Lesson of the Week: Beginners

After school clubs run October to April. Saint George's School, where I have been coaching for 13 years, meets twice per week, but the children are divided into groups. One afternoon, the students are new to chess--often brand new, making their first moves on the first day of chess. The other afternoon, players are more advanced.

Much of the instructive time has been focused on learning to checkmate with rooks, but I also spent a day teaching students about ranks, files, and diagonals, as recommended by Momir Radovic (see "How to Teach Chess in the Modern Age").

Last week, students were shown these two positions from some online games.

Black to move

Although there are pawns on the board, beginners need to learn to use king and rook together to force checkmate. Here, checks by the rook only needlessly prolong the game. Rather, 74...Kg3 maintains control of the second rank and forces 75.Kg1. Now, the rook check is checkmate.

The second position starts with a checkmate in one, then we backed the game up a move to learn about Black's fatal error.

Black to move

28...Qxc2??

White checkmated Black with 29.Rh8#

Black had been winning before the blunder. We spent some time looking at possibilities.

28...Qe3+ 29.Kh1

Here, again, a check is tempting, as it seems that White has a weak back rank. Indeed, after 29...Qe1+ 30.Rxe1 Rxe1+ 31.Nxe1, Black has a mate on the move.

Black to move

However, 31.Ng1 blocks the check, revealing that 29...Qe1 would have been a terrible mistake, playing hope chess.

Instead, Black stops White's major threat with 29...Qxh6, although White maintains a material advantage.

I did not use this next position last week, because it was played yesterday. It represents the critical idea in elementary checkmates of cutting off. Young players have difficulty learning this idea because youth likes a direct attack. Once they get it, however, chess skill begins to grow.

Black to move

Black played 46...Rfc2, threatening checkmate in one. White can only delay with spite checks.

47.a4 allows bxa4#
47...Rab2# is the principal threat.

White played 47.Rb6, but could have thrown away both rooks to last three additional moves.

Poor Decisions

My first error was the decision to play chess on my phone while walking my dog. My sunglasses made it more difficult to see the phone's screen clearly in addition to other distractions. My opponent, rated 600 lower, held his own until I blundered from this position. In fact, there were several blunders as the advantage switched back and forth. 

White to move

58.Nc6??

58.Nb5 is how White stops the e-pawn. To my relief, this blunder was the game's second to the last.

58...e2?? Nd4+ and White has an unstoppable pawn.

What was the move Black should have played?

Knowledge of the square of the pawn and of the floating square is useful.

Greco’s Study Method

This position appears in Checkmates and Tactics (2019), a book that consists of exercises that I have used with scholastic players since 2006. It is doubtful that my creation of this exercise from a game credited to Gioachino Greco is original. The small selection of games credited to Greco that are found in ChessBase, chessgames.com, and other aggregations are well-enough known that others undoubtedly have put this position before their students.

White to move

Digging deeper into Greco’s output through Professor Hoffman, The Games of Greco (1900) and William Lewis, Gioachino Greco and the Game of Chess (1819), shows that Greco had improved upon Black’s play in some variations on the game that led to this position.

Those improvements were the subject of my chess lesson with some students earlier this month. Greco’s variations in this and other games lead one to suspect that he methodically sought to improve the defense in the short miniatures by which he is principally remembered. But, as I have noted in prior posts, these variations—better games—are absent from databases, although present in the books by Lewis and Hoffman.

Further study since presenting the lesson to my students has revealed that the exercise in Checkmates and Tactics was presented to Giacomo Buoncompagno, the Duke of Sora, by “an exceptional player” (more than likely Giulio Cesare Polerio). A Spanish manuscript kept in the Biblioteca Riccardiana in Florence dated in the last quarter of the sixteenth century presents the position and a comment about its presentation to the duke. Two Italian manuscripts (Elegantia and Regole) from the same time period offer the game, but only Riccardiana has the story.

The sixteen move game, thus, should be considered the work of Polerio, not Greco. It would take much time and travel to examine these manuscripts, but others have done so. Their work has been compiled into a useful table: "Openings and Games of the Classical Era of Modern Chess," in Peter J. Monté, The Classical Era of Modern Chess (2014), 439-530; the game in question here appears on 503.

