Outside Passed Pawn

In Jeremy Silman, Silman's Complete Endgame Course (2007), he uses the term "the fox in the chicken coop" for the concept that I learned as "outside passed pawn". It is a skill that I routinely teach beginning students and require for completion of my Knight Award. The core idea that Silman explains--abandoning a passed pawn to create another--appears in the endgame book that I have had since my youth. Irving Chernev, Practical Chess Endings (1961) presents this position. Perhaps that is where I first learned the concept many years ago.

White to move

Chernev explains, "White abandons his passed pawn. Capturing it will keep Black busy on one side of the board, while White gets time to win on the other" (39). He gives the moves:

1.Kf5 Kh6 2.Ke5 Kxh5 3.Kd5 Kg6 4.Kc6 Kf6 5.Kxb6 Ke7 6.Kc7

When young players learn this simple idea, they have a requisite skill for navigating a great many pawn endings that will occur in their own games.

Chernev gives a second solution that employs a fundamentally different set of principles, but that leads to a faster checkmate. Hence, the position is less than ideal for my purposes. Even so, I had the exact position in a blitz game in July 2021 and played it according to book.

Silman's illustration is cleaner. While there are several winning moves that can be played, his solution appears to follow the top engine moves.

White to move

1.b5 Kb7 2.Ka5 Ka7 3.b6+ Kb7 4.Kb5 Kb8 5.Kc6 Kc8 6.Kd6 Kb7 7.Ke6 Kxb6 8.Kxf6 Kc7

White to move

9.Kxg5

Silman writes, "the rest is mindlessly easy" (67).

I would play 9.Ke7, which wins faster.

When teaching or testing students, I usually compose positions on the spot. But, perhaps it would be useful to have a printed sheet in my chess bag with some of the most instructive positions from books and game. Paul Keres, Practical Chess Endings (1974) offers one that is excellent. His term is "distant passed pawn" (55). As he notes, without the passed pawn that will be sacrificed (or exchanged for Black's passed pawn), White would be lost. 

White to move

1.f5 Ke5 2.f6 Kxf6 3.Kxd4 Ke6 4.Kc5 Kd7 5.Kxb5 Kc7 6.Ka6

Reviewing my own internet games stretching back to the late-twentieth century produced many positions where the basic idea of using a passed pawn to deflect the opponent's king from the main scene was required. In many cases, the correct move was not played.

I played it correctly in this position from the Internet Chess Club in 2001.

Black to move

38...b3! was the only winning move. My opponent resigned after 39.Kxb3 Kxd5 40.Kc3 Ke4 41.Kd2 Kf3

Thinking I was applying this idea, I managed to throw away the win in this game from 2001.

White to move

I played 45.h4 and succeeded in forcing Black's king to the h-file while gobbling Black's two remaining pawns with my king. However, Black's king was able to get back to the a-file in time. This position shows that calculation is necessary in pawn endings and sometimes there is more than one idea in play.

1.Kf4! is the only winning move.

If Black then goes after the a-pawn, White needs to win a queen vs. pawn ending where it is important that Black's pawn is two squares from promotion. If the Black king tries to get the the h-file, then the distant passed pawn is far enough away that White will be able to promote the a-pawn.

Learn the Ending

As tine was running low on the clocks, I was watching the last two games finish in the second round of a youth tournament. As the tournament director, watching the clocks during a time scramble can be important. In the penultimate game, White offered a draw because he was certain that should be the result. Black wanted to play it out. A few moves later the queens were exchanged and the game was drawn. However, the result could have been different if the player with Black had studied a position that can be found in most endgame books.

White to move

White played 1.a8Q and offered a draw. Play continued 1...Qc6+ and after a few moves the kings were on b5 and b8 and the queens were on b6 and b7. Queens were exchanged.

Mark Dvoretsky, Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual has a similar position.

White to move

1.Qb3+ Ka1 2.Qd1+ Kb2 3.Qd2+

This square is where the queen needs to go. In the game from my tournament, 1...Qd7 was the equivalent move with the same idea.

3...Kb1

3...Ka1 allows 4.Qc1#

4.Kb4

Black's king already occupied the mirror of this square in the youth game.

4...a1Q 5.Kb3

Black to move

Black is in zugzwang with no safe square to move the queen without losing it or allowing checkmate.

