Correction from last week: it was Warren who got the highest score on the worksheet. Today we reviewed pins by going over the worksheet. This week Simon got the top score! We learned a new tactic call the battery where we batter down the opponents protective walls. 

Next week we'll learn about the blind pig checkmate and we'll learn about discovered attacks.

TOURNAMENT  opportunity coming up on Saturday Nov 5 at Highview Middle School in New Brighton. Play 5 games against other students in your grade. The competition will be fierce. There are a lot of very good chess players in Minnesota. Each round you will be paired with someone who has approx. the same record as you. So it will get easier as the day goes on. In your first tournament, your goal should be to try to win one game. Then each tournament try to improve. Three players in one grade make a team and there are team awards in addition to the individual awards. See schoolchess.org to register or to get more information. Call me if you want to discuss this.

I think it would be fun if we had our top 3 fifth graders there.

RATINGS 

Gr	Merit	Name	26-Oct
6	1.5	Warren	326
5		Cavan	303
5		Simon	220
5		Thomas	207
5		Logan	170
6		Lucia	165
5		Alex	148
5		Zion	144
5		Sean	128
6		Jack	110

LESSONS   Today we went over hurdles and skewer. Congratulations to Jack who got the highest score in the class with 4 correct answers out of 8 problems. We learned a new tactic - the pin - and worked out some problems involving pins.

A little review of chess symbols

+ check

#checkmate

! good move

? not so good

x captures

B bishop (remember pieces are indicated by CAPITAL letters)

b the pawn on the b-file

PUZZLE 1  This position is reached in the "garbage gambit" after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Nxe5? (correct is Nxd4) Qg5 5.Nxf7 Qxg2 6.Rf1 Qxd4+ 7. Be2

It's Black's turn. What's his best move? (Hint a pin is in the solution)

PUZZLE 2. It's White's turn below. What are the next two moves for White that will lead to a win?

Answers below.

RATINGS

Name	19-Oct
Warren	340
Cavan	278
Thomas	212
Simon	186
Logan	161
Lucia	156
Zion	144
Alex	141
Sean	123
Jack	103

Answers

Puzzle 1: 1. Nf3# (the bishop is pinned!)

Puzzle 2: 1. Re1 (pin!) f6 (defending the pinned bishop) 2. f4!

Remember "After you pin a piece, attack it!" Preferably with a smaller piece - like a pawn.  Now we will win the bishop, the pawn, and the game!

Today we went over the answers to the fork worksheet.

We learned another tactic called the hurdle, and the similar skewer. I hope you remembered the poem:              "Two big pieces on a line? Look Out, it's hurdle time!"

Next week we'll go over the problems we solved today. Congratulations to Logan and Thomas who solved 5 of the 8 problems. Here's a problem from today: What's White's winning move?

Tournament on Saturday if you're interested. See SchoolChess.org to register and to get more information, or call me to discuss what to expect.

RATINGS

Name	12-Oct
Warren	349
Owen	269
Cavan	247
Thomas	185
Logan	166
Lucia	161
Simon	159
Zion	133
Alex	130
Jack	105
Sean	100
Zahra	100

Answer: 1. Rh8 Rxa7 2. Rh7+ winning the rook and the game!

Today we reviewed the checkmate/stalemate worksheet.

We also spent a lot of time on the knight and forks and other types of forks. We did a fork worksheet.

Practice Problems

Here are some problems from the Junior High League in which we participated in 2020.

PROBLEM 1 Black just moved Kb5 attacking our pawn. White's turn. What's the best move?

PROBLEM 2 Black has just played Nd4, Now it's White's turn. What's a good move? 

ANSWERS. 

Problem 1. Nd4+ winning the rook

Problem 2.  Notice that your queen is attacked. Also note that Nxd4 results in Bxe2. So you must move your queen. In the actual game,  White played Qe3 and lost his queen - do you see how? (Qe3 lost the Queen when Black played Nxc2+ forking the King and Queen.) Qd2 isn't any better - after 1. Qd2 Bxf3 2. gxf3 Nxf3+ once again forking the K and Q. This is a beautiful illustration of the problem of putting the Queen on the same color square that the King is on when a knight lurking nearby. The correct move is to move the queen to a light square - Qd1! (Qc1 loses a Rook after Nxe2+)

TOURNAMENT OPPORTUNITY

There will be a chess tournament held on Saturday Sept 15 at Zachary Lane Elementary in Plymouth.  All players will play all 5 (4?) rounds. Divisions are K-2, 3-5, 6-8. ssFor details and registration see Schoolchess.org Questions - call me.

If this is you first tournament, make it a goal to try to win 1 game

RATINGS

Name	5-Oct
Warren	349
Elliot P	273
Owen	269
Cavan	221
Thomas	188
Zion	139
Logan	136
Lucia	134
Simon	133
Alex	130
Jack	110
Sean	106
Zahra	100

 

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.



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