At some point in Rome, Greco had access to some manuscripts containing Polerio’s work and made copies. In his 1620 manuscript dedicated to an unnamed cardinal of Casa Orsini, Greco wrote that Black had an alternate defense in this game. Improvements to Black’s play appear in four manuscripts a few years later—Grenoble (1624), Paris (1625), Orleans (undated), and Godolphin (undated, but possibly 1623).

As I have repeatedly emphasized on Chess Skills, Greco's games are poorly known because his best work does not appear in databases. In this case, Greco is credited with a composition by Polerio that he criticized and improved in his own work.

Here, then, is Greco's main (best) game from this opening with Polerio's and Greco's other work as variations.

Greco, Gioachino
Analysis, London? c.1623

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.Bc4

4.Nc3 c6 5.Bc4 h6 6.d4 d6 7.h4 Bg7 is the sequence in Polerio's mss--see move 15.

4...Bg7 5.d4 d6 6.Nc3 c6 7.h4 h6 8.hxg5 hxg5 9.Rxh8 Bxh8

The last move in Primo, an undated Greco manuscript (likely 1619). Greco notes that Black remains with a pawn up.

10.Ne5

Several posters on chessgames.com have noted that this move is an error, giving Black a clear advantage

10...dxe5 11.Qh5 Qf6 12.dxe5 Qg7

12...Qg6 offers Black chances, too, but the text is better.

13.e6 Nf6

13...Bxe6 is suggested on chessgames.com

14.exf7+

This position appears as a diagram in Lewis 1819

Black to move

Having inherited this miniature from Polerio's writings, Greco sought to improve Black's defensive efforts. He offers two better moves for Black--Ke7 and Kd8 and carries each forward with a plausible line.

a) 14...Ke7

14...Kf8?? leads to the diagram at the top of the article.

15.Bxf4 Nxh5
15...gxf4 16.Qc5# appears in Polerio's manuscripts.
15...Ke7 is still possible 16.Bxg5+-.

16.Bd6# Is the line in the databases and the main game in Hoffman and Lewis.

15.Qe2 Be6

Black has better moves, such as Bg4, but most of Greco's line offers the best moves for both sides.

16.Bxe6 Kxe6

So far, Black is slightly better, but White has active play against a vulnerable king.

17.Qc4+ Ke7 18.Qb4+ Kxf7 19.Qxb7+ Nbd7 20.Qxa8

Three of Greco's extant manuscripts end here, as do Lewis and Hoffman. David Levy & Kevin O'Connell, Oxford Encyclopedia of Chess Games, Vol. 1 1485-1866 (1981) makes the contents of Hoffman accessible in algebraic notation. Francis Beale, The Royall Art of Chesse-Play (1656) also ends here.

Perhaps Greco thought that the win of the rook was sufficient for the line. However, he extended analysis five moves longer in what became one of his more obscure manuscripts. According to Monté, the manuscript was believed to have been dedicated to Sir Francis Godolphin. Tassilo von der Lasa acquired it in 1856 and still had it in 1897, but after his death, its whereabouts became unknown until Alessandro Sanvito found it in a collection in Poland.

Black to move

20...Qh6 21.Qxa7 Qh1+ 22.Ke2 Qxg2+ 23.Qf2 Qxf2+

23...f3+ Black is slightly better.

24.Kxf2

Only now White is better, although what Greco thought is not clear. As the Godolphin manuscript would likely have been created in London, and is the most length analysis, a date of 1623 seems plausible.

With such a game, modern chess players armed with the latest Stockfish might still find faults in his analysis, but it should be clear that his strength exceeds the conclusions that are drawn when we associate him with Polerio's unacknowledged work.

Variation b is more clearly dated to 1624.

 

b) 14...Kd8

In this line, Greco's analysis is less precise. Although 14...Ke7 appears to give Black an advantage, with best play 14...Kd8 is equal.

White to move

15.Qxg5

A nice deflection!

15...Qxg5 16.f8Q+ Kd7?

An error.

16...Kc7=

17.Qxh8

17.Bxf4!! Stockfish 17...Qxf4 18.Rd1+ Nd5 19.Qxf4

17...Qxg2 18.Qxf6 f3

White to move

Black has threats, but White has a forced mate. Neither side plays the best moves in the conclusion of this variation.

