Welcome readers, to my tenth post. As I promised you, I've gathered some blogging statistics. Now that I've reached the magic double-digits, it's interesting to find out how many blogs actually make it.
I was unable to find an average post count, but I did find some interesting statistics. Statistic number one:
Several studies indicate that most blogs are abandoned soon after creation (with 60% to 80% abandoned within one month, depending on whose figures you choose to believe) and that few are regularly updated.
Statistic number two:
The Perseus report noted above indicates that 66.0% of surveyed blogs had not been updated in two months, "representing 2.72 million blogs that have been either permanently or temporarily abandoned.
And statistic number three:
Apparently the blog-hosting services have made it so easy to create a blog that many tire-kickers feel no commitment to continuing the blog they initiate. In fact, 1.09 million blogs were one-day wonders, with no postings on subsequent days.
Last but not least, number four.
the percentage of active blogs compared to the total number of blogs tracked by Technorati was declining, down from 36.71% in May 2006 to 20.93% in March 2007.
Thus we can assume from these facts:
a) 81% of blogs are inactive.
b) 30% of blogs have only one post.
c) 1-21% of inactive blogs have lasted more than a month.
So on a ranking based system, we have 100 blogs. Here are the statistics.
1-30: Single post.
31-60: Abandoned within a month.
61-81: Inactive
82-97: Active, less than a year old.
98-100: Active, more than a year old.
Just by being an active blog, my blog is in the top 20% of blogs for activity. However, since I update several times a week, I'd say I have a very active blog.
Now, welcome to A Novice's Guide to Chess: Part 2! If you don't like Chess, than just skim down: there's more to the post (this is a big one, to celebrate post number 10.)
Dozens of matches I've played have involved a not-so-experienced player make a bad opening move. I win most of those games. Why? The opening is important because of something called 'tempo.' Hopefully you've played a couple of games, because if you haven't, it might be harder to follow what I'm about to say.
White goes first, thus making a move. Black is then forced to respond to this move. Then White makes a move. And so on. White is always ONE MOVE AHEAD. This is tempo. But what would have happened if White had made a bad move? One that Black could just think 'I don't have to deal with that'? Black could make his own opening. WHOEVER CONTROLS THE OPENING CONTROLS HOW THE GAME PLAYS, and that is White's strength.
But how, you ask, do i AVOID making these bad moves? Through some simple principles. Will you teach me, you say? Of course!
1. If your opponent makes a bad move, play normally. Usually, if an opponent does something stupid in the opening, play as you normally would. Instead of being thrown off, you have gained the advantage.
2. Develop toward the centre. I cannot stress this enough. 98% of chess openings start as either 1.e4 or 1.d4. The other 2% are 1.c4 or 1.f4. Developing towards the centre is what matters. If you are White, control the centre. If you are Black, challenge it! The centre is the heart of the board, and if you control it, you almost certainly control the game.
3. Move pawns two squares. You will almost always want to move 2 squares on your first move with a pawn, unless you have a very good reason not to.
4. Develop pieces. Remember our guide to piece value? Develop in that order. Get your central pawns out, then knights, then bishops, then rook. Only then should you release your queen.
There's more to openings, but this is most of it. From now on, I intend to give an example, using an actual game of chess notation, for each scenario, explaining the moves as I go. So go and get a chessboard. Go on, I'll wait. ... ... ... Got it? Great. If you need to, go back and read the first section on Chess Notation. Now, on to the example.
Example 1: Good vs. Good. Here we assume both players are reasonably competent.
1. e4. e5. White moves to e4, immediately challenging the centre. Black moves to e5, stopping the pawn moving further and contesting the centre.
2. Nf3. Nc6. White moves his Knight, threatening the centre and Black's pawn. Black's move defends his pawn and contests again.
3. Nc3. Nf6. There are several options here. The daring Be2 attacks the Knight just played, but to keep it simple, we'll go with the safe option.
4. d4. e5xd4. Now things get interesting! We'll talk about this in detail in a later section, but for now, remember this rule. If you want to attack a piece, count how many pieces attack it's square, and how many defend. If the number of attackers is greater than (NOT equal to) the defenders, it's usually safe to attack. Go back a move, and notice the position. The e5 pawn and the c6 knight both attack d4. The f6 knight and the d1 queen defend. Here's how it would play out: Black > White > Black > White. White gets the final capture, thus getting a pawn in advantage. If you don't quite understand that, that's okay. Let's play it out for you.
5. Nxd4. Nxd4. Each knight makes a capture....
6. Qxd4. The Queen now takes. Normally, you should not develop the Queen this early. But notice how I usually say 'almost always' when referring to a guideline. Any rule in chess is only a guideline (albeit a STRONGLY recommended one!) and can be broken. But you should follow the guidelines until you have the experience to strike out on your own path. Anyway, White has captured a Pawn and a Knight. Black has captured a Knight. White is obviously a pawn up, and has the advantage.
That's as far as we'll take this opening. During the next chess match you make, keep the four principles in mind for the first 8-10 moves of the game! Next section, you'll learn something about attacking, how to make a piece paralyzed (pin), how to make a piece move so you can capture another (skewer) and even attacking two pieces at once! (fork), as well as some tips on countering this! As always, feel free to make a comment, suggestion, question or all three via message or post on this thread!
Victory and Defeat.
Each section, I'll post a little bit about a match I won or lost in a really interesting way, starting with next section. Each match will hopefully help reinforce the concepts taught in the section! I have a couple of ideas already.... Until next time, practice playing Chess! As the guide progresses, things get more and more complex. If you don't understand something, try playing some more. There are some good free Chess-playing programs on the Internet that let you play against a computer, try making a search.
I wasn't a bad writer back then. I really knew my chops, but I was far more actively playing Chess than I do today. Good guide though.
Well, I've written almost double that of a normal post now! I think that that's enough of a celebration of a tenth post. Therefore, I'll leave you with a piece of wisdom from my friend and I before the dailies. If you persevere, and have the time (and most people do, even if they don't realize it) anything is possible.
My friend Hochmut (who has commented here before) said that 'Blogging is perfect for us (Hochmut and I) because we love writing, but don't have the commitment to write a novel'.
200,000 words is the size of a good novel, that is an adult-sized one, about eight hundred A5 pages. However, one year of blogging can achieve a similar amount of text, and it takes that long to write a novel usually anyway! If each post is a brick, or each paragraph a brick, a blog can grow into a mighty building: it just takes time and commitment. It's been 10 posts, I still have barely any traffic and not one comment from someone I don't know. But I don't mind.
I have learnt that you can't expect instant results. After I've built this blog enough, the comments will come. Until then, all I can put in is one brick at a time.
Daily Quote: You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day -Marian Wright Edelman
-Whoever said anybody has a right to give up? -Marian Wright Edelman
Daily Website: www.sudokupuzz.com. Sudoku is a logic-based puzzle, with no arithmetic required. The objective is to get the numbers 1-9 in each column, row and 3x3 box. For more info, and for free puzzles of this type, visit this site.
Until next time, may you take the time to give a little extra.
-Callanthae
P.S. That's 10 posts down. Here's to a thousand more! -Callanthae
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