The Basics for Tournament Players

This Saturday, the Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago will hold a scholastic chess tournament at Bell Elementary School, where they will introduce a new competition section for “novices,” kids who are playing in their very first tournament. The idea is to get novices playing other novices and avoid having some 8th-grade “Beginner” who’s played in ten tournaments but not yet advanced to Intermediate crush some kindergartener like an aluminum can and scare the latter away from chess competition forever.

Okay, so maybe the imagery is a bit over the top, but you get the idea. I think it’s a good one.

At least three Ray kids plan to play in the Novice section, and for them, as well as anyone else who needs a refresher on the basics for tournament play, we offer these aides for brushing up. The things your child should be prepared with are:

• Scholar’s Mate. Know how to use it and how to avoid having it used on you. Go here and here for the details.
• Basic Checkmates. The two main ones are rook & king vs. king and queen & king vs. king. These are basic techniques that are used to finish the kind of endgames that frequently come up. Once your child masters the techniques, winning these games is second nature.
• Opening Guidelines. Go here for the most common openings.
• Review GM Arthur Bisguier’s Ten Tips for Winning Chess.

Review these as well as you can with your kids before Saturday, and they should be ready. Now, as Bruce Pandolfini would say, go out there and be brilliant.

Tactics and Endgames

To improve your chess, practice the things that matter most

There’s a saying in real estate that three things matter most: location, location, location. Many chess experts have a similar maxim about most the important factors in the game. They are: tactics, tactics, tactics. It’s even been said that chess is 99 percent tactics, the quotation being attributed, I believe, to the great Richard Teichmann.

Wanna play?

Whether that’s an exaggeration or not, there is no question that tactics are important. Let’s be grateful, then, to two local chess players, Niles North High School star Ilan Meerovich, and another, screen-named SashaD, with whom I am not familiar, who have posted some online resources for tactical study at Chess4Chicago.com. Go get ’em, and enjoy.

Another area in which all new chess players should be proficient is basic endgames, particularly where you have a rook and a king or a queen and a king against your opponent’s solitary king. These endgames come up frequently, though if you don’t know the technique for delivering checkmate, the game will end in a stalemate, and you will get a draw in a game you should have won. Learning the technique isn’t hard, and all young chess players should master it. Learn about rook endings here and here; queen endings here and here. To practice what you learn in a fun and interactive online setting go to Chess Magnet School.

Sad News. I received word earlier today from Brad Rosen, also known as Chessdad64, that his father, Gene Rosen, died yesterday, quite suddenly and unexpectedly. Brad is a pillar of the Illinois and the Chicago-area chess communities, and many people know him through his blogging, the successes of his son Eric, one of the strongest young chess players in the area, and Brad’s unstinting support for the growth and improvement of chess culture, especially for kids. I consider myself privileged to call Brad a friend, and my thoughts and hopes go out to him and his family at this sad time.