19.Qf7+

19.Be6+!

19...Kd6

19...Kd8 is more stubborn.

20.Bf4+

20.e5+ Kc5 21.Be3+ Kb4 22.a3+ Ka5 23.b4# appears in Antonius van der Linde, De Kerkvaders der Schaakgemeente (1875).

20...Kc5 21.Na4+ Kb4

21...Kd4 22.c3+ Kxe4 23.Nc5# variation in Greco

22.Bd2+ Kxa4 23.b3+ Ka3 24.Qe7+ Kb2 25.Qe5+ Ka3

25...Kxc2 26.Rc1# variation in Greco

26.Bc1+ Kb4 27.c3#

This line and variations appears in two Paris manuscripts: Grenoble (1624) and Paris (1625), as well as the undated Orleans manuscript that appears to be copied from the Paris ms. While less precise, I could see extracting some checkmate exercises for my students from this variation.

Over 1900 in Rapid!

The last time I was over 1900 in rapid on chessdotcom was mid-summer 2022. In September this year, it appeared that I would never get there again as I was struggling to get back to 1700 after a losing streak in late August. However, I’ve been playing a bit better the past few weeks.

My second game this morning was against an opponent in the mid-1900s while I was 1892. Somehow, I had a nice position as we entered the middle game. My opponent lost the exchange (I think it was necessary to save his king), but then found resourceful defense and generated some counterplay. As matters became tense, I found a nice move.

I offered the exchange back, my opponent refused at this point, but later I forced matters taking his last bishop so that I could eliminate the pawn on f7. In the ending I had a bishop when we were otherwise reduced to pawns.

The win lifted me to 1901.

Mate in Two

This problem took me far longer to solve than I care to admit, but represents a rare success among those I've attempted in a book new to my shelves.

White to move

The problem was composed by George Edward Carpenter (1844-1924) and appears in Anthology of Chess Problems, 2nd ed. (2021) by Milan Velimirović and Marjan Kovačević. Chess Informant brought it out 25 years after the original.

The first problem in the book was familiar to me as I had seen it before. I found it and others from Bonus Socius (a fourteenth century manuscript) in H.J.R. Murray, A History of Chess (1913) after one of these ancient puzzles appeared in another book.

White to move

Neither of the two medieval problems that begin the anthology gave me difficulty, but then I struggled. In some cases, I looked at the correct answer, but failed to examine it carefully enough. The exercises in the anthology are doing little to build my self-confidence, but offer plenty of delight when I peek at the solution.

In particular, this one composed by Joseph Plachutta (1827-1883), which appeared in Deutsche Schachzeitung in 1868. Short of examining every legal move, I doubt I could have found the key. Now that I have seen the answer, however, I appreciate the beauty of the composer's idea.

White to move

Anthology of Chess Problems gathers 2345 compositions that all lead to checkmate in two to five moves.

Critical Errors

In the Eastern Washington Open last month, I profited from errors my opponents made while attempting to maintain an advantage. In the first round, it appeared that Black had seized the initiative.

Black to move

Black got caught up in his attack and missed a fork.

16...Nc4?? lost to 17.Qd3.

In round two, I was worse for most of the game against an old friend, but he fell short on time. With less than a minute left, he wagered all on promoting a pawn that had no chance.

White to move

67.Rxh7+??

67.Nd4 Rc1 68.Ne2 Rc2=

67...Kxh7 68.b7 Na5 69.Kb6 Nxb7 70.Kxb7

Black to move

Here, I went for the elementary pawn ending, which we played out until it was mate in four.

70...Rxc6

In the last round, I played the Benko Gambit and struggled for equality for most of the game. Things shifted my way when my opponent tried to retain the extra pawn.

White to move

36.Qb5??

36.Qd1 or 36.Qf1 gives up the a-pawn, but continues in an equal position.

36...Rc1+ 37.Kh2

Black to move

I spent a few minutes looking for the checkmate that I suspected was there on the board, but opted for exchanges that gave me overwhelming material superiority and required no effort.

My one loss stemmed from a risky and aggressive move that led to complications. My opponent played well and built up his advantage systematically.

White to move

I played 14.Ng5??

14.Nd4 was close to equal, but even here Black is better.

