Year-End Ratings

Jan 10th  Tournament at Metcalf Jr High in Burnsville. 8:30 - 3:00. Cost $18-20 plus $5 lunch.
We need at least 5 to compete in the Team vs Team competition. Any number can come. Looks like Josh might be playing board 1 (we still have one club meeting before then), Frank at board 2, Thomas at board 3, Oscar on 4, and Carter or Joe if they come back to chess club would be board 5, otherwise Keighvin makes the team. Aidan and Isaiah might need to be on standby in case someone can't make it. If we have less than 5 or the extras beyond 5 will play in the regular section.

Usually I say you need to be around 400 to hope to win one game, but last weekend Oscar won 2 and a half with a rating under 400, so maybe we're all playing better than our ratings indicate, which I think is true at the lower end, because we had so many new players who started at 100.

Josh	912
Frank	907
Thomas	675
Oscar	411
Carter	379
Joe	351
Keighvin	329
Aidan L	322
Isaiah	245
Payton	219
Lucius	213
Nathan	212
Rohan	199
Emma	167
Christopher	159
Gabe	155
Bergen	154
Luca	145
Grant	140
Bryce	127
Travis	118
Dev	105
Francis	105
Lucas	105
Magnus	100
Damien	100

Tournament Results

Congratulation to Oscar Halverson who scored 2.5 points in his very first tournament. Oscar raised his rating from 354 to 391 and moves into 4th place passing Carter Hanfeldt.

Our next tournament is Sat. Jan. 10 and we need our top 5 players (Frank, Josh, Tom, Oscar, and Carter, with Joe, Keighvin and Aiden as alternates) to play in the team vs team section. Others will play in the regular section.

Ratings and Tournament info

Tournament Saturday at Metcalf Jr. High in Burnsville. 35E S to Diffley, then E just past Cedar.
Time 8:20 - 3:30 Registration ends at 8:30, but if you register on-line you could show up at 9:00.
see www.schoolchess.org
Cost - $18 plus $5 for lunch or bring your own lunch.
If you're trying this for the first time, it's hard - these are the best players in Minnesota. Your goal should be to try to win one game.

8	Frank	907
8	Josh	895
7	Thomas	674
7	Carter	379
5	Oscar	354
7	Joe	351
8	Keighvin	349
6	Aidan L	311
5	Isaiah	250
	Payton	219
7	Nathan	212
5	Rohan	197
5	Lucius	190
5	Bergen	176
	Gabe	155
7	Christopher	149
6	Emma	147
5	Bryce	126
	Grant	110
6	Magnus	108
8	Dev	105
7	Francis	105
5	Travis	105
5	Lucas	105
5	Damien	100
5	Luca	100

Ratings and Upcoming Tournament

Tournament Saturday Dec 13 Registration ends at 8:30 Tournament done around 3:00
Cost $18 plus lunch $5 Play only those in your same grade.
More info at www.schoolchess.com
Or call me, Bill Heinemann, at 651-451-8412

Your opponents will probably be really good chess players, but there may be a few beginners. If you've never played in a tournament before, your goal should be to try to win one game.

Grade Name 3-Dec 8 Frank 887 8 Josh 874 7 Thomas 654 7 Carter 379 7 Joe 351 8 Keighvin 329 5 Oscar 325 6 Aidan L 276 5 Isaiah 250 Payton 219 7 Nathan 212 5 Rohan 197 5 Lucius 188 5 Bergen  183 Gabe 155 7 Christopher 134 6 Emma 128 5 Bryce 126 6 Magnus 114 Grant 110 8 Dev 105 7 Francis 105 5 Travis 105 5 Lucas 105 5 Damien 100 5 Luca 100

Chess Sets For Sale, Update

If you'd like a chess set like the ones we use at club, with a nicer (sleeve for board and handles) carrying case, let me know. Cost is $10 which is at least $22 less that you can get one anywhere else. (I got a discount for being a regular purchaser, another discount for ordering bulk, another Black Friday discount and we all share the shipping costs.)

Ratings after Nov 19

Set aside Dec 13 for a Chess tournament at Burnsville Metcalf if you are interested.

Name	19-Nov
Frank	897
Josh	858
Thomas	612
Carter	379
Joe	351
Oscar	311
Keighvin	289
Aidan L	268
Isaiah	240
Payton	219
Nathan	212
Lucius	208
Rohan	197
Bergen	164
Gabe	155
Christopher	134
Emma	123
Magnus	114
Grant	110
Damien	107
Dev	105
Francis	105
Bryce	105
Travis	105
Lucas	105
Luca	100

Ratings after Nov 12

Reminder for Tournament players, we have a tournament on Dec 13 at Metcalf in Burnsville.
My rule of thumb is that your rating needs to be at around 400 to win a game at a tournament. You can come if your rating is lower, but don't be surprised if you lose all 5 games.

