Minnesotans in World Youth Championship

Congratulations to the two Minnesotans who represented the United States in the World Youth Chess Championships which completed today in the United Arab Emirates. Andrew Titus 2089 (boys under 12) scored 5.5 points out of 11 and Nastassja Matus 1402 score 6.5 in the girls under 8 section. Both were students of mine at the SCA Chess Camp. Many players from around the world were invited based on their ratings to participate.

Jr. High League and 2013 Year End Ratings

I have indicated that we'd like to be part of the Jr. High/Middle School chess league. I indicated that we'd prefer playing the matches on a Saturday morning rather than one match each on a Friday.

Match play consists of playing our top five boards against another school's top 5 boards. The Team that scores 3 points wins. If both teams score 2.5 it's a draw.

At the end of the Jan - Mar. season there are various awards for individuals and teams for each division. The top teams from each division make the playoffs and vie for the State Championship in March.

All games are played by USCF rules. Unlike SCA, you will have to notate all games, all games will use a clock from the very beginning, adults and other spectators are allow to watch the games, total silence must be observed in the playing area, there is no warning on the three move repetition, and no one can remind you to press the clock. If you have an issue during the game, raise your hand and pause your clock and an official will come to answer your question.

This means parents will have to provide rides. Talk to your parents about this. Ridesharing is encouraged . I think the games start at 9:00 am end at 12:00

We will invite the top six rated players, and players 4-6 will each sit one game out. If someone is not available on that Saturday, we will have or #7 player etc. play.

So right now it looks like Thomas at board 1, Frank at 2, Anton at 3, Magnus at 4 and Josh at 5 with Thomas subbing at board 5 while Magnus and Josh take 1 game off. Lendale and Carter would be alternates if someone can't make it.

FHMS By Rating

Last Name	First Name	Rating
Miranda	Thomas	1271
Henry	Mace	873
Sullivan	Frank	807
Priborkin	Anton	723
Nordby	Magnus	656
Phillips	Josh	588
McDermott	Thomas	550
Smith	Lendale	396
Hahnfeldt	Carter	368
Barnard	Joe	308
Gotham	Angela	245
Johnson	Evan	236
Lee	Keighvin	233
Meyer	Oliver	216
Nordby	Annikka	171
Kainz	Andres	150
Metz-Taylor	Grant	121
Church	Ben	117
Lee	Aidan	103
Williams	Brigham	100
Meyer	Misha	100

Latest Ratings

I have chess sets like the ones at school but with a larger case with handles and a sleeve for the board. $12
Green or Black. Let me know or just bring $12 to chess club as I have them in my car.

Check out the previous posts if you haven't seen them!

Here's the second place team! Coach Heinemann, Tom Miranda, Magnus Nordby

FHMS ByRating

Last Name	First Name	Rating
Miranda	Thomas	1260
Henry	Mace	873
Sullivan	Frank	811
Priborkin	Anton	695
Nordby	Magnus	652
Phillips	Josh	562
McDermott	Thomas	548
Smith	Lendale	396
Hahnfeldt	Carter	351
Barnard	Joe	321
Gotham	Angela	245
Johnson	Evan	236
Lee	Keighvin	232
Meyer	Oliver	216
Nordby	Annikka	171
Kainz	Andres	150
Metz-Taylor	Grant	121
Church	Ben	117
Williams	Brigham	100
Meyer	Misha	100
Lee	Aidan	100

Frank vs Noah Helke

In the round 5 game that looked like Frank was out for a draw from the outset trading pieces whenever possible (trade when it's to your advantage somehow), he arrived at the following position which I think he could have turned into a win. Frank is White what should his plan be?

While usually bishops are considered better than knights in an endgame, the knight is actually better if there are a lot of pawns on the board. Here the knight has the upper hand.

Nc5 (if b6 then Ne6+ picking up the g-pawn) Kc8

Nd3 winning the e-pawn and I think then the game with that passed pawn on the e-file. Play it out several times to get some good end-game practice.

Watch Frank get obliterated

Here's a "movie" of Frank's game in round 2 against Zach Molitor. Frank is White. Sorry Frank - just trying out some new technology. (If you click on the board it will freeze so you can think about the position.)

So what went wrong? Probably the first mistake was attacking so early with the knight and then getting the queen out too early. Frank gets in a nice pawn fork but it doesn't work because his opponent can move one of the knights and attack his queen (which was out too early). After that Zach gets his forks (off comes a bishop), discovered attacks (off comes a knight), pins (off comes the queen), and one last fork (off comes the last rook) going in fine style. Keep watching until you've seen all 4 tactical shots.

Ryan Robinson vs Frank Sullivan

The game is even in points, but Ryan has a passed pawn on the b-file. Frank is Black. What's his best move?

Rxb4 loses to Re1+, but Rxd4! (White can't play cxd4 lest Rxc1#) Re1+ Re4 and now we're threatening Rxc3 so White needs to play Rc1, but then we play Rxd4!

Ammar vs Frank

A simple looking position early in the game but Frank, playing black, comes up with a nice move.

Ng4 making it difficult to save the pawn. White should have probably tried Be3 which loses a pawn, but instead he tried f3?? which loses the game. Do you see why?

Aleksandra Goulakova vs Josh Phillips

Josh was not playing well and had already given his opponent 2 pieces. But his opponent comes up with a good move here to prove worthy of the win. White's turn. What's the best move?

