WOB - February 9th newsletter (tournaments and other news)

Upcoming tournament(s)

For intermediate scholastic players, our next rated tournament is this Sunday afternoon, beginning 1:30 PM.  Signup deadline is tomorrow noon, I'm extending the deadline a bit as I usually send a reminder earlier.  Current entries (5 players at the moment) are listed on the tournaments page; due to an odd Google sheets quirk the full list of participants will not be shown if browsing on a mobile device.   To encourage beginning players, I award gold or silver medals to all participants.  There will be an opportunity for parents to take photos after the event.  This will be the first tournament with 4 rounds; I estimate the event ends at 3:40 PM but this depends on gameplay.  I do realize it is Superbowl Sunday :).

Next month's rated club tournament will tentatively be March 12th Sunday at 1:30 PM.  Tournament format will again be 4 SS G/15 (4 rounds, 15 minutes for both players to make their moves in a game, winners play winners and losers play losers, no eliminations).  If players are interested in competitive play, parents should consider registering their children for a March 18th tournament at the Norwalk public library, from 10 AM to 2 PM.  The format there is 5 SS G/15, so the tournaments at this club will be good practice.  Later in the year, there are regional events which may also be of interest.

For parents unsure whether their players are ready for a rated tournament, I've added a blog post discussing this topic. 

Knights corner (beginning players)

Players should be familiar with basic moves now; for those who are still learning I'll work continue working with them.  In this class there is a mix of players who are learning chess for the first time, and those who have some prior experience.  Both groups should be learning something new at our club meetings, and I'll rotate between them after discussions.  Last week we looked at trading pieces as well as some other basic topics.

 

Rooks corner (intermediate players)

As mentioned in previous newsletters, this group is looking at openings.  There is a common pattern in the opening examples we are looking at, for example:
1. White starts with an e2-e4 opening such as the Center Opening or the Danish Gambit.
2. Black responds in a non-optimal way, which violates a principle.

Challenge for the players is to consider a possible move which takes advantage of Black's non-optimal move.  Some puzzles will be easier, others more difficult.  It will take some time, but the goal is for players to become more comfortable with analyzing the first 10 moves of a game, considering candidate moves, and see if there is a line which gives an advantage or even win the game.  Conversely, they should also be thinking about how to avoid quickly losing a game.