TODAY'S LESSON

 Today we learned:

1) the King and Queen vs King endgame. Push the King to the edge of the board then trap it against the edge of the board. Bring your King in to guard the queen and set up the "Kiss of death" checkmate.

2) the two rook checkmate. Again push the king to the edge of the board where you can get checkmate.

3) The King and Rook vs King checkmate. Squeeze with the Rook. If you can't squeeze with the Rook, squeeze with the King. lf you can't squeeze with the King, make a waiting move with the King.

4) You can't checkmate with just one Bishop, but you can with 2 Bishops. It's too rare of an ending to bother with now, but some time we'll get around to it.

5)  You can't checkmate with just one Knight, or even 2 Knights.

6) You can force a checkmate. with a King, Bishop and Knight but it's very rare and difficult. 2 Bishops. It's too rare of an ending to bother with now, but if you end up facing this endgame head toward the corner that is the opposite color as your opponent's Bishop's square. Count his moves - he has only 50 moves and then it's a draw.

PUZZLES

#1. What is White's best move?

#2. What is White's best move?

#3. What is White's best move?

#4. What is White's best move? (Hint: Mate in 2)

#5 For 10 rating points, checkmate in 3 moves. (Show Mr. H. your solution next Wednesday.)

#6. For 20 rating points, checkmate in 3 by moving each piece (Show Mr. H. your solution Wednesday.)

Solutionss 

1. If you can squeeze with the Rook, squeeze with he Rook - Rd3

2 If you can't squeeze with the Rook, squeeze with the King - Ke3

3. If you can't squeeze with either, make a waiting move with the King - Kd3

4. Waiting move (Wait for black to move to the corner.) Rc6 (or Rc5 orRc4, etc.)

NEXT TOURNAMENT

Sat Oct 14 from 8:15 to about 2:00 at the Diamondhead Education Center in Burnsville. Cost - about $30 including lunch. Details next week. 

RATINGS

Name	27-Sep
Cavan	669
Simon	548
Thomas	543
Q	526
Jack	192
Alex	166
Audrey	126
Harrison	124
Santi	121
Eldrych	108
William	105
Hunter	105
Soren	105

I thought our first meeting went well. We have half returning from last year and half new.

Everyone seemed to know how the pieces move, so we went over castling and en passant.

We also went over general strategic ideas.

NEXT WEEK - Checkmate, stalemate, mates with minimal material.

NEXT TOURNAMENT

Tournaments are approximately twice a month from mid Oct. to late May.The next tournament is Saturday, Oct. 14 at the Diamondhead Educational Center in Burnsville. If your rating is 300 or higher I would recommend this. Anyone (even if your rating is less than 300) can enter by registering via school chess.org. If you're in 5th grade enter in the 3rd-5th grade section, otherwise enter in the 6th- 8th section. You will play 5 rounds. In each round you will be paired with someone with a similar record

Cavan has 22.5 merit points and needs 2.5 points to earn his silver medal.

RATINGS

Gr	Name	20-Sep
6	Cavan	669
6	Q	541
6	Simon	542
6	Thomas	522
7	Jack	207
6	Alex	162
7	Harrison	100
5	Eldrych	103
5	William	100
5	Audrey	121
6	Santi	116
	Hunter	100