The youth game could have continued 1...Qd7+ 2.Kb8 Kb6 and White would be in zugzwang.

Finishing

During Inland Chess Academy's Spring Break Chess Camp last week, I presented four sessions. My topics were weakness, patterns, coordination, and finishing. The following is an outline of the fourth, finishing. Click on the links for some of my previous posts that expound upon some of these techniques.

Finishing

To score well consistently in chess competition, you need to have the skill to convert an advantage into a win. Often, also, you need to hold a draw when you have a slight disadvantage.

To develop this skill, learn (in approximately this sequence):

• Checkmate with heavy pieces—two rooks or rook and queen
• Checkmate with one heavy piece
• Winning and drawing positions and techniques when one side has a single pawn (opposition and outflanking)

Black to move

Black draws with best play

• Winning techniques when one player has a pawn majority on one flank and an equal number of pawns on the other flank
• Use of opposition and outflanking to secure the win or hold the draw when both sides have the same number of pawns
• Some stalemate ideas when kings and pawns are all that remain
• Checkmate with two bishops
• Holding the draw with Philidor’s idea in rook and pawn against rook
• Winning from the so-called Lucena position (building a bridge)
• Queen versus advanced pawn—winning techniques and positions, drawn positions and techniques
• Tactical tricks in rook endings (and the corresponding drawing ideas)
• Checkmate with knight and bishop*
• Queen versus rook—elementary winning positions and ideas

Of course, these skills are only a beginning, but they are a very important beginning. These skills are called fundamental because they are the foundation upon which you can build lasting skill. Without this foundation, your success in the opening and middle game will often crumble in disappointment.




*Jeremy Silman does not agree that this skill is necessary

How to Think about Checkmate

This week is my tenth annual youth chess camp. During this camp, I am making more explicit a training process that I have advocated for many years: work backwards through the game in your study. That is, start with checkmates, move from there to endgames, then study tactics and middlegame strategy, and only then examine the opening. Finally, look at whole games. Repeat this sequence with more advanced materials. Keep repeating the sequence from the end to the beginning to the whole.

This process is the structure of Jose R. Capablanca, Chess Fundamentals (1921), which I have long advocated as among the best books for beginners and intermediate players. This process is the structure of my camp workbook for this year, Five Days to Better Chess: Essential Tools, which I have made available through Amazon.

Students begin each day with a warm-up exercise. The first day's warm-up consists of questions two and three from a test administered for several years by Richard James, and presented in "Chess Thinking Skills in Children," in The Chess Instructor 2009, edited by Jeroen Bosch and Steve Giddins.* Each question is a diagram where one must find White's best move (Black has a checkmate threat) and explain the reasons for this move. My quick grading of these warm-ups as students finish will facilitate putting them in groups for additional work on checkmates.

Following a period of individual and group work targeted at each student's skill set, the whole group will come together for a short lecture. These are my notes for the first lecture.

How do you think about checkmate? In order to finish the game well, you need to checkmate your opponent.

Coordination of Forces

Checkmate requires coordination of your pieces, and of their contacts with your opponent's pieces. The minimum number of pieces that are needed for checkmate are both kings and either a queen or a rook. Examples will be presented.

Checkmating an opponent with only one of your pieces requires the assistance of his or her pieces. For example, a back-rank checkmate requires that a king be hemmed in by at least two of his own pawns. In the diagram below, Black's f-pawn would be unnecessary if the Black king were on h8. A smother checkmate requires three of a king's own forces holding him down.

Here we have a corridor checkmate from Five Days to Better Chess (30). The back-rank checkmate above was presented as a threat that Black had to address.

White to move

Knowledge

There are millions of possible arrangements of the chess pieces to create checkmate.** Nonetheless, most checkmates resemble a few dozen patterns. The better you know these patterns, the more likely you will find checkmate in your games. Five Days to Better Chess lists 37 patterns, but does not present examples of all of these.

Corridor checkmates--always delivered with a rook or queen--are a family of checkmate patterns that are easy to learn. A back-rank checkmate is the simplest corridor checkmate. In Five Days to Better Chess, there is a diagram where White threatens this checkmate, but it is Black's move. This position came about in the game Ansaldo,A. -- Boyce,C., Melbourne 1922 in the Championship of Australia.

Black to move

Black found a forced checkmate in six moves. That is an ideal worth striving towards.

