When it comes to versatile musical instruments, you really can’t beat the guitar. When you learn how to play acoustic guitar you open up a world of musical opportunity.

There are as many schools of thought regarding how to learn how to play acoustic guitar as there are types of guitars, and it’s completely up to you how you’d like to proceed.

Your personal learning style may dictate how you learn how to play acoustic guitar. For many people, getting to know their guitar is a private exercise.  Other people learn best from lessons or a more formal approach.

If you like lessons and learn best from a teacher, by all means sign up for guitar lessons.  Some music stores sell packages that include a guitar and five or ten lessons.  If you’re buying a guitar for someone in hopes they learn how to play acoustic guitar, a lesson package may be a good way to get them started.

Many beginners start on their own with books or DVDs, which can make it easy to learn, study and review, or watch and practice along with a video teacher to learn how to play the acoustic guitar.

Many beginners are familiar with the idea of chords and strumming, but they are surprised to find out when they begin to learn how to play acoustic guitar that each string actually represents a note on the scale, and that fingering on that string will change that note.

If you read music, you’ll probably find it easiest to learn how to play acoustic guitar by learning where the notes on the guitar are found.  Once you understand the location of the notes, you can play melodies easily and then move on to learning chords.  Most sheet music contains guitar chords and music readers can move quickly to playing songs.

Surprisingly, lots of famous guitar players do not read music. They instead have learned to play by ear or through reading tabs.  Tabs are like musical shorthand, providing a series of symbols and letters that tell what notes to play when.  Being able to read tabs requires knowing where notes are and how to finger chords, but you don’t have to understand the treble and bass lines or be able to read music.

No matter which way you learn, a chord computer (a tiny handheld gadget that shows the fingering for every chord) is a good resource for beginners.  Posters are also available and are an inexpensive reminder of how to finger chords.

You can also learn how to play the acoustic guitar by watching videos online.   You can learn any type of guitar music, from country to alternative to rock and even classical guitar by doing a quick search on YouTube.

One of the best things about the guitar is that it’s a relatively inexpensive instrument to own.  Guitars come in all sizes, shapes, colors and price tags.  You can find one at music stores, certain discount stores, and even garage sales and pawn shops.

If you are just starting out, spend as little as you can.  Believe it or not, the guitar is not for everyone.  Some people are surprised at the painful contortions certain chords can require of their fingers, or they find it difficult to move past the initial discomfort of pressing on the hard metal strings.  Eventually, with practice, every guitar player develops calluses that allow them to play comfortably, but some people never make it to that point.

The lesson here is that you can always buy a better guitar, and when you learn how to play acoustic guitar, you can bet you will own more than one.

Sudoku is a game of logic to which you can get very addicted, very easily. Sudoku is a 9 x 9 grid subdivided into nine 3 x 3 grids with 81 squares in all. The object of the puzzle is to place a number between 1 and 9 into each square on the grid. The trick is that only one of each number can be on the same line and in the same sub-grid. Lines go horizontally and vertically.

It is very easy to grasp the object of the game but not always as easy to complete successfully. Sudoku is a test of logic. You do have to use your reasoning powers and a lot of patience. If you have never used logic puzzles before, the first one may take quite a long time. When you have mastered how it all works, you will soon be able to complete one in minutes. However, be warned, it is addictive.

As with any logic puzzle, there has to be a starting point. Find that and you’re on your way. The rest is just a process of elimination.

How to find the starting point

Somewhere on the grid is a space that only one number can fit into based on the numbers in the corresponding lines. Some people look for all of the possible numbers that go into a square and write them into that square. I find that it clutters the workspace and causes confusion.

This is how I do it and I can finish one in no time flat. Starting in the top left grid, I select the first number in that grid and look for the same number in the two grids below. If the number is in one of the grids, the process of elimination demands that the number must go in the third row of the grid that does not have that number.

Using the example grid we can see that 5 and 3 do not have corresponding places in either of the grids below. The number 6 does. It is in row 1 and row 2, we can therefore deduce that the missing 6 must go in the third row.

We now look to the grids to the right to see if the number 6 is there. In this case we struck lucky because it was in the upper row of the middle grid and the lower row of grid on the right. The only logical place for the missing number six is in the center square of the third row.

