Today we reviewed how to checkmate with just a king and queen vs a king.

We learned how to checkmate with just a king and rook vs a king.

We learned that K and N vs K or K and B vs K is a draw.

We learned that a King and 2 bishops can force a checkmate.

We learned that K, N, and B can win against a King is possible, but very difficult.

We reviewed checkmate and stalemate and worked out 18 problems on a worksheet which we'll go over next week.

RATINGS

Keep in mind that the goal is for you to learn and be a better chess player at the end if this course that you were at the beginning,

Warren	330
Elliot P	273
Owen	269
Cavan	190
Thomas	153
Logan	136
Alex	127
Simon	126
Lucia	124
Zion	119
Sean	106
Jack	100
Zahra	100

Today we learned: 

1) chess notation so we can read chessbooks and websites and we can record our own games for analysis later. 

2) all the rules about castling. 

3) the difference between checkmate and stalemate. 

HERE'S A QUICK GAME

1. e4     Nc6

2. g3     Ne5 

3. Ne2  Nf3# (0-1)

HILARIOUS GAME Get out your chess set and play this game out! Why is it over after move 12? 

1. d4     d6 

2. Qd2  e5 

3. a4.    e4 

4. Qf4   f5 

5. h3     Be7 

6. Qh2  Be6 

7. Ra3   c5 

8. Rg3   Qa5+ (Can you figure out what the plus sign means?)

9. Nd2   Bh4 

10. f3    Bb3 

11. d5    e3 

12. c4    f4 (1/2-1/2) this means a draw - each player gets half a point.

RATINGS 

Name     21-Sep 

Warren  316 

Elliot  273 

Owen    269 

Thomas  126 

Cavan   125

Nikolai 118 

Zion    117 

Alex    110 

Simon   110 

Lucia   110 

Sean    101 

Jack    100 

Logan   100 

Neo     100 

Zahra   100

Hilarious Game Answers

Answer to question 1: A plus sign after a move means "check". Your opponent's King is in check and must either capture the checking piece, block the check, or move the king out of check.

Answer to question 2: The game has ended in a stalemate! Although White still has all 16 pieces, none of them can make a legal move. It may look like one of the knights can move, but it would put his king in check.

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THIS WEEK: First meeting of chess club went well. We learned how all the pieces move and the value of each piece.

We learned a general strategy for finding good moves: the more choices your piece has,  the more powerful it is. So move your pieces to where they have more choices.

We learned how to set up the board and how the squares are named. We also tried checkmating with just a queen and king and trying to avoid stalemate

NEXT WEEK we'll take a closer look at checkmate and stalemate. We'll also learn about castling.

Name	14-Sep
Warren	302
Elliot P	273
Owen	269
Nikolai	118
Alex	105
Simon	105
Cavan	105
Jack	105
Logan	105
Lucia	105
Sean	105
Thomas	105
Zion	105
Neo	100
Zahra	100