Darlington Chess Club

Junior Club - 2012 competition round 3

2012-02-20T13:10:00.000-08:00

Round three was an exciting round, as the the two leaders, both on six points clashed on the top board. There were nine children at the club and the games were arranged as follows.

Joe V Dylan
Harry V Nicola
Tom V Aidan
Leia V James
Dhillan Bye.

Game 1,
Joe playing White, pictured below, made a solid start. Joe has made massive improvements during his time at the club and he has all the ingredients to become a very strong player. Unfortunately for Joe he lost his queen to young Dylan, which against Dylan is a lost game. Dylan enjoyed promoting another queen and torturing Joe until he called checkmate.

Game 2,
Harry as White faced the tricky Nicola, pictured below. Nicola developed well, but leaked pawns left, right and centre.

Harry, pictured below, enjoyed an early lead, but soon found himself dead level. In a rook + pawn v rook drawn ending Nicola allowed the pawn to promote and was then checkmated.

Game 3,
Tom, picture below, was unlucky to be playing Aidan. Aidan is one of the best players in the club, but missed round two. If you don't come you don't score.

Aidan, below, was scoring the game and looked to play a very good game. Hopefully we will look at the game next week.

Game 4
Leia, picture, below played a wild game against James. The material swings were massive. James was a queen ahead,

then Leia won it back until James, picture below, had to be stopped trying to win with only a bishop.

Dhillan, picture below, was given a bye and scores a full 3 points.

Well done Dylan, picture below, who has a perfect 9/9.

	Name	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Score
5	Dylan	W,6 3	B,1 3	B,3 3	9
3	Joe	B,9 3	B,4 3	W,5 1	7
4	Harry	B,10 3	W,3 1	W,11 3	7
9	James	W,3 1	Bye 3	B,7 2	6
2	Aidan	W,7 3	X	B,6 3	6
1	AJ	B,8 3	W,5 1	X	4
6	Tom	B,5 1	W,8 2	W,2 1	4
11	Nicola	Bye 3	X	B,4 1	4
12	Dhillan	X	X	Bye 3	3
8	Caroline	W,1 1	B,6 2	X	3
7	Leia	B,2 1	X	W,9 2	3
10	Jamie	W,4 1	X	X	1

Round boxes show Colour, Opponent and score gained.

3 = win, 2 = Draw, 1 = loss. X = No show

Junior Club - 2012 competition round 2

2012-02-11T07:59:00.000-08:00

Round 2 of the competition was played with slightly fewer juniors present. There were seven at the club, so the draw was made:

AJ(3) V Dylan(3)
Harry(3) V Joe(3)
Tom(1) V Caroline(1)
James(1) Bye

Board two was the first to finish with Joe overpowering Harry. Harry won his first round game, so Joe is definitely the rising star of the club.

Board three finished shortly after Joe's win. Tom had built a splendid material lead and looked like he was moments away from checkmate. But Caroline didn't give up and was able to swindle a stalemate, much to Tom's dismay.

Board one was turning into a drama. A 'helpful' adult pointed out a missed opportunity for AJ. After quickly being shushed no further comments were made. But after realising that he had let Dylan off AJ lost his head. Dylan is a good player even at 6 and AJ soon found himself in trouble. He looked to checkmate Dylan, but he just didn't have enough material to do so and soon the game started to look quite random. As the clock struck seven I stopped the game counted the material and declared Dylan the winner. A real upset.

Right the cute but deadly Dylan.

So after two rounds the standings are:-

	Name	Round 1	Round 2	Score
5	Dylan	W,6 3	B,1 3	6
3	Joe	B,9 3	B,4 3	6
1	AJ	B,8 3	W,5 1	4
4	Harry	B,10 3	W,3 1	4
9	James	W,3 1	Bye 3	4
2	Aidan	W,7 3	X	3
6	Tom	B,5 1	W,8 2	3
11	Nicola	Bye 3	X	3
8	Caroline	W,1 1	B,6 2	3
10	Jamie	W,4 1	X	1
7	Leia	B,2 1	X	1

Round boxes show Colour, Opponent and score gained.

3 = win, 2 = Draw, 1 = loss. X = No show

Member Games - Steve Dauber

2012-02-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

Steve Dauber is currently the strongest player at the Darlington chess club. He plays top board for two of the teams and has to battle the strongest players from other clubs. For some reason his grade never seems to represent his true playing strength. I have seen him beat most of the regions top players at one time or another. Perhaps his best game in recent times was a draw against IM Hawkins.

The following game was played in an important league match against Gateshead. This was the last game to finish and the result of the match depended on the result of this game.

Read through the game, or scroll to the bottom to play through the game using GameKnot's ichess viewer.

186 V Steve Dauber (169)

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d3

Black has opened with a sicilian defence. White by playing 3.d3 indicates that he wants to avoid a main line sicilian. It can be tricky playing an off-beat opening if you wanted to play your favourite line. All you can do is try and follow opening guidelines.
2...Nc6 4. g3 With this move White introduces the king's Indian attack (KIA). Some White players will play this set-up against anything Black plays and Steve will have seen this set-up before.
4...Bg4 Pins the knight on f3 and the bishop is not easily moved without further weakening the king's defence. 5. Bg2 e6 6. O-O Be7

Most White players of the KIA will reach this position with the White pieces after their first six moves regardless of what Black does. This of course, is what attracts club players to it. A, it cuts down on theory and B, you always play your favourite set-up.

7. c3 keeps the Black knight out of d4 and will support the d4 advance that White will no doubt want to play. 7...Nf6 8. Re1 O-O 9. a4 With the pawn on c3 White wants to develop his knight to c4 via either a3 or d2, once there he doesn't want it 'tickled' with b5. Rc8
10. h3 I'm not an expert on the KIA, but I would say that Black is at least equal here. White seems to be mixing ideas. a4 to play Nd2-Nc4, h3 + g4 to move the bishop and then Ne1 f4, sees a classic KIA king-side pawn storm. Ne1 is now difficult because of 8.Re1. Perhaps White is going to try to play Nfd2/Nc4 and then f4

Bh5 11. Nbd2 Nd7 Black retreats his knight to place extra pressure on the e5 square. The f-pawn is freed to advance as well. 12. Qc2 White moves the queen from the awkward pin. b6 Hints at Black's intention to play for the d5 advance

White now tries to regroup his pieces, but Black looks to annoy White's plan's.
13. Nf1 Bg6 Stares right at White's queen, just when White had moved it. 14. Qe2 Na5 Now that the knight has moved from d2 and the queen from c2 the b3 square is not protected and ideal for a knight to land on. 15.N3d2 Stops ...Nb3 f6? I'm not sure what Black is up to here, perhaps he intends Bf7, e5 to add pressure on light square complex of b3 and c4. But when he played b6 I thought here comes d5, well perhaps after a bit of arranging. It seems to me that Black is drifting a little and over the next few moves White definitely takes the initiative.

16. f4 Bf7 17. Ne3 Re8 18. g4 White is advancing on the king-side, just what KIA players love to do. Bf8

Black has tucked his pieces behind his 3 pawns on d6, e6 and f6. He knows that White wants to advance further, but how can White do this? Both e5 and g5 lose a pawn while 19.f5 e5 leaves a hole on f4.
19. Qf2! This is a strong move. White can now re-evaluate all his pawn push options, but if Black doesn't react quickly then Qg3, Rf1 and then f5 or g5 may break through. Nb8! Black prepares to relocate his knight to c6, where it will fight for the centre squares d4 and e5. The knight was in the way on d7 and needed to be moved, but moving the knight back to b8 is a very difficult move to play, reminiscent of the great Capablanca who put his pieces on their best squares no matter what. 20. Kh1?! Nbc6 21. Rb1?! White has deviated from his king side plan. Rf1, Qg3 and g5/f5 would have been more fitting. d5! Black strikes back

Both sides have been trying to place their pieces on the best squares before making a decisive pawn move. Patients is a key part of a good chess player, so many of my own games are spoiled by me 'jumping in' when I think I have an advantage, only to discover I didn't have enough to win.
These two players have jostled for position, but when the time is right action must be taken. Inability to act is just as bad as jumping in.
The pieces finally clash, note how all the pieces are still on, unusual at move 22. As it is Black that has instigated this encounter you would have to say he has the initiative and the advantage.
22. Nc2 dxe4 23. Bxe4 dxe4 looks better, but Black has Qd3 which is awkward for White, as his pieces are poorly coordinated. Qd7 24. f5 e5 25. b4 cxb4 26. cxb4 Nb7

White is still uncoordinated, but at least he has harried Black's knights, a plan he continues with
27. b5? Ncd8 28.Nb4 The knight was under attack Nc5 All of a sudden Black's knight springs into action and White realises that both his a pawn and d-pawn are under attack. The a-pawn directly and the d-pawn tactically.
29. Nf3 Nxa4
Black could have taken on e4 first 29...Nxa4, 30.dxe4 (30.Rxe4 Bxb4, 31.Rxb4 Qxd3) 30...Rc4, 31.Bd2 when Black can play Nb7 and Nc5, which should win the weak e-pawn

Analysis

Back to the game

Black has swiped the a-pawn, but the centre pawn is more of a valuable prize. Partly because a central pawn has more of a say on the central squares and partly because to capture it would leave a Black piece right in the centre. Black's knight has to take time to re-group to get back in the action.

30. Bd2 Nc3 Good move as it more or less forces off White's bishop. 31. Bxc3 Rxc3 32. Nc6? Nxc6! 33. Bxc6

It looks as though White has managed a tactical triumph of his own here. Black has clearly seen this trick and calculated correctly that his bishop pair will be stronger than a knight and rook, don't forget he also has two pawns for this exchange. If you count the points in the standard 3 for a knight 5 for rook etc then the count will more or less tally, but Black is much, much better now. Just watch his two bishops go to work.

Qxd3 34.Bxe8 Bxe8 35. Ng1 Bxb5 Winning a second pawn helps Black 36. Rbc1 Bc6+

The bishop checks to force the White king out of his corner.
37. Kh2 e4! A little pawn move that opens up the dark squared diagonal to the helpless White king.
38. Rxc3 Bd6+

Black ignores the rook and calls check instead. This is a very pretty position, can you see the finish?
39. Kh1 e3+ Wins the queen, at least 40.Rxc6 exf2

White resigns here, but there is no way to prevent further loss of material and in many lines mate.

Play chess online

Junior Club - 2012 competition round 1

2012-01-28T03:40:00.000-08:00

The junior competition made an exciting return this week. We had eleven children at the club, all of them seemed up for a competitive game. The rules were made clear.

Touch a piece and you move it!
Three points for a win
two for a draw
one for a loss.

There will be five rounds the player with the most points wins the trophy for a year.

Last year's winner was AJ who played Caroline and claimed the full point conclusively.

Both the Wilson boys won their games Dylan defeating Tom while Harry proved too strong for Jamie.

The clubs rising star is Joe who sailed to victory over tenacious James, who is no walk over.

The longest game was Aidan V Leia. Aidan managed to find a checkmate on the stoke of seven O' clock. If the game had not finished I would have counted the material and if one side was ahead by more than three points they would win.

The names were picked at random and unfortunately Nicola didn't have a game, but received a full three point bye.

After one round the standings are:

Name	Score
Aidan	3
AJ	3
Dylan	3
Harry	3
Joe	3
Nicola	3
Caroline	1
James	1
Jamie	1
Leia	1
Tom	1

How to lose quickly - Jumping in

2012-01-21T15:14:00.000-08:00

There is nothing more annoying or disappointing to a chess player than losing a won game. That is losing a game where you had a massive advantage.

I'm playing Black in the position below. Take a look and try and see why I think Black is better.