22...Rd2+ 23.Bxd2

If 23.Kf1 Qd1#

23.Kh3 leads to a sequence much like the game's finish.

23...Rxd2+ 24.Kh3

This is the position presented in the workbook.

24.Kf1 Qf3+ 25.Ke1 Qf2# Here is another pattern utilizing a queen and rook that one should learn. It is one of the final positions that can occur after a queen and rook roll, discussed at the beginning of the checkmate unit in the book.

24.Qe6+ g4

25.Kh4 Rxh2+ 26.Kg5 Qf6+ 27.Kg4 h5#. Here, we do not have a corridor checkmate, but rather one of those positions that has elements of several named patterns. Observe that Black's queen, rook, and pawn are assisted by White's pawn on g4.

25...Qh6+ 26.Kg3 Qe3+ 27.Kh4 Rxh2#

White to move

White's king is checkmated on the h-file. Two other pieces hold him there: Black's queen covers two squares and a White pawn prevents escape to another. Three squares on the g-file and three squares on the h-file are controlled by Black or occupied by a White piece. Checkmate on the edge requires coordination of pieces to control six squares. This is an example of what I call an "edge-file checkmate", which is similar in important respects to a back-rank checkmate.

Anastasia's Checkmate is another example of a corridor checkmate. Here is one from a Grandmaster blitz game last year, Harikrishna,P. -- Dominguez Perez,L., Huai'an 2016.

Black to move

Defense

Learning checkmate patterns facilitates finding them when you are on the attack. This knowledge also helps when you are defending. When you see the checkmate threats, you can stop them.

In this position from this year's Tata Steel Chess Tournament, Wesley So has Black's king tied down with a rook, and his knight and pawn are well placed to begin working towards an Arabian Checkmate. First, however, he must meet Black's threats.

White to move

42.Kf1 would lose instantly. 42...Qf2#.

42.Kd1 also throws away the win, as So must must avoid Richard Rapport's endless checks that lead to a draw. Nor can White's king find shelter from these checks. 42.Kd1 Nf2+ 43.Kc2 Qxe2+ 44.Kc3 Qe3+ 45.Kb2 Nd3+

White to move (Analysis position)

46.Ka1 walks into checkmate in two.

Facing both checkmate threats and draw by repetition, So played the only move that preserved his advantage, although it also led to a barrage of checks. In this case, however, Black had only one piece harassing the White king, and it was able to find refuge.

42.Qxd3! Qxd3 43.Ng8 Qf3 44.h5! Kh8 45.Rg6 Qh1+ 46.Kd2 Qxe4

White to move

47.Nf6

So threatens checkmate in one.

47...Qb4+ 48.Ke3 and Rapport resigned, as it was clear that he would run out of checks. Black could have tried Qc5+ 49.Kf3 e4+, but after 50.Kg2, all further checks lose the queen.

Quest for Advantage

Checkmate threats can lead to a material or positional advantage. You threaten checkmate; your opponent sees it and prevents it. There is a simple example of White gaining the advantage of a pawn with a checkmate threat in the section on Legall's Mate in Five Days to Better Chess. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 d6 4.Nc3 Bg4?! 5.h3 Bh5 6.Nxe5!

If Black snatches the queen, White has a checkmate in two.

6...Nxe5 7.Qxh5 Nxc4 8.Qb4+ forking knight and king. After Black gets out of check, White grabs the knight. White then has a material advantage of one pawn, as well as more active pieces.

This position from Chigorin,M. -- Judd.M., New York 1889 offers a more complex example.

White to move

20.Rg3

White's rook lift aims for checkmate along the h-file with Rh3, Bxf6, and Qxh7#.

Black's defensive resources are thin due to the cramped position of his pieces. But he finds an ingenious way to avoid checkmate.

20...h6 21.Rh3 Kg8 22.Bxh6 Nd7 23.f6

Black to move

23...Qxf6

Otherwise, 23...Nxf6 24.Bxg7 and White will force checkmate in a few more moves. Students might choose to work out the sequence from here on their own.

24.Bg5 Qh6!

In Book of the Sixth American Chess Congress (1891), Wilhelm Steinitz wrote:

This ingenious move, whereby Black escapes at the expense of the Exchange from the pressure of an apparently irresistible attack against the King, was probably overlooked by White in his forecalculation on the 23rd move. (35)

25.Qxh6 gxh6 26.Bxh6 Bf6 27.Bxf8 Nxf8

Black survived the mating attack, but White emerged ahead a rook and pawn for a minor piece and went on to win the game.


