ARRAN CHESS COACHING

Along with Irene Gilmour, Children’s Outreach Services, North Ayrshire Council, the Executive Director visited seven Primary Schools on the island of Arran on 22 and 23 March. At most schools the pupils were divided into two groups. Beginners were taught the board, pieces and moves and improving players participated in an inter-active discussion based on the game, Rama, Lorenc 2335 V Smailovic, Ramiz
Montenegro, 18.02.2004.

The format followed a standard approach of playing the game on a demo board and asking the pupils, “what would you do next, and why would you play that move?” For anyone who is interested a flavour of the discussion is recorded in Appendix 1, below. In some cases there was time to set up some basic positions to show the rule of the square in K&P endings and a couple of N endings to examine the narrow line between mate and stalemate.

The key objective was to show improving players how to develop their chess skills. Appendix 2 shows the ideas which were highlighted to the pupils.

The enthusiasm of all the children was fantastic and clearly reflects the great work being done by the teachers in enabling the pupils to attend school chess clubs. The joint Chess Scotland and North Ayrshire Council initiative is ongoing with plans for a schools min-congress, probably in May.

Arran was on its best behaviour with a fine powdering of snow making the hills look even more spectacular than usual. If you are looking for a holiday without the hassle of airports, you could do a lot worse than a visit to the island.

If anyone would like more information about the joint initiative, please contact the Executive Director.

Dick Heathwood

Chess Scotland Executive Director

APPENDIX 1

White: Rama, Lorenc 2335 Black: V Smailovic, Ramiz
Montenegro, 18.02.2004

1 d4 [It is a good idea to get into the habit of opening with either e4 or d4 until you have learned a lot more about chess.] Nf6 [The f6 square is usually a good one for the Knight. A standard reply to d4. ]
2 c4 [White establishes strong Pawn centre, hopes to prevent B placing pieces on central squares.] d5 [Often called the “Marshall Defence” after the famous American player who was US Champion for 30 years. ]
3 cxd5 [A normal move here.] Qxd5 [Nxd5 is more usual here. White then continues with e4 either before or after playing Nf3.]
4 Nc3 [Developing a piece with a threat (Nxd5) is good. Always try to find moves that do more than one thing.] Qa5 [Queen has moved again. Try to move each piece only once in the opening unless you have a strong reason to move it again. The Q on a5 pins the N on c3 (N cannot move because it would then be check).]
5 Nf3 [White simply develops. Try to get all your pieces off the back rank and doing something positive as soon as possible.] Bf5 [The Bishop is now looking at more squares than it was on c8. It strengthens your position to increase the scope of your pieces in this way.]
6 Ne5 [White wants to attack by getting his N nearer to the black K. Always ask yourself before you play, “What wonderful things does this move do for my position?” – IM Jeremy Silman’s advice.] c6 [Dual purpose move. Gives the Queen an escape route back to c7 or d8. Keeps some control over the central d5 square. Even so, the other idea of e6 to enable the Bishop on f8 to be developed was probably better.]
7 Qb3 [Threatens both the b7 and f7 pawns. It always makes life more difficult for your opponent if he has to think about two threats at once.] Nd5 [The threat of Qxf7+ could not be ignored. Black chose the Nd5 option. Other ideas he might have considered were e6 and Be6.]
8 Bd2 [The Bishop now “breaks the pin” on the Knight at c3 and threatens a “discovered attack” on the Q if the N moves.] Qb6 [The Queen would not be happier on c7 because of the threat, for example, 9 Nxd5 cxd5 10 Rc1. Perhaps B wanted to simplify by offering the exchange of Queens.]
9 Nxd5 [White now undertakes a pawn winning exchange.] cxd5 [Black recaptures the N and tries to keep material level.]
10 Qxd5 [White has now won a pawn and is still looking at the f7 square. f7 is attacked twice and only defended once, so a threat is Qxf7+] Be6 [Black chose this way of protecting the f7 square instead of e6 (which might have worked out better) – see comment on Black’s sixth move.]
11 Qf3 [The Queen has to escape from the Bishop’s diagonal. Qf3 is better than Qe4 because it keeps the Queen in contact with the f7 square.] Qxb2 [Black has recovered the pawn and has announced his threat of 12 ... Qxa1+ forcing 13 Bc1 … Qxc1++]
12 Bc3 [Prevents the Qxa1+ threat. Qc3 would be less good because B would then have the option of just swapping off Queens. Rd1 would leave the pawn on a2 hanging so B would have the option to gobble it with Qxa2.] Qc2 [Black removes the threat to his Queen and keeps her in the vicinity of W’s King.]
13 e4 [Releases the Bishop on f1 and increases control over central squares, e.g. a possible d5 threat.] Nd7 [Black gets his Knight into play but Nc6 better, e.g. 14 Bb5 a6 15 Bxc6+ bxc6 and Black’s f7 square is still defended twice.]
14 Bb5 [White pins the Knight on d7, try to restrict your opponent’s freedom.] a6 [Black puts the question to the Bishop on b5.]
15 Bxd7+ [This is a game winning plan to take a defender away from the defence of f7.] Bxd7 [Black retains material equality but f7 is now only defended once and still attacked twice.]
16 Qxf7+ [A very strong move preventing Black from castling at any time and so keeping his King in the centre of the board where it can be attacked more easily.] Kd8 [This is black’s only move, i.e. forced.]
17 Ba5+ [It is normally a good idea to bring as many pieces as possible into the attack and to force your opponent’s reply so you call the shots, or “retain the initiative”.] Kc8 [Pawn to b6 would be hopeless, White simply plays Bxb6+ and interposing the Q to c6 is equally bad after Bxc6+]
18 0-0 [White strengthens his back rank and gets Rooks talking to each other.] Qxe4 [Black avoids White’s threat of 19 Rac1 winning the Q which would be pinned.]
19 Rac1+ [Yet another piece joins the attack.] Bc6 [Black has now run out of realistic options. Kb8 leads to mate after 20 Nxd7+ … Ka7 21 Bb6++]
20 Qe8++ [A lovely mate, the Bishop on c6 cannot take the Queen because the Bishop is pinned. To quote, “There are three results of a game – win, draw and learn”. Studying other people’s games is good way to improve your chess.]

APPENDIX 2

GETTING BETTER AT CHESS

There are two reasons why you might want to become a better chess player. The first reason is to win more of your games. The second, equally important, reason is that you will get more fun out of chess as you understand more of the possibilities.

There are various ways to improve but the most widely accepted route to improvement is to learn from others by looking at their games. You can do this by reading books, for example, “Your First Chess Games” by A.J. Gillam published by Batsford under ISBN 0 7134 7148 4. You can get a copy from your local public library (they may have to use the inter-library lending scheme).

Another way to look at games is Internet. In addition to the Chess Scotland site, good sites are:-

http://www.chesskids.com/

especially good for younger children and beginners

http://www.testyourchess.com/cgi-bin/(52p4v555idjbt4uad0f31eqf)/TYCHome.aspx

you can also get to it easily through the Chess Edinburgh website

the puzzles and “find the moves” games are excellent for improving players