| News from DreamQuest Software
 | Wow, hard to believe February is nearly over. Based on the recent Arctic blast, Punxsutawney Phil may have been right when he forecast 6 more weeks of winter earlier this month! Beat the winter blahs and make a few new friends as you join us online at the DQZone.com for a little card playing. We have free online tourneys every day! |
The King's Penny Sale
 | The Battle for the Kings has Begun! Pick up two of our most popular board games this month for just $20. Buy Championship Chess Pro and get Championship Checkers Pro for only a PENNY!  |
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Classic board games with your favorite characters!
Challenge Wes, Sparky, Amber or any your favorite DreamQuest characters to a rousing game of standard Chess on any of five difficulty levels, against the clock or stalk your opponent at your own pace.
Long-time favorite checkers variations including Flying Kings, American, Giveaway, or Russian are supported in Championship Checkers, so do your best to beat our pros! |  |
That's just $10 a game - a 50% savings!
Available for Windows, Palm, and PocketPC (including new Windows Mobile 5.0 support), these games will keep you delighted for hours. Brush up on your skills with our introductory tutorial or dive in and go head to head with our experts for a rousing challenge. Buy now
Buy one more game and get a fourth free!
When prompted at Checkout, add a third game to this incredible offer to make up a Championship Game Bundle, receive a fourth game totally free, and pay just $40. Buy 4 games for $40!
*Not to be combined with other offers. Games must be for same platform. Sale expires March 25, 2006.
Chess Tip of the Month - Ten Top Tips
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This month, we have a list of great Chess tips by National Master Dan Heisman. Dan is a full-time instructor and author of several Chess books. Be sure to drop by his
web site for Chess theory, info on live tournaments and more. |
1. SAFETY - Keep all your pieces safe! (And consider taking opponent's pieces that are not safe). For piece values, Bishops and Knights as worth about 3 1/4 pawns, Rooks 5, a Queen about 9.5.Having two Bishops when your opponent does not is called "the Bishop Pair" and is worth about an extra 1/2 pawn. Winning a Rook for a Bishop or Knight is called winning The Exchange and is worth almost half a piece (Bishop or Knight).
2. ACTIVITY - Make sure all your pieces are doing something all the time! - So, for example, move every piece once before you move any piece twice in the opening (as a goal). Often the best strategy in a position with no tactics is to find a piece that is doing little and find a way for it to do more!
3. TAKE YOUR TIME - If world championship players always take several minutes to find a good move, what makes you think that you can find a better one faster? Look at it this way: NOTHING is preventing weaker players from playing like stronger players and taking your time to look at as many possibilities as you can. A good goal is to pace yourself to use almost all of your time every game. When you are thinking, say to yourself, "If I do X, what are all the moves he is likely to do in return, and can I meet every one of those threats next move?" If not, then you have to find yourself another move, and this takes time!
4. You are trying to find the BEST move, so when you see a good move, look for a better one. If you don't look, you can't see! If you play fast, you probably won't be considering all your reasonable moves.
5. The way to keep your pieces safe and to win your opponent's pieces is through tactics. Tactics are the most important part of a chess game - every good player knows basic tactics. The most basic tactic is counting - that is, making sure each piece is adequately guarded enough times by other pieces. Studying the other tactics: Pins, forks, checkmates, skewers, removal of the guard, queening combinations, double threats, discovered checks, etc. can be done first through a book like Bain's Tactics for Students and then Reinfeld's 1,001 Sacrifices and Combinations. If you like doing the puzzles in those books, you will probably do all of them and become a good player! By the way, the player who gets the most pieces out first usually finds himself on the good side of the tactics! Also, AVOID loose (unguarded) pieces, weak back rank, pinned pieces, overworked pieces, inadequately guarded, pieces, etc.
6. When considering which move to make, consider first your checks, captures, and threats. Similarly, when seeing what your opponent can do to you, look for his checks, captures, and threats first. Your opponent is just as important as you are. Pay just as much attention to what he is doing as to what you are doing. After your opponent makes a move, ask yourself "Why did he do that?" and "What can he do to me now that he couldn't do to me before?" And check to see if that piece or any other opponent's piece is not safe.