Everything that we do on the first day will be focused on developing checkmate skills both for attack and defense. The second day, we will work on endings.





*Longer versions of James' original articles are available on his website: richardjames.org.uk/articles.htm.

**The total number of unique chess positions has been estimated to exceed 10^43 (a one followed by 43 zeros), but most of these, of course, are not checkmate. Even so, my "millions" may be ridiculously low.

Lesson One

Where do you begin when teaching chess to a beginner? Certainly, the first steps should be the board and how the pieces move, as Daniel Rensch offers in "Everything You Need to Know 1: Start Playing Chess" on Chess.com. Or, perhaps there is a flaw in this approach. Momir Radovic claims the approach that starts with the moves is flawed, quoting Aron Nimzovich, "How I Became a Grandmaster" (1929).*

Let's start from the beginning -- from the very first lesson. "Moves were shown" to me -- was that the right thing to do? Well, of course, my dear reader would say, it's impossible to play chess without it. But the thing is, the reader makes a mistake: this method is utterly wrong.
Nimzovich, trans. by Alexey Spectra

"Utterly wrong" in this translation is presented as "fundamentally flawed" by Radovic (see "How We Fail Big Time in Teaching Chess"). Nimzovich asserts that one should begin with the board, specifically mentioning the border between the players and the center; then with the rook and the concept of ranks and files. Radovic suggests contacts, which appear to be embodied in Nimzovich's lesson with a White rook on e1 and a Black pawn on e6. Yuri Averbakh. Chess Tactics for Advanced Players (1972) develops a theory of contacts that I imagine must be part of what informs Radovic's approach.

Through work as a guest teacher in elementary classrooms for more than a decade, I taught more than one thousand children to play chess. I developed a curriculum that could be covered in four visits. I always started with the board--ranks, files, diagonals, and the names of squares. Each visit would then introduce the moves of one or two pieces. Sometimes, I started with pawns and then students played pawn wars. Sometimes, I started with the rook and the king and the concept of check. Sometimes I started with the queen and king and the concept of checkmate. None of these methods were perfect, but children did learn to play.

Rensch's First Checkmate

Rensch starts his video with the board's alternating colors, then ranks, files, diagonals, and names of squares. Then he teaches the moves, beginning with the rook. Fifteen minutes into the video, he introduces check and checkmate. His first checkmate is with a queen. The second is with two bishops. Then, he shows a stalemate with the two bishops. Finally, en passant and castling are introduced.

The Nimzovich/Radovic approach deserves further exploration, but the links to his site do not seem to be working for me this morning. Also, his articles on his blog and on Chess.com generally offer teasers only. He suggests the problems that provoked development of his system, but one needs to hire him as a coach to get the details. Or, do a bit of research and find the links, such as his article, "Introduction to the Contacts Method," The Chess Journalist (Fall 2011).

Nearly two centuries ago, William Lewis (1787-1870) presented a "scientific" approach to learning chess. His book, Elements of the Game of Chess (1822), begins with rules and moves and then proceeds to checkmates with queen and king against king. His assertions of the pitfalls of teaching chess the wrong way remind me of my own childhood.

The great objection to the works hitherto published, as far as regards the mere learner, is that they commence too soon with all the pieces, and the reader is expected to manoeuvre all, before he understands the use of one or two; the powers of the pieces are imperfectly taught, and the numerous combinations and difficulties which so early present themselves to the reader, confuse and fatigue him, and he begins to fear that very considerable time must elapse before he can be come, with great study and patience, even a moderate player.
Lewis, Elements, viii.

Lewis observes that a young beginner wants to use all of the pieces, but urges restraint. He asserts that a person who wants to reach a level where he or she can compete with first rank players should defer using all of the pieces until after working through the combinations with few pieces that he offers in Elements of the Game of Chess.

My younger sister taught me the moves after learning them from a neighbor. I was eight years old. A short time later, my uncle corrected some errors, or so he tells me. My memory extends to my sister's instruction, but not my uncle's. In any case, I played chess for several years before I had the faintest idea of strategy and tactics. These, and the beginnings of skill, developed when I discovered chess books shortly before or just after my fifteenth birthday (see "My First Chess Book"). As I learned to read chess notation and began playing through miniatures, my skill rose rapidly.

