It was great to see and welcome 18 juniors at the club on Saturday morning.
We welcomed a newcomer JH and I discovered that the young man I called Simon was in fact Sam, so apologies for that Sam !
In the first morning Advanced session, Tony demonstrated that he was not just a one trick pony and that he could quite easily turn his hands to playing 7 simultaneous games of chess !
Max playing with the black pieces had generated an assault on Tony’s king after opposite side castling but Tony managed to defend accurately to obtain a draw. Tristan played a very solid game with a fianchetto of his white bishop and had no weaknesses and so his draw offer was accepted. Nicholas had to face a Vienna gambit but managed to neutralise Tony’s initiative resulting in an equal rook, knight and pawn endgame.
The final result was a draw for Tristan, Nicolas and Max whilst Peter, Nathaniel, Lathujan and Harish had to accept defeat. Well played to all !
However, all is not lost as there were no ladder games that could be played by the Advanced juniors then the scores will be magically converted to reflect that the juniors played an adult advanced coach. So for those who drew against Tony will receive 2 points on their ladder score (as if they had won) and those who lost will receive 1 point as if they had drawn.
We also had the pleasure and assistance of two advanced juniors Leo and Zander as coaches to help with our beginners and intermediates. Leo coached Amalee on chess openings whilst Zander worked with Noah and gave useful guidance on chess tactics and openings. It is always inspiring to see such young talent that can excel in the game of chess and hopefully this will encourage and motivate the beginners and intermediates as great role models.
Paul returned after a two week break and coached JH, Markus and Jacob taking them through the basics of chess and attacking positions.
Azhar recapped on the “fianchetto” formation theory from last week with Simon, Pavina and Larissa to solidify these techniques. It was good to see that in the ladder matches this pawn pattern was now being played.
The ladder games had some thrilling finales with both Markus and Noah losing out on time. At one point Amalee had lost her queen to Noah but when I checked in again she had recovered her queen to get back into the game ! JH despite being down on material managed to secure a victory by taking Jacob’s knight and getting his pawns promoted.
After a busy first morning session, the second session was much lighter.
Zander worked with Alfie and Azhar instructed Victor.
Aman had the benefit of both Paul and Martin’s skills and experience !
Many thanks to Leo/ Zander/Tony/Martin/Azhar/Paul for coming along to support the success of the club.
You can download the mobile chess app ‘Analyze This’ from the App Store for Apple or for Android on Google Play
Here are some really good external links –
https://www.youtube.com/@PowerPlayChess
https://www.youtube.com/@agadmator
Play chess online – https://www.chess.com/play/online or https://lichess.org/
Regards, Martin.