We can now eliminate the number 6 from the grids on the right hand side. We can already see that there is a 6 in the eighth and ninth columns of the top right and middle right grids so the only logical position is in column 7, row 8 or 9 of the bottom right grid.

Look at the middle grid on the bottom. There is only one row to put the number 6. It cannot be on the top row because there is already a 6 on that row and it cannot be the middle row because that is filled in. The 6 must go on the bottom row of the middle grid. That leaves only one place for the 6 to fit in the bottom right grid, and that is column 7 row 8.

When I have finished all of the easy numbers, I find it easiest to go back to grid 1 and continue with the next number. I then go over all the numbers again looking at the horizontal rows.

When the first grid is exhausted, I go to the next grid and begin the same exercise.

As the numbers begin to fill in, you will notice that at least one of the squares or grids may have only one or two free squares. Concentrate on those. If there is only one space available, fill it in.

Soon you will find that all of the squares are filling in. I suggest using a pencil for the first two or three games so that you can erase any errors.

When you complete one successfully, start timing how quickly you can finish and try to beat your own record.

I told you Sudoku is addictive.

Poker is a complex game that can be fun for everyone… this article in intended to help people who already know the basics of poker learn how to play poker… if you are just starting out, we recommend learning the various poker hands by checkout out our poker hand ranking section. Once you have this, and play a few games for fun… check back in here where we can get more advanced and help you learn how to play poker.

Playing winning poker has so many elements, some of which have little to do with the cards you are dealt.

Before the cards are dealt to you, make sure you are in the right place. If you are a novice wanting to achieve instant success, you should avoid the poker halls where pros play. The best places for easy money are the low-limit games, where tourists are playing just to have a good time rather than poker sharks looking to feast on easy prey.

The next aspect of poker to consider is the mental games. Plays opposite of what other players perceive you to be. That means bluff when they think you are conservative, or vice versa. Never play into their hands by being too predictable.

The best way to set the tone of your poker-playing style is to show your hole cards early and then show them selectively. If you normally only bet when you have premium cards, it will be worth your while to show a bluff early on.

Your opponents will notice that you are capable of such a play. It keeps them guessing.

You should also pay close attention to what you say and your mannerisms. Observant players will listen to what you say and what you do. They form an opinion of you and how you play poker.

Many expert poker players agree that the psychological aspects of poker are as important than learning how to play the game fundamentally. Dealing with bad luck, for example, is essential because you must keep your composure at all times.

An understanding of game fundamentals and math abilities will take you only so far as a poker player. You will fail if you lose your cool or if you are not mentally focused.

Here are some of the fundamental aspects (how to play your actual hand) of poker to remember:

• Avoid playing Q-9 and J-8 against a raise. If you hope to land a straight with a flop of 10-J-K when you are holding a Q-9, the opponent might have a premium pair of A-Q. If you have a J-8 and the flop is 9-10-Q, someone with a K-J, who is raising, has the higher straight. Lower cards are less of a concern. If you play a 6-3, for example, and the flop is 4-5-7, it is possible that an opponent has a higher straight with an 8-6, but it’s more typical for players to fold with such cards.
• Also try to avoid playing a K with a low card. Even if you have a K on the flop, you risk somebody having a better kicker. Also, with a K and a low card, if you happen to achieve a flush, you still run the risk of being second-best because of the low card.
• Against an early position raise, A-Q isn’t the kind of hand you would want to call with. An early position raise signals strength, which means the A-Q can be beaten by A-A, K-K, Q-Q, or A-K. You want to be aggressive with an A-Q, but if you don’t get a two-pair or a straight with the flop, you should fold. You might ask, “Even if another Q is in the flop?” Yes, that would give you a high pair with a strong kicker, but these hands will beat you if the flop is something like Q-10-8 with your A-Q: J-9, 8-8, 10-10, Q-Q, Q-10, 10-8, K-K or A-A.

Another key aspect of poker to remember is to exploit a weak-tight player. A weak player refers to how he or she plays after the flop. The player plays afraid and gives up too many cards and too many bets. The tight player plays only premium cards in his or her hand before the flop.