Lewis advocates using few pieces in many combinations. One almost gets the sense from careful study of his approach that Nimzovich and Radovic are merely refining lessons in a forgotten book. He does not begin with the rook, however. The queen is a terribly difficult piece with which to begin. Even so, Lewis's first checkmates are exemplary for teaching how a queen and king can coordinate their efforts. In particular, his "second situation" offers two solutions (28).

White to move

First, he presents checkmate in five. Then notes, "This method is very simple, but the other is more masterly and shorter; replace the pieces and play." We see that White's king does not move and Black is checkmated on the fourth move.

Step by step, Lewis walks his reader through simple checkmates when the Black king is already confined on the edge. Then, we reach the "fifth situation" (30).

White to move

It is checkmate in five moves. When a young player starts with such a checkmate, he or she is already well ahead of the one who played 58...Qc4+ in this next position.

Black to move

After six moves, White resigned in disgust, embarrassed to lose to a player who cannot execute a simple checkmate in three.


*This work in Russian has not been generally available in English, but Alexey Spectra, known on Chess.com as Spektrowski offers a translation on that site (link embedded).

Checkmate Patterns

Some readers of Chess Skills may have been disappointed that my postings have been limited the past two months. Much of my chess time has been devoted to preparing lessons for my camp in August. A standard feature of my annual summer chess camp has a been a camp workbook that each student receives. This year's workbook will be more than twice the size of my previous largest, which ran 92 pages. This year's workbook will be available through Amazon. My title has changed three times in the past two days. Currently, my working title is Five Days to Better Chess: Essential Tools.

In this summer's camp, each day will be focused on one topic. Each topic will be layered to accommodate students of a wide range of skill levels. There will be group activities and individual activities. The topics in sequence are checkmates, endings, middlegames, openings, and great games.

On the first day, beginning students will learn three basic checkmates against a lone king: queen and king, rook and king, and queen and rook. Then, they will move on to where the second tier group begins. Here is a sample from my workbook in progress.

Checkmate Patterns

It is not clear precisely how many ways exist to deliver checkmate. Nonetheless, my study of many thousands of checkmates in my games and in the games of others has convinced me that there are only a few dozen basic checkmate patterns. Most opportunities to force checkmate will fall into a much smaller set, perhaps two dozen. My research is not original, but merely confirms what many chess masters have found through the ages.

My booklet, “A Checklist of Checkmates”, lists 37 patterns. Portions of this booklet have been distributed to my students for the past fourteen years. The booklet contains illustrations of patterns from games, followed by exercises.

Several books have helped me learn and teach these patterns. The best one in my view is The Art of the Checkmate (1953) by Georges Renaud and Victor Kahn. When I wrote “A Checklist of Checkmates”, the English translation of The Art of the Checkmate was available only in descriptive notation, which few children learn these days. Since then, it has been republished in algebraic. After The Art of the Checkmate, the most useful book that I have found is Mikhail Tal, and Victor Khenkin, Tal’s Winning Chess Combinations (1979)—this book is new to me, having purchased it a few months ago.

Tal and Khenkin arrange their book with one chapter for each piece, followed by combinations of pieces: rook, bishop, knight, queen, pawn, two rooks, queen and bishop, and so on. Each chapter presents a small number of essential patterns. This arrangement is similar to the arrangement that I created for “A Checklist of Checkmates”, reproduced here.

The Checklist

Corridors
1.Back-rank mate
2. Edge-file mate
3. Two rooks (or rook and queen)
4. Two pigs
5. Anastasia’s mate
6. Max Lange’s mate

Diagonals
7. Fool’s mate
8. Boden’s mate
9. Parallel diagonals
10. Reti’s mate

Intersections
11.Rook and bishop
12. Opera mate
13. Pillsbury’s mate
14. Morphy’s mate
15. Two rooks and bishop

Knights
16. Smother mate
17. Smother mate with pin
18. Two knights
19. Corner mate
20. Arabian mate
21. Modified Arabian mate
22. Knight and bishop mate

Queens
23. Edge checkmate
24. Swallowtail
25. Dovetail
26. Epaulette
27. Half-epaulette
28. Queen and bishop
29. Queen and knight
30. Queen and rook

Combinations
31. Legall’s mate
32. Lolli’s mate
33. Mayet’s mate
34. Anderssen’s mate
35. Blackburne’s mate
36. Damiano’s mate
37. Greco’s mate

Just as there is no certain definite number of possible patterns, there is considerable variety in the naming of patterns. For example, my “two pigs” checkmate has been called “blind swine checkmate” in other books, including Vladimir Vukovic, The Art of Attack in Chess (1965). I dislike the name blind swine because that term’s origin comes from a grandmaster discussing a situation when two rooks could force a draw, but not force checkmate—hence, they are blind. I see blind swine as a drawing combination, not a checkmate pattern. Rooks on the seventh rank are sometimes called pigs, or swine.

