resource found online.

This set of twenty-nine training videos and 14 training books contains hours of teachings, and 2,213 pages of winning strategies in chess for the price of 1 chess tips book at the bookstore. These twenty-nine videos enable you to boldy defeat your opponent. You can click here for more information about this valuabe chess game resource site.