Junior Club:Rook on the seventh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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