Name	12-Nov
Frank	897
Josh	832
Thomas	600
Carter	379
Joe	351
Oscar	280
Keighvin	279
Aidan L	266
Payton	219
Isaiah	216
Lucius	210
Rohan	192
Nathan	190
Gabe	155
Bergen	141
Christopher	134
Bryce	133
Luca	111
Grant	110
Damien	107
Dev	105
Francis	105
Emma	105
Magnus	105
Travis	105
Lucas	105

Ratings after Nov 5

Congratulations to Oscar who delivered a checkmate with K & Q in 43 seconds - the fastest in the class. Frank, Emma, Josh, and Gabe also passed the test by checkmating in less than a minute.

If you didn't pass, you still have one week left to practice and do it next week for 10 points. If you need review you can check my chess lessons out on the link on this page.

Name	5-Nov
Frank	892
Josh	812
Thomas	600
Carter	379
Joe	341
Keighvin	274
Oscar	251
Aidan L	227
Rohan	207
Payton	207
Nathan	190
Lucius	188
Isaiah	185
Bryce	157
Gabe	155
Bergen	137
Christopher	134
Travis	124
Emma	113
Damien	107
Francis	105
Lucas	105
Dev	101
Magnus	100

Need a Chess Set?

I'll be ordering sets soon like the ones we use at school. Pieces board and carrying case for $15 or less depending on how many orders I get. I hope to get them for $12 if I get 10 orders from all my schools.
Let me know what color board and case (black, green, blue, dark red) Here's a link so you can see what you're getting.

http://www.uscfsales.com/chess-sets/club-chess-sets/standard-chess-set-combination-single-weighted-regulation-pieces-vinyl-chessboard-standard-bag.html

Ratings after Oct 29

Tournament Saturday Nov 1 at Highview Middle School in New Brighton 8:30am to about 3:00pm
Call me if interested 651-451-8412 for more details. Cost about $25 including lunch.

Name	Rating
Frank	881
Josh	801
Thomas	594
Carter	379
Joe	341
Keighvin	269
Oscar	228
Aidan L	223
Payton	207
Lucius	192
Isaiah	174
Bryce	168
Rohan	158
Nathan	154
Bergen	144
Christopher	134
Emma	134
Gabe	129
Travis	119
Dev	113
Damien	107
Lucas	105
Francis	100
Magnus	100

Latest Ratings after Oct 22

Next tournament is Nov 1 High view Middle School New Brighton Grade Level
Compete as individuals. Play only those in your same grade. If we have at least 3 we are also competing as a team. You can also choose to play up a grade or several grades to form a team.
Think about it. I plan to be there

Name	22-Oct
Frank	881
Josh	795
Thomas	580
Carter	379
Joe	350
Keighvin	269
Aidan L	223
Oscar	204
Payton	189
Lucius	183
Rohan	169
Isaiah	163
Bergen	136
Christopher		134
Gabe	129
Nathan	125
Bryce	124
Travis	119
Dev	113
Emma	111
Damien	107
Lucas	105
Magnus	100
Quintin	100
Francis	100

Chess News

First tournament of the year OCTOBER 18 in Champlin. If you have questions, see www.schoolchess.org  or contact me - Bill Heinemann

Here are the latest ratings. Notice the surge of newcomers who have gotten up to about 170.

Name	Rating
Frank	861
Josh	774
Thomas	560
Carter	379
Joe	350
Keighvin	247
Aidan L	177
Lucius	174
Oscar	171
Isaiah	170
Rohan	169
Payton	144
Bergen	137
Travis	118
Bryce	118
Nathan	112
Emma	111
Lucas	105
Quintin	100
Francis	100
Magnus	100
Damien	100
Dain	100
Aidan D	100
Luca	100

Ratings After Oct 1

If you're interested in a tournament for some good practice - Oct 18th in Champlin. I'm planning on being there. See schoolchess.org for details.

NAME________RATING

Frank	841
Josh	754
Thomas	537
Carter	379
Joe	350
Keighvin	231
Lucius	166
Aidan	165
Rohan	156
Isaiah	145
Payton	144
Oscar	141
Bergen	137
Travis	122
Nathan	105
Lucas	105
Quintin	100
Francis	100
Magnus	100
Emma	100
Bryce	100
Damien	100
Dain	100
Aidan	100
Luca	100

Chess Club Kick-Off

We had our first meeting of the chess club on Wednesday Sept. 24 Great turnout.
This is a rebuilding year - only 2 players left from last year's team and 4 or 5 who were in chess club last year. Lot's of 5th graders this year! In 4 years, with a lot of work, you will be champions. Hang in there - it's going to be a rough ride for a while.

Here are the ratings after today. If your rating went up into the 120's or 130's, next week you should play others that went up.

