Here are some updates from the last few weeks of N's chess club. (I don't understand any of this.) Note that N had checkmates most weeks!

1. This week in chess club we examined another famous game from Fischer.  In this game, Fischer used a sharp opening for white, the Evans Gambit, to quickly take over the center of the board.  From there, he was able to keep the black king in the center of the board and eventually used a tactical shot to make black choose between losing his king or his queen.  Since either way black was going to lose, he resigned and Fischer won.  Players in club really enjoyed going over this game and the example of how to control the center, and what to do with that control!

In games this week, Nate, Ayan, Theo, Will, and Aamen all got checkmates, so congratulations to them!

2.Today in chess club we learned about the final position in the knight and bishop checkmate, sometimes referred to as "the cage." In this position, the knight and bishop trap the opposing king in the corner while the king moves into position for the final checkmate. Students did a great job finding the right moves to complete this difficult checkmate!

In games today, we had checkmates from Nate, Karim, Ayan, Cato, Holden, Alex, Theo, and great games from everyone!

3. Today we looked at another game by medieval chess master Greco.  In this game, we saw exactly why players should never move their f-pawns, and how Greco took advantage of an opponent who did just this.  The result was that Greco was able to achieve a winning game in just eight moves!  Players really liked this game, especially seeing how black's seemingly sound plan completely backfired once he moved his f-pawn! 

We also looked at another way to take advantage of the initial weakness of the f-pawn in an opening called the Danish Gambit.  In some scenarios, white can sacrifice the bishop on the f7 pawn (or f2 for black) to win material by a follow-up tactic.

Congratulations to Karim, Nate, Ayan, Luke Z., Alex, Graham, and Evelyn for getting checkmates during games today!

4. This week in chess club we learned another interesting endgame checkmate, the two bishop checkmate. While not as common as checkmate with a rook or queen, it still has some practical value. We followed a basic four step process to checkmate the opposing king:

a. Centralize the king

b. Create a "trapezoid" prison with the two bishops

c. Use opposition to push the king to the edge of the board

d. Chase the king to the corner with the bishops and checkmate!

Students did a great job executing this checkmate as a group. Then in the games this week, Karim, Holden, Will, Luke H., Theo, and Alex all got checkmates.  Good job, everyone!

5. This week in chess club we continued to learn about important endgame techniques involving the rook and king.  This time, we learned about an important strategic position of the rook, the 7th rank (or 2nd rank for black).  We saw a couple examples of how two rooks on the 7th rank could checkmate the opposing king.  One or two rooks on the 7th rank could also threaten to capture one or more of our opponent's pawns, leading to a winning advantage.

In the games this week, Karim, Holden, Ayan, Luke H., and Will all got checkmates.  Good job, everyone!