Lesson 1 - Openings
Our first lesson was starting to think about some openings. Download the below PDF and start practicing!
Elite Chess Openings
What homework should I do?
Your first task is from Carl:
“It is important to become as strong at tactics as possible. That means working at tactics where you know the theme (eg mate in 2, win material using a pin etc) and also working on tactics where you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing. This can be done on the free tactics training website ChessTempo.com.”
We’ve set our squad the goal of getting their rating on Chess Tempo up to 2000 – good luck!
Elite Chess Openings
What homework should I do?
Your first task is from Carl:
“It is important to become as strong at tactics as possible. That means working at tactics where you know the theme (eg mate in 2, win material using a pin etc) and also working on tactics where you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing. This can be done on the free tactics training website ChessTempo.com.”
We’ve set our squad the goal of getting their rating on Chess Tempo up to 2000 – good luck!
Lesson 2 - tactics and more
Tactics
Your job: if you don’t have one, get an account on chesstempo.com and each week do at least 2 sessions of at least 5 tactics per session. The more you do the better. The reward will be an increased tactical ability and even more importantly, you will improve your ability to calculate difficult situations.
Anyone who gets to 2000 rating on chesstempo, AND had is active enough to have an RD of less than 70 will get a book.
You MUST tell me your username on chesstempo next week.
Easy Chess tactics test
Prepare an Opening
One of the things you will be doing at the Australian Junior Championships is preparing for your opponents. You will need to think about how they play, and the first few moves that they usually play. Then you can avoid traps and better understand the strategy around the game you are playing.
I am sending you some ideas in this opening to help you prepare. Look at the ideas, and try to work out which strategy you will use. Remember, you will have to play both black and white.
Next week we will be playing games from a set position:
Black to Play
This position comes from the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Bb5+ c6 7.dxc6 bxc6 8.Bd3!?
The possible moves for black here are:
8..Nd5 discovered attack on the Ng5
8..Ng4 discovered attack on the Ng5
8..Be7 Developing
8..Bd6 Developing
8..Bc5 Developing
8..h6 Attacking the knight
Look at the moves and work out some plans for both white and black.
Endgame – Use your king
One of the most important features of endgames is using your king actively.
Capablanca - Tartakower
Capablanca Endgame study sheet
Rubenstein also used his king actively
25.Kf6 26.Kd2 Kg5 27.Ke2 Kh4 28.Kf1 Kh3 29.Kg1 e5 30.Kh1 b5 31.Kg1 f5 32.Kh1 g5 33.Kg1 h5 34.Kh1 g4 35.e4 fxe4 36.fxe4 h4 37.Kg1 g3 38.hxg3 hxg3 0–1
Your job: if you don’t have one, get an account on chesstempo.com and each week do at least 2 sessions of at least 5 tactics per session. The more you do the better. The reward will be an increased tactical ability and even more importantly, you will improve your ability to calculate difficult situations.
Anyone who gets to 2000 rating on chesstempo, AND had is active enough to have an RD of less than 70 will get a book.
You MUST tell me your username on chesstempo next week.
Easy Chess tactics test
Prepare an Opening
One of the things you will be doing at the Australian Junior Championships is preparing for your opponents. You will need to think about how they play, and the first few moves that they usually play. Then you can avoid traps and better understand the strategy around the game you are playing.
I am sending you some ideas in this opening to help you prepare. Look at the ideas, and try to work out which strategy you will use. Remember, you will have to play both black and white.
Next week we will be playing games from a set position:
Black to Play
This position comes from the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Bb5+ c6 7.dxc6 bxc6 8.Bd3!?
The possible moves for black here are:
8..Nd5 discovered attack on the Ng5
8..Ng4 discovered attack on the Ng5
8..Be7 Developing
8..Bd6 Developing
8..Bc5 Developing
8..h6 Attacking the knight
Look at the moves and work out some plans for both white and black.
Endgame – Use your king
One of the most important features of endgames is using your king actively.