Black has the move and some big advantages. His rooks dominate the d-file and his queen and knight are both waiting to jump into an attack on White's king. White can't complete his development easily as his bishop is in the way of connecting the rooks and needs to find an active role, but both d2 and e3 are off limits. His king is rather awkwardly placed on h1 and doesn't have a move, which is never a good sign.
White has just moved his queen to e2 and is attacking the Black knight. In the game I played
25...Nf2+? 26.Rxf2 Qxf2, 27.Qxf2 Rd1+

Now I was surprised to see that 28.Qg1 loses Black a piece. After 28...Rxg1 29.Kxg1 the White king will not be mated on the back rank with 29...Rd1+, as I had thought on move 25. Play continued, but White soon activated his extra material and won. What went wrong?

I call this type of error "jumping in". You see a line with a forcing sequence from a strong position that appears to win and instead of making 100% sure that it does win you dive in and 'snatch' at the full point.

What is the answer? Cold hard analysis. Dan Heisman at the marvellous Chesscafe site talks about this type of error and says you should try and analyse the moves until the position is quiet, that is no more forcing moves http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman55.pdf.

If you think you are close to winning then its worth spending extra time checking your analysis. If you do look at a line and can't see all the possibilities then look for other simpler lines.

Two other moves that jump out to me are 25...Nf6 and 25...Rd1.
25...Nf6 takes the knight out of the sights of White's queen, but the immediate attack would be over, so this line would be the last to look at.

25...Rd1. The first point is that 26.Rxd1 Rxd1+ 27.Qxd1 allows Black the knight fork 27...Nf2+ winning the white queen

Analysis

Let us call 25...Rd1 line 2, we have established that White can not simply take the rook.

White can't take the knight either as Rxf1 is mate. White therefore has to find a way to stop 26...Rxf1, 27.Qxf1 Nf2+, 28.Kg1 Nh3+ winning a piece. White either has to connect the rooks to offer himself extra back rank protection, or defend f2.
Connect the rooks, perhaps White could try 26.Bxf5, but 26...Rxa1 forces 27.Rxa1 and then ...Nf2+, 28.Kg1 Nh3+, 29.Kh1 Nxf4 - Note how this discovery trick crops up again and again. - wins a piece for White and stops any queen invasion on h5

Analysis

Defend f2, 26.Nh3, this is probably White's best. 26...Rxf1+, 27.Qxf1 takes the threat from Black's knight and Black can introduce new back rank threats with 27...Qb5

Analysis

I think I have shown that line 2 offers Black a big advantage. My problem during the game was that I didn't really look further line 1, I just 'jumped in'. Earlier I said that "Cold hard analysis" was the answer and perhaps you thought that glib, well I would agree. Often its difficult to see the truth to a line of play and its so easy to go wrong. What I would say is this

Take your time and analyse as deeply as possible if you think you may have a winning line

Try to find alternatives, especially if your first line involves giving up any material. The second line may give the same result without the material risk. Which is my second point.

Given a choice, play the line with the least risk

How to lose quickly - Counting

2012-01-14T08:06:00.000-08:00

One of the easiest ways to go wrong in chess are counting errors. If there are multiple exchanges, make sure you get the correct order, or you may find yourself material down without realising.

Here I am in action as White in a recent game.

1.d4 Nf6, 2.c4 d5, 3.Nc3 dxc4, 4.e3

e4 is also an option here, but this solid move regains the pawn with a solid position. White will play e4 later in the game.
4...Nc6, 5.Bxc4 e6, 6.Nf3 Bd6

Black's bishop on d6 and knight on f6 are not placed well and prone to a fork on e6. Time for e4?
7.0-0 White plays safe 0-0, 8.e4 and now advances...

8...e5, 9.Bg5 exd5, I had planned 10.Nxd4 Nxd4, 11.Qxd4, but realised that Bxh2+ loses the queen. Luckily I had 10.Nd5

The pawn can be regained on the next move quite safely and White is equal.
10...Be6, 11.Nxd4

There are many different captures and sequences in the above position. This type of position is not that unusual when both players fight for the centre. Just relax and take your time and ensure you don't mess the sequence up.
Black starts with 11...Bxd5, 12.Nxc6?? White goes very wrong. Black's bishop has just captured a knight 3 points, White then captures a knight of his own points balanced, but the Black bishop moves out of danger by capturing the knight 6 points V 3 points, or a piece down!!
See if you can spot the best sequence from the diagram after Bxd5.
12...Bxc6, 13.Re1 Be5 White resigns, there is little point playing on a piece down against decent players.

The best sequence is
12.Bxd5 Nxd4, 13.Qxd4 c6, 14.e5

Analysis

Darlington Junior Chess Competition - March 24 2012

2011-11-27T11:48:00.000-08:00

Darlington District

Junior CHESS Championships

Saturday 24^th March

09:45am – 1.00pm

Cockerton Band & Musical Institute Club, DL3 9AB

The venue can be found at the end of Woodland Road, just before Cockerton village. The event is in the club’s large function room, there will be no alcohol in the room.

v Open to any juniors born after 31/08/1998, living within the Darlington district (Darlington, Richmond, Bishop Auckland etc)

v Play will be split between an under 13 section and an under 10. Younger players may play in the older section.

v The winner of each section will receive a trophy

v Entry fee is £3 per player (Cheques to “Darlington chess events fund”). Please give name, date of birth, telephone / email, age section you wish to enter.

v Groups from schools are welcome.

v Entries to:

Kevin Wilson, 31 Woodland Terrace, Darlington, Co.Durham,

DL3 9NT

v (Tel. 01325 485715, email:darlingtonchessclub@gmail.com).

Junior Club: Game Analysis

2011-11-19T06:51:00.000-08:00

Here is a game played between a junior and adult. I don't want to mention names so I will refer to the junior as A.

It is a good idea to play through games once they have finished and try and see where you went wrong. There are no hard and fast rules as the best way to do this, but I like to try and verbalise my plans. Often its obvious why that plan failed you can look back a few moves and see if anything could have been done to change the outcome. Even better is to get a stronger player to look at the game afterwards.

Adult player V A.

1. d4 d5 Black takes a share of the centre and opens lines for his pieces.
2. c4 Nc6 Develops a piece towards the centre, although this blocks Black's best break move for a beginner its still a good move, but as the player progresses he will need to understand that 2...e6 or 2...Nf6 are better. The pawn on d5 can be taken and may result in loss of time.
3. Nc3 Nf6 Another piece joins the fight. So far so good.

4. f3 e5 Fights for the centre, but perhaps is too aggressive.
5. dxe5 Nxe5 Breaks up White's centre and gets better piece play.
6. Nxd5 Nxd5 Looks like a good idea, but this loses a pawn. Black could have played Nxc4

7. cxd5 c6 A clever move to fight for the centre, But Bb4+ and 0-0 is just getting developed and may be better for Black
8.e4 Bb4+ 9. Bd2 Bxd2+ 10. Qxd2 O-O Black finds the suggested moves anyway and although a pawn down has decent chances.
11. Rd1

cxd5 I want Black to make another move instead here, but I can't suggest a better move. It's just that White's king is in the centre and he hasn't developed his king side pieces at all yet. You would think that Black could start an attack from this position. cxd5 is ok, perhaps Qf6.
12. Qxd5 Qxd5 13. Rxd5 f6 Any pawn moves in front of the king have to be well and truly justified! If another move for example Nc6 can be played in stead it should be preferred, as the weakening of the king side is often an invitation for tactics.
14. f4 Nc6 The knight ends up on c6 anyway.

15. Bc4 Be6 White threatens a discovery by moving his rook. Black does well to block that trick with his last.
16. Rc5 Rac8 - Black loses with this move. After Bxc4 the game is still well and truly on. When the game gets complicated like this. You have to try and see all the threats. First look at any checks and captures, if Black had done this he should have spotted the 5...Bxc4 was ok and that 5...Rca6 6.Bxe6+ was a disaster. This is a material mistake and is common in junior chess, in fact Black had played very well up to here, probably better than is older opponent. Black quickly collapses after this.
17. Bxe6+ Kh8 18. Bxc8 Nd4 19. Bxb7 Rb8 20. Rc8+

Break moves

2011-10-29T03:04:00.000-07:00

Last time we looked at a rook on the seventh. To best use rooks we need to open files, but how do we do that? The obvious answer is by using pawns, but we get told not to make too many pawn moves in the opening. That is true, but once you have developed then what?

This article is on break moves, but Dan Heiman has already written the perfect break move essay at Chesscafe, see here - http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman17.pdf. Most of what I present can also be found there.

After you develop, or along side developing you will often want to break the pawn position to increase the mobility of your pieces.
Dan writes: "A 'break' move is a pawn move that 'breaks up' an opponent's (fixed) pawn chain by attacking the opponent's pawns with that pawn."

Break moves are not solely for the use of the defender, but they are definitely required more when defending. The attacker should often seek to advance a pawn alongside his most advanced pawn. This action can also be thought of as a break move, but is often done more to gain space and cramp the defender.

White would like to advance a pawn to either e4 or d4 the yellow squares. Black would love to break with c5 or e5 the green squares. As always with chess short term tactics need to be considered, c4 is a much stronger move than e4, a Black pawn on c4 can be recaptured while e4 is a gambit. Note that a true break move requires the pawn to be fixed otherwise the pawn may just be pushed past.

Lets look at another position: After 1.e4 e6, 2.d4 d5, 3.e5 we have the Advanced French

Black's break moves are c5 or f6. f6 may leave the king a little weak, so may be delayed until the king is safe. Nimzowitsch taught us to attack the base of a pawn chain, so c5 is very strong. If White captures then Bxc5 develops a piece and leaves White with a pawn on e5 that needs to be defended.

In Dan's article he presents the following position:

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 O-O 6.Nf3 e5 7.O-O (7.dxe5 dxe5 8.Qxd8 Rxd8 9.Nxe5 does not win a pawn because of 9…Nxe4 and if 10.Nxf7?? then 10…Bxc3+ wins a piece) 7…Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 - The mainline King's Indian

In this position what is Black’s best break move (hint: it is not legal – yet)?

Black wants to attack the base of White's pawn chain, so breaks on either b5 or f5. Remember though the pawn needs to be fixed to be a break move, so b5 is not an option. Therefore Black wants to play f5. If you look through a King's Indian book you will see this position and perhaps wonder why Black plays either Nh5, Nd7 or Ne8 on his next move, depending on White's move, and doesn't move the at home bishop on c8. Now you know the strategy of breaking, the knight moves don't look so strange. Some of White's ideas in this opening are to stop Black's best knight move, so you will see lines beginning with 9.Ne1, or 9.Nd2, both prevent 9...Nh5 and allow f3 to support the e4 pawn.

Perhaps White should be trying to advance his c-pawn to c5 so he has a pawn alongside his most advanced pawn, but c5 allows the pawn to be captured, which cedes some advantage to Black. 9.b4 preparing c5 is one plan in this position and makes perfect strategic sense.

Note that in opening play, theory sometimes finds flaws in plans that seem perfectly strategically sound. That is because these ideas have been tested in thousands of games and tactical flaws discovered.

Please read Dan's article it is available for free and is brilliant!

Junior Club:Rook on the seventh

2011-10-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

Coaching a large group of children is difficult, especially when there is a wide range of abilities. This year we are trying to introduce more advanced concepts to the older or more advanced children.

