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