Last Tournament of the Year May 4 Burnsville Diamondhead Educational Center

Ratings

Cavan	986
Q	776
Simon	738
Thomas	573
Alex R.	488
Reyka	201
Jade	196
Alex O.	174
Jannick	167
Soren	165

 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

Cavan	968
Q	771
Simon	738
Thomas	539
Alex R.	488
Reyka	201
Jannick	178
Jade	176
Alex O.	170
Soren	165

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

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

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

Cavan	962
Q	778
Simon	738
Thomas	553
Alex R.	488
Reyka	201
Jannick	173
Alex O.	170
Jad	161
Soren	160

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

Cavan	945
Q	759
Simon	738
Thomas	550
Alex R.	473
Reyka	170
Alex O.	163
Jannick	159
Jade	148
Soren	147

Tournament Results

I think what happened today is that it was a relatively small tournament and the weather was nice, so only the ardent chess fans were out today.

                Bef Aft Chg Mer

Cavan X L L D L 960 927 -33 39.5
Simon L L L B L 803 738 -65 29
Alex  L B L L L 473 452 -21  4.25

Meanwhile Q and Thomas played in the Bughouse tournament

and finished with 4 wins and 6 losses.

Next tournament 

is April 20-21, a two-day 7 round tournament to determine the official chess champions of Minnesota!

Lessons

Advanced: Vacating  

Beginners: Forks

Upcoming Tournaments

Sat. Apr 6 Diamondhead Education Center, Burnsville

Sat.-Sun. Apr 20-23 Robbinsdale Middle School State Championship Lots of trophies for both for individuals and teams. Team score is total of the top 4 scores. 7 Rounds. Dress like a pirate!                    

Ratings

Name	3-Apr
Cavan	960
Simon	803
Q	751
Thomas	524
Alex R.	473
Reyka	165
Alex O.	153
Jannick	148
Jade	143
Soren	138