Perhaps the most important element of chess are the pawns. "The pawns are the soul of chess" Philidor. The pawn structure dictate where the piece should be placed, which pieces have more power and the plan to follow for an advantage.
Before any pawn play though, we looked at a rook on the seventh rank.
For this we used one of the most famous examples J.Capablanca - S.Tartakower New York 1924. You might think that showing Grandmaster games to children is too advanced, perhaps so for modern masters, but the giants of yesterday often played games of sparkling clarity that demonstrate particular strategic devices clearly.
Of this game Irving Chernev writes "Search the annals of chess from the days of Philidor to the reign of Karpov, and you will find no ending equal to this for demonstrating the power of a Rook on the seventh rank" in his excellent Capablanca's best chess endings.
Who are we to argue with that?
Rather than play through the whole game we picked up the action after move 28.

29.Rh1 - Capablanca sizes the open h-file. Placing the rook on an open file is usually a very good move. Do you see how this fits in with the chat about pawns above? Black's rook is tied to the defence of the pawn on g6, so can not prevent 30.Rh7

29...Kf8 - Did you spot the weak pawn on c3? Why not play Rc6 then? Unfortunately for Black Bb5 would pin and win the rook. In every position tactics have to support the strategy.

30.Rh7

Chernev obviously likes this game, as in The most instructive games of chess ever played he writes:
"Rook to the seventh - the magic move in rook and pawn endings. What is the secret in the strength of this move? It is this:
(a) The rook is in perfect position to attack any pawns that have not yet moved - those still standing on the second rank.
(b) The rook is prepared to attack any that have moved, by getting behind them without loss of time. The pawns would be under constant threat of capture, no matter how many squares they advanced on the file.
(c)The rook's domination of the seventh rank confines the opposing king to the last rank, preventing him from taking any part in the fighting."

30...Rc6 31.g4!

31...Nc4 Black tries to activate his knight. 31...Rxc4 32.Bxg6 would give White two connected passed pawns and the f-pawn in particular would almost inevitably be able to queen.
32.g5 - White fixes the weak pawn on g6
32...Ne3+, 33.Kf3 Nf5

Black has managed to defend the g6 pawn by Nf5 from the White bishop, therefore Black now threatens Rxc3.
34.Bxf5 - Neil Mcdonald writes in "The Giants of Strategy" - "Capablanca trusts in the power of the seventh rank absolute to triumph over material. He will give up several pawns in order to get his king to f6, where it will introduce both mating and queening threats."
34...gxf5 35.Kg3 - See the notes to 34, Cappa isn't bothered about 'spare' pawns, or indeed the pointless check.
35...Rxc3+, 36.Kh4 Rf3 37.g6! letting another pawn fall to advance the king.
37...Rxf4 38.Kg5

Just note how dangerous Cappa's king has now become! If for example Black continues with Rxe4 then Kf6 threatens mate next move when Black has to move his king which will allow White to queen. Therefore Black plays 38...Re4, 39.Kf6 Kg8, 40.Rg7+ forcing the king to a non blockading square before the rook gorges itself on Black's pawns. 40...Kh7

41.Rxc7 - Here comes the payback!! White is preparing to harvest Black's weak pawns in revenge for Black's earlier gluttony. If he can promote the g-pawn to a queen bonus. Note how the Black king is useless on the back rank, see Chernev's notes above. A constant liability to Black the king has to be babysat by the rook otherwise the game will end very quickly. 41...Re8 - Passive, but forced, Tartakover will have hated making this move.
42.Kxf5 - Cappa takes the pawn before regaining mate and promotion threats.
42...Re4, 43.Kf6 - Another mate threat allows White to get his king across the e-file.
43...Rf4+, 44.Ke5 Rg4, 45.g7+ Kg8 Rxg7 Rxg7 is a completely lost pawn ending as White can quickly queen the d-pawn.

46.Rxa7 Rg1, 47.Kxd5 White now has four pawns for his earlier 2 pawn investment.

Black is lost, he now has to try and stop the d-pawn's advance. Cappa finished the game quickly with
47...Rc1, 48.Kd6 Rc2, 49.d5 Rc1, 50.Rc7 Ra1 51.Kc6 Rxa4 52.d6 1-0

Explaining chess concepts in words can be difficult, but when the concepts can be seen in a game and students can play with the positions, ask questions and see how and why the strategy works then lessons are easier to understand and we think more fun.

How does this all fit in with pawns? To get a rook to the seventh rank there must be pawn moves and most probably a pawn exchange. The plan is to introduce pawn breaks next.

School chess Championship

2011-10-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

On the 8th of October 2011 Yarm preparatory school held the 17th Yarm Chess Championship. There was an under 11 section and an under 9 section. Darlington chess club were delighted to send a team to compete for the first time. The Darlington youngsters were joined by over 100 children from around the North East.

The competition was a team event with each team been made up from children attending the same school or chess club. The format was a five round swiss event.

As it was Darlington's first time we had no idea what the standard would be like, would we be completely blown away?
Round one and Darlington were playing one of the super strong Royal Grammar School (RGS) teams.

The Darlington kids were smashed 3.5 - 0.5 with only 5-year-old Dylan securing a draw.

After that round I congratulated the kids, much to their surprise. I was pleased at how hard they had fought, two of our games were the last to finish. I likened them to wild cats fighting every inch of the way. Round two came and the wild cats had their tails up winning 3-1. Round three was another victory 2.5 - 1.5. The Darlington kids were now playing well.

Dylan, Lea, Harry and Aidan.

Round four we played the second placed RGS team and were smashed 4-0. Time for a break.

A feature of the competition, was a room for the kids to eat and a large astro turf area to let off steam. A large game of no rules football erupted, with 20-30 a-side teams, great fun and just what the kids needed. We made friend with some great kids during the chess and the football.

Round five was a draw 2-2.

My man of the match was Dylan, I may be biased as he is my son. At 5 the tables were too big for him to reach all the way to the other side of the board. Below he executed his walk round the table to finish his move technique.

Dylan finished on +2 =2 -1.

I was very proud and pleased with the whole team.

Well done to Sean Marsh for organising a brilliant event. Next year we hope to have at least two teams enter.

Junior Club - Breaking the pieces down

2011-10-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

The coaching philosophy of Darlington chess club has always been a light touch. Try and keep the coaching to short sessions and let the kids play chess.
There is such a range of abilities at the club we have started to coach more advanced topics to some of the older kids that are progressing well. With the other kids we have decided to try and break the pieces down, so the kids get a feel for each piece's unique qualities. This is not a new idea and it is mainly based on the ideas of Richard James. I will give a flavour of what we are doing below, but if you want to see more of what Richard is doing take a look at http://www.chesskids.com/newcourse/index.htm.

Playing mini games.
We pair the kids up and ask them to play the following position.

Black tries to get one of his pawns to the first rank and White tries to stop him. Each child takes a turn with Black and White. Give it a go here http://www.chesskids.com/newcourse/bishopcomb.htm#t1a

The general consensus was the bishop is better than pawns. Agreeing with this we showed them how the bishop can stop advancing pawns by controlling the squares in front of the pawns. After playing the games the kids easily understood this concept.

Next time we played the same game with a knight

The overwhelming feedback here was that the pawns were stronger than the knight. Interesting...

We encouraged the children to play with these positions to see how they affected the results. For example

Next time we will look at what the advanced group have been up to.

Member Games - Garry Hewitt

2011-09-29T02:42:00.000-07:00

Garry Hewitt is a very good player. Graded at 132 he has to be below his actual playing strength. Play through the game below. Note how Garry takes on a good knight v Bad bishop, doubles his rooks on the only open file before exchanging these advantages for a win of a pawn. Thereafter his rooks dominate and the outside passed pawn proves decisive. Finally there is an instructive finish, which we will examine below the game.

The notes to the game are provided by Garry.

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After 54...Rxa7 55.Rh7+ White skewers the rook through the Black king. This is vital endgame technique and needs to be remembered.

Lets take a look at the simplest form of this ending.

This position is a book draw, as long as Black keeps his king on one of his 7 safe squares, shown below.

Black can shuffle his king between h7 and g7 and if White tries to advance his king to help the pawn then the Black rook can check from behind to frustrate White's winning chances. The point is that White no longer has his skewer trick, or a tempo gaining check. So the draw is easy to defend for example:
1.Kf3 Kh7, 2.Ke4 Kg7 3.Kd5 Kh7, 4.Kc6 Kg7, 5.Kb7 Rb1+

Once White moves his king Black can either throw in a few more checks or return his rook to the a-file, there is no way for White to make progress.

From the pure form of these endings we have to try and calculate the difference we may see in an actual game.

here White plays 52.a6 and I would argue that after 52...Kg7 53.a7 we have the book draw. However, White can increase his winning chances by delaying a7, then his plan should be

walk his king to Ka7
use the rook to cover the b-file to block checks
Move the king to b7
Advance the a-pawn

This plan is discussed by Karsten Muller and Frank Lamprecht in their Fundamental chess endings. Frustratingly they provide an advanced drawing technique for Black in the purest form of the position from a composition by J.Vancura in 1924

Black then has checks from the side to save him, but there are some tough-to-find moves in this defence. Perhaps another time...

Junior Club: Recording the moves

2011-09-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

Recording the moves is a big step up from casual player to competitive player. This week some of the kids learnt how to record the moves.

The squares on a chess board each have a unique coordinate. The columns start with a and go to h which we also call files and the rows from 1 to 8 also called ranks. See below board.

This allows us to talk about squares on the chess board quite easily. If you have ever player battle ships you will easily get the idea. First call the file and then the rank. So the square at the bottom left is called a1.

For chess notation we abbreviate each of the chess pieces as follows:-
King K
Queen Q
Rook R
Bishop B
Knight N
Pawn Space when moving and the file it was on when capturing.

There are also some special notations we need to know
Castle king's 0-0
Castle queen's 0-0-0
Capture X
Check +
Mate #

When we make a move we name the piece (The abbreviation from the list above) and the square it is moving to.

If two pieces can move to the same square usually knights or rooks we name the piece the rank or file it was on and the square it is moving to.

If for example we want to move the knight on b7 to d6 we would write down 1.N7d6

Here is an example game.
1.e4 the king's pawn moves forward two squares, c5 Black's queen's bishop pawn moves forward 2.
2.Nf3 d6

3.d4 cxd4 Black captures the White pawn on d4 with his pawn that was on the c-file.
4.Nxd4 Nc6

5.Bb5 Bd7, 6.0-0 White castles king-side 6...e6

7.Be3 Qf6, 8.Nc3 0-0-0 Black castles queen-side, 9.Qd2 Nge7 Black's other knight could also have moved to e7 so it is important to note which knight was moving.

Recording the moves is easy, but takes a little practice to get used to.

Daily Chess Puzzles

2011-09-20T11:53:00.000-07:00

Below is a daily puzzle from game knot
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Darlington new chess column

2011-09-03T06:15:00.000-07:00

Darlington chess club have managed to secure some space in our local paper. A number of local players intend to publish various articles each week bringing chess to the masses of Darlington. Below is an example article from a North East chess great Norman Stephenson.

Chess is a fun game to play and it requires the minimum of equipment … you can buy a decent

board and set for not much more than a tenner and annual fees for local clubs aren’t much more.

Playing skills and knowledge are acquirable from the usual sources - books/CDs/DVDs/internet

(as well as talking to other players) - and, like many other pastimes, the game can be enjoyed at

any level. For those who might wonder about getting to be a really strong player, the good news

is that chess talent is scattered pretty randomly throughout the population; the best ever British

player (who reached World No 4 ten years ago) came from out-of-the-way Truro, while the 2nd strongest ever (who was World No 3 twenty years ago and played for the World Title in 1993) was brought up in Atherton, Lancs. In neither case is there any evidence of any chess-playing strength

in their families.

Perhaps the first really great player in the world by modern standards was Paul Morphy, born in

New Orleans, who learned the game as a 4 year-old just by watching his father and uncle playing.

