Lesson: we went over the problems on the desperado worksheet. Then we got a new worksheet on simplifying to a won endgame.

Progress Reports

The gaps in the chart represent tournaments that were not attended. 

Notable steady progress was made by Cavan and Alex. Q and Simon also have made sporadic progress. Thomas made a little progress until  Nov 8th when he decided he didn't like worksheets.

Soren was a rising star until he stopped coming. Most made steady progress. Jack made good progress when he was on task, but recently has had problems paying attention.

Final Ratings of the fall session

Merit	Name	13-Dec
32.5	Cavan	932
8	Q	675
20.5	Simon	644
16.3	Thomas	478
	Alex	426
	Jack	234
	Santiago	230
	Soren	223
	Eldrych	217
	Audrey	170
	Hunter	156
	William	132
	Harrison	125

Lesson

Today we learned about the desperado. If you know you're going to lose a piece, can you take something out with it? This is often similar to a zwischenzug move. Do you remember what that means? The in between move. We had a worksheet with 7 problems.

Schedule

Next Wednesday is out last meeting of the fall session. We'll have a spring session that begins Feb 21 and runs through May 8. That's 11 lessons with one week off during spring break week.

Ratings

Name	6-Dec
Cavan	914
Q	654
Simon	631
Thomas	492
Alex	394
Jack	223
Soren	223
Santiago	214
Eldrych	200
Audrey	170
Hunter	149
William	132
Harrison	125

TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Congratulations to Cavan, who brought home the third place trophy.

NAME    1 2 3 4 Bef Aft Chg Merit

Cavan   W W L W 881 917 +36 32.5

Simon   L L L W 640 620 -20 20.5

Rating changes did not change the rank of any players.

PUZZLE OF THE DAY

I ran across this nice example of "overload" today.

Find White's best move.

Solution: Bd7 threatens Qf8+ if the Queen moves and unguards f8.

It also threatens BxRe8and QXNc7. Black cannot stop all the threats.                                                    

LESSON

Today we learned about overloaded pieces. We had a worksheet with problems from the games of grandmasters.

PUZZLE OF THE DAY

Find White's best move.

UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS

Dec 2  Diamondhead Educational Center, Burnsville. Grade Level Team Score is top 3. This is the tournament we have the best chance at winning since we have 5 players in 6th grade.

Jan 6   Diamondhead Educational Center, Burnsville.  Sections for K-2, 3-5, 6-8.

Jan 27 Diamondhead Educational Center, Burnsville.  Teams of 3 for K2-, 3-5, 6-8. 

Feb 17 Diamondhead Educational Center, Burnsville.  Sections for K-2, 3-5, 6-8   

ANSWER TO PUZZLE

The Black rook is guarding the 8th rank against checkmate and also guarding his bishop on c1. Wait, it can't guard 2 things at once, can it? Let's give that rook a little nudge.

1. Bb7 Rb6

2. Rxc1 (now if Rxb7 3.Rd8# The rook is still overloaded - it can't attack the bishop and guard the 8th)

RATINGS

Merit	Name	29-Nov
27.5	Cavan	881
8	Q	654
19.3	Simon	640
16.3	Thomas	502
	Alex	358
	Jack	236
	Soren	223
	Santiago	180
	Eldrych	177
	Audrey	170
	Hunter	154
	William	132
	Harrison	125

    

Nov 18 TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Name 1 2 3 4 5 bef aft chg merit   

Q -- L W L L W 634 634  +0   6

NEXT TOURNAMENT 

Dec. 2 Diamondhead Educational Center, Burnsville Grade level team event.

I think this is the tournament at which our 6th graders have the greatest chance to earn a trophy. With 5 pretty good players, we'll get to toss out our two lowest scores. We will only play other 6th graders.

Jan 6 Diamondhead Educational Center, Burnsville 

Jan 27  Diamondhead Educational Center, Burnsville (I'm unavailable for this one)

Feb 17 Diamondhead Educational Center, Burnsville 

Mar 2  Diamondhead Educational Center, Burnsville 

there are more after that ...

Today we learned King and pawn vs King endings. We learned what Mr.  Heinemann calls the "safety zone"and how if you're defending you can get a draw. Then we moved on to the concept of opposition. and the idea that you can queen your pawn if you can get 2 of the following 3 things:

1) Your King must be in front of the pawn 

2) You must step into opposition

3) Your King must be on the 6th rank or beyond. 

Then we learned about distant opposition. We didn't get to diagonal opposition or horizontal opposition which are rarely useful. Then we looked at a problem where each side and two pawns and the solution involved the idea of opposition. Here's another problem for you which involves opposition. 

PUZZLE

It's White's turn. Although White is ahead a pawn, he has no chance to win unless Black blunders. The best he can hope for is a draw. For example, if White plays  Kg2, Black will play Kg4 threatening to gobble up the White pawns with opposition, or the chance to steal the opposition.  What's the secret to getting a draw?

Tournament Sat at Diamondhead Educational Center Sign up at SchoolChess.org

Answer to puzzle

The reason this is difficult is because Black's pawn is so far behind the king that he can steal the opposition. So the solution is to close that gap. 