 

Knight Award

As noted in “Pawn Award”, I created my awards based youth chess curriculum twenty years ago. It provides structure to lessons in after school clubs and with individual students. It assures that those who stick with the program acquire certain skills that provide a foundation for lifelong chess improvement.

Many students skip the Pawn Award because they have been playing and even competing before I start working with them. For some of them, the Knight Award is earned in the first or second session. For others, some work is necessary.

1. Previously earned Pawn, or achieve a NWSRS rating over 500.

In Washington state, unlike many parts of the United States, casual players are not required to join the US Chess Federation* in order to compete in tournaments. More than likely, this difference partly accounts for the level of youth chess activity activity in our state—our annual state elementary is among the largest chess events in the US and certainly represents the highest per capita activity level in the 50 states.

Our rating system is the Northwest Scholastic Rating System. It employs the same formula as the US Chess Federation, but is free to organizers and participants. A student who has a NWSRS rating above 500 has scored enough tournament wins that familiarity with basic rules can be assumed. Even so, some of these students may yet have some confusion with rules for castling and en passant.

2. Demonstrate understanding of checkmate of lone king with heavy pieces:

* queen and rook,
* queen and king, and
* rook and king (each from two random positions selected by the coach).

Checkmate ends a game of chess. Everyone knows this and yet not every chess player begins by learning basic checkmate skills thoroughly.

When testing understanding of checkmate with queen and rook, I generally look for understanding of the first two endings in Bruce Pandolfini, Pandolfini’s Endgame Course (1988). Most students have learned the “rolling barrier” by the time I test them. This elementary checkmate is also called the ladder mate. It was the first checkmate that I learned nearly sixty years ago.

However, Pandolfini’s first mate, the “queen and rook roll”, is not one beginners have generally mastered in my experience, although it should be learned first. Learning it assures the student can coordinate two heavy pieces well both to control the opponent’s king and to assure that both are safe from capture.

Pandolfini presents this position with White to move.

Black is threatening to capture White’s rook. Students who need work on this elementary mate will often withdraw the rook to a safer square. Others will lose the rook, which still allows them to complete a different checkmate test (see below).

The correct move, however, is to bring the queen up where it checks the king and protects the rook from capture. Doing so leaves Black’s king with a single legal move. A post in 2011 explains the technique with some useful diagrams (see “Lesson of the Week: Elementary Checkmates”).

Checkmate with queen and rook should be understood so well that exhaustion and time pressure will not interfere with success. When Ryan Ackerman** was Mead High School’s top player, he and I practiced performing this at the Spokane Chess Club one Thursday with only ten seconds on the clock. We consistently played ten perfect moves in six seconds. Our starting position was a version of the “hardest position” (the longest distance to mate with such material).

White to move

Performing this checkmate in the optimal ten moves requires understanding of how to coordinate both pieces well and requires some calculation. If a student can do it in fifteen moves, they pass the test. If they move the queen systematically until the defending king is cornered with only two squares, and then bring up the king, it will require more than fifteen moves, but I still award a pass.

I encourage all students to learn optimal technique. Here’s my play against Stockfish this morning These moves and some variations can be viewed at my Lichess study, "Simply Perfect". Note that Black’s king was never put in check until checkmate. Control by restriction is a vital skill, and one that young chess players do not easily learn.

My post, “Teaching Elementary Checkmates” has some instructive positions for learning this technique. Some of these positions are from a book published in 1822 that I find more useful than more recent books: William Lewis, Elements of the Game of Chess. The author was England’s strongest player for a few years at the time and is most remembered as one of those who hid inside the famous chess playing “machine” sometimes called “the Turk”.

Checkmate with a rook and king against a lone king takes sixteen moves with perfect play from the hardest position. If the student demonstrates technique sufficient to accomplish the task in 25-30 moves, I consider it a passing performance. The second game in "Simply Perfect" on Lichess shows one example of perfect play.

3. Demonstrate understanding of “fox in the chicken coop” pawn promotion technique.

The tactical advantages of an outside passed pawn in the endgame is one of the aspects of fundamental endgame knowledge upon which it is possible to build advanced skills. Jeremy Silman calls a winning technique with such material the “fox in the chicken coop” in Silman’s Complete Endgame Course (2007). One of the early posts a few months after I started Chess Skills (this blog) in 2007 shows a position from which I played a somewhat forcing ten move sequence to reach such a pawn ending in a tournament game. Calculating that deeply occurs rarely (see "Kings and Pawns"). Moves 31-34, I exchanges two rooks and a knight for two rooks and a pawn. Moves 35-39, both kings raced to capture the opponent's weakest pawn. At that point, I had the move in this position.