Paul lived in the mid-1800s and toured the US and Europe, beating all the best players of the age

and laying down the standard for how to play the game.

8-+-+-mKlmk
7+-+-+-zpp
6-+-+-+P+
5+-+-+-+-
4-+-+-+-+
3+-+-+-+-
2-+-+-+-+
1+-+-+-+R
xabcdefghy

White to play and give checkmate on his second

move … this is the only chess problem that Paul

Morphy was known to have composed. It was

published in The New York Clipper in June 1856.

SOLUTION:

White begins 1 Rh6 when either 1 – gxh6 2 g7

or 1 – B anywhere 2 Rxh7 are both checkmate

-----

Morphy was indeed a genius, and I couldn't resist using this opportunity to share his famous opera box game.

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Holidays

2011-08-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

I'm off on my holidays soon, so this blog will be quiet for a while. I just wanted to let you know what we had coming up at the club over the next few weeks.

22 August 2011 - Chess lecture

We are lucky enough to secure the services of the excellent Norman Stephenson to deliver one of his chess lectures. Norman prepares his lectures carefully and presents them by playing through famous grandmaster games and his own games. An example below from his "Interplay of strategy and tactics".

Norman took the audience through the ideas behind the moves, hidden tactics and overall strategies. Norman has had years of teaching experience and presents these lectures in an enjoyable and informal fashion.

The lecture is free, so if you can make it, kick off is at 19:15.

29 August 2011 - Bank holiday.
The club is open, but is usually quiet.

5 September 2011 - Club's AGM
The club's members meet to discuss the topics on the agenda. There is usually time for a game of chess afterwards.

12 September - Junior club
Yes its the return of the kids! All ages and abilities welcome.

Whet your appetite before the lecture. Be assured Norman's commentary turns these games into front row entertainment, he should be on TV, he really is that good. No he's better...

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Out and about - The British

2011-08-01T00:37:00.000-07:00

The annual British chess championship is the highlight of the chess year for many chess fans in the UK. The tournament moves around the different regions and countries of the UK. This year the tournament was held in Sheffield at the Ponds Forge leisure complex.

The Ponds is a short walk from the train station and is a huge complex. The main chess events were held in a giant sports hall, that was well ventilated and nice and light. Lets take a look inside.

The games are played in normal tournament style i.e. rows of tables with several boards side by side. There was plenty of space between the tables and each player had enough room to record their moves and store drinks etc. At the front of the hall were the 6 top boards. Boards 1-4 also included a wide screen monitor displaying the moves as they were played.

I went down to the event on day five which was Friday 29th July.

Board 1 Was Nigel Short V David Howell. I was a little star struck when Nigel came in. Nigel is such a big name in chess, remember the world championships in the early 90s in London? Nigel chatted to a few people before the round started and posed for a couple of pictures with youngsters. Below Nigel waits for the start of the round.

Board 2 was Michael "Mickey" Adams V Garwain Jones.

Board 3 Gordon V Hunt, no picture.

Board 4 Peter Wells V Jovanka Houska. I was pleased to see Jovanka on the top boards, as she will be a great inspiration to the girls at our club. Below a picture of me watching the games (stripy top), with Peter and Jovanka getting in the way. I suppose they are the stars!

There I am again!

Board 5 Griffiths V Pert no picture.
Board 6 Jonathan "The Hawk" Hawkins V Jack Rudd.

Johnny's game wasn't on a monitor, so I tried to get as close as I could to watch without being intrusive, as there was a clear space between the audience and the top boards. I will have a look at this game later.

Play started at 14:15 and from 15:00 Andy Martin hosted an entertaining analysis sessions, where he discussed the top games as they happened.

Andy attempted to explain the players thinking, possible continuations and provided his assessments of the games. When a game reached an interesting position he would hold a guess the next move competition, where a book could be won. For example can you find Black's next move in the following?

Answers at the end. Andy also required a brief explanation of why, so be prepared if you guess the move without the reason I will dock some points.

Hawkins, J V Rudd,J
Johnny is a hero in the North East. His improvement from young major player to international master is astounding, but a testament to the two pillars of success, hard work and talent.
1.Nf3 Richard Palliser writes in his "beating unusual chess openings", 'For the club player 1.Nf3 usually heralds either a King's Indian Attack (KIA) or a Reti,but things are somewhat different at higher-rated levels. There fiendish White players often employ 1.Nf3 with the aim of transposing to certain d4 openings while avoiding others.'
So far Johnny has opened 1.e4, 1.d4 and here 1.Nf3. At the very highest level the top players need a broad repertoire otherwise players will prepare vigorously for their pet lines.
1...Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 b6 4.Bg2 Bb7 5.d4 As predicted we have a d4 opening, a Queen's Indian.

Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 These type of moves look like a wast of time, but Black would argue that White's bishop is not well placed on d2.
7.Nc3 0-0 8.0-0 c5 9.d5 White plays to open the centre and use tactics on the long diagonal to reposition his pieces. 9...exd5 10.Nh4 Re811.Nf5 now White has a well placed knight eyeing Black's bishop and his bishop on g2 exerts pressure right along the h1-a8 diagonal. Note although a pawn down, I'm sure White is more than able to regain the pawn on d5.

Bf8 12.Bg5 h6 - Things are looking tricky.

13.Nxd5 Bxd5 14.Bxd5 Nc6 Now White heads towards an ending after inflicting some structural damage to Black's pawns.15.Bxc6 dxc6 16.Qxd8 Raxd8 17.Nxh6+ gxh6 18.Bxf6Rd6 19.Bc3 Rxe2 Does White have enough to win here? I would asses this as a small plus for White, but with plenty to do. Johnny shows that to be a top player its not all just opening prep, but excellent endgame skill is also required.

20.Rfe1 Rc2 21.Re8 b5 22.cxb5 cxb5 23.Rc8 Rb6 - Probably a mistake, as the plan Re6-Re2 would see Black having doubled rooks on the second rank, which is often enough to make a draw. 24.Rd1 Black's bishop is in mortal danger. Black stares defeat squarely in the eye. Can you find a move?

24...Rxc3 What else is there? White has numerous ways to win the bishop otherwise. Unfortunately for Black I would say he is dead lost here, but fights on for a few moves to make sure.25.bxc3 Kg7 26.Rc7 a527.Rdd7 Rf6 28.Ra7 b4 29.c4 1-0
Remember Jack Rudd is a strong player himself with an IM title.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day at the British. You can reply, or download all the games at http://britishchess2011.com/pgn_games.htm and also check out Andy Martin's excellent game of the day at http://britishchess2011.com/videos.htm

Guess the move

Did you want to play Nh5? This clever move by Black will be followed by Nf4 establishing a strong knight on f4 and if White doesn't want to swap a bishop for a knight he needs to vacate the e2 and d3 squares. Award yourself 5 points.

Member Games - Bill Metcalfe

2011-07-29T01:50:00.000-07:00

Bill Metcalfe v 120

Bill started player chess as an adult which is not easier. After losing many games at the club he started improving quickly and is now a dangerous player to face. Bill is one of the pillars of the club organising congresses and captaining multiple teams. In this game he was playing a higher graded opponent at the Middlesbrough congress.

Play through the game below with notes, or scroll to the bottom to play through the game using GameKnot's ichess viewer.

1.e4 c5, 2.N3 g6 "If Black is to ensure he reaches a 'pure' Dragon set-up, he must meet 2.Nf3 with d6." Writes Edward Dearing in Play the Sicilian Dragon.
We have already seen a Dragon game in the Jonathan Sams game. Black usually continues with Nc6, 0-0 and Bd7, but if allowed Black will play d5! which is his main break or freeing move. Dearing's issue with move order tricks is that White can choose from different systems and perhaps catch Black out. Perhaps the strongest non-pure set-up system is the Maroczy bind where White moves his c-pawn to c4 with an iron grip on d5, which really makes that d5 break by Black difficult to play.
Move order tricks are common at Grandmaster level (trying to gain an advantage through theory) and weekend tournament players (trying to avoid theory or problem lines).

The pure Dragon set-up

After all that though John Shaw notes 2....g6 "This is a perfectly acceptable move order to reach either variety of Dragon", in his section of Experts vs the Sicilian. When John refers to 'either' he is talking about either the pure system or accelerated Dragons (where Bg7 is played earlier than the pure lines). The accelerated line has many die hard fans, the theory is piling up and is a main system in its own right. The accelerated line has one big advantage if Black gets to play that d5 break in one move, as he will have saved a crucial tempo over the pure line.

Back to the game

3.d4 cxd4

John Shaw recommends this move as best, probably transposing.

4.Nxd4 Bill thinks Qxd4 is the most testing move, he has probably faced that over the board and found it difficulty. John Shaw thinks "Black is OK" after 4...Nf6, I personally wouldn't want my queen so exposed early in the game.

4... Bg7, 5.Nc3 This is probably the main line, but I would prefer 5.c4 Nc6, 6.Nc2!? This is recommended by Peter Heine Nielsen in the Accelerated Dragon Section of Experts vs the Sicilian. Peter is an experienced Accelerated Dragon player, the idea of the Experts vs book is that players discuss the lines they find the most difficult to play against.

5...Nc6, 6.Be3 a6 - This is a risky move as it weakens b6 where a White piece may land and cause major disruption to Black's position. Instead 6...Nf6, 7.f3 takes us back to the pure dragon.

7.Bc4 e6 another weakening move, this time its d6 and f6 which are weaker, note how all Black's weak squares are dark squares. Can White exploit these weaknesses? I would play d6, Nf6 and 0-0 as soon as possible if I were playing this position. 8.Qd2 Nf6, 9.f3 A common move in the pure dragon lines, as it stops Ng4 hitting the important dark squared bishop, but f3 also acts as a springboard for a king side pawn storm with h4, h5 and a possible g4.

9...Qc7, 10.Bb3 Its wise to remove the unprotected bishop from the c-file, as there are well known tricks with Nxd5 discovering an attack on the bishop, they wouldn't necessarily work in this position, but safety first. 10...b5 Black gains space on the queen side. In many lines White castles long while Black goes short and pawns are launched at the opposing king. Proper toe to toe John Wayne style!

In this game a game of who will castle fist chicken has developed.

11.0-0-0 Its White. Chicken! Ne5

White has castled in to Black's advancing pawns which could be dangerous. But Black is lagging behind in development and could get caught with his king in the centre. This is a dangerous time for Black. If he can complete his development quickly he will be ok, otherwise White might be able to build a strong attack.

David LeMoir in his book Essential Chess Sacrifices discusses various standard chess sacrifices. His first chapter is "A Knight Clears the Queenside: Nxb5 in the Sicilian", in that he writes "In the Sicilian Defence, Black often plays ...a6 and ...b5. White often gives up a piece to clear the mini pawn-chain, the piece that recaptures on b5 (after axb5) wins a tempo in some way. When its a knight its often a queen on c7" All the ingredients are there, does it work?
12.Ndxb5 axb5, 13.Nxb5 Qc6, 14.Nd6 Kf8 - With an unclear position, but I would imagine Black can survive the pressure and enjoy his extra material.

Analysis

Back to the game...
12.g4 White's pawns will now charge up the board, this is a standard plan in such positions. White wants to break open Black's king's position. The only problem with that plan is that Black's king is still in the centre! Black could try h5 here, hoping to block the advancing pawns.
12...Nc4 Hitting both queen and bishop. Bill notes that this move is a mistake as White has a trick with
(13.Nexb5 axb5, 14Nxb5 Qc6 (..Nxd2 15.Nxc2+ winning the exchange) 15.Bxc4 See below

Analysis

note that Qxc4 fails to 16.Nd6+ winning the queen. White would then be two full pawns up. I think that is quite a tough combo to see over the board, I didn't see it (I used some silicon muscle). But in these positions we should always be on the lookout for "Essential" thematic sacrifices.

