Why should you not move the mentioned move?

The first 5 replies will each win you a keyholder!
You have to get all five correct. Click here to enter the answers.

The question for each of the following boards is:
Why should you NOT play the mention move?
#1
Rxd6

#2

Qxh6

#3

Qxh2

#4

Qxd4

#5

Nxh5

The "En Passant" Rule

	En Passant are French words translated in English as "in passing." It is a special move in chess and probably the last rule you will learn before you've mastered the moves. It is important to know this rule properly as many players claiming to know the rules of chess may give you a strange look when you play it in a game. This rule must be honored in every chess game since it's part of the basic rules of chess. Lastly, this rule is not called "pass pawn" even though you may hear some people describe it in this way. Know the Rules! I remember playing a casual game many years ago with a rival high school member and was winning handily. He played what he claimed was an en passant move (it wasn't). While I questioned the move, I allowed it and ended up losing the game. He even had the nerve to brag after the game! The same thing happened to me in my first year of play when I allowed a neighbor to castle through check. I was winning that game as well, but lost and he refused to play me again. If you ever have doubt, always check the rule book or any tournament chess player… not the casual players at the barber shop. I overheard someone at a chess club saying their uncle taught them to castle with the Queen! <smile> First, one can only capture Pawns en passant. En passant occurs only when your pawn is resting on the opponent's 5th rank… each player counts up five ranks from his side of the board. In Diagram #1, white has a pawn on e5 and black moves his Pawn two squares to f5. White now has the option of capturing the black Pawn en passant (Diagram #2) as if it had only moved one square (to f6).  White is not obligated to capture en passant and could also play another move like moving one of his minor pieces. However, you can only capture en passant immediately after your opponent gives you the chance, or the opportunity is lost until the next occurrence. Got it? Remember… your opponent has to move TWO squares to pass your pawn on the 5th rank.

Diagram #1: Black plays f5

	Diagram #2: White plays exf6

Strategy and notation

White:  Yermolinsky, A (rating 2575) USA
Black: Kobese, W (rating 2399) RSA
Place: FIDE World Cup, Hidrabad, India, 2002


Set up your chess board in the following position:

Then play the following moves and notate further.  Try to play until black wins.

32...          Rxg2+ 

33. Kxg2  Rc2+

34. Kf3     Qf2+ 

35. Ke4    Re2+ 

36. Kd3    Qf3+

:-)

Checkmate with different pieces left

The following I got on the following website:
http://www.thechessdrum.net/chessacademy/CA_Checkmate.html

Here are some checkmates against the lone King.  The first two of these four mating methods are the easiest to learn.  The last two require a bit more patience and understanding.

• King vs King and Queen
• King vs King and Rook (see diagram 1)
• King vs King and two Bishops
• King vs King, Bishop and Knight (see diagram 2)

There are many other scenarios, but learning these four are essential! Of course checkmate can occur very early in a game with all of the pieces still on the board.  The quickest checkmate (refering to the previous post) and it demonstrates the danger of exposing the king.  This position is shown in diagram 3.

• It is important to know that YOU CANNOT get checkmate with ONLY a Bishop or only a Knight!

Diagrams:

#1 Checkmate with a Rook (there are a lot more different variations)

 

#2  Checkmate with a Bishop and a Knight

 

#3 Fools mate

"Fool's Mate"

The shortest game that exists in chess!

In one of Friday's matches we have seen this happen the second time for JJ.

The first time was at the Top Schools District Playoff's in the very first round.

It goes like this:
1. f3   e3
2. g4  Qh5#

The end of the board looks like this:

The second shortest, that I know of anyway, is commonly known as the "Four move", there are to many different variations that black can play, that I'm not going to put up a notation, but you can click on the following link to watch a short 44sec video clip that explain the 'four-move' checkmate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gNXXkA2mx8

or 

you can click on the link below, to go to a diagram:

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa33/Wbisbill/checkmate.jpg

Puzzle update - more uploaded

Just a quick reminder that I have loaded more puzzles on the puzzles page.

