Chess Champs!

Our first ever chess tournament took place yesterday after school. Each pupil played several games with Tony recording scores.
After lots of moves and concentration, we had 2 finals; Callum v's Christopher in the boys final and Ava v's Yana in the girls final.
Callum and Ava were the winners in their games and received their trophies.
Tony awarded Christopher in 2nd class "Best Improver" trophy for the hard work he put in, and for all the enthusiasm he showed.
Well done to everyone in the club, we hope you enjoyed the classes, and keep playing at home.

Chess tournament

Next week will be our last chess lesson this year.
There will be a tournament and everyone will play several games.
Tony will be using the Swiss system for scoring.
1 point will be awarded for a win, 0 for a lose.
In round 2, players will meet opponents with the same score, and so on for as many rounds as we play.
Games will be timed as there will be a time limit.
Pieces remaining on the board will be added up according to their value if the game is not finished, and a win will be determined by the highest score.

(Garry Kasparov)

Homework

Tony showed us how to write down our moves today.
Grid references on the board are always letter then number e.g h4
These letters are always in lower case (small letters) because the pieces are written in capitals.
Each piece has an initial except the pawn. A bishop is B, the king is K, queen is Q etc.
As knight also starts with k, (and we use the K for king) we use N for th knight.
Castling is written as 0-0 (on the
King's side) and 0-0-0 on the Queen's side.
Try to practice this at home this week.

Tony wants you all to play these moves and figure out white's 4th move, and proceed with the game from there. Try as many combinations as you can to see how you can impact the game.

white          black
e4                e5
Nf3             Nc6
Bc4             Nf6

Chess homework

Tony gave us homework to prepare for next week.
There are several plays to practice, as well as the Italian opening to become familiar with.
It is important that you can "checkmate" your opponent, because in some plays, you can end up with a draw
if you don't think it through enough.
Tony talked about "forks" and "pins".
Try to remember what these were; if you need help, or have lost your homework, make sure to ask me as soon as possible.