Capablanca - Tartakower
Capablanca Endgame study sheet
Rubenstein also used his king actively
25.Kf6 26.Kd2 Kg5 27.Ke2 Kh4 28.Kf1 Kh3 29.Kg1 e5 30.Kh1 b5 31.Kg1 f5 32.Kh1 g5 33.Kg1 h5 34.Kh1 g4 35.e4 fxe4 36.fxe4 h4 37.Kg1 g3 38.hxg3 hxg3 0–1
| Some endgames to study |
Lesson 3
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Some of these lessons must be paying off – well done to Henry Bayliss for winning the RJ Shield yesterday! See full results.
Tactics Probably the most important training exercise that you can do on your own is to solve tactical puzzles. Use ChessTempo at least twice a week and your game will improve. It might be difficult to start with, but you will soon find a level where you can solve the puzzles. And if you have a coach, they can look at which puzzles you get right and wrong. For instance, William Maligin has done 430 puzzles and scored nearly 75% correct on ChessTempo. But one he got wrong was this: 
Endgames
The basis of all endgames are those with just kings and pawns. It is important to understand these endgames, as then a player will know when it’s good to exchange pieces and when not. We looked at a fairly simple endgame, but it still proved tricky. 
It is white to move and to win this game a number of techniques need
to be used. First the white king must get in front of it’s pawn and be
able to drive forward. Then the white king must get to the square c6
before moving the pawn. Then the pawn can advance, and black cannot stop
it from promoting.
Download King and Pawn Endgame analysis. |
Openings
Last week, we looked at an odd looking move in the Two Knights Defence and all in the group had to prepare themselves for play from this position. This is an excellent way to learn openings, because you are not trying to remember the moves, but instead are trying to work out the plans, tactics and ideas in positions. We’ll be doing this every week. Next week the starting position will be: 
This position comes about after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 [The Four Knights Opening, a very solid choice for white] 4.Bb5 Nd4 [The interesting Rubinstein Variation] 5.Bc4 [5.Ba4 is another idea to look at] 5..Bc5 6.Nxe5 Qe7
This is the position the games will start from and white will have to decide whether to take on f7 with the bishop, the knight, or try something else. Black will be looking to attack and especially to get the move d5 in. See how the originator of the system, Rubinstein, won a spectacular game. Download Belsitzman-Rubinstein game
Homework
Each week I will put a pawn endgame on here to be solved. 
It is white to play here and the kings are already opposite each other. How would you try to take advantage of this as white? Answer to the tactic at the start: White should play 2..Qe4 forking both black’s bishop on e7, and checkmate on h7. Fork’s where checkmate is one of the targets are quite simple, but can easily be missed especially if you are trying to find something more complicated. So perhaps William should concentrate his tactics training on this type of tactic. |
Lesson 4 - Aus Junior Chess
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Openings
It is the Petroff that we looked at this week, and the idea is to take black out of their boring comfort zone and throw an attack at them. After the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 there is an enterprising move in 5.Nc3. White wants to castle queen side and go for an all out attack on the king side. The position for you to look at is after the moves 5..Nxc3 6.dxc3 Be7 7.Be3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nd7 9.0-0-0 
When players castle on opposite sides of the board, then most of the
time the idea is just to attack each other as powerfully as possible. It
is a very fun sort of game, but not what the usually quiet Petroff
players enjoy.
Endgames
Opposition was the key word last week. When the kings are separated by 1 square they are in opposition and whoever has to move must give way. It isn’t often that you don’t want to move, but that is one time. 
So can either side win this position? We’ll talk about it next week.
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Tactics
The key to success is to work hard on your tactics. You should be regularly working on chesstempo.com
and even working out which tactics you’re good at, and which ones
you’re not good at. Remember David told you all to get to 500 puzzles
tried by the start of the Best in the West … that is in a week and a
half, so you’d better get a move on! Here’s a tester for you.
This puzzle was rated 2093. Black has just taken Rxc3, you are white and it is your move.
And well done Max Phillips, for getting your ChessTempo rating to 1341 and scoring 65% correct of the 634 puzzles you’ve tried. |
