Junior Club - 2012 competition round 4

Round 4.

By now the kids are starting to get used to competition.  Rules are stricter, quiet is called for and the kids eventually concentrate.

The draw was made as follows:

Board1   Dylan   V    Harry
Board2   Aidan   V    Joe
Board3    James  V    Tom
Board4    Nicola  V   Caroline
Board5    Dhillan  V   Leia
Raj Bye

Board5
Leia eventually ground Dhillan down.  Although the game drifted along for ages Leia had a material advantage, which Dhillan eventually decided was going to win for Black and resigned.

Board4
Nicola had the game sewn up.  She had several forced mates with queen and two rook advantage, but stalemated Black's king.

Board3
This was a close game, but James tricked his way to a decent win, much to Tom's dismay.

Board2
This the last to finish and was very close.  Aidan sacrificed his queen to checkmate on the back rank.  A familiar motif to adults, but for a juniors to spot was a good move and a sign of Aidan's improvement.  The fact that Joe pushed Aidan all the way is testament to his.

Board1
My boys (Harry and Dylan) faced off for a head to head.  "You could agree a draw" I suggested.  No way this was going to be a fight to the death, which came quickly for Harry.

With a perfect score of 12/12 Dylan is now the new Darlington junior Champion at the age of 6!

Congratulations Dylan

Below the standings after round 4

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

Junior Club: Competition game from round 3

Here is a game that was played in round 3 of the junior club competition.



1. d4 d5 Both players choose very good moves to occupy the centre and free a bishop.

2. f3? 

 White's idea is to play e4, but the weakening of the h4 - e1 diagonal is a big price to gain a strong pawn centre.  In fact if you consider 2...e6, 3.e4 dxe4, 4.fxe4 Qh4+  Black wins a pawn and there is no strong centre.  Another downside to f3 is it takes away the knight's best developing square.  Knowing when to make a pawn advance is difficult and I would much prefer to see pieces getting developed on move 2.  If you were to study opening play you would probably come to realise that a second pawn move is often good on move 2 and in double queen pawn openings 2.c4 is a very good move for White.  Perhaps we will discuss that in another article.

...Nc6 Perhaps e6 is better
3. c3 White doesn't need to protect his pawn on d4 as the queen is already providing adequate cover.  Too many pawn moves means that your pieces are not getting developed.  Bf4 would have been much stronger, as it not only develops a piece, but can offer emergency cover along that weak dark square diagonal.
...e6 4. e4 dxe4 5. fxe4

 ...Nf6?  developing a piece is usually the best thing to do, but we must always be on the lookout for moves that win material.  Here Qh4+ wins a big central pawn, takes away Whites castling rights and makes White's game really difficult.
6. Ne2?? Missing the attack on e4, White could have caused trouble for Black with another pawn move e5!  After all those pawn moves the first piece move is a blunder, chess is a cruel game.
... Nxe4 7. d5? loses another pawn, much better is Nd2
exd5 8. h4?

White has just made too many pawn moves, 7 pawn moves out of 8 is not good play.  Get those pieces out.  Moving pawns leave weak squares in your position, if your opponent can amass a superior force then the battle will be theirs and you will taste defeat.
...g6 Here ...Bc5 develops a piece but with the super strong threat of Bf2 checkmate, or supporting a knight fork on f2.
9. Bg5 I think this is the reason for h4, which shows White has a certain logic to his play, which could be honed into strong play.
 Be7
White now loses the plot completely over the next few moves
10. Ng3 Nxg3 11. Rh3 Bxh3 12. gxh3 Nxf1 13. Kxf1 Bxg5 14. hxg5

Black is a full rook up, but worse for White is that his king is fully open.  A good player will attack the White king in such open positions.
O-O 15. Nd2 Qxg5 Black smells a weak king and quickly moves his heavy pieces into the attack.
16. Nb3 Qf5+ 17. Kg1 Qxh3 Black's queen is well placed for the final kill, but she needs support.

18. Nd4 Nxd4 19. cxd4 Rae8! A good move as the rook will spring into the attack
20. Qc1?? The final mistake, as this allows the rook to land on e2 when White can't avoid check mate.

Re2 21. Qd1 Qh2+ 22. Kf1 Qg2# *
A good game between two juniors.  Black punished White for making too many pawn moves and blundering a piece or two.

Junior Club - 2012 competition round 3

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

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