White to move

40.b3 struck me as the simplest way to assure that my queenside pawn majority would assure the creation of a passed pawn.

A few moves later, we reached another critical position that was easy to play because of understanding the core idea of how to use an outside passed pawn.

White to move

The only winning move is 47.c5, leading to exchanging two queenside pawns for Black's remaining pawn on that side of the board. The point (as I understood at move 31) was to lure Black's king far from the action on the kingside, where my king mowed down Black's last two pawns. My opponent resigned one move before checkmate on move 65.

In testing this skill, the student will be presented with a made-up position or perhaps one from a game that requires demonstration of understanding how a pawn majority on one wing of the board leads to certain victory with a dominating king on the other wing. For instance, this position, which arose while playing the position from my game against the computer instead of my human opponent.

White to move

4. Complete “Knight Award: checkmates and tactics” worksheet.

The Checkmates and Tactics worksheets consist of a series of exercises of increasing difficulty: Pawn Award, 6 mates in one; Knight Award, 8 checkmate puzzles with mate in 2-5 moves, and 4 exercises where material gain is forced; Bishop Award, 24 exercises, half leading to checkmate; Rook Award, 48 exercises, less than half lead to checkmate; and Queen Award, 60 exercises. These have been published with solutions as Checkmates and Tactics (2019). The book version also has a useful glossary of tactics. Naturally, I prefer that students working the awards do not look at the answers in the book while completing the worksheets.

5. Demonstrates ability to read chess notation.

Chess notation is the language of chess. Today, the system known as algebraic has become standard all over the world. When I was young, the US, England, and other English speaking countries used English descriptive. For the Knight Award, I present the student with a game score and have them show me the game.

Here is an example:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bc4 Nxe4 5. Nxe4 d5 6. Bxd5 Qxd5 7. d3 Bg4 8. O-O Nd4 9. Be3 Nxf3+ 10. gxf3 Bh3 11. Re1 Be7 12. f4 O-O-O 13. Qf3 Be6 14. f5 Bd7 15. c4 Qxd3 16. b3 Bc6 17. Red1 Qxe4 18. Rxd8+ Rxd8 19. Qxe4 Bxe4 20. Rc1 Bxf5 21. Kg2 f6 22. f4 exf4 23. Bxf4 Bd6 24. Be3 Be4+ 25. Kf1 Bxh2 26. Bc5 f5 27. Be7 Rd2 28. a4 f4 29. Bg5 f3 30. Bxd2 Bg3 31. Be3 h5 32. Rd1 h4 33. Rd4 Bf5 34. Bg5 Bh3+ 35. Kg1 f2+ 36. Kh1 f1=R# {Eric Rosen won by checkmate} 0-1

The game comes from IM Eric Rosen's speedrun.

My YouTube video, Reading Chess Notation, explains what students need to learn (and also features a game that will help with the mate in five in the Checkmates and Tactics exercises).



*Nonetheless, we are pushing strong players to join the USCF so that Washington state will be well-represented when the USCF Grade Level Nationals come to Spokane in December 2025.
**Ryan is now a professional chess coach. He won the Spokane City Championship in 2022 and again in 2023.

Pawn Award

Twenty years ago, I created a series of scholastic chess awards for young chess players. The awards are named for the pieces in order of value: pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen, and king. Each is progressively more difficult than the previous one. 

At the time, I had after school programs in a couple of schools and my first one-on-one student. The awards created some structure both for individual students and group lessons. A student who meets the criteria for an award receives an award certificate.

The Pawn Award concerns basic rules. Lichess, founded in 2010, offers interactive lessons on these rules and many other elementary skills.

I recommend that young players, as well as beginners of all ages, take advantage of these free and accessible lessons (the hyperlink takes you there). Of course, many hundreds of hours of my time has been invested teaching these skills to more than a thousand children.