Trading queens via Bxd8 would be great for White since she is ahead. (Trade when you are ahead; avoid trades when behind.) But Aleksandra comes up with 15. Qxd7!!! Qxd7 16. Nf6+!! and she comes away with both the queen and the bishop!

Justin Chu vs Josh Phillips

Josh is black and it's his turn. Josh has been playing the mirror game.  The position is very symmetrical. It usually is fine for black to start this way but the longer the mirror lasts, the worse it get for Black. White has just played Nd5. The position is now extremely complicated with both bishops on the g-file hanging and the knights attacking each other. You should recognize this as a time to slow down and think through the position carefully. Black's turn. What's the bet move.

     If you tried to continue the mirror game like Josh did with Nd4 things go badly. hxg4 hxg5 Nxg5 and now Nxg4 fails o Qxg4.

     The best move here is Bxf3 with an attack on the queen. White can play either Qxf3, Nxf6+, or Bxf6 with a counter attack on our queen.If Qxf3 hxg5 and you're up a piece. If Nxf6+ gxf6 Qxf3 fxg5 and again you're up a piece. Bxf6 is actually White's only good move. After trading queens and then bishops, the game remains even.

Josh vs. Noah

Josh, playing white, found the winning move. What was it?

A. Discovered attack wins the queen. Na7+ followed by Qxe5

Max Dietrich vs. Anton

Q1. Max has just played g4. It look suspicious should we take it?

Q2. A few moves later Max captured Anton's pawn on e4 with his knight. How could Anton have taken advantage of this error?

A1. Anton castled his king onto an open file - always a bad idea. If he takes the poisoned pawn on g4, Max will play Rg1 pinning it to the King. The game continued 15. ... Nxg4 16. Rg1 h5 17. f3 and the knight is lost.
A2. Not learning from the first position, Max captured a pawn on e4 with his knight (he should ahve taken with the d-pawn) Now Max's knight is pinned and all Anton has to do is ATTACK THE PINNED PIECE WITH THE SMALLEST PIECE POSSIBLE !  (Yes, I was shouting.) Because Anton attacked it with his bishop instead of playing the simple d5! He could have just about evened up the score here, but I'm guessing Anton had already given up and was no longer thinking.
PEOPLE - I teach you these things so you can use them in games!

Anton vs Francisco Cassellius

Here' a position from Anton vs Francisco. Anton is white and play b3? two moves ago, which was a mistake. Franscisco castled and Anton played Bb2?
Q1) What should have Anton played instead?
Q2) What good move did Francisco find?

Eventually Anton lost when he put his King and Queen on the same color and Frankie forked him with a knight. Anton's mistake above was moving b3 which pinned his own knight to his rook. Bb2 didn'r really help because now the knight is simply pinned to the bishop instead. Anton should have played c3 instead of Bb2, thereby getting out of that pin as quickly as possible. Frankie took advantage of the pinned and therefore immobile knight with th simple c5 - attack the pinned piece with the smallest piece possible.

Tournament Results and New Ratings

TOURNAMENT RESULTS
Tom Miranda, Lendale, Magnus, and Tom McD. - I didn't get any notated games from you. Do you still have some? I'll put your games up on the blog if you do.
....................OLD..NEW.CHG.MERIT
Miranda, Thomas....1237 1193 -44 174
Sullivan, Frank.....792. 745 -47 21.5
Priborkin, Anton....674. 651 -23 9
Nordby, Magnus......592. 643 +51 12.5 Earned Bronze today
Phillips, Josh......553. 550 -03 2
McDermott, Thomas...538. 524 -14 4.5
Smith, Lendale......396. 365 -31 1
Full results are available at www.schoochess.org
Note to Lendale - there were 6 players who won fewer than 2 games. Unfortunately, because half the players were from Metcalf, you and a number of other players had to play Metcalf, even though their records were better than yours. So unfortunately you never got a chance to play the players you could have beaten.

RATINGS

Miranda, Thomas....1193
Henry, Mace.........873
Sullivan, Frank.....745
Priborkin, Anton....651
Nordby, Magnus......643
Phillips, Josh......550
McDermott, Thomas...524
Smith, Lendale......365
Hahnfeldt, Carter...332
Barnard, Joe........321
Johnson, Evan.......236
Gotham, Angela......229
Lee, Keighvin.......221
Meyer, Oliver.......216
Nordby, Annikka.....163
Kainz, Andres.......150
Metz-Taylor, Grant..121
Church, Ben.........117
Lee, Aidan..........106
Williams, Brigham...100
Meyer, Misha........100

Tomorrow's tournament

Bring lunch or money for lunch ($5 or 6 should do)
We've got a good group signed up so far:
8th grade Tom Miranda, Magnus Nordby, Lendale Smith
7th grade Anton Priborkin, Josh Phillps, Frank Sullivan
6th grade Tom McDermott

Anyone else is welcome - just show up before 8:30 at Metcalf, register at the front desk and tell them you're from Friendly Hills and the School is paying. Questions - call 651-451-8412

What you missed today

All  after-school activities were cancelled by the district today and of course that included chess club.
We'll do the lesson and worksheet on discovered attacks next week.

Chess tournament is still on at this point for Saturday 8:30 at Metcalf. School will pay fees. You can register either by going to the schoolchess.org website or by calling me at 451-8412 before Friday at 6:30pm.

Nationals are taking place in Orlando next weekend. 5th graders Franklin Zhou 1781, and Karthik Padmanaban 1867 should do well.

Reminder - I've got chess sets available for Christmas gifts - see previous blog for details.