13.Qe2?

As noted above White has a really good move with knight takes b5, but missing that does not incur the question mark. White needs his dark square bishop to attack the weak dark squares and dislodge the dragon bishop. In analogous positions in the pure dragon Bxc4 is played and a Black rook recaptures with pressure on the c-file.
13...Nxe3! Winning a prize asset. With just one poor choice White has gone from a very promising game to a difficult one. Chess is a cruel game.
14.Qxe3 b4! Black rolls forward. Where does White move his knight to? Na4 (knights on the rim are dim), Nb1(back where it started or 15.Ne2??

Even though Black is not fully developed it is he who drives the play pushing White around. White's last was a serious mistake, as his other knight on d4 now has no flight squares. It is strange to note that although White got all his pieces developed quickly somehow they landed on the wrong squares for the position.
15...e5 Of course Black plays to win a piece.
16.Bd5 White has to decide whether to play on or not a piece down. Most tournament players have an iron will and will fight until the last chance of holding a draw has been erased, for me I think that is right. Black hasn't developed fully yet and his pawns are a bit scruffy, perhaps White can build an attack when the piece might not matter. One thing is for certain Black can not switch off, even though Bill will be starting to chalk the point mentally onto his score sheet.
16...exd4! 17.Nxd4 Rb8 (I think Nxd5 is much better)
18.Bb3 0-0, 19.e5 Re8

Black is playing well. He has just pinned the e-pawn, so White can't take his knight. With Bb7 begging to be played Black looks to be winning easily here.
20.f4? White desperately tries to drum up counter play, but another pawn lost makes a save all but impossible.
20... Nxg4, 21.Qf3 My tactical skewer alarm just went off. "Whah! Whah! Whah!" The a8-h1 diagonal is now so dangerous for White
21...Nh6 22.Rhg1 saving the exchange.
22...Bd7, 23.Qf2 Be4 Black finds a neat way to slow the pawns down and provide extra support for his king.

24.h4 a5, 25.h5 Rec8, 26.hxg6 hxg6 27.f5 White knows he is losing so is throwing everything he has at Black's king. But Black stays calm with 27...Nxf5, 28.Rg6 Qe5

Black has cleverly positioned his pieces so that they both attack and defend, next he will interrupt White's lines of attack and then exchange down to an easily won ending.
29.Rdg1 d5! cuts out the bishop on b3.
30.R6g5? Qxd4, 31.Rxg7 Qxg7, 32.Rxg7 Nxg7 Black has exchanged off quite a few pieces and is now winning by miles.
33.Qd4 Ne6, 34, Qe5 Nc5, 35. Bxd5

And finally the coup-de-grace Nd3 winning the queen with a fork made possible by the pin on the f-pawn, nice!!

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Colin Walton V Darlington Chess club

2011-07-23T04:45:00.000-07:00

On 18/07/11 Colin Walton grade 200 played a simultaneous match against any Darlington player brave enough to face him. Colin graciously allowed his opponents to choose colour, most decided on White! Games were played with clocks, but more as a marker to let Colin know if his opponent was to move or not.

Colin is relaxed before his games:-

In action Colin makes his way around the club. Spending only a few seconds at each board before moving on, Colin used his lightening mind to calculate winning plans and as you can see the club's members were concentrating hard.

AJ was the youngest player there, but gave Colin a good workout.

James Garner seems pleased with himself, perhaps he has a winning move in mind.

Colin won all his games except one he lost against the mighty Niall Garner.

Below is a position from my game against Colin. The game opened as a king's Indian Defence

White has just moved his knight to b5 hoping to win a pawn.
1..fxe4, 2.fxe4 f3!

The pawn can not be captured because the g-pawn is pinned. White therefore has to defend the pawn on g2.
3.Bf1 Be5 here come the backup!
4.Rd2 White is trying to cling on by beefing up his second rank.

4...Bf4! Remember Colin was taking less than a minute for these moves. I was expecting a powerful sacrifice on h2, but like all good players Colin is not in a rush. He takes the time to harass the rook before he finds the decisive breakthrough.
5.Rd3 Bxh2!

White resigns as the position is hopeless. After 6.Kxh2 Qh4+, 7.Kg1 f2+ White has to give up his queen.

Darlington chess club would like to thank Colin for agreeing to play the simultaneous. Darlington chess club tries to organise different summer events while the leagues are not running.

Junior Club - End of year party

2011-07-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

Monday 18th July was the last Junior chess night of the 10/11 season. The kids and coaches are looking forward to their summer break and the club will return 12/09/11.

The kids took a break from serious chess study and played chess variants instead.

They played cross chess a game with two boards played in teams where captured pieces are passed to your partner. Good fun with wild positions like the one below

Even James and Sarah got involved.

I would like to thank both James and Sarah for their help and support throughout the season without them the junior club would have been very difficult to manage.

Time for a group photo.

During the year the kids played several games of serious chess. The clear winner was AJ. Below he collects his shield which he keeps for a year and has his name inscribed on it forever.

All the kids received a small goody bag filled with sweets. Not surprisingly this went down well.

Last but not least

Back to chess variants. Things were a little louder after the sweets!

I hope to see all the kids back September.

Middlesbrough Congress - Darlington on tour

2011-07-14T14:46:00.000-07:00

Between the 08 - 10 July 2011 Middlesbrough held its annual chess congress at the magnificent riverside stadium.

The congress was held in the spacious and light legends lounge.

The congress was well attended and even included an international Master Jonathan Hawkins.

If you want to be an IM you better hit the books. Plenty of opportunity to buy them courtesy of Chess Direct Ltd.

Severn Darlington members attended the congress. Below are some interesting posotions and game snippets from a few of the games.

First up is a game from Bill Metcalfe, can you find a good move? We will be seeing more of this game in the coming weeks, as it will be a featured member game. Answer at the end of the blog...

One of the features of the above game is the unbalanced nature of the material. These unbalances can lead to the most interesting positions in chess. Which leads us nicely to the next position.

White (Niall Garner) has just played 21.Rf5! Black is short on time, so tries to swap off his queen for two rooks and ease the pressure he is under, starting with 21...Qxg3, 22.Nxg3 gxf5, 23.Nxf5+

Black may be regretting his idea as a knight and queen near an open king can often lead to a decisive attack. Play continued 23...Kh8, 24.d4. White wants to open the long diagonal where the king stands which is probably a winning attack, but while I was watching the game I couldn't help thinking the simple and obvious Qh6 may be best e.g.
(24.Qh6 with a mate threat Rg8, 25.Qxc6 picking up a pawn and hitting the uncoordinated rook. Rb8, Next White would want to involve the second knight, at home I noticed that 26.Nb5! is decisive, as it threatens another pawn, but also with the threat of Nd6-Nxf7#)

Analysis

Back to the game

24...cxd4, 25.Qxd4+ f6 and now 26.Qd6 will win a pawn and is similar to the analysis above. Playing a weekend congress is a long and tiring affair and mistakes are common in the later stages of games. Here White plays 26.g4?! with the intention of weakening the blocking pawn on f6, but Black plays a good move 26...Ne5

White has to respond to the fork threat allowing Black Bxf5 when his rooks connect and make a tougher fight. Play continued for another 10 moves before White offered a draw saving his energy for the final round.

The next position is from one of my games and can not match the previous positions, but its the only game I won, so humour me.

White has just played 31.Rac1 attacking the backward c-pawn. But Black ignores that threat and invades White's position with 31...Qf4, the advanced pawns allow the queen access into White's position which should win something. Clearly White hadn't seen this move and the shock value was enough to induce a howler 32.Rhf1??

Which leads to mate in two, although I took 3, 32...Qh4+, 33.Kg1 Qg3, Kh1 Kg2#

Finally we see Richard Harris in action.

Richard decided to exchanges Queens earlier as he was a pawn up with an outside passed pawn. An easy win perhaps? Black responded by playing 1...g5, there followed 2.hxg5 hxg5 and the point went to Richard. Remember the square rule (Passed Pawns and the square rule) White's king can step inside the square and can easily stop the pawn and did.

However what happens if Black pushes past the pawn and refuses to capture? 2...h5!

The Black pawn is now immune from the White king, as the king is too far away. Ok White has his own outside passed pawns, the d-pawn and g-pawn are both in reach of Black's king.
3.a4 h4, 4.a5 h3, 5.a6 h2, 6.a7 h1Q, Black queens first with a very important detail.

Black's new queen covers White's queening square.
Has White just had the luckiest escape of his life? Should Black have won?
No. There is a line that draws. Looking at the last diagram we realise that the long h1-a8 diagonal is key, so White can try 3.d4

Black can try pushing his h-pawn queening first, but then White will have a queen on d8 the next go, and White may be able to use his extra pawns to win. As previously discussed Black's king is in both pawns square so Black should probably try 3..Kg6, 4.d5 Kxg5 and now this detail is important, as White can now push his a-pawn. Black still queens first, but this time the diagonal is closed!!
5.a4 h4, 6.a5 h3, 7.a6 h2, 8.a7 h1Q, 9.a8Q

Black now has the first check and should be able to draw easily with multiple checks. What an interesting position!!!

----

Back to Bill's game

Did you spot Ne6+ winning the queen, note the f-pawn is pinned.

Darlington Community carnival - Chess tent

2011-06-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

On 25th June Darlington held its annual community carnival. The carnival centres around Stanhope park just outside the town centre. The centre piece of the whole day is a themed parade that starts and ends at the park. Many local schools supported the parade, which was bright, colourful and noisy.

The park was full of different stalls and activities. There were slides

Rides

face painting

and a giant chess set

The event was very well attended and there was a real buzz in the park.

Darlington chess club decided to take one of the pitches.
We were able to loan a giant chess set

We also loaned a gazebo. Add a couple of tables, chess sets and willing volunteers and we had a very good pitch.

Anybody who wanted to play got a game.

There was steady stream of willing participants, most seemed to enjoy their games. We had printed some flyers with the club's details and handed them to anyone showing any interest.
There seemed to be two main groups that wanted to play:

Kids - We play with our Dad at home, but we haven't anywhere else to play
Adults - I used to play ages ago, but haven't played for years

All were invited to the club and there seemed genuine interest.

The day was really good fun. It was interesting to see how many people expressed a genuine interest in chess.

Thanks go to
The willing volunteers:
Alec Cinamon
Rod Gilpin
Dave Harris
Jonathan Sams
Bob Donner
AJ Thorne-Wallis (And Sandy AJ's Mum)
John Williams

Special thanks to
Aidan and James Garner for helping to set up, pack away and helping all day

Junior Club: Passed pawns - using the king - Part 3

2011-06-12T05:47:00.000-07:00

In using the king part 1(Click here) we discussed the opposition and rolling the enemy king out of the way to allow the pawn to march through.

In using the king part 2 (Click here) we saw how the defending side could draw. We looked at the position that our king needs to be to guarantee a win, calling these squares key squares.

This week we will look a little more at those key squares, then we will look at rook and knight pawns. The rook pawn is the pawn that sits in front of the rook in the starting position, that is a pawn on the a or h file. Likewise a knight pawn starts the game in front of a knight the b or g file.

