Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Lesson Today 

We learned how to use a chess clock.

We ran an in-house tournament to determine the school champion. I divided the group into two sections a ran a round-robin tournament for each section

Tournament Section (Over 300)

       Cavan  Q  Thomas Alex R.     AWARD

Cavan    -    W     W     W    3.0. 1st Place (School Champion)

Q        L    -     D     L    0.5  

Thomas   L    D     -     W    1.5  Second Place

Alex R   L    W     L     -    1.0. Third Placeo

Novice Sections (U300      )

         Jade Alex-O Jannick 

Jade.     -     L      D.      0.5

Alex O.   W     -      W       2.0  Honorable Mention

Jannick   D     L      -       0.5

Year End Ratings

Cavan995
Simon738
Q734
Thomas588
Alex R.498
Alex O.221
Reyka201
Jade165
Soren165
Jannick151

Saturday, May 4, 2024

TOURNAMENT

Name    1 2 3 4 Bef Aft Chg

Thomas  L L L W 573 567 -6

Alex R. L D W L 488 486 -2

RATINGS

Cavan986
Q776
Simon738
Thomas567
Alex R.486
Reyka201
Jade196
Alex O.174
Jannick167
Soren165

Friday, May 3, 2024

Last Tournament of the Year May 4 Burnsville Diamondhead Educational Center

Ratings

Cavan986
Q776
Simon738
Thomas573
Alex R.488
Reyka201
Jade196
Alex O.174
Jannick167
Soren165

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

 LESSONS

We went over the Surprise! worksheet and the advanced pins worksheet.

Last Tournament of the year is May4 in the Burdnsville Educational Center. Since the top 16 players from the statewide tournament will be in their own tournament, this gives others a better chance to earn a trophy.

RATINGS

Cavan968
Q771
Simon738
Thomas539
Alex R.488
Reyka201
Jannick178
Jade176
Alex O.170
Soren165

Sunday, April 21, 2024

Statewide Tournament Results

Name R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 PTS bef aft chg

Q      L  W  L  D  L  L  B 2.5 778 771 -7

Thomas L  L  L  B  L  L  L 1.0 553 535 -18

In spite of what looked. at first glance a disastrous result, there were some highlights. Thomas earned his silver medal and his rating went down only a small amount because he was an underdog in every games. Q managed a draw against a 1600 player. His win was against a 971 player.

Summary of tournament playsrs

Merit

Name

21-Apr

17-Apr

41

Cavan

962

962

21.25

Q

771

778

30

Simon

738

738

25.5

Thomas

535

553

5.25

Alex R.

488

488


Wednesday, April 17, 2024

TOURNAMENTS

 State Championship Tournament this weekend - 7 games in two days.April 20-21 at Robbinsdale Middle School

LESSONS  

Pins for the inexperienced players and difficult and surprising moves for the advanced players.

Solutions to a couple of the more complicated problems will be posted here tomorrow.

PINS Worksheet problem 7. As we study the position, we notice. that we are down a pawn, but the black knight is pinned to the rook. We would like to attack the knight again, but we see that black has two good replies. He could take our knight and give up his rook because he can play Nf3 forking our rooks thus gaining back the lost material. Or he could simply play Rxd1+ which wiggles out of the pin with no cost.

So the correct move is 1. Rxd8+ Rxd8 2. Ne4 Nxe4 3. Bxd8 Nxf2 4. Rf1 Ne4 5.Bxc7 and when the dust settles we have a B, a R, and 5 pawns, Black has a B, a N, and 6 pawns

Your Generated Chess Board

Pins Problem 8

The knight in c3 is not well-protected and is on the same diagonal at the King. 1. Ba4 pins the knight! 1. ... Qd7 is met with 2. Nd4 or if Black tries 1. ...Bd7 2. Qxd5 forking the knights.

Problem #4 from the Surprise! worksheet

In a position like the one below, nothing obvious jumps out, but we know we have several advantages - a pawn on the 7th rank, two other pawns, we have access to the black king. We look at forcing moves - mainly checks. 1) Rf8+ RxR 2) Qh7+!! (Access to the king and a forcing move. It's actually easy to see that the queen cannot be taken because we can take the rook with the pawn promoting it to a knight which forks the king and the queen leaving black with no pieces.) 2) ... Kf7 3) g8(Q) with double check! Black has 2 choices 3.... Ke8 which loses almost immediately to Qxe6, or 3. ... Kf6 4. Qhg6+ then 5. Qxe6+ Kxe6 6. Qxf8 with an easy win.











RATINGS

Cavan962
Q778
Simon738
Thomas553
Alex R.488
Reyka201
Jannick173
Alex O.170
Jad161
Soren          160


Wednesday, April 10, 2024

LESSONS

Beginners learned about hurdles and skewers

Advanced players learned about interference

UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS

APR 20-21 Two Days, 7 Rounds Lots of individual and team trophies! Top sixteen qualify for official state championship! This year's theme is "There are more adventures on a chessboard than on the seven seas!" Dress like a pirate

RATINGS

Cavan945
Q759
Simon738
Thomas550
Alex R.473
Reyka170
Alex O.163
Jannick159
Jade148
Soren147