A tournament schedule can be found at schoolchess.org First tournament is Oct 18 way up in Champlin. The next two are also in the NW area of the Twin Cities. You're welcome to attend those if you'd like, but I'm not pushing those.

I'm looking at Dec 13 in Burnsville for our first tournament as a team. Usually I want your rating to be around 400 to participate in tournaments. We'll see who's ready by then.

Name	24-Sep
Frank	812
Josh	753
Thomas	560
Carter	379
Joe	350
Rohan	137
Oscar	137
Lucius	137
Bergen	132
Aidan	124
Isaiah	121
Nathan	105
Lucas	105
Quintin	100
Francis	100
Magnus	100
Emma	100
Bryce	100
Damien	100
Travis	100
Dain	100
Aidan	100
Luca	100

2014-2015 Year

CLUB: Chess starts at Friendly hills on Wednesday Sept. 24 in Room 123 from 3:20 until 5:00.
Format of a typical chess club session is a group lesson from 3:20 til 3:40, problem solving from 3:00 to 4:00 and competition from 4:00 to 5:00.

TOURNAMENTS: Periodically we attend matches or tournaments on Saturdays - there is a fee although the school sometime covers that. The tournament schedule can be seen at schoolchess.org although there are other organizations which sponsor chess competition i which we may participate.

RATINGS: I have a rating system which is useful for monitoring your progress, knowing who you should (or should not) play, and selecting members for a team when that is necessary.

PUTTING NAMES ON THE INTERNET: I use this blog to post ratings and news. If you do not want your child's name to appear, please let me know.

Final Ratings

Name	23-Apr
Thomas	1275
Frank	807
Magnus	776
Anton	768
Josh	748
Thomas	560
Lendale	433
Carter	369
Joe	344
Evan	246
Keighvin	245
Annikka	236
Angela	220
Aidan	124

					Pts	Tbk
1	Thomas	W7	W5	W6	3	4.5
6	Magnus	W19	W3	L1	2	6
5	Josh	W13	L1	W8	2	5
3	Frank	W11	L6	W4	2	4.5
4	Anton	W10	W8	L3	2	3
13	Annikka	L5	D19	B	1.5	3
19	Aidan	L6	D13	H	1	3.5
8	Lendale	H	L4	L5	0.5	4
7	Tom McD	L1	H	F	0.5	3
10	Joe	L4	H	F	0.5	2
11	Evan	L3	H	F	0.5	2

Instructive position

Here's a position Magnus (playing Black) found himself in after his opponent tried the wild Danish Gambit sacrificing 2 pawns to gain  development. Magnus was feeling pretty smug after fending off the attack and getting a rook for a knight, gaining an extra pawn and having eliminated the Queens and thus imminent danger. He probably realized that he was behind in development, but astonishingly he didn't realize his opponent was ahead in development. What do I mean? I mean his opponent is still dangerous - like a wounded lion! What is Magnus's best move? a) Bb4  b) b6  c) c6  d) d6  e) g6

The real danger here is the double attack with Nb5 or Nd5, so if you said Bb4, you'll lose a rook after Nb4 Ba5 Bxg7. Best is the simple c6 which prevents aggression by that knight and keeps g7 guarded. Yes, he need to develop, but right now he needs to defend!

In-school Tournament

Usually tournaments continue until there is a clear winner. We have a clear winner after three rounds. I was considering holding a fourth round to decide second place, but since there are four people tied, it would take two more rounds. And since several people cannot make it next week, I am declaring the tournament officially over.
Show up next week for awards. Top 5 places, top U600, top U300.

We will have chess club until the end of April. 

RATINGS
Anton was briefly ahead of Frank until he lost to Frank in Round 3 of the tournament
Magnus has passed up Josh

Name	16-Apr
Thomas	1275
Frank	807
Anton	780
Magnus	752
Josh	748
Thomas	560
Lendale	433
Carter	369
Joe	344
Evan	246
Keighvin	245
Annikka	236
Angela	220
Aidan	121

Ratings 4-9

Thomas	1273
Frank	809
Anton	791
Josh	745
Magnus	735
Thomas	560
Lendale	432
Carter	369
Joe	344
Evan	246
Keighvin	245
Annikka	231
Angela	220
Aidan	121

Problem from Dayton's Catalog

Yesterday I told you the story of finding a picture in a catalog which had a grandpa playing chess agains his grandson. The grandpa had only one pawn left while the youngster still had all his pieces. However, when I examined it, I realized the grandpa, who was getting ready to move was actually going to win the game! (The actual position in the magazine is unknown, but it was siimilar to this one.) How does grandpa win?

Ratings (adjusted Apr 3, 2014)

This includes the MSCA Tournament. Magnus now has a USCF rating of 835 - down from 1040.   Tom has a USCF of 1118. So my system seems pretty close for both of you.

