Chess puzzles are becoming more and more popular among chess players and starters for enhancing their chess playing skills.
This site has a detailed page on Chess Puzzles which will surely enhance your chess playing abilities.

There are 3 variations of chess puzzles today.

• Orthodox and Tactical Chess Puzzles
• Heterodox Chess Puzzles
• Chess Miner Chess Puzzles

Orthodox and tactical chess puzzles are closely mimic a traditional chess game and on many levels are best designed to develop an individual’s abilities with traditional and conventional chess play.

Heterodox chess puzzles invoke conditions that are not possible in traditional chess play. For example, with these types of chess puzzles a player could have multiple kings on his or her side of the board.

Finally, with chess miner chess puzzles a person is left to determine where missing chess pieces are located based on information provided pertaining to chess pieces that actually are visibly present and the location of those chess pieces.

This example can be seen at GPS chess sets. In chess sales - it’s a great idea to use whatever free exposure anyone will provide - especially if the ‘anyone’ is Google. What started as Froogle became Google Base and now has the less nerdy title Google Product Base, or GPS. Sounds like some new cell-phone calling system huh?

Though GPS is a boon for listing your products - it does tend to get lost in the maze of products available. One or two companies are now emerging to create an optimised XML product feed to prioritise your products - it works wonders and we’ve already had sales and loads of extra exposure. Not easy though and needs some heavy technical know-how especially of XML. No pain, no gain huh?

Take for example this site for chess computer listings in squidoo, or this eSnips page on chess computers and their electronic merits by a chess retailer. How do they affect sales? How does Web 2.0 affect sales of chess through the web? Briefly Web 2.0 refers to the democratisation of the internet, where instead of relying on the judgment of search engines to bring results to us - we rely instead on the collective judgment of other visitors/customers to determine the worth of a site. This is accomplished by such sites as del.icio.us, digg and squidoo to vote for us on the worth of web sites.

The trouble is - no-one really knows the actual results, unless we ask chess customer how they found us. This is sometimes possible and often not. But it is wise to observe what internet visionaries tell us, whilst we refuse to put all our eggs in one basket - the fact is that the web is developing at such a pace that it’s impossible for anyone to say what shape eCommerce is really going to resemble months, let alone years from now. Web 2.0 however has everyone in agreement, the collective votes of ‘the people’ are a better indication of a sites worth than the warring search engine monarchies.

As one of the manufacturing leaders of electronic chess computers, the novag company have done a superb job of this machine. Concentrating on the software, they have made a very strong chess engine for this price level. The computer can connect to a PC for enhanced visualisation and development. It has a database built in that has a 8,900 opening book. It has a 16MHz RISC processor and in summary is the most competitive chess computer in this price range.
The Obsidian playing surface is 9 inches square. It has a carry case for the pieces and the electronic board, and the pieces are felt bottomed and made in genuine sheesham wood. In the world of game computers, the Obsidian chess computer is outstanding!

The Citrine is now foremost Chess Computer for all singing, all dancing electronic chess. Man, this thing aint cheap - but it justifies it’s price tag by functionality that hasn’t been seen since the partial retirement of Kasparov beater Big Blue itself.
Chess computers have come a long way from the old ‘press sensory, press harder, now still harder’ - computers of yester-year. This Novag citrine is the bee’s knees, the Queen’s knickers and the dog’s bollocks all rolled up into one. I particulalrly like the way that when I lose it doesn’t actually laugh in my face even if I know that the silicon zeros and ones have a secret smirk becaue of my stoopid move. Oh well! It will also tutor me to be able to beat my 6 yr old whilst simultaneously allowing me to play with a human opponent on what is a very nice, fully wooden cabinet with the electronics buried inside. Neat! Novag have really done something with this computer. Maybe I can make a living on the chess circuit after all.

Have you visited this great chess forum yet? It’s a perfect place to whine about those awful chess retailers or something else about the game, questions (why does the horsey have to move in that awkward way?), opinions, etc. Maybe you have a question about the origin of the game, or want to find out where to buy chess computers, why Kasparov has quit chess - anything! In particular there is a great section on all kinds of chess articles - also a section on tips and strategy. We love the site!

This was posted (by me) on Matt Cutts site (Goolges face to the world) - I want to know that someone from Google knows about this.
Has anyone noticed that with the browser ie7 the google search facility (generally top right) only has searches through Google.com if Google are chosen for searching the web? So if you’re in Canada, or the UK, the search results are sub-optimal? If this becomes the default search mechanism (as it is doing) users aren’t getting good results and will stray from Google - as will be welcomed from Microsoft - the developers of ie7.
You can change to a ‘national’ Google as the choice - but man! You have to jump through some hoops - and even then I can’t get it to persist! 99% of users aren’t going to bother - they’ll just go to Yahoo or MSN instead.
How does this affect chess sales? In the UK, top results are not replicated through this new ie7 search. Worse, in France, Canada, etc. the results are completely skewed for chess sales through searched such as ‘chess sets’.
Microsoft always has to play dirty!