In the following position it is White to move. Remember we claimed that a king on a key square wins regardless who has the move

You may notice that Black has the opposition, so White can not roll the Black king, as say 1.Ke5 Ke7 allows black to keep the opposition. What White needs to do is to gain the opposition. The correct way to do this is to move the pawn and not the king, which is the reason we needed the king two squares in front of the pawn.
1.d4! Kc7, 2.Ke6

It doesn't matter where Black moves White wins
A 2...Kd8, 3.Kd6 Kc8, 4.Ke7 Kc7, 5.d5 and the pawn promotes
B 2...Kc6, 3.d5+ Kc7, 4.Ke7 (4.d6 also wins, but note how the king covers the queening square, this is good technique) and the pawn promotes
C 2...Kc8, 3,Ke7 Kc7, 4.d5 and the pawn promotes
D Any king move to the b-file allows 3.d5 and 4.Ke7 and the pawn promotes

Here is another example. White to move. What would you play?

Of course the aim of these endings is to get the pawn to promote to a queen, but always remember to use the king!
The careless 1.d4?? allows 1...Kd7! when White can not get his king to a key square.

Play may continue 2.Kc5 Kc7!, 3.d5 Kd7, 4.d6 or any king move by White which allows black Kd5 and we have set up last weeks drawing position.

Remember Black moves his king straight back so he can gain the opposition next move. So lets return to the original position.

Correct is 1.Kc6 using the king and we would have a very similar position to the first example.

Get a board, place the two kings on random squares and add a pawn also at random. Try and work out if the enemy king is outside the pawn's square. If not use your king. Can the attacker get to one of the key squares? Practice this technique until its sealed in.

So far I have used examples where the pawn is in the centre of the board. That is because life is easier for those pawns. The rooks pawn is much more difficult.

So what's the problem? Well take a look White can not roll the Black king!! Black can just play Kb8 and Ka8 and force a draw.

To win with a rook pawn White needs to be able to get his king to either b8 or b7, simple as that.

Now for the tricky knight pawn. Its Black to move 1...Kh8, What do we play?

Did you want to play 2.Kf7? White can still win from this position, but there is a stalemate trap lurking so be very careful, simpler is Kh6 which we will return to after looking at the trap.
2...Kh7, 3.g5 Kh8

If White tries 4.g6?? then Black is stalemated and the game drawn. White must try Kg6 from the diagram, but the winning technique from here is a little difficult, perhaps another time...
That is why from the original diagram after 1...Kh8 we play 2.Kh6 with the idea of marching the pawn onwards!

2..Kg8, 3.g5 Kh8, 4.g6 Kg8, 5.g7 and Black can no longer hide in the corner

Black's king must play 5..Kf7 allowing White to control the promotion square with 6.Kh7. This technique is known as the squeeze and can be used for any pawn.

You now have all the tools to win a pawn and king v king ending. Remember the best thing to do is practise.

Passed pawns-using the king part 2

2011-06-07T07:59:00.000-07:00

We have seen how the side with a king and pawn can win, see Passed pawns-using the king-Part1 for a reminder. We talked about how important it was to use the king and looked at the king's judo skills rolling the other king. Life isn't always that easy, there are many positions where the side with the pawn can't win.

This week we will take a look at the drawing technique and then introduce key squares. Look at the following position.

This position is a draw it doesn't matter who is to move. If the defender can get his king in front of the pawn like this its a draw, but be careful. Let's say its Black to move
1...Kd7 It is important to move straight back, so when White advances his king Black can take the opposition.
2.Ke5 White can not take the opposition because his own pawn is in the way!
2... Ke7 Black now has the opposition

As we can see black has the opposition, so White is faced with a tough choice, move his king or advance his pawn. Moving the king is pointless, as Black will be able to play Kd6 and we will have returned to the original position.
3. d6+ Kd7, 4.Kd5 otherwise Black would capture the pawn.

As you may have noticed, we have a similar position to the starting position, just one square forward.
4... Kd8 Always remember to move straight back.
5. Ke6 Ke8

Once again Black has the opposition
6.d7 Kd8, 7.Kd6 Stalemate and a draw.

When defending try to get your king in front of the pawn.

When you have the pawn try to advance your king before the pawn. If your king can get to a key square then you will be able to force a win. For pawns on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th rank the key squares are two squares forward of the pawn and the square on either side of that. Diagrams always help.

For the b pawn on the second rank the key squares are a4,b4 and c4. The g pawn on the third rank the key squares are f5, g5 and h5. The d pawn on the fourth rank has key squares c6,d6 and e6. If you can get your king onto one of these squares you can force a win.
When pawns are on the 5th rank the key squares are only one square in front of the pawn. This is because we are running out of board!

Once again if you can get your king onto one of these squares you will be able to win.

If you advance your pawn to the 6th rank before your king and the black king can defend the queening square it is very difficult to win. So remember use your king.

Junior Club - Durham competition

2011-06-04T03:55:00.000-07:00

On Saturday the 21st of May the Durham County Junior Chess Championships were held. Four members of the Darlington junior club played. All 4 qualified for the under 9 section. The under 9 and under 11 competitions were joined together as numbers were a little lower than expected.

AJ won all of his games, AJ was awarded the under 9 Trophy even though he could have claimed the under 11 as well. Second in the under 9 section was Aidan! The other two members Harry and Dylan both won a game or two and enjoyed the experience.

After the prize ceremony the Darlington squad posed for a photo.

Dylan, Harry, Aidan and AJ

All the winners of the various categories, unfortunately I don't know all the names.

The kids enjoyed the afternoon. The standard wasn't too high in the under 11 section, so none of kids were out of their depth. All in it was a very good introduction to tournament play.

Junior Club: Passed pawns - using the king - Part 1

2011-05-21T02:21:00.000-07:00

We have already discussed passed pawns and the square rule see Passed Pawns and the square rule .

What happens when the enemy king is inside the square? The answer is easy, use your king. Well actually using your king can be extremely complicated. There are many positions that win and many that draw. Over the next few weeks we will discuss this subject further. In all these discussions I will limit the positions to a king and pawn for White against king only for Black.

But first of all we need to introduce the opposition

When the two kings face each other as seen in the above example [note both kings one square apart on the same colour square] the kings are in opposition. But one side has it and the other doesn't. From the diagram the side to move does NOT have the opposition.
If we say it's Black's turn to move in the diagram White has the opposition and Black does not.

So what? Well it means that Black's king can not move forward and can only move backwards or sideways.
Lets look at a similar position with that pawn we talked about earlier.

Black to move

The pawn needs to march forward and promote to a queen. If the Black king can stay on the same file as the pawn then White will fail to promote his pawn.

In the opening and middle game the king has to cower in corners fearful for its safety, but as the board clears the king can enter the battle and demonstrate its own fighting king. The king is well schooled in judo and can "roll" the enemy king out of the way.

Its Black to move he can either retreat or move sideways, lets look at both
Backwards
1...Kd7, 2.Kd5

White keeps the opposition and is again faced with the same problem. This time Black moves
Sideways
2...Kc7 (Ke7 is exactly the same). Now the White king remembers his judo training and performs
The roll
3.Ke6 Kc6

Hi Ya!! Black belt judo

White has managed to remove the black king from the d-file, so the pawn can march forward with no obstruction. Play continues 4.d4 Kc7 5.d5 Kc8?? [Black has a tougher defense with 5...Kd8, can you see why?] 6.Ke7

White's king now covers d6, d7 and the queening square d8. Black will resign as there is no way to stop the pawn. If Black had chosen 5...Kd8 White would have needed to roll the king again with 6.Kd6)

TIP - If you need to use the king in these kind of endings advance the king before the pawn. Always make sure the pawn can not be captured though!

Next week we will further explore these positions, as there are many pitfalls to avoid.

Junior club - Using the clock

2011-05-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

This week the children played games using a chess clock.

A standard chess clock.

After each move the player presses his clock. This stops your clock, but starts your opponent's. If a player uses more than the agreed time limit he has lost. As the time limit approaches the flag at the top of the clock lifts and when the limit is exceeded falls.

Almost all chess competitions use clocks. A chess clock is a simple and effective way of ensuring all games are completed in a timely fashion.

The clock's are easy to use, it's just about getting into the habit of pressing the clock after your move. Some of the children seemed to be a bit nervous of the clock, but they soon realised they had plenty of time and soon became accustomed to the routine of move press.

We started using the clocks this week as several of the children are playing their first competition at the Durham junior chess competition. Details follow:-

Belmont C of E Junior School

Buckinghamshire Road, Belmont, Durham DH12QP

Saturday 21st May 2011, 1.30 – 5.00 p.m.

· Open to any juniors attending school or living in the former Durham County (which apart from Durham includes Darlington, Hartlepool, Stockton, Gateshead, Sunderland and South Tyneside).

· Five age groups:

under-9, under-11, under-13, under-15 and under-18

(ages on 1st September 2010).

· The winner of each section will receive a trophy, and there will also be a trophy for the best score by a girl aged under 15.

· Entry fee £4 per player (cheques to 'Durham County Chess Association').

Please give name, date of birth, telephone and/or email, age group you wish to enter, and name of school.

Group entries from schools are welcome.

· Light refreshments will be on sale, but feel free to bring your own.

· Entries to:

Ken Neat, 9 Ullerdale Close, Belmont, Durham DH1 2TU

(Tel. 0191-3864795; email: junior@dcca.org.uk).

Member Games - Kevin Wilson

2011-05-08T02:39:00.000-07:00

Kevin Wilson has long been the most popular member of the Darlington chess club. His entertaining chess and witty banter has entertained both home and away players for years. His involvement with the club's blog has secured at least a favorable write up here!

In this game I ground out a victory after winning a pawn early in the game and pressed the advantage into an ending. It wasn't an easy win, which makes me more proud of the achievement.

Read through the game, or scroll to the bottom to play through the game using GameKnot's ichess viewer.

164 V Kevin Wilson

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 The Caro-Kann favorite of many world champions. Why? Because it is very solid, which can lead to White players over reaching.
3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 {The exchange variation is popular at club level as the set up is so easy to remember Bd3/Bf4/c3/Qb3/Nd2/Nf3, but has a drawish reputation.}

4...Nc6 5. Ne2 {White finds another method of defending the d-pawn, c3 is the usual. Therefore White is already deviating from the main exchange set up.}

5...Nf6 6. O-O Bg4 {Perhaps this bishop move isn't the best idea, as the obvious reply is f3 or h3 chasing it away, but f3 especially weakens White's kingside and after Bh5-g6 the bishop will challenge Whites well placed d3 bishop.}

7. f3 Bh5 8. c3 e6 9. Bg5 Bd6 {The idea is to ignore the pin and build up on the b8-h2 diagonal. If White exchanges on f6 then gxf6 is an option to reveal lines of attack on White's castled king.}

10. Nf4? {The knight goes bishop hunting, but I think this is a poor move, as it allows the build up explained in the previous note with a threat.}

10...Qc7 11. g3 {g3 looks a little ugly, but consider some other examples

11.Nxh5 Bxh2+ 12.Kh1 Nxh5

11.Bxf6 Bxf4 12.Bxg7 Bxh2+ 13.Kh1 Rg8 11.Qd2 h6 12.Bxf6 (Nxh5 is line 1, but with the bishop on g5 attacked) Bxf4 losing a piece.}

Back to the game

11...h6 12. Bxf6 Bxf4 13. Be5 {White doesn't want an open or half open g-file, so is forced to retreat the bishop which loses a pawn}

13...Bxe5 14. dxe5 Qb6+ {The check prevents Bb5+}

15. Rf2 Nxe5 16. g4 {Qa4+ looks like a better try, as White's line of play brings the bishop back into play with a gain of tempo.}

16...Nxd3 17. Qxd3 Bg6 18. Qe2 O-O {Black tucks his king away into safety. He has an extra pawn, safer king, Bishop v badly placed knight, weak pawns to target on b2 and f3. Black is better, probably winning, but there is a lot of work to do to collect the full point.}

