WOB February 23rd newsletter - upcoming tournaments and other news
Upcoming tournament(s)
4 players are currently registered for our next scholastic tournament which will be on March 12th (this Sunday) at 1:30 PM. Time controls 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). The deadline for registration is this Thursday midnight. Last month's tournament with same time controls ended a bit early at 3:20 PM; so this Sunday's tournament may end before 3:40 PM as well. As always, I award gold or silver medals to all players who participate in all four rounds. The player with the highest score (or players if there is a tie) will be announced the News Wire section of the chessct.org website.
Beginning in April, tournaments will gradually be longer (ie G/30 instead of G/15).
Knights corner (beginning players)
At Saturday's club meeting we looked at some of worst possible ways to play a game, and why they are bad. This was a counterpoint to previous sessions where we discussed what good opening moves are.
Beginner players should now have this chess workbook, and bring them to club meetings. Some of the younger players may have difficulty in the beginning, but we'll begin spending time solving puzzles during class time. The workbooks can be purchased online, or by calling the Books on the Commons bookstore in downtown Ridgefield to place an order for pickup. Make sure the player name is prominently written on the cover for easy identification, and remember to bring to every class *and* afterwards bring home.
If the players continue coming to club meetings throughout the year, and solve puzzles diligently at home, I hope to have them ready to participate in short, beginner friendly tournaments at the end of the year.
The last Saturday of every month, we'll be focusing on playing a full game rather than learning new topics. Parents may find their children getting upset when losing a game... it's part of the process and I'll try to prepare them mentally for the possibility of both losing and winning. When we lose we try to think about why we lost, and when we win we try to think of how we could have played better. I will have little toys, books, and party favors I distribute the end of this event (which my kids have outgrown), and only players who display good sportsmanship get to choose one.
Rooks corner (intermediate players)
We continue to look at 1. e4 openings at club meetings; this Saturday we looked at a few easy Bishop opening game patterns. Now that the players are comfortable with using a chess clock, we are temporarily putting the clocks away, and working on our annotation skills... writing our own and opponent moves on a scoresheet while playing. This allows players to review their past games, and will help prepare them for longer rated games both at this club and larger tournaments elsewhere. They can get a chess scorebook such as the below, use a spiral notebook, or an unfinished school notebook which has unused pages. In the beginning especially, I just want the players to get used to the process of annotating while they are thinking. Later they will incorporate using a chess clock into their gameplay. Eventually, I want them to have a book of their games which they can refer back to, so they can look for patterns in their gameplay and compare past and recent games. For now, I use this scoresheet template.https://www.amazon.com/WE-
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