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?