Update: This company (eDirectory) proved to be somewhat useless and were just interested in taking money - no sales resulted.

Good reason to run to a website search engine optimisation company - ranking in the organics is somewhat precarious whilst Google is still in adolescance. Spreading the risk of being pulled from the organic rankings - many eCommerce sites including chess sales sites have tried to spread the net for customers in order to become reliable, robust and here for the long term. With Google and other search engines eager to show appropriate results, their algorithms change and many good sites can unwittingly become casualties, meaning their sales, i.e. ‘chess sales’ suffer. If the newly confident eCom sites have taken on staff who are in turn reliant on income from the new-ish website, a pull from the rankings can be a living death. Hence companies are turning to other streams of attracting themelves to people who want to buy chess sets, other chess hobyist sites, online malls and other mainline directories with good traffic. The whole internet sales ‘thing’ is taking the world by storm, but what is overlooked is a site’s persistant precarious state of organic rankings - and who can make a good living on PPC?

Short of finding yourself in an orange jump suit and the wrong side of a fence with ‘Guantanamo’ on the sign, one of the worst experiences to have is waking up one day to find that your high ranking chess site ‘ain’t high ranking no more’. To save the home and some standard of living for yourself and family, and that of any staff, the wise entrepeneur will have spread the chess sales net so that along with enhanced adwords, the sales can keep coming in.

Until we get a more stable and reliable set of search results. Until we get a less adolescent search engine industry.

What an unusual chess design - the Japanese Chess Set! Who would ever buy such a thing - it’s ugly, it’s weird, it’s strange,… it’s an affront!,… it’s… it’s wonderful! It’s so different, so unusual…! I must have one! It’s pawns are all little Buddha’s  - each giving their little pieces of insight and wisdom on the current position of the battle. That’s all very well, as long as they all agree huh? But what a statement! And in a market of many theme chess sets - what an unusual example, a gift with oneupmanship established!

In a genre occupied by historical battles and stereotyped theme chess designs, the Japanese Chess Set is a breath of fresh air. Can’t help but see as much Chinese influence in the chess design as Japanese - but hey! they don’t come to me for advice! They could have called it the Chinese-Japanese theme chess set. They could have had Chinese on one side and Japanese on the other! Maybe a little too touchy? Or not enough? It could have been Iran and Japan.

The green color is very obvious on the dark side (not pictured above - click through to the full product) - what does this signify? Not a clue, but can’t resist the ‘Grasshopper’ reference from the old TV series. Ya gotta like green to like this set - the dark side is dark green. And not so dark! But - I love it - and it’s a great gift for someone who likes green, Japan, China and little Buddha’s all giving their two-penneth worth of wisdom and squabbling during the game!

As a chess set online retailer - what does one do when competitors get closer and closer to the throat? When they threaten to make a ‘personal visit’? When they publish some web defamation? And steal photography and other content to use in selling their knock-offs?

A maturing internet has allowed opportunities previously having high entry barriers. Hundreds of thousands of have managed to join the two skills (technical and business) they have to jump into the murky waters of online commerce. The example of chess set retailing is real and current. The victim is a successful niche chess set company who suddenly appeared on the web by utilizing SEO skills, techie ability and a love of chess. After a year of trading, one of the chess competition noticed and started with threats and intimidation. But this has happened across many industries previously dominated by other web sites. What’s the best course of action and reaction?

Flattery. A fellow retailer has flattered us by recognising a loss of income from our attempts at online marketing of chess sets. Hell, we’re good! - what other industries might we impact?

No such thing as bad publicity. Accept any actual reference to our higher prices as publicity - keep sending them over to us.

Losing focus. We seem to be occupying the aggressor somewhat. Well, that’s something too. Whilst he’s focusing his energies on us, he’s distracting himself from his own company.

Poor business. Our chess retailing aggressor clearly has a poorer business model than us if he has to resort to this kind of behaviour. Harassing the competition in some mafia style suggests a bullying manner that would be better channelled elsewhere.

Legal action. ‘Theft’ of intellectual property rights (chess photography, chess product names, chess product descriptions…)- whether yielding any advantage or not - is just that - theft. So real court action may be required to bring the matter to a conclusion.

Conclusion
The new world is here. Online retailing and competition is a fact of life. Competition is good for consumers and good for business improvement. But as in the schoolground and in the High Street/Mall there are aggressive unethical bullies online too. Actions can be taken to offset the aggression, evasive tactics can be used with some success, but the end game may involve taking hooligans to the law to stop the murky activities affecting the peace of our lives and helping us have societies populated with people having admirable qualities we all look up to.