Although there is not universal agreement on the number and names of common checkmate patterns, many of these names are in common use. An entry on Wikipedia lists many of them. Some names, such as Reti’s mate and Anastasia’s mate, have very specific histories. On the other hand, one name, Pillsbury’s mate, comes from a specific game that was not played by Pillsbury. Renaud and Kahn present the game as one of his, although it was played by others. There are several important ideas in chess that are misnamed from a historical point of view. For example, the Lucena position (part of the second day lessons) does not appear in Luis Ramírez de Lucena, Repetición de Amores e Arte de Axedrez (1497).

Of central importance are the patterns themselves. If learning the names helps you learn patterns that you will see often, then they are useful. Knowing the name is not essential to perceiving the pattern. For most chess players, the name is a useful memory device.

The Final Lesson

My after school chess clubs meet from October through April. The end date varies from year to year, but corresponds with the Washington State Elementary Chess Championship. This year, the state championship is tomorrow in Tacoma. It has been in Spokane twice. I was the principle organizer in 2009 and the tournament director in 2015.

This week's lessons were kept light and fun. The children played chess. When one group seemed to want some instruction, I showed them an extremely complicated game more for entertainment than instruction. Another group opted to all play me in a simul. There were six players in the group. I played perhaps ten games against these six. One of the young players who will be at the tournament tomorrow was beating me until he hung a rook as we were running out of time.

Other activities have interfered with my planned study of this game this week, but I have been over it a few times.

Polugaevsky,Lev (2558) -- Nezhmetdinov,Rashid (2554) [A53]
RSFSR-ch 18th Sochi, 1958

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 e5 4.e4 exd4 5.Qxd4 Nc6 6.Qd2 g6 7.b3 Bg7 8.Bb2 0–0 9.Bd3 Ng4 10.Nge2 Qh4

White to move

It was worth pointing out to my beginning students the threat: 11.O-O Qxh2#. I pointed out that Rasgip Nezhmetdinov did not play 10...Qh4 in hopes that he would get a quick checkmate. Rather, his aim was to delay White's ability to castle while also bringing his queen to an aggressive square. Already in the game, it seems as if Black has the initiative.

Castling queenside drops the pawn on f2.

11.Ng3 Nge5 12.0–0 f5 13.f3 Bh6 14.Qd1 f4 15.Nge2 g5 16.Nd5 g4 17.g3 fxg3 18.hxg3 Qh3 19.f4 Be6

White to move

20.Bc2

20.fxe5 would be a mistake in view of 20...Bxd5. Then, 21.exd5 gives Black a forced checkmate in two.

20.Rf7 21.Kf2 Qh2+ 22.Ke3 Bxd5 23.cxd5

Black to move

23...Nb4! 

Black opts to leave his queen where White can win it.

24.Rh1 Rxf4 25.Rxh2 Rf3+ 26.Kd4 Bg7 27.a4 c5+

White to move

Most of the students in this group did not know how to play chess six months ago. Even though we have been over en passant several times, they struggled to find White's only legal move.

28.dxc6 bxc6 29.Bd3 Nexd3+ 30.Kc4 d5+ 31.exd5 cxd5+ 32.Kb5 Rb8+ 33.Ka5 Nc6+ 0–1


When the state chess tournament was in Spokane, the local PBS station produced this video. I showed it to the students who will be attending the state tournament for the first time. It's hard to imagine what it's like playing chess in a room with one thousand or more fellow competitors. This video helps reduce the shock that afflicts many newcomers on Saturday morning.