Let that be a lesson: Waiting for premium cards, and then playing them weakly after the flop, will result in disaster.

This is what must be done to exploit weak-tight players: relentlessly attack them pre-flop and on the flop; play small pots because they only play for bigger pots; don’t pay off a weak-tight player with a big pot because they will always have a strong hand; and shut down on the turn if the weak-tight player shows action.

Many more tips exist for winning poker, but the essentials are listed here. The most important aspect of poker is the mental approach and your character at the table.

To be a winner, you must prepare yourself like one and present yourself in a competent manner. Don’t be predictable. Leave them guessing. And above all, do not be weak and tight.

Tennis is a physical, mental and tactical sport. The best tennis players in the world have a sublime mix of physical, technical and mental ability. They can serve at well over 100mph. They can cover the court like a gazelle. They mix the split second reactions of a grand prix driver with the concentration of a chess grand master. And they can maintain these levels for set after set.

Each player who ever picks up a racquet in anger – from beginner to professional –  has the same basic set of shots to play: serve, return, backhand, forehand, lob, volley, smash etc. The only way to perfect any shot is the practice practice practice.

The Serve

The most important shot in tennis is the serve. The serve is used at the beginning of each point to start play. The server throws the ball above his head and then hits the ball off his racquet over to the other side of the court.

The server aims to drop the ball into the square box on the other side of the net. Most beginners are happy just to get their serve to land anywhere in the service box and this is okay to reach a certain standard.

Keeping control of the serve is vital. Practice serving in different directions, but not too hard. Once you have control and direction, then you can think about increasing the pace.

When serving, watch the ball long enough and don’t drop your head early. If you are serving too long, is your ball placement not in front enough? If you are serving into the net, is your ball placement too far in front? If you are serving into the ground you might be throwing the ball up too far in front? If you are hitting the baseline with your serve you are throwing the ball up behind you?

If you have not got enough speed, try to stand tall and hit the ball at the highest point and once you feel that you are really stretched on the contact, then start to slap the ball down with your wrist. If your serve has no penetration, are you actually jumping and landing inside the court? You should be landing at least over the baseline, to be having any kind of penetration.

Return of Serve

The return of serve is  the shot played by the person on the opposite side of the net immediately after the serve. When trying to return serve the most common error is not watching your opponent put the ball up in the air. If you watch their toss, you will start to pick up earlier which way the ball is going. This will allow you to prepare earlier and be able to make more returns.

A second error made on returns happens when you make contact the ball and you are looking at the target, rather than the ball. Watch the ball for longer and try to see it hit the strings of your racket.

Volleys

Volley shots are made when the ball is still in the air and has not bounced on the court yet. The number one error for volleys is to be afraid of the ball, allowing the ball to come into you, rather than sending your hands out and the racket out to meet the ball. Volleying a ball coming right at you presents its own particular problems and in this area balance and footwork are the key to improvement.

The second crucial error is people swing at the volleys. The volley is just a catch – get control of your hands to catch the balls on the strings, before you start thinking about power on the volleys. The power of the volleys comes from the legs, not from the arms swinging.

The Smash

The smash is the most aggressive shot in tennis. It is played when the ball is above head height and the player smashes the ball down hard onto the opponents side of the court. The common error on the smash is people take their eyes off the ball and look at the target. This causes the ball to drop and then the shoulders to drop and most smashes are netted. The second error is to smash with the wrist leading, rather than reaching up and hitting the ball when your arm is totally stretched to its limits. Therefore hit the ball at the highest point possible.

The Overhead

The Overhead is played in a similar fashion the smash, although the ball is played with a lot less force. The overhead is another difficult shot for beginners to get to grips with. Beginners tend to backpedal- where the hips and shoulders face the net as the player scuttles in a backward fashion – and if they do arrive (as often they simply cannot move quickly enough to get there with this backpedaling step), their torso and shoulders are poorly positioned for an overhead swing.

The key when retreating for a deep ball along the baseline is the accurate and full opening of the hips before the feet get you started.

