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, all in all a good session followed by some Round Robin games.
The Sicilian Dragon
The Sicilian Dragon is named for the similarity of its structure to the constellation Draco. Having played 2…d6 and 4…Nf6 (inducing 5.Nc3, blocking the c-pawn) Black continues by fianchettoing the king bishop, which shoots along a strong, long diagonal.
- Extremely sharp
- Unique positions
- Great attacking chances for Black
There are many many variations in the Sicilian opening, this is just one example, if you want to explore more depth, I suggest going on line as there are plenty of videos on YouTube or visit Lichess.org or Chess.com.
Top Tip
There are hundreds of different openings in chess, you will never learn them all, just remember not to push too many pawns before you've developed your pieces, Knights before Bishops is a good principle, castle early to get your King safe and connect your Rooks. Try not to move the same piece multiple times in the opening moves. Tempo is important.
En Passant
This rule concerns the double-square move of the Pawn, 'En Passant' is french for 'in passing' some students have trouble understanding when this strange move can be played, so here is an attempt to clarify when it can happen.
You are White and you have a Pawn on your fifth rank, in front of it are some Black pawns on their starting squares.
It's Black to move and can move either of it's two outside pawns two squares, the middle pawn can only move one square. If Black decides to move one of it's outside Pawns two squares, bringing it alongside the White Pawn, then White can capture with En Passant, as shown below:-
Another example White to move, Black has a Pawn on it's fifth rank
You don't have to capture 'en passant' if you don't want to, you could move your pawn forward or move another piece.
Rules of En Passant:-
- The taking Pawn has to be on the fifth rank
- The Pawn to be taken has to have moved two squares forward on it's first move.
- The capturing Pawn moves as if the Pawn to be taken had moved only one square
- The En Passant move may only be made immediately following the move of the Pawn to be taken.
En Passant Quiz
White has just moved a Pawn two squares, can Black take with En Passant?
Results and latest positions in the Round Robin Competition
Wins today by Constance, Jacob, Michal, Louie, Toshika and Rowan, with draws agreed with Eden and Lishanth.
3 way tie on 5 points go to Constance, Gagan and Michal, as next week is the last week for this competition, we will try and sort out an overall winner if they all turn up in the same session.
Finally:-
You were reminded last week, did you remember????
Have a great week and for those going on holiday see you after Easter