The Blitz Standard

When teaching elementary checkmates to children, I often suggest they should know the basic techniques so well that they can perform them without thought with mere seconds left on the clock. Sometimes I mention an extreme example. Ryan Ackerman and I spent some time at the Spokane Chess Club one evening taking turns checkmating with queen and king against lone king. Ryan set his Chronos clock so that we each had ten seconds. We were each able to execute the checkmate in six to seven seconds with some consistency, although there was more than one stalemate through the course of the evening. Once, I played the nine or ten moves to checkmate in five seconds.

I do not expect children to perform these checkmates in seconds, but consistent success with reasonably rapid moves is a training standard they should aspire to. The first step is learning the technique and developing self-confidence. I learned these checkmates as a teenager, but still practice them in my fifties. My aim in practice is to move instantly and at the same time to execute the checkmate in the fewest possible moves.

Knight Award Problems

The twelve problems for the Knight Award require some tactical understanding on the part of the student. One problem has two solutions that are checkmate in five. Another problem has two correct solutions--one safe, one risky. When testing students, I accept either answer, but then make the student play out the position.

These problems are part of a series of 150 that I call Checkmates and Tactics. There are six checkmates in one for the Pawn Award. These twelve. For the Bishop Award, there are twenty-four problems, half leading to checkmate. The number increases to forty-eight for the Rook Award. Sixty Queen Award problems cap the series.

My awards become progressively more difficult. Only strong and devoted students will progress through the Rook and Queen Awards.

Knight Award: checkmates and tactics.

Find the move or combination that wins material or leads to checkmate in each position. White moves first in each. Eight end in checkmate; four result in gain of material.*

*Ten problems are from actual games. Two are composed problems published in 1512 by Pedro Damiano.

Dear Chess Parents

I am certain that your child will enjoy chess club. Perhaps you think of chess as a game that your child enjoys, or perhaps you think of it as something more than a game.

Benefits of Chess

Chess may improve your child's academic skills, emotional skills, and social skills. Chess improves mental skills of observation, pattern recognition, memory, analysis, logic, and critical thinking. Studies have demonstrated clear improvement in math and reading skills for students receiving a few hours of chess instruction per week. Chess competition encourages growth in the personal qualities of patience, self-control, coping with frustration, self-confidence, and self-esteem. Playing chess develops sportsmanship, responsibility, and respect for others. See "Benefits of Chess" for a slightly expanded list.

None of these gains are automatic. When skills learned in chess club are practiced at home, the benefits of chess develop. Chess skill also improves.

What Happens in Chess Club?

My youth chess clubs include in-school and after school groups across several age levels. There are also classes that function much like clubs. At least half of the time of chess club is spent playing chess, but there is also time for instruction.

Instruction may be as short as a few minutes or as long as half an hour. It varies week to week. Each week, I prepare a set of lessons. Lessons vary in difficulty and usually include elements designed to aid the skill development of everyone from beginners to seasoned tournament veterans. Often there are worksheets with elementary tactics exercises, and there is always a strategy or tactics problem. Sometimes there are a series of such problems arising from a single previously played game. The history of chess from the earliest recorded games more than five centuries ago to games played in tournaments today offer an inexhaustible source for chess instruction. Hence, my "lesson of the week" is rarely repeated.

I make an effort during chess club to work with each child individually, teaching and testing skills. My chess awards provide structure to these lessons. The awards are sequenced according to the relative value of the chess pieces: pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen, and king. Each award is progressively more difficult than the preceding one. A child who works through the Rook level will become one of the top players in the area.

When a child can explain the basic rules and recognize checkmate, he or she earns the Pawn Award. The rules concerning castling and en passant are difficult for most young players. The next award is the Knight. To earn this award it is necessary to master elementary checkmates with rooks and queens, as well as other skills. Beginning with the Knight Award, the tactics problem worksheets that are part of each award can seem daunting. The twelve problems on the Knight Award worksheet involve some sophisticated tactical skills and knowledge of checkmate patterns.

These Knight Award problems are posted.

More information on the Knight Award can be found at "Lesson of the Week" (18 October 2011).

Wednesday Morning

Training Priorities

My personal chess training has suffered the past couple of weeks. Although I continue to go through my Game of the Week from the selection in GM-RAM: Essential Grandmaster Knowledge, my understanding of the past few games has been superficial. Other priorities have both limited my time and disrupted my focus.