The cerebral Indian mind has conceived many a feat like giving the concept of 0 et al, but the mindsport of chess stands all over the others. The game was initially originated in India, where it was called Chaturanga, which appears to have been invented in the 6th century AD. Chess can be visualized as an abstract war game, or as a “mental martial art”, and teaching chess has been advocated as a way of enhancing mental prowess. Despite the nerdy veneer, the game of chess offers a war like feel.

Chess is played both recreationally and competitively in clubs, tournaments, online, and by mail (correspondence chess). Many variants and relatives of chess are played throughout the world. The most popular, in descending order by number of players, are Xiangqi (in China), Shogi (in Japan), and Janggi (in Korea).

HOW TO GO ABOUT PLAYING CHESS

Chess, sometimes also known as international chess, is a board game for 2 players and is played on a square board of 8 rows (called ranks) and 8 columns (called files), giving 64 squares of alternating color, light and dark, with each player having a light square at their bottom right when facing the board.

HOW IS CHESS PLAYED

Each player begins the game with 16 pieces that each move and capture other pieces on the board in a unique way: eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. One player (who is always first to move) controls the white pieces, the other player controls the black pieces. The colors are chosen either by a friendly agreement or by some official. White always moves first and has a slight advantage over black in this respect. The chess pieces should be set up on a standard chessboard with a white square in the bottom right hand corner.

In chess, when one or more of the opponent’s pieces directly attacks a king, the player is said to be in ‘check’. When in check, only moves that can escape from check are permitted. The object of the game is to checkmate your opponent- this is when their king is checked, and no move can be made that would escape from check.

The 2 main things that determine a player’s ability and his style of play are-TACTICS and STRATEGY. Nevertheless the game of chess as it progresses into the middle game it becomes so complex that not even the best players can consider all contingencies or permutations arising.

Each chess piece moves a different way. The rook moves along horizontal and vertical lines, while the bishop moves in diagonal lines of the same color. The queen is a combination of the rook and bishop (it can move diagonally, horizontally and vertically). The knight can jump over occupied squares and moves in an L shape. Pawns can move forward just one square at a time (they can move two squares if they haven’t moved off their starting square). Pawns are unusual because they attack diagonally and not in the direction of movement. The King is the most important piece, yet it can only move to an adjacent square.

When a piece is captured (or taken) the attacking piece moves towards and replaces the enemy piece on its square (en passant being the only exception). The king cannot be captured in regular chess, because if a king is under attack (known as check) then the player must move the king out of check. If a player is unable to get their king out of check it is called checkmate and the game is over.

Chess games do not have to end in checkmate. Often at the higher level of chess, games end in a draw (tie). A draw can occur under many situations including: mutual agreement to draw, stalemate, threefold repetition or the fifty-move rule.

A few positional elements are common to most chess “tactics” and “traps”.

FORK-: A fork is a situation where a piece is moved such that it is attacking (forking) two other pieces simultaneously. It usually is difficult for the other player to protect both of their pieces in one move.

PIN-: Pins can be used to prevent the movement of an enemy piece by threatening any pieces behind it should it move.

SKEWER-: Skewers are kind of reverse pin where the more valuable piece is placed in front of a less important one.

discovered attack-: is an attack where a piece moves and uncovers a line for another piece, which does the attacking.

Other tactical elements include: zwischenzug, undermining, overloading and interference.

During the endgame pawns and kings become relatively more powerful pieces as both sides often try to promote their pawns. If one player has a large material advantage checkmate may happen quickly in the endgame, but if the game is relatively even table bases and endgame study are essential. Controlling the tempo (time used by each move) becomes especially important when fewer pieces are left on the board. In some cases, a player will have a material advantage, but won’t have enough pieces to force a checkmate. There has been an immense proliferation in the number of books published and lines of play developed.

Some definitions of terms that are frequently used are as follows-:

Analysis – The part of the thinking process where you say to yourself, “If I go there, what is he going to do and then what I am going to do in reply?” – It is the part of the process which creates the mental “tree of moves” so to speak. Some players call this calculation, but I usually don’t use that term. If pressed for a definition, I would say that calculation is the part of analysis that deals with tactics

Evaluation – Looking at a position and deciding who is better, by how much, and why. Static evaluation is when you evaluate a given position without trying to move the pieces. Dynamic evaluation is done at the end of each analysis line, after you have tried to determine a potential sequence of moves. Note: When someone says “Evaluate this move”, they are really saying “Evaluate the positions that would result from this move – assuming each player is trying to make his best move.”

