Posts Tagged ‘Krasnopolskiy’
3 vs. 3 Pawn Promotion Problem
When just learning how to play chess, it is important to begin to understand how to use multiple chess pieces together in combination. This doesn’t always mean different types of pieces and even with just pawns on the board a chess player can often calculate to find the best one. This is one of my favorite examples because it is simple enough that someone who just knows how to move pawns can solve it, but its complicated enough to show a beginners the beauty of using pieces together in combination.
Here we go: Imagine you have this position set up:
As you can see, both teams have only three pawns. and in this puzzle it is whites goal is to get to the other side with one pawn. How do you do this?
Give it a try first, the answer is below.
So how do we solve this problem? One important aspect is to look ahead into all the option, now just the obvious.
Lets start with the f5 pawn. If you move this pawn forward, how can black block white’s advance?
Black can just move his pawn to g6 from g7 and white cant do anything. So this doesn’t work. Lets move on.
If we move the g5 pawn to g6, is there any way to win?
The first thing to notice is that black must capture the pawn, or the pawn will capture on either h7 or f7. After black moves his h7 pawn to capture g6, can you find what white should do?
If white captures back, nothing good comes from it. Both pawns end up stuck. Look below:
So what does white do? Well, are you ready? Try it yourself first?
White should move his f5 pawn to f6. Check out the chess position below.
If black captures the pawn on f6, whites pawn on h5 has a clean file that it can get to the other side without problem. If black captures the pawn on h5, the white pawn on f6 will capture on g7 and get to the other side to win.
Hope you enjoy Dr. Connolly!
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.
How the chess pieces are called in Spanish?
"Mexico set a new record for simultaneous chess games on when 13,446 players faced off at the same time in a vast Spanish colonial square at the heart of the former Aztec empire, Mexico City officials said."
How are the chess pieces called in Spanish?
Chess is a popular sport in the Hispanic Culture and is played in all Latin cultures across the world. Knowing what the chess pieces are called in Spanish could allow you to analyze a game in another language (Spanish).
The King in Chess is called “Rey” in chess in Spanish.
The Queen is called “Reina” in chess in Spanish.
The Bishop is called “Alfil” in chess in Spanish.
The Knight is called “Caballo” in chess in Spanish.
The Rook is called “Torre” in chess in Spanish.
The Pawn is called “Peón” in chess in Spanish.
If you are playing chess in a spanish speaking country you must know how to say Check. Check is Spanish is called “Jaque.” If you need to say CheckMate in Spanish, you can say “Jaquemate.”
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.
Practicing chess outside of chess class
Chess by telico82
In order to become a good chess player you need to practice and work hard, just like anything else. No matter how talented a student it, they still need to put the work in if they want to become good chess players.
The nice things about chess is that there are so many different ways to practice. The easiest way is to play a game…more advanced students will also use chess notation to write their moves to later review their games.
Another way to practice is to do chess puzzles. In these puzzles you must find the right move in a certain chess position.
Lastly, you can always read a book about chess…there are so many to choose from!
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 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.
Perpetual Check
Have you ever heard the chess term perpetual check and wondered what is was? Like most chess terms it isnt hard to figure out: a perpetual check is a position in which one player is constantly repeated the same series of checks and his/her opponent has no options to do anything else. In a perpetual check position the game ends in a draw. Note that in some chess position the player that is being checked may have a choice to get out of the perpetual check but may leave themselves in a worse position, in which case they will most likely choose to end the game in a draw.
Look at the position below: can you find the correct move to force the perpetual check?
We have just added two new Perpetual Check Chess Practice Puzzle Worksheets to our Online Resource. Give them a try for additional practice.
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