1. g6! Black cannot ignore the pawn or it will queen. If he takes it with the King, our king will be able to defend our f-pawn.

1. ... fxg6 2.f5! gxf5 Now finally Black cannot get the opposition if we play accurately.

3.  Kg1!   (NOT Kg2??) Kg5 4. Kf1 Kf4 5. Kf2 with a clear draw. That was really interesting!

RATINGS

Cavan	856
Q	634
Simon	621
Thomas	496
Alex	343
Jack	251
Soren	223
Audrey	170
Santi	164
Eldrych	144
Hunter	141

We went over the Traps worksheet.

Chess Poems

A knight on the side, gets fried.

Tow big pieces on a line? Look out, it's hurdle time1

It's not nice, to move the same piece twice.

Pawns don't move when castled, until hassled.

3 times to take more time: 1) when you're in trouble 2) when your opponent is in trouble 3) after a big exchange of pieces.

NEXT TOURNAMENT

Nov18 Diamondhead Educational Center in Burnsville. Sign up online at Schoolchess.org

RATINGS

Cavan	842
Q	628
Simon	624
Thomas	526
Alex	315
Jack	251
Soren	203
Santi	174
Audrey	170
Hunter	141
Eldrych	141

Tournament Results

Name. R1R2R3R4R5 bef aft chg merit

Cavan  W L L W L 829 826  -3 27.5

Simon  L W L L L 630 627  -3 19.25

Q.     L W L L W 571 579  +8  6

Thomas L L L W W 555 565 +10 16.25

Everyone performed at their rating. Cavan and Simon both played against the players who finish in 1st and 2nd place. 

Team Results

Breck        8

Nicollet     8

Heritage     6

Highview     4

Eagles Wings 4

Games

Thomas is playing Black. 

1. e4 e5

2. Bc4 f6? Thomas opens a highway to his own king.

3. Nf3 Nh6? A knight on the side gets fried

4. Nc3 Ng4? It's not nice to move the same piece twice

White has 3 pieces developed, black only one. White is ready to castle, Black needs at least 5 moves before he'll be castled. White also has a better grip on the center.

In the following position Thomas played g6? Why is that a bad move? What should he have made? 

2. ... g6 allows white to capture the e-pawn with check forking the Rook. The only real threat here is Qxe5+ so defend against that with Nc6 or d3. The game continued 3. Qd1 Nc3 4. Bb5 a6 5. Bxc6 bxc6 6.d4 e4 7. Qxd4 c5? What move did White miss? 

8. Qd5 c6 9. Qg5 f6 10.Qf4 g5 11.Qe3 Bd6 12. e5 dxe5 13.Qa3 c4

What should White do? (This is easy, but in the game he played Be3?) 

14.Be3 Bxa3 15, bxa3 d4   At this point both teams have had 15 moves to get their pieces developed, yet both sides still have every piece on the back rank! Neither side has castled. White wasted 8 turns moving a queen around, missing several opportunities and eventually gave it away. Black spent 13 id his 15 with pawn moves leaving a weak pawn structure with no good place for his King.

Here's a posiiton from one of Cavan's games. Computer analysis says Black can checkmate Cavan in 5 moves. But in the game, Cavan escaped to an even position before eventually losing many moves later.

1. ...  Rf4+

2. Qxf4  Qxf4+ 

3. Kh5  Can you figure out the last 3 moves for Black from this position?

 This week's lesson was on traps. We also went over the discovered attack worksheets.

Next Tournament

This Salturday - Nov 4. Team tournament. We have 4 players planning on attending.

Opening of the Week - Evans Gambit

1. e4    e5

2. Nf3    Nc6

3, Bc4    Bc5

4. b4     Bxb4 (Black will usually capture the gambit pawn)

5. c3 (White gains tempo)

White would like to castle soon then play d4 gaining a strong pawn center.

If Black's dark squared bishop ends up on b4 (for example, after 

5. ...    Bc5

6. 0-0 (castles) Nf6

7. d4 Bb4

8. Qb3! threatening Bxf7+ and d5 winning a minor piece.

Ratings

Cavan	829
Simon	630
Q	571
Thomas	555
Alex	301
Jack	232
Santi	184
Soren	183
Audrey	170
Hunter	151
Eldrych	146
William	132
Harrison	125

 TODAY'S LESSON

Discovered attacks. Don't just wait for an opportunity - create the opportunity by putting knight in front of a bishop, or a rook behind a bishop.

I also forgot to mention a tactic called the double-check.This can happen when you have a discovered attack on the king while the piece that moved is also checking the king. The only way to get out of a double check is to move the king.

White to move and checkmate in 2 moves.

OPENING OF THE WEEK - Danish Gambit

This opening for White leads to a wild game which either ends quickly with a win for white, or if Black can can defend accurately, the two pawn advantage may allow Black to win the endgame.

1. e4    e5

2. d4    exd4

3. c3    dxc3

4. Bb4    cabs

5. Bxc2

Note how White is ready to attack with two bishops and a queen that can attack frim three different directions. White controls the center and is only one move away from being ready to castle.

Black on the other hand still has all his pieces on the original squares - but he is two pawns up. Was it worth it?