Planning – What you do with the information of why someone is better (evaluation of strengths and weaknesses) in possibly occurring lines. It is how you will try to exploit opponent weaknesses, negate yours, use your strengths, and negate his. It is the way you are going to try to achieve some general short and long-term goals.

Threat – A move that, if left unattended, could do something harmful to the opponent (win material, checkmate, damage the position) on the next move.

Attack – To move a piece so that it can capture a piece on the next move. An attack on the King, since you cannot capture it, is of course called a check. (In this sense I am not using the other definition of attack, which is to play aggressively, keeping the initiative). Note that not all threats are attacks (a threat to checkmate is not an attack, nor is a threat to control an open file), and many attacks are not threats. A Queen move which attacks a guarded pawn is not usually a threat since taking the pawn next move usually results in loss of material.

Candidate move – A reasonable move a player might/should consider.

Killer Move – A move that would refute most potential moves and prevent them from becoming candidate moves.

HISTORY OF THE GAME

Although the popular belief is that the game originated in India, but other popular myths also circulate. By some accounts the game arose from the similar game of Chinese chess, or at least a predecessor thereof, existing in China since the 2nd century B.C. Joseph Needham and David Li are two of many scholars who have favored this theory.

Chess eventually spread westward to Europe and eastward as far as Japan, spawning variants as it went. From India it migrated to Persia, where its terminology was translated into Persian, and its name changed to chatrang. From Persia it entered the Islamic world, where the names of its pieces largely remained in their Persian forms in early Islamic times. Its name became shatranj, which continued in Spanish as ajedrez and in Greek as zatrikion, but in most of Europe was replaced by versions of the Persian word shah = “king”.

There is a theory that this name replacement happened because, before the game of chess came to Europe, merchants coming to Europe brought ornamental chess kings as curiosities and with them their name shah, which Europeans mispronounced in various ways.

MODERN CHESS

Early on, the pieces in European chess had limited movement, bishops could only move by jumping exactly two spaces diagonally, the queen could move only one space diagonally, pawns could not move two spaces on their first move, and there was no castling. By the end of the 15th century, the modern rules for the basic moves had been adopted from Italy i.e. pawns gained the option of moving two squares on their first move and the en passant capture therewith, bishops acquired their modern move, and the queen was made the most powerful piece, consequently modern chess was referred to as “Queen’s Chess” or “Mad Queen Chess.” The game in Europe since that time has been almost the same as is played today. The current rules were finalized in the early 19th century, except for the exact conditions for a draw.

Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) is the regulatory body which governs the game,it was founded in 1924.Although chess is not an Olympic sport, it has its own Olympiad, held every two years as a team event.

The “greatest chess” player of all time

The 1972 World Chess Championship contest, held in Reykjavík, Iceland, between the American Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, received unprecedented worldwide  media coverage and boosted the game’s popularity to new hieghts. The enigmatic Fischer broke the Soviet stranglehold on the world title in a match reflective of cold war tension. Fischer, however, forfeited the title in 1974, the first player ever to do so, by refusing to play a championship match.

Chess’s popularity was enhanced in the 1980s by championship duels between Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. In 1993, Kasparov, who had held the world title since 1985, broke with the International Chess Federation (FIDE), which reinstated Karpov as champion after a playoff. Kasparov, still regarded the best player in the world, lost a match in 1997 to the IBM computer Deep Blue (see artificial intelligence a for a more detailed discussion of the development of computer chess programs), which was then “retired.” In 1998, Karpov retained his championship by defeating Viswanathan Anand of India, but relations with FIDE were further strained when Karpov refused to participate in a 1999 tournament, which was won by the relatively unknown Russian Aleksandr Khalifman. Despite Khalifman’s claims on the FIDE championship, by 2000 it was widely recognized that Kasparov was the world’s number-one player and that his onetime protégé, the 25-year-old Russian Vladimir Kramnik , was ranked second. In a 2000 match Kramnik defeated Kasparov in a 16-game match and became the world’s top chess master.