The second weekend of the half term holiday coinciding with Halloween and Firework displays was met with great enthusiasm as 10 juniors eagerly expressed their strong desire and interest to play chess.
Special thanks are extended to Jon Catchpole for his exceptional expertise and his highly instructive tuition, which has greatly benefited and strengthened the skills of our more advanced players.
The theme for the day centered around the intriguing concept of Removing the Guard, with a variety of examples and challenging puzzles thoughtfully set for everyone to ponder over and engage with deeply. Special kudos go to Advik, who impressively needed less than a nano second to work out each one, showcasing remarkable speed and sharpness in solving these problems!
Removing the Guard
If you attack a piece and your opponent protects it, look out for the possibility of winning the piece by removing the guard. By capturing or driving away the protecting piece, you can render your target unguarded and ripe for capture. Likewise, if one of your pieces is doing an important job guarding another piece, make sure you don’t let the opponent undermine it, or your whole defence could come crashing down.
Capturing the guard
This is the most straightforward way to remove the guard – by simply capturing it.
White's rook attacks the black bishop on e5, but the bishop is defended by the knight on c6. Exchanging the rook for the bishop would be a bad trade, but white can win a piece by removing the guard. The defending knight has been eliminated and white can capture safely.
Deflection - another form of Removing the Guard
It isn't always necessary to capture the defending piece. Sometimes chasing it away is just as good. Forcing an enemy piece to leave its post is known as deflection.
Black attacks the white rook, forcing it away from its post guarding the knight on b5.
Once the rook is deflected, the white knight is left at the mercy of black's bishop.
Ladder positions and results
Lewis and Eden played their first round re-match in the Knockout competition resulting in a win for Eden, which places him into the second round.
Additional victories were also awarded today to Jonah, Michal, Gagan, Advik, Tishi, and Eden once again in the Ladder competition. This means that Michal continues to hold the lead in the Ladder competition, maintaining a strong position with six weeks still remaining, so the competition is far from over and there is still everything to play for.
Top positions now look like this:-