Welcoming Distractions

Our Shirt Design

I am the tournament director for the Washington State Elementary Chess Championship, and the head director for an event that includes the state middle school championship, and two side events: I Love Chess Too, an event open to all, and the Friday Bughouse tournament that takes place the night before the championship. The Washington State Elementary Chess Championship is a one day tournament that has run annually since 1990. As far as I know, in terms of number of participants it is the largest state tournament in the United States. The event kicks off tomorrow evening with a lecture by GM Irina Krush at the Spokane Chess Club. The main event is Saturday. One of the middle school sections plays Saturday and Sunday. I'll sleep Sunday night.

This year is my second time running the event. I wrote about the first in "Advice for Organizers" (April 2009).


The Training

My Game of the week over the past seven days has been Steinitz -- Mongredien, London 1862. This morning, I have scheduled myself to move on to Rosanes -- Anderssen, Breslau 1862. A couple of months ago, I went through the Anderssen game with three of my students individually. All three are playing this weekend. One is in the top ten in fifth grade, another is playing in sixth grade, and one is playing in the two-day middle school championship.

The key notable feature of Steinitz -- Mongredien is a successful attack on Black's king initiated by a rook sacrifice.

White to move

Steinitz played 16.Rxh7!

I have played through the game a dozen times this past week, have conducted some of my own analysis, and checked some of that analysis on the computer. I have not memorized the game. I have not met the training standard with this game. My head has been in chess organizer mode far more than chess player mode.

Lesson of the Week

My chess lessons this week have been tailored for different groups and individuals.

Beginners

Watching one of my young pupils chase a lone king with a queen and a knight until I, as the tournament director, stepped in and called the game drawn by the fifty move rule influenced my choice of lessons for the groups comprised mainly of beginners. Two after school clubs worked on elementary checkmate with queen and king vs. lone king (see "Teaching Elementary Checkmates").

Advanced

Last Thursday, my copy of the Encyclopedia of Chess Combinations, 5th ed. (2014) arrived. I immediately put it to work. My advanced club that meets on Thursday afternoon was offered some incentive to work through the first six problems in the volume. Two students took home chess books after solving all six correctly in one hour's labor. At the March Madness youth tournament on Saturday, I created a problem solving contest featuring eight problems from this text. The two participants who scored best (four correct answers) each won a copy of John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book.

One of these two winners meets with me on Wednesday afternoons for individual lessons. We spent a fair portion of our time looking at some of the tactical alternatives at two critical positions in Bird -- Morphy, London 1858 (see "Hitting the Books"). An abbreviated version of this exercise will be used today and tomorrow with other groups and individuals.

Bird,Henry Edward -- Morphy,Paul  [C41]
London, 1858

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 f5 4.Nc3 fxe4 5.Nxe4 d5

White to move

6.Ng3?

White should have sacrificed the knight on e4 for an attack. 6.Nxe5!

6...e4 7.Ne5 Nf6 8.Bg5 Bd6 9.Nh5 0–0 10.Qd2 Qe8 11.g4 Nxg4 12.Nxg4 Qxh5 13.Ne5 Nc6 14.Be2 Qh3 15.Nxc6 bxc6 16.Be3 Rb8 17.0–0–0 Rxf2!

17...Bg4 should win easily. The merits of Morphy's brilliant attack are measured by White's defensive resources that Bird missed in the next diagram.

18.Bxf2 Qa3 19.c3 Qxa2 20.b4 Qa1+ 

White to move

21.Kc2?

After 21.Kc1, Black has a draw by repetition. Does Black have anything better? This position is worth playing out with a teacher or fellow student.

I like 21...a5, which Garry Kasparov claims is unclear. Kasparov suggests 21...Bf5 with a slight advantage for Black.

21...Qa4+ 22.Kb2 Bxb4 23.cxb4 Rxb4+ 24.Qxb4 Qxb4+ 25.Kc2 e3 26.Bxe3 Bf5+ 27.Rd3 Qc4+ 28.Kd2 Qa2+ 29.Kd1 Qb1+ 30.Kd2 Qxh1 0–1

Problem Solving Contest

At today's Groundhog's Shadow youth chess tournament, participants may attempt to win a chess book. One entry will be drawn from all those that submit answer sheets with all the answers correct.

Begin with the endgame if you want to become a strong chess player. Assess each of the following diagrams as two positions: a) White to move, and b) Black to move. Indicate on your answer sheet whether the side to move should win (W), draw (D), or lose (L) with best play by both sides. Give the best move for each position.

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6.