Puzzles 1 - 5 are Arjun rated "Oh that's easy Coach Sean." while puzzle six has the following extreme difficulty rating "Wait, Wait... I see it, I see it Coach Sean! Oh wait - I don't see it" All of these puzzles are opening traps in the Ruy Lopez (a.k.a. Spanish Opening - Bennett!) - our new best friend at the chess board!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
A LESSON ON THE RUY - ADVANCED STUDENTS
Hello everyone - this lesson is for my advanced PRIVATE STUDENTS and as such will probably only benefit them because of the material we have already gone over in our private lessons. This lesson is/was crafted for Riley, Alex, Tyler, Bennett, David and Rick. Of course all of my students are invited to partake in the joy of this game - I certainly had fun playing over this game and learned a tremendous amount of "chess power knowledge" from it!
HOW TO USE THE CHESS FLASH BOARD -
To play through the game just hit the play button!
To play through the sub-variations click on them with your mouse!
If you fall asleep that is your problem! No - just kidding. If you fall asleep then that is my problem - as I am supposed to be making this exciting for you!
HERE IS HOW MY STUDENTS SHOULD APPROACH THIS LESSON:
FIRST - just play through the game as if it were a chess movie. Enjoy it!
PLEASE REALIZE THAT THE FIRST 12 MOVES HAVE BEEN COMMENTED UPON VERY HEAVILY. THIS IS FOR THOSE STUDENTS WHO WANT THE TOUGHEST POSSIBLE ARMOR IN THE RUY THAT THEY CAN HAVE - IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE THEN HERE IS THE DOOR! KNOCK UPON IT AND ENTER!
SECOND - Play through it again later on when you have more time. You can wait a day or two. This time write down some questions that you have about this game.
THIRD - Play through the game again a day later and this time play through some of the sub-variations (OR if you have the tolerance for all of my writing and all of the sub-variations that I give then by all means do play through all of them. DISCLAIMER - I will not be held responsible if you spend a great deal of time playing through all of my commentary. However you will find nuggets of hilarious chess humor hidden throughout this annotated game! : P
FOURTH - PLAY OVER THIS GAME AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT - Feel free to give me constructive criticism on this game - Alex V does! :P Which is good as you all should "TRUST BUT VERIFY!".
- Coach Sean Tobin.
HOW TO USE THE CHESS FLASH BOARD -
To play through the game just hit the play button!
To play through the sub-variations click on them with your mouse!
If you fall asleep that is your problem! No - just kidding. If you fall asleep then that is my problem - as I am supposed to be making this exciting for you!
HERE IS HOW MY STUDENTS SHOULD APPROACH THIS LESSON:
FIRST - just play through the game as if it were a chess movie. Enjoy it!
PLEASE REALIZE THAT THE FIRST 12 MOVES HAVE BEEN COMMENTED UPON VERY HEAVILY. THIS IS FOR THOSE STUDENTS WHO WANT THE TOUGHEST POSSIBLE ARMOR IN THE RUY THAT THEY CAN HAVE - IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE THEN HERE IS THE DOOR! KNOCK UPON IT AND ENTER!
SECOND - Play through it again later on when you have more time. You can wait a day or two. This time write down some questions that you have about this game.
THIRD - Play through the game again a day later and this time play through some of the sub-variations (OR if you have the tolerance for all of my writing and all of the sub-variations that I give then by all means do play through all of them. DISCLAIMER - I will not be held responsible if you spend a great deal of time playing through all of my commentary. However you will find nuggets of hilarious chess humor hidden throughout this annotated game! : P
FOURTH - PLAY OVER THIS GAME AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT - Feel free to give me constructive criticism on this game - Alex V does! :P Which is good as you all should "TRUST BUT VERIFY!".
- Coach Sean Tobin.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Fun with "FRIED LIVERS" and "LOLLI ATTACKS" - Coach Sean Tobin.
The FRIED LIVER is a fun opening to play - from the White side of the board that is! I remember falling for this in a Simultaneous Chess Exhibition versus IM Joseph Vatnikov... I made the mistake of playing ...Nxd5 and then I got hit in the Liver with 6. Nxf7. I didn't last very long in that game! - Coach Sean.
Check out this old game... looks like the FRIED LIVER has been around for a long time!
