If you are losing at chess because you keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again, stop playing chess the way you currently are and start winning more games by first of all, sticking to opening principles. Put one or two of your pawns in the centre and protect them with another pawn and develop your pieces, Knights, Bishops before Queen and Rooks, castle early to get the King safe and the Rook into Read more
It was a bit like being at school with a written exam, but 12 juniors turned up and gave it all they got after explaining these symbols:- A pawn is given no symbol but the pieces have symbols as follows: We also use symbols for special moves: 25 minutes were spent recording a practice game shown on the display board, then, thrown into the deep end, they all played a proper game and recorded all Read more
During the lesson on the Pin, it was mentioned that the skewer was a reversed pin, so what do we mean by that, well:- A skewer is a chess tactic where in a line of attack the more important piece is in FRONT of the attack and the secondary piece is behind. Here, if White plays Rook to e1 check, the King can move out of check and the Rook captures the Queen, which should Read more
By recording your moves in a game and playing back through it, you can clearly see what you or your opponent did wrong, this is the best way to improve your game. If you don’t write your moves down, you’ll never know what really what wrong and when. You may be happy just to play game after game, win or lose, zippy-doo-dah, but to get good at chess, which I’m sure you all want, we Read more
10 juniors today, other activities like football finals, cricket and swimming keeping a few away this week, never-the-less, some good games played today. In addition, on Thursday afternoon there were 6 adults and two children playing friendly games of chess in the library with the added bonus of free teas, coffee and asorted snacks, so why don’t you join us to play, learn, or just chat. Theme for the day was a re-visit to the Read more
With Easter holidays well behind us, it was great to see 15 juniors turn up on this Spring Bank Holiday weekend. We also had 6 adults and 4 juniors on Thursday afternoon enjoying a couple of hours of chess in Ferndown Library. Great stuff! We all sang Happy Birthday to Advik who will be seven on Tuesday and was given a birthday card to enjoy from the Ferndown Chess Club. We also welcome new member Read more
Hello everyone, I hope you all had a great Easter and look forward to a lovely new term at school!! who was that at the back booing? A good turn out today with 10 students, we welcome Philip who joins us for the first time, a new beginner to chess, a lot to learn but he has the ability to become a good player. A few puzzles to warm up with then we went into Read more
What a start to 2025, we’ve now had 14 weeks and seen 23 different students pass through the door to learn and play chess, from 5 year olds upwards, beginners to intermediates, boys and girls. 8 juniors today and we welcome 3 new members, Anusas, Advik and Jack, I look forward to teaching them Chess in the new term after Easter. My thanks go to Ferndown Library for all their help and allowing me to Read more
Just 6 juniors today, well it’s Easter break and the sun’s shining, what more do kids want?? End of term certificates that’s what! Not quite end of term but just in case they can’t come next week, next Saturday the 12th, will be the last before Easter break, we will resume on the 26th April. Todays theme was something different, getting away from traditional openings, this was a brain teaser, Chess 960 or random chess. Read more
10 Students today including two newbies who came to ‘dip their toe in the water’ so to speak, let’s hope they learnt something and will be back soon. A good split with 5 in each hourly session and the main topic today was the Sicilian opening – Dragon variation. The muddy waters of the En Passant rule was explained in detail and a selection of puzzles regarding Pins, Forks and Double Attacks were mulled over, Read more