It’s no secret that the vast majority of decent chess sets are made in a small area of India. The country that claims to have invented the game has the ‘privilege’ of supplying the world with it’s excellent designs. Whether it’s Pleasant Times, JS Arts, Ivory Works, Checkmate (and many others), the demand for excellence at a price that purchasing countries can afford is met through people working for a  lower salary than the developed world. If USA or European salaries were required for a typical chess set sold in the same countries, that chess set would be at least five times as much.

But dealing with a country that just doesn’t have the same way of thinking carries many problems, especially when it comes to that over-used, under-served word that may well be a contender for the most common word on eCommerce web sites: Quality.  Despite suppliers claiming high quality, the plain fact is that shipments contain blemishes, missing items, inconsistent finishes, the list goes on. Is this why Camaratta set up his own manufacturing outfit in India? Why is consitent, high quality such a problem? Try thinking of it in western salary terms. You work for three days straight on a chessboard, everything is fine, until a blemish is caused or realized. It’s a tough call. The end customer will probably notice it and will probably want a discount or want to return it. You might get away with it if it’s Christmas and the chess retailer is so busy that he lapses in his QC and if it’s a gift from a customer to someone he or she may not see for another year. And after all - you’ve been working on it for three days which represents a substantial part of your much needed salary.

So, ya can’t blame them - but neither can you allow the practice to continue. What to do? Training the supplier that  you won’t accept blemishes is a start. Making them feel the pain is another policy too (by credit/replacement demands). Suppliers hate this! They want to get on with volume work instead of the fiddley task of making a single rosewood Queen that was blemished - and if it’s a carved knight it’s particularly painful. Hopefully the message gets through.

In a meeting with one of our suppliers, I was reminded however of a truth that easily escapes a chess retailer. Out of a large shipment, it is often true that maybe just 1% or so is blemished. Even we Westerners make mistakes - right? So there is a tolerance. What have you found works well in dealing with this problem? Leave a comment and your site gets a link if the comment is worthwhile.

This pic is an attempt by someone to work out the interplay between adwords and adsense. Kinda scary huh? I run a small online chess retailing outfit - just about provides enough income with a bonus at Christmas for my family. The mighty G holds the rules of adwords very close to it’s chest. A while ago - in a bid to get to the top of the adwords tree I increased my bid significantly, and ended up paying just over 12000% (yes, three zeros) greater costs for nearly four hours, until I returned the bid back to where it should have been. This wiped out the profit for my small enterprise for an entire month! Now you’re probably thinking - ‘well you’re clearly an idiot for bidding that much’, and I can understand that sentiment. However, consider closely the situation. Google never charge the amount you bid and the generally accepted wisdom is that it doesn’t matter how much you bid, it just puts you above the person who bid less - and that your costs will be 10c (or some such small figure) more per click. This is the view held by many experienced adwords practitioners.

The fact is that this is absolutley not true. The price you pay depends on another closely guarded factor - so closley guarded that if discussed in terms of actual cases, ya get banned from the G. Yes, God becomes displeased - oops, did I say God? I meant, of course, Goog, the G, G!, The Goog, or whatever you prefer to call the entity that ‘does no evil’. Anyway - where was I? Yes, The other factor? What your competitors are bidding! Obvious? No. Like Rumsfeld said - there are known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns and unknown unknowns. Wow! What a mouthful. His wrestling was clearly a war of words not physical.

OK - here it is… if you’re bidding 50c a click, we always assumed that the guys underneath were all bidding 10c less, until it gets to the minimum. Say there’s one guy above you. You assume he’s bidding 60c (leaving aside the other factors we know make a difference - like quality of ad which also lowers the actual price). So - the wisdom goes - if you now bid $90 per click, all you end up paying is 60c. The formerly top guy now pays 50c and all live happily ever after - right? Wrong. That’s a possible scenario if no-one then tries to get back to the top spot - but if it were that easy everyone would do it. The formerly top guy now raises his bid to $35 a click in an effort to get back up there. Oooh, this is where it gets painful. The difference between the formerly top guy and you is now significantly spaced apart, as is the difference between the formerly top guy and the blissfully unaware beneath him. The G will now start charging in excess of the second position, the formerly top guy. You’re now paying, instead of 60c, an amount per click greater than $35. He is paying an amount per click greater than the guy beneath him. But G! doesn’t tell you that. G! doesn’t tell you anything. So far, I don’t think I’ve said anything that will cause my demise in the ‘benevolent’ giants search engine that does no evil. So I won’t push it too far by even remotely suggesting that it’s worth arguing the case with them - hey, never know, they may return some of the greedily gotten gains.

If only they’d tell us the rules, we’d know, and they’d make less money. Oh! Silly me, that must be why they don’t tell us the rules. But hang on! They ‘do no evil’ - don’t they?