Last	First	30-Mar
Miranda	Thomas	1239
Henry	Mace	873
Priborkin	Anton	786
Sullivan	Frank	792
Nordby	Magnus	704
Philips	Josh	694
McDermott	Thomas	546
Smith	Lendale	432
Hahnfeldt	Carter	369
Barnard	Joe	346
Lee	Keighvin	245
Johnson	Evan	242
Gotham	Angela	220
Meyer	Oliver	216
Nordby	Annikka	220
Kainz	Andres	155
Metz-Taylor	Grant	127
Church	Ben	117
Lee	Aidan	108
Williams	Brigham	100
Meyer	Misha	100

March 12 ratings

Tom gets his bonus 2 points

Last	First	12-Mar
Miranda	Thomas	1239
Henry	Mace	873
Priborkin	Anton	786
Sullivan	Frank	792
Nordby	Magnus	755
Philips	Josh	694
McDermott	Thomas	546
Smith	Lendale	432
Hahnfeldt	Carter	369
Barnard	Joe	346
Lee	Keighvin	245
Johnson	Evan	242
Gotham	Angela	220
Meyer	Oliver	216
Nordby	Annikka	220
Kainz	Andres	155
Metz-Taylor	Grant	127
Church	Ben	117
Lee	Aidan	108
Williams	Brigham	100
Meyer	Misha	100

New Ratings

Way to go! Third place! after a second place finish last week. We're definitely one of the top teams in the state! Let's plan on going to MSCA's official USCF State Championships at St. Kates on March 29-30.

Ratings, I adjusted the tables I use to increase the strength of our opponents after seening that Tom lost 50 points after going 4-1.
Tom held his own, Magnus gained a few points, Anton lost a few.

RATINGS AFTER TOURNAMENT 3-8-14

Miranda	Thomas	1232
Henry	Mace	873
Sullivan	Frank	787
Priborkin	Anton	786
Nordby	Magnus	750
Philips	Josh	689
McDermott	Thomas	546
Smith	Lendale	432
Hahnfeldt	Carter	369
Barnard	Joe	346
Lee	Keighvin	245
Johnson	Evan	242
Gotham	Angela	220
Meyer	Oliver	216
Nordby	Annikka	215
Kainz	Andres	155
Metz-Taylor	Grant	127
Church	Ben	117
Lee	Aidan	108
Williams	Brigham	100
Meyer	Misha	100

Latest Ratings 3-6-2014

FHMS By Rating

Last Name	First Name	Rating
Miranda	Thomas	1241
Henry	Mace	873
Priborkin	Anton	829
Sullivan	Frank	787
Nordby	Magnus	742
Philips	Josh	689
McDermott	Thomas	546
Smith	Lendale	432
Hahnfeldt	Carter	369
Barnard	Joe	346
Lee	Keighvin	245
Johnson	Evan	242
Gotham	Angela	220
Meyer	Oliver	216
Nordby	Annikka	215
Kainz	Andres	155
Metz-Taylor	Grant	127
Church	Ben	117
Lee	Aidan	108
Williams	Brigham	100
Meyer	Misha	100

Games from Saturday

In case you were wondering about your opponents' ratings:
Name..Beac Metc Befr Aft
Thomas.unr 1501.1267.1235
Anton..643 1778..816..825
Frank..451 1328..787..789
Josh...437 1026..719..689
Magnus.unr 1319..718..721

The good news is that you guys played absolutely terribly!
Why is that good news? Because if you had played well, we might have had a chance against Metcalf - although looking at the ratings above, they are clearly the better team.
Maybe next week we can do better.

Here's a couple of mistakes that cost games. (I'll add some more positions soon. and recalculate ratings.)

PROBLEM 1. Here Josh falls for the oldest trick in the book. I'm sure I've shown you this. Maybe this time it will sink in. 1. e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4 4.Qe2 This is called Petrov's Defense or the Russian Defense.
What's the danger to Josh playing Black? What can he do to prevent disaster?

PROBLEM 2. Max, Magnus's opponent, has just played Qa4 in this position. What was wrong with that? What do you think Magnus did?

ANSWERS

1. If Josh moves his knight, White plays Nc6+ with a discovered check that wins the queen. Josh needs to play d6 attacking his opponent's knight. Qe7 will follow shortly and all will be well.

2. Max is just inviting Bd7 setting up a discovered attack which resulted in the early loss of the Queen and the game. Other things wrong with the move - develop knights and Bishops before the Queen. The queen prefers a central location not stuck on the side of the board. After Black plays Nd4 (a move set up by Max when he moved c3 to c4 on move 3) the queen must retreat to d1 thus totally wasting 2 moves. (Incidentally, two moves later Max castled by moving his king to b1 and rook to c1. Magnus did not object.)