On this penultimate day of Chess we had 12 juniors including newbies Luke and Alex who look to be good chess players in the making and hopefully they will return in September where they will learn much more. The Ladder competition has come to a conclusion as next week will be a relaxed fun day with presentations.
Todays theme was a step back to basic opening principles which a few members still need to grasp.
The A B C & D of Chess
Simple rules to improve your chess
Rule A
Activate and accelerate your central pawns, by pushing these pawns forward you control the all important centre and help to free your Bishops.
Don’t be tempted to push ‘flank’ pawns (those on files a,b, g and h) allowing your opponent to control the centre of the board.
Rule B
Bishops and Knights need to be deployed as quickly as possible, avoid moving the same piece twice until you are ready to attack. Knights are best in the central area of the board and not on the edge.
Rule C
Castle early and get the King safe, this also allows the King’s Rook to get into the game quickly. Keep the pawns close in front of the King, don’t be too hasty in pushing these forward and leaving the King unprotected.
Rule D
Develop your Rooks so they are connected and place on open or semi open files if possible. Connected Rooks are happy people!
Now you are ready to do battle.
Don’t always feel that you have to make the initial attack, sometimes it’s just as good to sit back and wait for your opponent to make a mistake, which they will. The Chess ‘skill’ is to see it and then pounce.
Ladder games and Quiz results
Wins today for:- Advik, *Constance(3 games), Gagan, Lewis, Alex, Louie and Eden.
- with three wins against Lewis, new members Luke and Alex I’ve decided to award 7 points in total
Midweek Quiz results on “Spotting Captures” full marks go to Gagan, Constance, Advik, Lewis, Anusas and Michal – well done to all.
Notation points for Advik, Constance, Gagan, Louie, Michal and Anusas
So totting up numbers including rewards for notation, the ladder has ended up like this:-
And the WINNER is Constance with a grand total of 68 points.
Gagan comes a very worthy second on 66 points winning the silver medal with the very impressive Advik third on 65 points with the Bronze medal.
Next week I will present the Trophies and Medals for this Ladder competition, along with certificates to all who have attended this season.
Well done to all who took part and hopefully have learnt and improved their play. To conclude before the summer recess, we’ll have a few games of suicide chess where the object is to lose all your pieces, an exercise in recognising where not to put your pieces, which can be educational, but just for fun.
Graham Morris