19. Na3 {How else can the knight develop?}

19...Rac8 {This allows the White queen access to b5, but Black can counter with Qe3 and if the pawn on b7 is captured then White's b-pawn will also fall with a

greater threat on f2.}

20. Re1 a6 {Stopping any entry on b5.}

21. Qe3 Qxe3 {If the rook ending wins for Black then the queen exchange is a very bad move by White, however if the rook ending holds then Black has made the mistake. Usually the side with a material advantage profits from piece exchanges. I would say that Black can win this ending...}

22. Rxe3 b5 {White's knight is frozen out of the game. How can White get the knight involved? Perhaps a

plan based on exchanges on c4?}

23. Ree2 {White is going to reposition the knight via c2. if 23.Nc2 Bxc2 24.Rxc2 allows 24...b4 or 24...d4 when the pawn is pinned.}

23...Rfe8 24. Nc2 Bxc2 25. Rxc2 Rc4 {Black has complete control of the

c-file. The plan is to generate a passed d-pawn. Use the c-file to put

pressure on White's weak pawns and slowly advance the central pawns hoping to

promote the d-pawn}

26. Rcd2 g5 {Fixes the weak f-pawn.}
27. Rfe2 Rec8 28. Kf2 b4 {Creates the passed d-pawn.}
29. cxb4 Rxb4

30. Ke3 Kg7 {The Black king hopes to invade via e5, Black will not allow such a plan to work.}
31. Rc2 Rbc4 {Black will not release control of the only open file.}
32. Rxc4 Rxc4 33. Kf2 d4 {The d-pawn starts rolling, it also takes away the e3 square from the white king. White is now getting squashed. The only concern in this position is the 2 v 1 pawn formation on the queenside.}

34. Rd2 e5 35. Ke2 Kf6 {Perhaps f5 is better here.}
36. Kd3 Rc6 {Time! Take a breath and reassess.}

37. Ke4 Ke6 {The White king has a nice central position, but it can not advance and its only retreat square is d3. Such kings can be easily mated by a rook on e3, or if d3 is covered a pawn check on f5. If a mate can not be delivered the threat can often generate some play.}
38. Re2 {A draw was offered here, but the previous note suggests there is still play in the position. One idea is use the a pawn as a way to gain access into the position by

removing the guard to c3.}

38...f6 39. Rd2 a5 40. Re2 Rc1 {Another idea is to smoke the king out and then ensure it can not return to such a good square.}

41. Kd3 Kd5 42. Rf2 a4 43. Kd2 Rc7 {Yet another idea is an f or a h pawn push which can be supported by a rook.}

There is no need to hurry when playing endgames like these. There is plenty of time to explore all plans, as there is little White can do. In fact its a good idea to play like this as White is walking a tightrope, one slip he is dead.

44. Rf1 f5 45. h3 f4 {The pawn advances, as any pawn race between say a black d-pawn and White's a-pawn will now result in an easy break through}

46. Re1 Rc5 {Frees the king for a stroll if he feels like it.}
47. Kd3 a3 {The pawn crashes into White's duo on a2 and b2. The whole point is to clear the c3 square.}
48.Re2 Rc1 {Black can also invade via the e-file. We could see White offering an exchange of rooks here. But that simply allows the pawns to march on. I can't see how White can hold this position.}

49. Rf2 (49. Rc2 Rxc2 50. Kxc2 axb2 51. Kxb2 Kc4 52. a4 Kb4)

Analysis

49... Re1 50. bxa3 Re3+ 51. Kc2 Rxa3 52. Kb2 Rc3 {The king is trapped in a tiny box in the corner. Any advance by the a-pawn will be caught by the king.}

53. a4 Kc4 54. Rc2 {White realises the pawn ending is lost.} 0-1

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Member Games - Edward Farrington

2011-04-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

Edward came to the Darlington chess club as a junior. He won the first junior trophy in 2004, which was the last time it was contested, until this season. He has been coached on and off by Norman Stephenson and has gone from talented junior to a very strong club player while maintaining his studies at Oxford university.

He doesn't play that often for Darlington these days as hes away, but when he's back he pops in to say hello and help out with one or other of the club teams.

Here is a recent game he played for the Darlington B side. The notes are provided by Norman Stephenson. Read through the game, or scroll to the bottom to play through the game using GameKnot's ichess viewer.

Edward Farrington (167) V (188)

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 {slightly unusual at the 2nd move ... I tried it once (unsuccessfully!) in a past British Championship after 1 d4 e6} e6 3. Nf3 c5 {The downside to getting the bishop out early is that white's Q-side is weakened. Black opens up the possibility of raiding it with his queen.}

4. e3 Nc6 5. c3 {White is playing The London System, named after the 1922 tournament, where it was played several times (this was Capablanca's first outing as World Champion and he demolished the field with +11/=4/-0)}

5…d5 6. Nbd2

6…Bd7 {This looks a little odd; normal would be ...Be7/ ...0-0. Perhaps black thought he would lose a tempo after 6 -Be7 7 dxc5 Bxc5 but white's usual plan against this black set-up is to play Bd3, castle and then choose between putting a knight on 'e5' or arranging Qe2/dxc5/e4. In the latter case, black could hardly wait four moves with his king's bishop development.}

7. Bd3 Qb6 8. O-O?! {White's 'book-move' in this sort of position is 8 Qb3 but, after 8 -c4 9 Qxb6 axb6 and 10 -b5, black cannot be prevented from undoubling his pawns. See Edmunds V Stephenson below}

8...c4 9. Bc2 Qxb2 {Whoever says "A" must also then say "B" (German proverb)

10. Rb1 Qxc3 11. Rxb7 Qa5! {There is an old story (probably apochryphal, but who knows!?) of the

rich man who had three sons and, in his will, left the money to be shared by those sons who had never taken a b-pawn with their queen. Black knows the story and hastens to extricate the lady from harm's way.}

12. Ne5 Qa6 13. Qb1 {Both players have chosen their best moves since white's daring decision at move 8 but now black plays a little too cautiously; better was -Nxe5 14 Bxe5 Be7 ... getting that bishop out at last.}

13...Nd8 14. Nxd7 {It was better to retreat the rook but that would leave black untroubled and standing a

little better ... so white gambles.}

14...Nxb7 15. Nxf6+ gxf6 16. Ba4+ Kd8 {It was possible to capture the bishop and survive (-Qxa4 17 Qxb7 Rd8 18 Rb1Qd7) but playing chess often equates to "decision-making under conditions of uncertainty". Black keeps his advantage with this move but his king will now always be vulnerable to shots.}

17. e4 Bd6 18. e5 Bc7 19. Qb4 Qb6 20. Qc3 Qa5 21. Qa3 Kc8 22. Rb1 a6?! {For a while, black's best move has been to capture the pawn one5 but it is now essential.}

23. exf6 Bxf4? {He had to guard his knight by -Ra7 or -Rb8}

24. Bd7+ {This could to a draw by perpetual check from white's queen, if that's what white wants.}

24...Kc7? {One of the biggest differences between masters and us amateurs is that

we get more wobbly when our kings are in danger! Black has to get both the B

and the R for his queen by -Kxd7 when 25 Qe7+ followed by the Qb7+/Qe7+

repetition would be a draw. White could choose to try for more (at little risk)

by -Kxd7 25 Rxb7+ Kc8 26 Qxa5 Kxb7 27 Qb4+ with an unclear position (probably

the clock would then have a major role to play!)}

25. Rxb7+ Kxb7 26. Qxa5 {Now white is winning comfortably}

26...Rab8 27. Nf3 Rhd8 28. Ba4 Bd6 29. Ng5 {White will win more material now and black's only possible source of counter-play, the passed pawn on c3, is well covered by Bc2 if necessary} 1-0

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Member Games - Niall Garner

2011-04-22T09:37:00.000-07:00

Some of the members have been reluctant to publish their recent best games. One of the reasons was that they felt they were rubbing salt in wounds of their defeated opponent. To avoid this I decided to publish only the grade of the opponent and no other details. That way we can enjoy the game without any salt rubbing.

Niall Garner is technically a junior. His play is easily adult standard and has been for a long time. As such he has been playing in some of the club's teams with some very good results, one we will see below.

Niall is receiving coaching and guidance from the regions most experienced coach Norman Stephenson. Norman has provided one of Niall's gems complete with his usual effervescent and erudite annotations.

Play through the game with notes, or scroll to the bottom to play through the game using GameKnot's ichess viewer.

Niall Garner (117) V 150

1. e4 e6 {It begins as a French Defence ...}

2. d4 c5 {- and then becomes a 'Franco-Benoni' - played now and again by GMs Larsen and Barcza ...}

3. Nf3 {... and then a Sicilian (where black has avoided all the unusual 2nd moves by white)}

3...cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6

5. Nc3 b5 {This is black's sharpest line ... he rushes to develop his queen's bishop and sets up the possibility of pushing white's knight away by - b4}

6. g3 {white will contest the long diagonal - an alternative line is 6 Bd3 (see Stephenson - Malupinh below)}

6...Qb6 {An unusual move - maybe black was hoping for 7 Be3 Bc5 which looks OK for

him. More pointed would have been 6 -b4 7 Na4 Bb7 8 Bg2 Nf6 when white's best

plan is to sacrifice his Pe4 for a lead in development by 9 0-0 Bxe4 10 Bxe4

Nxe4 11 Re1 d5 12 Nxe6 fxe6 13 Qh5+ with an attack}

Analysis

Back to the game

7. Nb3 Bb7 8. Bg2 Nc6 9.Be3 Qc7 {It's a feature of this line of The Sicilian that black's Q-sidepieces get developed first ... however, it's more usual to see a Hedgehog Structure with the knight's pawn on 'b6'}

10. O-O Be7 {More prudent was 10...d6 to prevent white getting a bishop for his poorly-placed knight by Nc5 now or on the next two moves}

11. a3 Nf6 12. f4 d6 {White now does a re-assessment and abandons the plan of Qe2/Rad1/h3 (see Stephenson-Neat below) and tries instead to exploit black's Q-side pawn structure}

13. a4 b4 14. Nb1 O-O?! {Black should have limited the damage by 14 - a5 when white could relocate his knight by Nd2/Nc4 with a slight advantage}

15. a5 Rac8 16. Bb6 Qd7 17. Qd3 {This is OK but 17 Qe2 (intending to harass the black queen further by Rad1) looks better}

17...d5 {It was better to push the other pawn by 17 - e5 but black's position would still have been rather prospect-less}

18. e5 Ne8 19. Nc5?! {White misses a tactical point ... he should just continue his development by N1d2 and Rae1}

19…Bxc5+ 20. Bxc5 Ne7? {a case of contagious chess-blindness ... black also misses the discovered attack 20 - Nxe5 which would have solved all his problems}

21. Bxb4 {White is now a pawn up with the better position as well}

21...f6 22. Nd2 Rf7 23. Be4 f5 {White's little manoeuvre has cut out any black counter-play along the f-file}

24. Bg2 Bc6 25. c4 {A better way of avoiding the skewer (- Bb5) would have

been 25 Rf2 which cuts out a Q-check on the diagonal and guards the 2nd rank}

25...d4 26. Bxe7 Bxg2 27. Kxg2 Rxe7 {Black's passed pawn is blockaded and cut off while white's pawn majority can be mobilised ... it now becomes a matter of whether white has the technique to win from this sort of position}

28. Rfc1 Rb8 29. b3 Qc6+ 30. Kf2 Qc5 31. Ra4 Reb7 32. Rb1 Rb4 33. Rxb4 Rxb4 34.

Ra1 Kf7 35. Nf3 {another pawn goes ... black's task has been made more difficult by the awful position of his knight and the consequent lack of any counter-play}

35...Rb8 36. Qxd4 Qxd4+ 37. Nxd4 h6 38. Ke3 g5 {A typical ploy in this sort of set-up is 39 h4 ... the sort of move that's easy to miss (the possibility of it arose in one of my old games - against the British Champion of the day!)}

39. Rg1 {This is a young player's move - unafraid to mix it - but an older head would have chosen 39 Rb1 and pushing that b-pawn! Both plans are winning.}

39...Ng7 40. g4 fxg4 41. Rxg4 Nf5+ 42. Nxf5 Rxb3+

43. Kd4 exf5 44. Rg3! Rxg3 45. hxg3 gxf4 46. gxf4 Ke7

47. Ke3 Ke6 {Black's king is stuck inside the "squares of white's passed pawns" (see Passed Pawns and the square rule)... so white will just walk his own king round and win all of black's other pawns}

48.Kf3 1-0

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Junior Club:Passed Pawns and the square rule

2011-03-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

Take a look at the following diagram. Who has the advantage and why?