The LOLLI ATTACK is when you first play the move d4 before the Knight sac on f7. The immediate Knight sac on f7 is the "FRIED LIVER".
Check out this old game... looks like the FRIED LIVER has been around for a long time!
The LOLLI ATTACK is when you first play the move d4 before the Knight sac on f7. The immediate Knight sac on f7 is the "FRIED LIVER".
FOUR KNIGHTS - The 101 class!
So some of you really like the Four Knights Opening - and still use it on occasion as part of your "opening repertoire" - that is the openings that you know and use in tournaments or whenever you play chess with your friends and family. You pull all of your openings out of your surprise bag of opening tricks and those players who do not know what you will play for your openings may be caught off guard and make a mistake early on. So let us take a deeper look at this terrific opening. One that we should all start off with before we move on to sharper opening weapon systems.
I have noticed that some of you have been using the "let us pill up the pressure on the pinned Black Knight" plan as White. At some point you are going to run into someone who knows how to prevent that plan. In this game the plan is prevented - but White still wins the game!
To really create a situation where we can play for a win we have to create an imbalance in the position - let us say that we need to make it a complex battle. That is the problem - some people feel - with this opening, the FOUR KNIGHTS. The safety net you enjoy - a straight forward opening - will not give you enough of the opening advantage that could be yours if you are playing a sharper or more complex opening with the white pieces. Like if you played - ahem - the Ruy Lopez or something else. Ahem - you know, something like, let us say - the Ruy Lopez, ahem, right? Anyways - let us take a look at a really great game taken from a book all about the FOUR KNIGHTS OPENING.
Do not get me wrong here - the FOUR KNIGHTS is a great opening. We just will want to add other openings to our bag of tricks as we face stronger opponents. As we climb the ladder of chess ability we shall have to know our openings even better as we face stronger and better prepared opposition. Which is why I want to put lessons up here on the FOUR KNIGHTS - to prepare all of you! Let's learn something new about a great opening today! Pay attention - and enjoy! - Coach Sean Tobin.
"A chess player half surprised by your choice of opening variation is a chess player half beaten!" - Coach Sean.
It is easy to make a mistake when you are in unfamiliar territory. Of course the kinds of positions that we know well will help us to find the right kind of plans during a game as well. So playing an opening that we play quite a bit - or that we have practiced will really give us an edge in our tournament games.
This game is "interesting" - I do not think the player of the White pieces "had" to lose this game. But perhaps he didn't know the opening that he played - maybe he tried it on a lark. That can get you into trouble!
I have noticed that some of you have been using the "let us pill up the pressure on the pinned Black Knight" plan as White. At some point you are going to run into someone who knows how to prevent that plan. In this game the plan is prevented - but White still wins the game!
To really create a situation where we can play for a win we have to create an imbalance in the position - let us say that we need to make it a complex battle. That is the problem - some people feel - with this opening, the FOUR KNIGHTS. The safety net you enjoy - a straight forward opening - will not give you enough of the opening advantage that could be yours if you are playing a sharper or more complex opening with the white pieces. Like if you played - ahem - the Ruy Lopez or something else. Ahem - you know, something like, let us say - the Ruy Lopez, ahem, right? Anyways - let us take a look at a really great game taken from a book all about the FOUR KNIGHTS OPENING.
Do not get me wrong here - the FOUR KNIGHTS is a great opening. We just will want to add other openings to our bag of tricks as we face stronger opponents. As we climb the ladder of chess ability we shall have to know our openings even better as we face stronger and better prepared opposition. Which is why I want to put lessons up here on the FOUR KNIGHTS - to prepare all of you! Let's learn something new about a great opening today! Pay attention - and enjoy! - Coach Sean Tobin.
"A chess player half surprised by your choice of opening variation is a chess player half beaten!" - Coach Sean.
It is easy to make a mistake when you are in unfamiliar territory. Of course the kinds of positions that we know well will help us to find the right kind of plans during a game as well. So playing an opening that we play quite a bit - or that we have practiced will really give us an edge in our tournament games.
This game is "interesting" - I do not think the player of the White pieces "had" to lose this game. But perhaps he didn't know the opening that he played - maybe he tried it on a lark. That can get you into trouble!
