Posts Tagged ‘chess’
Minooka Chess Tournament
Minooka Chess Club and CheckmatesUSA
present the first ever
Minooka Area Chess Tournament
Sunday, April 15, 2012 (1pm to 4:30pm)
Minooka Village Community Room
121 East McEvilly Rd. (Next to Creamery)
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Entry fee: $10 with advance registration, $15 on-site
Sections: Juniors (K-8) and Open (All ages)
Juniors = 4 rounds, Open = G/30, 3 rounds
For more information, please contact [email protected]
Or call Brian Quast at (815) 922-9291
Chess is a Symphony of Pieces
When teaching chess to kids its important that you find a way to explain chess theory in a way that related to them. Many kids enjoy music and even play musical instruments; so with them I try to relate chess to music.
Chess is very much like music, and a good chess game could easily be compared to a beautiful musical composition. Just think of each piece as a musical instrument. In a good musical composition all the instruments are working together create something that people would enjoy listening to. A song with just one or two musical instruments wouldn’t be as interesting and fun as one with many more.
In chess you are also creating a composition. Like a composer with his or her instruments, a good chess players uses all his or her pieces together in combination to achieve a goal. Just like a composer, a chess player’s personality shows a lot in their chess game.
Its no coincident so many musicians are also chess players, and vice versa!
The Pin
The Pin is a very important tool that every chess player should have in his or her repertoire. The word pin literally means that something cannot move. For example, if a poster is pinned to wall, it cannot move. In wrestling, a pin is when your opponent cant move. In chess, a pin is when a piece cannot move.
Creating a pin in chess can be useful, but it does not always win a piece. Above, the King from A1 can move to B2 to protect the Knight. Whenever you know a chess piece cannot move, it is always a good idea to put pressure on it, and attack it with more chess pieces.
The Bishop from H6 can move to G7 to pin the Knight. The King is expected to protect it by moving to B2. The Black player can then win the knight by attacking it with the pawn on B5 by moving it to B4. The white player then does not have to defend the white knight, and cannot move it either because it is pinned. Remember: when a piece is pinned, take advantage of it by putting pressure on the pin.
Insufficient Mating Chances (a technicality in chess)
I love learning something new in chess, and this is something I never knew about. Here’s the deal:
Insufficient Mating chances (or insufficient losing chances) is when a special rule that is used in tournaments. Basically, it has to do with a situation when the chess player with a winning position is almost out of time. They dont just need a winning position, but they need to have an un-winnable position. A referee is called over and the game is called a tie.
The Reason: The point here is simple, chess players want the game of chess to be decided on the moves a player makes rather than the time on the clock. If one player cannot with the game regardless of the moves that he/she makes, then why should he/she be awarded a victory. O Chess players…so righteous.
Cool Chess Boards: Cold War Chess Chess
My cousin from Russia seems to be able to find me the coolest chess sets; this one is no exception. It is a colorful, wooden chess set made under the theme of the cold war. The cold war chess set is a collectors set and probably not the best to play on. Still, it is nice to keep around. As you can see each piece is designed with detail and is quite comical.
Getting out of Check
Check is one of the most, if not the most, important concepts in chess. Check means the king is in danger. This means that the player whose king is in danger MUST get their king out of check.
There are three ways that a player can get out of check
1. Move - This means to move your king out of danger.
2. Block- This means moving a piece in between your king and the piece attacking it. Note: you cannot block a check from a Knight because it skips over pieces.
3. Attack- This means you are attacking the piece that is putting your king in check. You can use your king to attack or another piece on your team.
A good chess player will look through all his/her options before deciding. In each position, the correct move may be to move, block, or attack, but you will never know until you look at all the options.
Take a look at this position, what should the white team do?
What do you think the white king should do. He can move out of the way to b1 or b2. He can also use his queen to block on a2, but the best option is to capture the rook on a7 with the queen on f2.
The Rook and how it moves
The Rook is an important piece to use in chess and not very hard to learn. There is an easy rhyme I made up for the rook; here how it goes:
“Up, Down, Side to Side, that’s the way the rook will slide.”
The rook moves forwards, backwards, and sideways as many squares as it wants. It attacks the same way it moves and cannot skip over pieces. Like all the other pieces, it can only attack one piece at a time.
Each team gets two rooks and they start on the corners on the board. For white this is a1 and h1. For black this is a8 and h8.
Also, it is the rook, not the castle!
How the Pawn Moves
The Pawns are always the smallest of the pieces, and you should have eight of them. They will go on the second and seventh rows. White on the second row (a2, b2, c2, d2, e2, f2, g2, h2) and black on the seventh row (a7, b7, c7, d7, e7, f7, g7, h7).
The pawn is my favorite chess piece and also a very unique one. The pawn usually only moves one square forward. The pawns have the ability to move two squares forward if they have never moved before and only one square forward afterwards. They can also just go one square forward on their first turn. They are the only piece that cannot go backwards, and also the only one that attacks differently than it moves. A pawn attacks on a diagonal.
The white pawn on f4 captures the black pawn on e5 and takes over its square.
Attacking in chess is different than in checkers, as the attacking piece does not skip over the piece, but actually captures it by taking over its square.
Chess on Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving! Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Cranberry Sauce, and most importantly: lots of family together. Chess is a great game to play with the whole family and get some friendly competition going.
Parents, Kids, Grandparents, and all the other relatives can get together and play some chess before or after the big meal. Chess is always a ton of fun and if your whole family plays, you could even play Bughouse!
Also, don’t forget to be thankful!
Chess Tournament this Saturday!
This Saturday we will be having a kids chess tournament at Elk Grove Village Library from 1:30 - 3:00. All kids from grades k- 6th are welcome to come, even beginners! Kids will be separated into two sections: Beginners and Intermediate/ Advanced. Everyone will leave with a prize and first place will leave with an even COOLER PRIZE!
Residents of Elk Grove can register now, while residents of other townships will have to wait until Friday to register. The library can be reached at 847-439-0447.
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