7. When you are winning, think defense first!! That does not mean play passively, but it does mean that trading pieces is probably good; make sure your King is safe; don't create unnecessary complications, keep pieces on guarded squares, and put yourself in your opponent's shoes: what would you do if you were him?
8. Three things you try to do in the opening:
- Get ALL your pieces into play every game
- Get some control of the center
- Castle your King into safety (the most important move in most openings)
9. Other opening guidelines: Move Knights before Bishops, e.g. move out the Knight on the side where you want to castle, then the Bishop, then castle, then move your other Knight, your other Bishop, move the Queen up a little and then move both Rooks into play. Don't start an attack until ALL your pieces are ready. Don't move up your Queen too far where your opponent's Knights and Bishops can attack it and win tempos. The player who makes the best (and the fastest) use of his Rooks usually wins the opening!
10. Some good endgame tips are: 1) The King is a strong piece - worth about 4+ in fighting value; make sure you use it. 2) Rooks belong behind passed pawns, 3) Passed pawns usually should be pushed.
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Feature of the Month
Today's Feature: How to Play Online via the Internet
To play online via your Internet connection, select 'Play ONLINE' from the game's Multiplayer menu. The lobby window will open as you connect to our lobby server. Here you will see a listing of all the games currently being played in the Rec Room. At this point, you may choose to host your own game, or join someone else's in-progress game.
Hosting a game
Click on the 'Host Game' button. Choose the hosting options that you wish to play with, and click OK. Your game window shows three other players and the message 'You are hosting a new game. Click here to start or wait for others to join.' Click in the center of the play field and the game's current variation summary will appear. Click OK, cards will be dealt, and game play will begin, much like regular off-line play. Outside players can still join your game even after you have started playing.
Joining a game
When you connect to our lobby server, you will see a listing of hosted games, any of which you may join by clicking on the 'Click to join!' button. If the game has already started, a message indicating that the game is in-progress will appear and it will 'deal you in' once the current hand has completed.
Need help?
For a complete overview of our online Internet lobby, see our Getting Started Online tutorial on our web site at http://dqzone.com/gettingstarted.html
We also have a wonderful group of DQ Guides to help with your online experience. Just look for the word 'GUIDE' in front of the player's name in our online lobby. Ask anything about playing online or you can email them a question at guides@dqsoft.com.
Interested in tournaments?
Try a little fun competitive action by playing in one of our online tournaments! Drop by http://dqzone.com/td/tourneys.html to check out the recent schedule.
You can also find help this and many other topics in the DQ Forums at http://forums.dqsoft.com
Last Month's Contest - Two Numbers
Question: Is there such a number that if you multiply it by itself the product is equal to adding it to itself?
Answer: 2
Contest Winners:
- Jay Barr
- Scott Urman
- Cindy Henkel
Congratulations! You will be contacted shortly with details on how to receive your prize. Thanks for playing.
New Contest - Presidential Trivia
In honor of President's Day this month, we're going to test your presidential knowledge!
Question: Who was the first of only two presidents to be impeached?
Three correct entries chosen at random will receive a deck of DreamQuest Software playing cards. Submit entries to contest@dqsoft.com by March 3rd.
Special Offer - Aces Texas Hold'em by Concrete Software
Go ALL IN with this fast and furious No Limit Texas Hold'em poker game for your mobile device! Guaranteed to be the best poker game for your Palm or PocketPC. Aces has the most options and the strongest opponents allowing you to play the game the way you want!
Features:
- Play up to 22 Hold'em opponents at a time.
- Go "All-in" or bet any amount you want!
- Rabbit hole! "Deal'em Button" shows the next card even after everyone has folded.
- Scroll back to other players to see what players last moves were.
- Underlines winning cards in hands.
Our good friends at Concrete Software are offering DreamQuest Software newsletter readers a special 20% discount on this top seller, so get your copy today!
Use these special links for this incredible offer:
Palm: More info | Buy now and save
Pocket PC:
More info | Buy now and save
Be sure to enter in coupon code 20OFFCONCRETE to get your 20% savings today!
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