REASON NUMBER 10 - "Why YOU should play the RUY LOPEZ as WHITE!" by Coach Sean Tobin.
I will be doing my "TOP TEN REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD PLAY THE RUY LOPEZ AS WHITE" postings for the next couple of weeks. This is aimed at some of my private students who may not be totally convinced by Coach Sean's faith in this opening. So to help calm everyone down a bit I will be presenting games where WHITE WINS!
There are three stages to a game of chess - the OPENING, MIDDLEGAME and ENDGAME. We can play the opening brilliantly - and still lose. That is why we work on all aspects of our game - the many facets. The opening is important - but it is only one of the many facets of chess and there are many things we must look at to improve as chess players. - Coach Sean.
Another reason why you - my students - should play this opening is... DRUM ROLL PLEASE... because I have played it in both over the board (OTB for short) and in correspondence Chess games. So I do know at least a little bit of something about this opening!
In this correspondence game you will see how Coach Sean handled the feared MARSHALL GAMBIT - a variation that features the most sound gambit ever devised. Enjoy the game! - Coach Sean.
The moral of the game above could be - Take the pawn, hold onto it, fend off the attack and then he who has the most pawns in the endgame will have the most fun! My opponent resigned as he is too many pawns down to continue the fight effectively. This was actually an interesting decision on his part. If this were an OTB game (Remember what that stands for?) then he would not resign and would show his fighting spirit by trying to throw as many obstacles between me and victory as he could. Maybe even earn a cheapo win or draw - perhaps even tricking me into a stalemate. He resigned because this was a Correspondence game - for which I would have days to look at each position before deciding upon my next move thus reducing the likelyhood of a blunder. So he resigned this game. But we never resign games in Scholastic Chess Tournaments! We always play on - because some of your opponent's will make mistakes that you will be able to take advantage of. This is why we must all have "Fighting Spirit" whenever we play chess. We never give up! - Coach Sean Tobin.
There are three stages to a game of chess - the OPENING, MIDDLEGAME and ENDGAME. We can play the opening brilliantly - and still lose. That is why we work on all aspects of our game - the many facets. The opening is important - but it is only one of the many facets of chess and there are many things we must look at to improve as chess players. - Coach Sean.
Another reason why you - my students - should play this opening is... DRUM ROLL PLEASE... because I have played it in both over the board (OTB for short) and in correspondence Chess games. So I do know at least a little bit of something about this opening!
In this correspondence game you will see how Coach Sean handled the feared MARSHALL GAMBIT - a variation that features the most sound gambit ever devised. Enjoy the game! - Coach Sean.
The moral of the game above could be - Take the pawn, hold onto it, fend off the attack and then he who has the most pawns in the endgame will have the most fun! My opponent resigned as he is too many pawns down to continue the fight effectively. This was actually an interesting decision on his part. If this were an OTB game (Remember what that stands for?) then he would not resign and would show his fighting spirit by trying to throw as many obstacles between me and victory as he could. Maybe even earn a cheapo win or draw - perhaps even tricking me into a stalemate. He resigned because this was a Correspondence game - for which I would have days to look at each position before deciding upon my next move thus reducing the likelyhood of a blunder. So he resigned this game. But we never resign games in Scholastic Chess Tournaments! We always play on - because some of your opponent's will make mistakes that you will be able to take advantage of. This is why we must all have "Fighting Spirit" whenever we play chess. We never give up! - Coach Sean Tobin.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The idea of the Fortress - achieving the draw from an inferior position.
Sometimes we can create a "fence" that prevents our opponent's King from crossing over onto our side of the board. This can be important if we are a pawn down.
If we look at the initial position above we could imagine a pawn on the e3 square for the second player - the black team. As long as the White King stays near that pawn it will never sneak on by and promote. So all the White King would have to do is just play moves like Kd1 or Ke1 and then to step back up in front of pawn. If the pawn moves then the White King will be able to capture - all while having kept the Black King on "his" side of the board. A nice trick to know for King and pawn endgames.
Obviously this could be from a game where Black was winning - but wasn't careful about how and into what kind of endgame that they went into. His opponent - the player playing the White pieces knew what they had to do to save the game - Build a fortress! Now it is a draw!
A Study that requires the use of "fantasy" - that is imagination!