There are better ways to teach basic chess skills than starting with the movement of all the pieces.  Alas, children are eager to play before mastering essential concepts, so the old and most common method of teaching still prevails. For some discussion of alternatives, see "Lesson One". In an ideal world, young players might know how to force checkmate with two rooks against a lone king before learning how the bishop moves. More often, they learn the movement of all the pieces, but spend a lot of extra time struggling the learn the purpose of the game and the critical relationships: "contacts" that lead to success.

In my awards curriculum, elementary checkmates with heavy pieces (rooks and the queen) are required for the Knight Award.

The Pawn Award criteria:

1) Sets up board (light on right) and pieces correctly. Light on right means that both players will have a white or light square on the right in the row of squares (rank) closest to them. On the board below, these squares are marked in orange.

Of course, it is possible to play a game of chess with the board oriented incorrectly. It happens often. But, when the board is wrong, often the king and queen start on the wrong squares as well. Such errors change the game slightly for the beginner and substantially for players with experience.

Sometimes students rely on the numbers on the side and letters along the bottom while orienting the board. but many chess boards do not have these printed. I have also seen manufactured boards that have the letters and numbers incorrectly placed.

The letters and numbers are for reading and writing chess notation, skills that are part of the next two awards.

When setting up the pieces, the students must learn to place the queens on their own color: the White queen starts on a light square and the Black queen starts on a dark. No matter what colors the chess pieces are, chess players refer to the lighter colored as White and the darker as Black.

2) Demonstrates basic movement of each piece. There are six different pieces. When testing student understanding of how each moves. I often place each one alone in the center of the board and ask the student to show where it can move. The screenshot below from Lichess.org shows a minigame that is used to teach beginners how the queen moves.

The queen moves along ranks, files, and diagonals always in a straight line with no limit on distance. The queen moves to capture the first star (green arrow) and then, on the next move, follows the second arrow to the second star.

3) Demonstrate and explain castling. Castling can be difficult for young students to learn. Normally in a chess game, one side moves a single piece, then the other side move one piece. With castling, and only castling, the king and one of the rooks both move.

Students must commit to memory and explain or show:
a) Both the king and the rook must be on their starting squares and have not moved.
b) No piece can stand between them.
c) The king cannot be in check, move into check, or move through check.
d) The king always moves two squares toward the rook, and then the rook moves to the square that the king moved over.

Check is the situation when a king in threatened with capture. Here, White's knight is able to move to the square occupied by Black's king. Hence, it must be Black turn and the king must get out of check either by moving the king or capturing the knight (imagine there are other pieces on the board, too).

In the next diagram, White may castle long (toward the queenside, i.e., the left). Castling short--to the right, or kingside) is not allowed because Black's bishop could move to the square that the king must cross (hence, "through check").

4) Demonstrate en passant. En passant (French for "in passing") is more difficult than castling and young students often learn it, forget it, and learn it anew. Again, the explanation and exercises at Lichess.org are useful.

This position arose in a game I played online in 2012 (the end of the game is depicted in this site's banner using a Mexican conquest themed chess set sold to tourists along the Central American coast).

Black has just played the f-pawn two squares forward, placing the White king in check (blue arrow). The only move that gets the king out of check is an en passant capture (orange arrow). White's pawn is able to capture the pawn that just moved on the square that Black's pawn moved over. White places the pawn on that square and removes the Black pawn from the board.

5) Demonstrate ability to recognize checkmate. Checkmate is the object of the game of chess. The game ends when one player's king is in check and has no escape. The most difficult aspect of checkmate for young players is learning to control empty squares. I usually test this skill with a worksheet that contains six positions. In each position, White can checkmate Black's king in one move. For one of these positions, there are several correct answers. These exercises ate the first six in my book, Checkmate and Tactics (2019).

Here is another illustration.

Each White piece controls one or more squares beside the Black king (indicated by green arrows). All of the pieces control other squares not indicate by these arrows. For the rook, two of these are next Black's king--one is also controlled by a knight and the other by a bishop. The knight next to White's king also checks the king. Black is in checkmate.

In the next position, White controls all of the squares next to the Black king. However, the square on which the king stands is not controlled. If it is Black's turn, the game ends in stalemate (Black has no legal moves and is not in check). Stalemate is a draw.

After successful completion of the Pawn Award, students move on the Knight Award.