RATINGS

Name	25-Oct
Cavan	813
Simon	616
Thomas	557
Q	541
Alex	287
Jack	232
Soren	175
Santi	170
Audrey	163
Hunter	144
Eldrych	132
William	132
Harrison	125

Answer to puzzle 1. Bf5+ Kb8 2. Rc8#

TODAYS LESSON: PINS

Two big pieces on a line? Look out! it's pinning (or hurdle) time!

After your pin a piece, attack it!

Never underestimate the power of the pin. Even a pawn that's pinned can be a problem.

Find White's best next two moves.

NEXT TOURAMENT

Nov 4 Highview Middle School in  New Brighton. This is a grade-level team tournament. Team score is the total points of the top 3 players.

OPENING OF THE WEEK - KING'S GAMBIT

How about an opening for White. A gambit is when you give away a pawn to gain a positional advantage. You often try to regain the pawn later. Here White gambits the f pawn.  White will eventually try for Bxf4 and o-o (castling kingside). The light bishop, knight, rook and queen will all put pressure on f7.

Kings Gambit accepted 

1.e4.    e5

2.f4.    exf4

3. Nf3

Kings Gambit declined

1.e4.    e5

2.f4.    d5 (other good choices were Bc5 or Nc6)

RATINGS

Cavan	797
Simon	600
Thomas	565
Q	517
Alex	275
Jack	227
Soren	164
Audrey	163
Santi	158
Hunter	137
Eldrych	125
Harrison	125
William	121

PUZZLE SOLUTION

1.Rg1 (pin it) f5  2.f3 then attack it!

Tournament Results

TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Merit Name  1 2 3 4 5 bef aft chg
25.5 Cavan  L W L W W 738 778 +50

18.3 Simon  L L L W W 570 576  +6

14.3 Thomas L L W L W 558 538 -20
 4.0 Q      L L W L L 530 516 -14

Cavan earned his silver medal. He did well in spite of having tough competition.

Simon, Q and Thomas performed as their rating would predict.

Today's Lesson

was about the hurdle and skewer - two powerful tactics. It's much more effective to look for patterns of weakness to exploit rather than explore all possible moves.

     Two big pieces in a line?

    Look out! It's hurdle time!

We also went over the fork worksheets. Here's a good puzzle for you to figure out. It is White's turn. What's the best move? (That black pawn is just about to turn into a queen.)

Tournament

This Saturday (Oct. 14) at the Diamondhead Educational Center in Burnsville. New players may want to wait until their ratings get closer to 300 before trying a tournament, but if you don't mind losing, it's a good way to learn a lot. Sign up at SchoolChess.org before Saturday.

Opening of the Week: The French Defense

The French Defense is similar to last week's Caro-Kann Defense. Both are responses to e4 and both move a pawn up one square to guard the empty d5 square. After 1.e4 e6 2.d4 e5 3.Nc3 Bb4, the board would look like this:

Black's idea is to eventually play c5 and Ne7. White often plays Qg4. Black may need to be patient and creative in order to activate his light-squared bishop.

RATINGS

Cavan	738
Simon	570
Thomas	558
Q	530
Alex	244
Jack	197
Santi	154
Audrey	152
Hunter	137
Soren	135
Eldrych	127
Harrison	125
William	121

Puszle Solution: 1.Rb8 a1(Q) 2.Ra8+

Today's Lesson

Forks - attacking two pieces at the same time. Any piece can deliver a fork but Knights are best. Pawns are also very good. Look for that pattern. At the end of the game as the pieces get captured, the queen be can deliver some nasty forks. Worksheets had good results.

Next Tournament : Saturday Oct 14 Sections for Grades 3-5, and 6-8 at the Diamonhead Educational Center in Burnsville. Register on-line at www.schoolchess.org. Cost is about $26. Lunch can be purchased on site. Begins at 8:30 done at about 2:00 or maybe longer if you're getting an award.

Opening of the Week: Caro-Kann

The Karo-Kann defense is an opening for black. In response to 1. e4, Black chooses an alternative move instead of e5. Actually there are many different good moves Black could make that control the center and also open paths for Black pieces while also restricting White's choices. One such move Black can play is c6 which attacks d5 which is one of the four middle squares. It opens a path for Black's queen while closing the b5 square for White's bishop.

White will often play 2. d4. White now has two strong pawns occupying and attacking the center. Black now makes the second move of the Caro-Kann - 2. ... d5. Black's plan is to play Bf5 when he can and then e6 with plenty of mobility for his dark bishop. The board now looks like this:

It's White's move and he has lot's of good choices:

Nc3 attacks and defends the center pawn, but blocks his c-pawn. Nd2 protects his pawn but now the c-pawn is still free to advance. exd5 opens up the board a bit after the exchange of the center pawns. e5 locks up Black's pawns and limits his g-knight.

Ratings

Merit	Name	4-Oct
22.5	Cavan	711
16.3	Simon	555
12.3	Thomas	546
3	Q	520
	Alex	229
	Jack	192
	Audrey	154
	Santi	137
	Eldrych	127
	Harrison	124
	William	121
	Soren	121
	Hunter	105

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