If we look at the initial position above we could imagine a pawn on the e3 square for the second player - the black team. As long as the White King stays near that pawn it will never sneak on by and promote. So all the White King would have to do is just play moves like Kd1 or Ke1 and then to step back up in front of pawn. If the pawn moves then the White King will be able to capture - all while having kept the Black King on "his" side of the board. A nice trick to know for King and pawn endgames.
Obviously this could be from a game where Black was winning - but wasn't careful about how and into what kind of endgame that they went into. His opponent - the player playing the White pieces knew what they had to do to save the game - Build a fortress! Now it is a draw!
A Study that requires the use of "fantasy" - that is imagination!
WARM UP PUZZLE - BLACK TO PLAY & WIN...
Taken from the game:
Banwari, Ashwin vs Katz, Bennett
ASCF's MIRAGE 02/13/2010
BLACK TO PLAY & WIN.
Banwari, Ashwin vs Katz, Bennett
ASCF's MIRAGE 02/13/2010
BLACK TO PLAY & WIN.
Monday, February 8, 2010
ALEX'S PUZZLE w/ EXPLANATIONS - Coach Sean.
PUZZLING PUZZLE NUMBER TWO - Alex's Puzzle!
Tactics can happen during any phase of the game - and do happen in the endgame. The endgame requires a different set of "thinking" skills - so my tip to you is that once you get into the endgame and providing that you have enough time on your chess clock that you get up from the board and go get a drink of water or walk around the playing hall to relax. It is called taking a break and this is important as we do tire from our effort at the board. To focus upon one thing for so long can take a lot of energy so to refresh I suggest that once you enter the endgame - take the mini break. When you come back to the board focus upon the position again and dig back into the complexity of your game.
Another good tip for you to use during a game is to get up during your opponent's move and to go quietly and carefully around to their side of the board. Without disturbing him/her take a look at the board from their side and begin to think about the position. Believe it or not this will allow you to sometimes find ideas that you may have missed from your "perspective" - from where you were seated. Till you are able to keep the image of a chess board with pieces upon it in your mind this tip will allow you to catch mistakes that you might have otherwise made.
A common endgame chess tactic is the SKEWER. In positions with fewer pieces and pawns upon the board there are, naturally, more open lines. The usual suspects for an endgame skewer tactic is one of our line pieces. Queens, Bishops and Rooks are the pieces that can skewer other pieces. The skewer tactic of using the threat of pawn promotion to entice an enemy Rook onto a square behind their King allows us to go for this skewer tactic. You will either promote your pawn or they will lose their Rook - either way, with care, you win.
- Coach Sean.
Be on the look out for this tactical shot - it can and will happen in your games. Make sure you do not allow your opponent's to pull this tactic on you!
Tactics can happen during any phase of the game - and do happen in the endgame. The endgame requires a different set of "thinking" skills - so my tip to you is that once you get into the endgame and providing that you have enough time on your chess clock that you get up from the board and go get a drink of water or walk around the playing hall to relax. It is called taking a break and this is important as we do tire from our effort at the board. To focus upon one thing for so long can take a lot of energy so to refresh I suggest that once you enter the endgame - take the mini break. When you come back to the board focus upon the position again and dig back into the complexity of your game.
Another good tip for you to use during a game is to get up during your opponent's move and to go quietly and carefully around to their side of the board. Without disturbing him/her take a look at the board from their side and begin to think about the position. Believe it or not this will allow you to sometimes find ideas that you may have missed from your "perspective" - from where you were seated. Till you are able to keep the image of a chess board with pieces upon it in your mind this tip will allow you to catch mistakes that you might have otherwise made.
A common endgame chess tactic is the SKEWER. In positions with fewer pieces and pawns upon the board there are, naturally, more open lines. The usual suspects for an endgame skewer tactic is one of our line pieces. Queens, Bishops and Rooks are the pieces that can skewer other pieces. The skewer tactic of using the threat of pawn promotion to entice an enemy Rook onto a square behind their King allows us to go for this skewer tactic. You will either promote your pawn or they will lose their Rook - either way, with care, you win.
- Coach Sean.
Be on the look out for this tactical shot - it can and will happen in your games. Make sure you do not allow your opponent's to pull this tactic on you!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
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