Hello world 2.0 - July 2014

*Wakes up from 6½-month hibernation*

Kindly check out the Chicago Chess Center Blog: I'll be hanging out there for the foreseeable future. As with all new web spaces, it may take us a little time to get up to speed....

Jim Froelich's Chicago Area Chess usergroup on Facebook is a great place to chat and gossip, and the Illinois Chess Association's tournament calendar, maintained by the indefatigable Maret Thorpe, keeps you up-to-date on where to play. It's because of these two great resources that I didn't feel guilty about a sabbatical.

I'll certainly keep this blog up, and I may occasionally post things over here that are incompatible with the CCC's nonprofit mission. And of course, my very nice co-editors are always welcome to continute to use this space for anything of interest to the Chicago chess community or to woodpushers in general.  Thanks to Keith Ammann, Vince Hart, Matt Pullin, Tom Panelas, and especially NM Frederick Rhine for their contributions. 

And thanks to you folks for visiting this site and giving us useful feedback! Your thoughts are always welcome: my personal email is billbrock1958@gmail.com and my Chicago Chess Center email is billbrock@chichess.org.

Day two: much better!

 
Check out the photos on CCC's Facebook page.

Denker preview: Robert Moskwa

Pattie Zinski and the Illinois Chess Association's Warren Junior Program are organizing three events at the North Shore Chess Center this weekend, thanks to the generosity of Sevan Muradian. The Denker, Girls', and Barber qualifiers determine Illinois representatives to the respective national events.

Vince Hart joined a new firm this week, so he may not be available to do an encore performance of his masterful broadcast of last year's event.  (On the other hand, Vince hasn't completely ruled it out!)

Vince's protégé Robert Moskwa will be returning to the Denker Qualifier this year, and looks to be in good form, based on his performance this past weekend. NM Tenzing Shaw is one of the toughest players in Illinois to beat.

King and Pawn vs. King (Chess Homeschool, Day 6)

If we can't play positions with three pieces reasonably well, what hope is there for us with thirty-two pieces on the board?

I'm not providing solutions to any of the positions below yet: get Mom or Grandpa to play the other side and see whether the two of you can figure this out together.

1) White to play draws, Black to play loses

Usually, you want it to be your turn to move. Here, neither player wants to be on move! (Nerd alert: the technical term is reciprocal zugzwang.) When both kings can make it to the pawn's queening square, each player is trying to trick the other into a position like the one above.

*******

2) White wins, no matter whose move it is

3) White to play wins, but watch out for stalemate!

4) White to play draws, Black to play loses

In one-on-one basketball, what does the player with the ball do when the defender is in perfect position?  Maybe a head fake: the attacker wants the defender to move in one direction so she can drive the lane in the other direction.  The pawn's queening square (d8 in Position 4) is like the basket, and the Black king on d7 is a perfectly-placed defender: that's why Black doesn't want to move first! 1...Kc7 2.Ke6 or 1...Ke7 2.Kc6.

To understand Black's drawing technique with White to move, see Vince Hart's blog post, Straight Back Draws.  Compare Position 4 to Position 2: Position 2 is always lost because the Black King has no room to go straight back! Of course, it's important to go straight back at the right time: 1.Kc5 Kd8?? loses because White can get to Position 2, but 1.Kc5 Kc7 2.d5 Kd7 and then....

5) White wins, either player to move

The rook pawn is a special case. Either king can be stalemated on the rook pawn's queening square:

6) Rook pawns are weird: draw with either player to move

7) Rook pawns are very weird: Black to play draws

What happens when the kings are far away from the pawn? It's good to know the square of the pawn rule  (much easier than "I go here, he goes there, I go here.." or counting on your fingers):

8) White to play wins, Black to play draws

9) A tricky square to draw!

Kings have elbows and should learn how to use them:

10) White to play wins (in chess, the shortest distance between two squares is not necessarily a straight line!)

11) Black to play draws (Gligoric-Fischer, Candidates 1959)

12) White to play: what happens?  Black to play: ditto?

If you find the answer to Position 12 intuitive, you're a better player than I am!  (Can White create Position 1 with Black to move?)

There's much more to know: the Wikipedia article on king and pawn vs. king is a good place to continue. (Check out the 1908 study by Jan Drtina in the "Any key square by any route" section.)  If you enjoy these endings, I can't recommend Müller & Lamprecht's Secrets of Pawn Endings strongly enough: it's amazing that these seemingly simple positions are so complicated and so beautiful.

Experienced players will note that I avoided the "O word"!  I like to teach that by starting with a position from checkers:

Black to play loses; White to play draws

More games from Tim Just's Winter Open

TJWO part three games are here: featured players include tournament winner NM Tenzing Shaw, NM Alexander Velikanov, David Peng, Dean Arond, Vince Hart, NM Sam Schmakel, and Avinash Rajendra.

2012 Illinois Tour commentary is provided by FM Albert Chow.

What tactic is more basic than pins and forks?

Dan Heisman (whose Chess Cafe column is wonderful reading for beginners and their teachers) has argued that teaching beginners to count is the indispensable first step in teaching tactics.

Blog contributor Vince Hart, who has been working with the Prospect High School chess team for the past nine years, emphasizes piece safety with his team, and points us to a wonderful Heisman column on the subject.

"In Chess, There Is No Penalty for Piling On"

White to play and mate quickly

Vince Hart chooses a few instructive moments from the games of Mike Monsen, 5th board for Prospect High School, which looks to have a very strong team next year!

Nice positional exchange sac!

Don't miss Vince Hart's annotated game.

How Did I Do So Well?

I received a lovely e-mail today (actually a few weeks ago: I overlooked Vince's entry during tax season!--BB) from the Chicago Industrial Chess League which read as follows:

All,

Please join me in congratulating Vince Hart from Excaliburs on being this year's North Division MVP. Vince went 6-0-2 on the season with multiple incredible wins. This resulted in +102 rating points, which is especially impressive at the level Vince is.

Once again... Great job, Vince! Please share your method with the rest of us...

Jim Thomson
North Division Chairman

I really wish I could share my method, but I am not really sure why I beat Robert Morris, Florin Inumerable, and Yuri Fridkin who sport CICL ratings of 2211, 2223, and 2189. I don't really think that I am that good.

One of the things that I think has helped my game a great deal is working with high school students. Several of the players I coach are very aggressive and always want to attack, but I have been trying to explain to them that an attack is much more likely to be successful for the player who has an advantage in development and that they should be wary of opening up a position when their opponent’s pieces are well developed. In my game with Florian Inumerable, I saw the opportunity for an interesting exchange sacrifice and even though I could not calculate all the possibilities, I relied on the fact that Florian had wasted a little too much time in the opening. Neither of us played flawlessly thereafter, but I think I won mostly because my position was easier to play.

Prospect Chess

Check out Vince Hart's blog: he coaches a high school team, and offers great practical advice to scholastic players.