LESSON - today we went over the answers to the ZWISCHENZUG problems.

We learned about the King vs King and pawn ending.

On Defense get into the "Safety zone" then stay in it until you get kicked out. Then go to the square of opposition which is the square on the same file as your opponent's king and the same color square as the square your opponent's King is on.

On offense, your king must be in front of your pawn AND you must move into the square of opposition. Once your king gets to the 6th rank, you need your king in front of your pawn OR opposition.

We learned the intricacies of distant opposition.

And we learned that if you advance the pawn to the 7th rank with check it results in a draw, whereas if you advance your pawn to the 7th rank without check, the pawn queens.

Here are two problems to sharpen your pawn queening skills: 

Problem 1. White to move and win.

Problem 2. Black to move and draw.

Answer to Problem 1. 1.Kb2 Kd6 2.Ka3 Kc5 3.Ka4 Kb6 4.Kb4 Your King is in front of the pawn and you have the opposition which is enough to win.

Answer to Problem 2. 1.Kf7! prevents white from gaining the opposition.

TOURNAMENT coming up on May 6-7 State Championship for individuals and teams. Sign up at www.school chess.org

          Sign up NOW before the price goes up.

RATINGS

Merit	Name	26-Apr
11.5	Cavan	585
4.5	Grant	507
10	Thomas	485
7.5	Simon	455
3	Quillan	449
2.75	Owen	407
	Warren	321
	Luke	303
	Lucia	241
	Jack	209
	Alan	152
	James	141
	Kellen	128

Today we went over the worksheets on "overload". 

We then had a brief lesson on "Zwischenzug" - the in-between move. 

RATINGS 

Cavan	594
Thomas	485
Simon	460
Grant	455
Quillan	421
Owen	407
Warren	305
Luke	303
Lucia	241
Jack	212
Alan	156
James	141
Kellen	128

LESSON 

Today we went over the worksheets on discovered attacks. The we had a lesson and worksheet on the overloaded piece. Then we played two games of chess. 

RATINGS

11.5	Cavan	559
10	Thomas	480
7.5	Simon	456
4.5	Grant	423
3	Quillan	420
2.75	Owen	363
	Warren	318
	Luke	287
	Lucia	253
	Jack	186
	Alan	151
	James	147
	Kellen	127

 TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Name.  Results. Merit.  bef aft  chg

Cavan. L W W ? L  11.5  531 559  +28 

Thomas L W W L L  10    390 452  +62

Simon  L W W X L   7.5  370 430  +60

? = not sure who won. I thought Cavan said he lost but the official results say he wo

X = win by forfeit Counts as a point but doesn't affect rating.s

Both Simon (in rd 1) and Cavan (in rd 5) got to play the number 2 player in the tournament! If Simon had won that game, he would have won a trophy!

Cavan and Thomas both earned their bronze medal for having won 10 games in tournament competition. They will be presented with the medals at the next tournament.

 RATINGS

Merit	Name	8-Apr
11.5	Cavan	559
10	Thomas	452
3	Quillan	440
7.5	Simon	430
4.5	Grant	409
2.75	Owen	363
	Warren	329
	Luke	287
	Lucia	231
	Jack	194
	James	147
	Kellen	127
	Alan	118

 LESSON

Today we went over the pin worksheet and learned that you can actually pin a piece against an empty square if that square is an important square. 

We also learned that the discovered attack is probably the most potent weapon in chess. We had a difficult worksheet and here's a problem from that worksheet.

PROBLEM #6 (which no one solved)

After studying the position a while, you should notice that our Bishop on c2 is aimed directly at our opponent's King! Remember to imagine the Bishop's power extending all the way across the board. Now in order to export the power of that bishop we need to get two pieces out of the way - our Rook, and their Bishop. Rd6 fails because their queen takes it and we're no better off. Can we get Black's Bishop off that diagonal? Well, at great price, but ...  wait this might be worth it - 1. QxNh5+ BxQh5 (if he doesn't take, we got a free knight) and now the discovered check works perfectly! 2. Rd6+ (checking with the bishop) Bg6 3. Rxb6 (we're ahead a knight) .Bxc2 4. Nxc2 and we came out a knight ahead!

TOURNAMENT this Saturday at the Burnsville Educational Center. Looks like we only have 5th graders interested this week, so I'd recommend signing up for the 3rd-5th section.  No teams, just individuals. If some of our 6th, 7th, and 8th graders were coming, I was going to have us all play on the middle school team.

RALTINGS

Merit	Name	5-Apr
9.5	Cavan	531
3	Quillan	440
4.5	Grant	409
8	Thomas	390
4.5	Simon	370
2.75	Owen	363
1.5	Warren	329
	Luke	287
	Lucia	231
	Jack	194
	James	147
	Kellen	127
	Alan	118