The a-pawn is the only difference between the two sides. In this position that pawn is a massive advantage. As the pawn has nothing in its path, either black pawns on the a-file to block it, or black pawns on the b-file to capture it, we call it a passed pawn.

My advice to you:

"Passed pawns must be pushed"

Passed pawns should be pushed, as the further up the board they get the more dangerous they become. Eventually a pushed passed pawn will become a queen. Assuming it can not be captured that is.

In the above position White starts with 1.a4 Kf8, Black tries to get his king to the a-file to stop the pawn. 2.a5 Ke8, 3.a6 Kd8, 4.a7 Kc8, 5.a8(Q) and the pawn does queen.

But what happens if the Black king is closer? Take a look at the below

1.a5 Kd8, 2.a6 Kc8, 3.a7 Kb7, 4.a8(Q) Kxa8

Trying to work out if the pawn can promote before the enemy king can catch it can be tricky. Luckily for us there is a simple rule to help us, called the square. Draw an imaginary diagonal line from the king to the back rank the king and this square will make a square, see below.

If the enemy king can step into this square on his next go it can catch the pawn otherwise that pawn can make it to the other side and promote safely.

In the following diagram the enemy king is almost in the square. If white is to go then the black king is not in the square so is safe, if its blacks go then white will lose his passed pawn.

White to move: 1.c7 Ke7, 2.c8(Q)

Black to move: 1...Ke7, 2.c7 Kd7, 3.c8(Q) Kxc8

Its a simple rule and easy to visualize, so use it.

If you realise that the pawn will not make it, there is usually little point in just pushing it. Instead it needs backup. Time to call the King. More on that next week...

Take a look at the below position. Can White safely push the pawn to get a new queen? Answer next week.

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Junior Club: Competition - Final standings

2011-03-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

The Junior competition finished after 5 exciting rounds with a clear winner.

Round 4
Sanjaya V AJ 0.5
Aidan V Dylan 1 - 0
Elizabet V Harry 0.5
James V Caroline 0.5

Round 5
AJ V Bill* 0.5
Harry V Jordan 0 - 1
Dylan V James 1 - 0

*Bill is a senior member, thanks for stepping in and giving the competition leader a good game.

AJ is the clear winner. AJ played very well during the five rounds and is ready to face tougher opponents. AJ will get to keep the magnificent Junior trophy, which was presented to the club by Ben Benjamin, for one year.

Junior Club Week 16: End games - Rook v King

2011-03-06T00:43:00.000-08:00

Remember the lesson on two rooks v the king? If not see week 14. We started from the below position:

King with two rooks

Do you remember how we started? Make a box with 1.Rg4 restricting the Black king to his half of the board. This week we are going to take away one of the rooks!
The winning technique is exactly the same, trap the king, check with the rook from the side and force him to the edge of the board where we can call mate!

Before we get started take a look at the below diagram.

The kings face each other. We call this the opposition. Technically the player that has just moved into this position has the opposition, but we don't need to worry about that for now. The important point is that the kings can not move forward. The only option is sideways or back.

To checkmate with only a rook we need to follow a three point plan.

Box in the king with the rook
Move the king until we get the above opposition position
Call check from the side with the rook forcing him backwards

Repeat the above plan until the king is at the edge of the board when the final check will be mate.
So the starting point with two rooks was:

Notice that one rook has gone.
Step one: box the king with 1.Rh4

Black can either move his king backwards, or stay on the fifth rank. Most players desperately move their king towards the rook hoping the side with the rook will allow the rook to be captured.
1...Ke5
Step two: Move the king to get into the opposition. 2.Kb2
Black continues his march towards the white rook 2...Kf5, white should continue step two with 3.Kc3 Kg5

**** WARNING ! WARNING! Rook under attack alert. ****

Always check the safety of the rook. Just as we did for the two rook process, leave the rook on the same rank, but move it as far from the enemy king as possible. 4.Ra4 Kf5

Now what? If you wanted to play Kc4 or Kd4 go to gaol and do not collect £200! Never ever, move the king in front of the rook's guard line, in this case all along the fourth rank. If we want to get the kings to face each other we must move towards the black king with 5.Kd3 Ke5

Now what? 6.Ke3 right? No that would be a mistake, although the kings face each other, remember we call that the opposition, black can simply annoy us with 6...Kd5 and we are no further forward. So we have to find a move that doesn't really change anything on the board. We call these moves waiting moves, made by the rook. Keep on the same rank and just shuffle one square, if it is safe to do so. That is 6.Rb4 Kf5 (Black is going to make us work hard for the win.)

We are still in step two. Chase the black king he will eventually run out of board and have to move into the opposition, 7.Ke3 Kg5, 8.Kf3 Kh5 9.Kg3 Kg5

The kings are in opposition and its our turn. Finally we can perform step three: 10.Rb5+ Kg6

Step three actually performs step one as well as the rook check forces the black king back and now the rook guards the fifth rank.
We continue with step 2 then, if possible move the king forward, so that the king is between your rook and the enemy king. In this case 11.Kf4, if black tries to harass the rook with 11...Kf6 we can move straight into step three, 12.Rb6+ Ke7

Best move now is 13.Ke6.

If black runs to the edge with 13...Kf7 we waste a move with 14.Ra6. If he chases the rook we swap the rook over to the other side of the king 14.Rh6.
Let's choose 13....Kf7 for black, then p[lay continues 14.Ra6 Ke8

The black king has moved backwards. When something strange happens at the board, take extra time to work out what to do.
Remember the three point plan.

Box in the king with the rook
Move the king until we get the above opposition position
Call check from the side with the rook forcing him backwards

Black has moved back for us, so we are back to 1.Box in the king with the rook.

15.Ra7 Kd8, 16.Kd6 Kc8

Swap the rook to the other side with 17.Rh7. Black is now doomed. 17...Kd8 would see the kings in opposition and then we can call checkmate on h8, so he tries 17....Kb8, we chase with the king 18.Kc6 Ka8
19.Kb8 the black king has no where to go, so is forced into 19...Kb8 when 20.Rh8 is checkmate!!!

Remember the three point plan.

Box in the king with the rook
Move the king until we get the above opposition position
Call check from the side with the rook forcing him backwards

With the golden rule to always check the safety of the rook.
Never move the king in the rooks guard line. Always check from the side. Remember to shuffle the rook one square as a waiting move, if we need to force black to move.

Practice this technique with your Dad, Mum, Brother, Sister, or even on your own. Once mastered you can safely say you are now a proper chess player!!

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Junior Club Week 15: Competition round 3

2011-02-27T01:37:00.000-08:00

Round 3 of the junior competition had the following pairings:

AJ V Elizabeth
Harry V Aidan
Dylan V Caroline

AJ checkmated Elizabeth on board one, but Elizabeth had AJ on the ropes. I have noticed that Elizabeth starts chess games very well and is a competent player, but drifts after the middle game with no plan (sounds like you?). Hopefully we can help her focus her ideas and I'm certain she can become a class player. AJ has become the big fish in our little pond. He is 9!

Aidan finally overcame Harry in a hard fought game that went into a winning endgame for Aidan. Aidan was gracious in victory which is as important as being gracious in defeat. As well as being a top chess player he's a top bloke too.

Dylan who is 5 over powered Caroline 7. I was pleased to see Caroline competing in the competition, as she has just started coming to the club. Her game is noticeably improving and I am sure she will start picking up points soon.

The current standings are:

Number	Name	R1	R2	R3	Score
1	AJ	9w 3	2b 3	5w 3	9
2	Harry	3b 3	1w 1	4w 1	5
3	Dylan	2w 1	5b 1	10w 3	5
4	Aidan	X	7w 1	2b 3	4
5	Elizabeth	X	3w 3	1b 1	4
6	James	X	9w (3)d	X	3
7	Jordan	X	4b 3	X	3
10	Caroline	X	X	3b 1	1
8	Zack	X	X	X	0
9	Sarah	X	X	X	X

Junior Club Week 14: End games - Two Rooks v King

2011-02-20T03:16:00.000-08:00

We have learnt a lot of tricks to help us win enemy pieces. We have seen the best way to start a game and what to do in checks and focused attacks. If you put all of that into practice chances are that you will reach a position where you have a massive material advantage. We need to make sure that we can finish the game off. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at some basic endgame concepts starting off with two rooks v a lone king, as in the below diagram.

It is white to move. The first instinct for a lot of players is to call check, but this is a mistake. The first thing we want to do is create a box for the Black king. That means using one of the rooks to first trap the king. Remember week 12, we talked about trapping. If you look at the below diagram the rook has made a box for the Black king after 1.Rg4

Now Black's king can never walk further up the board, he can either move backwards or travel along the 5th rank. Lets make a move for Black, say 1...Ke4.

The rook on g4 is busy stopping the king moving out of his box. Imaging this as a prison and the g4 rook as the prison guard. Now what?
Make the box or prison smaller. Leave the g4 rook guard where he is and get his lazy side kick into play. If the g4 rook is the guard, we call his partner the hunter. The hunter can call check, but remember the aim is to make Black's king's box smaller and smaller until he runs out of board. The rook calls check along the 5th rank to push the king even further back up the board. After 2.Rh5+

The Black king is in check, he can not move forward, so must move backwards. For example 2..Ke6

Black's king can now only move on the 6th rank or backwards. The rook on h5 is now the guard. If you imaging the rooks are climbing up stairs. They take turns being the guard and hunter. Once their guard duties have been taken over they can become the hunter and look for a check. The g4 rook's guard duties have been taken over by the h5 rook, so he is the hunter and looks for the next check shrinking the Black king's box. 3.Rg6+

Black moves 3...Kf7

WARNING, WARNING. Rook under attack alert!
Do not get careless, or over excited and play 4.Rh7+, because 4...Kxg6 makes Whites job a lot more difficult. The rook on g6 is under attack, so must be moved. The g6 rook is the guard and must maintain his guard duties along the 6th rank. Best is to move the attacked rook as far away from the Black king as possible. White therefore plays 4.Ra6

Black's king's box is still firmly in place. Black ties 4...Kg7

The rook on h5 is the hunter and needs to find a check along the 7th rank. 5.Rh7?? obviously lets the king take the rook, so the hunter rook first has to move to the other side of the board ready to call check next move. Move the rook as far away from the Black king as possible, but do not move onto the same file as the guard rook, as the rooks would then be in each others way. White's best move is 5.Rb5

The hunter rook on b5 will check on b7 next go and then his partner will finish climbing the stairs by calling checkmate on a8. There is nothing the black king can do. 5...Kf7 6.Rb7+

6...Ke8 7.Ra8#

Remember

First make a box for the enemy king
Next the rooks swap roles, climbing the stairs call check in turn making the enemy king's box smaller and smaller.
If one of the rooks is attacked move it as far from the king as possible, without placing the rook on the same rank (or file) as his partner rook.

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