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On this longest day of the year we had 10 juniors trying their luck at chess and we did get one very long game between Advik and Gagan, 60 mins of hard concentration, with thanks to both sets of parents for staying and allowing the game to come to a conclusion after almost 60 moves. More of that later. Birthday greetings go to Thomas – whose birthday it is today (21st) and Eden for his Read more

RED ZONE Intermediates A three part Quiz, 1 Ladder point for each correct answer, all these examples have been shown over the last few weeks, so how’s your memory? Question 1:- Name the opening ???????????????????????????????????? Question 2:- White to move, how does WHITE queen a pawn? ????????????????????????????????????? Question 3:- Black has just castled, White can seize the opportunity to execute the ‘Greek Gift Sacrifice’, what are the sequence of moves to do this? White to Read more

8 juniors today, a good mix of ages and abilities, always enjoyable for all. Theme of the day was all about being careful where to place your pieces. Why do we loose games? We don’t pay enough attention to those dangerous squares that we move pieces on to! For this posting, I’m calling them Landmines and Ticking Bombs. What are landmines? Squares which are protected and explosive to tread on, other words losing a piece Read more

10 youngsters today came along to enjoy a bit of chess, we welcomed Edith, a new recruit to the beginners section, she managed to play a couple of games with 50% success, well done! Main topic today was the debate on which is best, Knight or Bishop. I think the jury is still out on that one! but a good group discussion took place. Although they are each worth 3 pawns in the Chess world, Read more

I can see that a few members are progressing well enough to be called ‘intermediates’ as opposed to ‘beginners’, the midweek quiz was aimed primarily at beginners and could now be too easy for those ‘intermediate’ members. So from next week [week commencing 9th June] I will have two different sets of midweek quiz, one for beginners and one slightly harder for the intermediates. Who will be in which group? To identify who the intermediates Read more

Bonus points for the Ladder time, 12 questions, get all of them correct for 3 Points, 8 correct for 2 points and 4 or more for 1 point. Copy and paste the image or download the PDF shown below, either send me your answers by email:- graham7morris@gmail.com or bring your answer sheet to me next Saturday. Quiz closes on Saturday 7th June. Download PDF

With the end of half-term, a very good turnout today with 14 youngsters looking to learn and play some great chess. There were two themes for the day, tactics and checkmate patterns. With various boards set up with tactical puzzles and simple checkmates, the groups actively got involved in chipping in with their ideas. The Importance of Tactics Tactics are in every phase of the game Chess, it doesn’t matter how good your openings are Read more

Castling is a special move in chess where you do multiple unique actions. First of all, it is the only move where you may move two pieces in the same move! Secondly, castling is the only time in chess when it is legal to move the King more than one square! Third, it is the only move that both develops your Rook and protects your King. Castling can be performed on the Kingside (notated as 0-0) or Queenside (notated as 0-0-0). Castling Read more

Only 7 youngsters today, but being bank holiday weekend, for me that was not too bad really, those that came were given a lesson on the joys and surprises of what Pawns can do! Firstly, birthday wishes this week go to Michal for the 28th May, have a great day! So onto the theme of the day:- Foot Soldiers that never retreat! True, pawns cannot go backwards, only forwards or diagonally to capture, on it’s Read more