Here are 2 quick ones:

Our 1st own league games

This afternoon, I organised our 1st own league matches.

We played in 4 groups with 8 players per group.

After initial frustration with learners that didn't put up their names with me who wanted to play, and others that didn't pitch up, and others that came late, we got under way just after 14:00.


Each group consisted of the following players, with their results:
A
Clint van Rooyen  2.0 / 3.0
Mambesi Mnana  2.5 / 3.0  (winner)
Keegan Walker  1.0 / 3.0
Joshua Syce  2.0 / 3.0
Morne Pentz  2.0 / 3.0
Earl Collins  1.5 / 3.0
Dawie Aucamp  0.5 / 3.0
Albertus Basson 0.5 / 3.0


B
Enrico Davids  3.0 / 3.0 (winner)
Liam Meyer  1.5 / 3.0
Jacques Claassen  2.5 / 3.0
Ndinani Sibilekwana  1.0 / 3.0
TC Theron  1.5 / 3.0
Mickyla du Preez  1.0  / 3.0
Armand vd Merwe  1.0 / 3.0
Andro du Plessis  0.5  / 3.0


C
JJ Oosthuizen  3.0 / 3.0 (winner)
Trevor Rademeyer  2.0 / 3.0
Chad Mckenzie  2.0 / 3.0
Michael Bezuidenhout  1.0 / 3.0
Craig Strydom 1.0 / 3.0
Cheran Melite 2.0 / 3.0
Gary Hess 1.0 / 3.0
Luke Roos 0.0 / 3.0


D
Wouter Rademeyer  2.0  / 3.0
Ravian Daniels  1.0 / 3.0
Tyler Pretorius  2.0 / 3.0
Adrian Fieties  0.5 / 3.0
Gerhard Potgieter 1.0 / 3.0
Wikus van Niewholtz  3.0 / 3.0 (winner)
Nathan Rautenbach 2.0 / 3.0
Alex Mckenzie 0.5 / 3.0


SEMI FINALS
1 - Winner group A vs Winner group B

Enrico vs Mambesi
Result: 0.5 / 0.5
{Enrico goes through to the final based on group points (3.0 vs 2.5) }


2. - Winner group C vs Winner group D

Wikus vs JJ
Result: 0 - 1


FINAL

JJ vs Enrico
Result: 0 - 1


CONGRATULATIONS to Enrico Davids for winning the day!


A special word of thanks to Ryno Visser for helping me set-up; writing down scores; packing up the sets!


Hope you enjoy it!
Remember the feedback page to share any comments!


PS: Our second own league match like today, takes place on the 17th of August!

Notated game: Mr. Bekker vs Enrico

Playing...
White: Mr. Bekker
Black: Enrico Davids, Gr.6E2
Date: 20 July 2012

1.  e4                e5
2.  d4                f6
3.  dxe5            fxe5
4.  Qh5+          g6
5.  Qxe5+         Qe7
6.  QxR            Qxe4+
7.  Ne2             Ne7
8.  Bh6             Qf5
9.  Nd4            Qf7
10.  Nd2          Nf6
11.  Bc4           Qe7+
12.  Kd1          NxR
13.  Re1           QxR
14.  KxR          d6
15.  Qxh7          c5
16.  Ne6          BxN
17.  BxB          Nc6 (??)
18.  Qd7#


Result: 1 - 0

New practice venue

Please take note, that due to the Eisteddfod using some of Aristea Primary's venues, we won't be able to practice in the Arts & Culture room until the 18th of August!

This means that we are going to practice and play our chess in Mrs. Suzanne Grobler's classroom until then.

With regard to the "league",

We are going to have our own league game on Friday afternoon.  (This coming Friday, 27 July)
I will send out letters (and update the blog) tomorrow with more information.

More dates to follow.

Yours in Chess,

:-)

End game practice

At the play-off's, I watched a game between the top players of Durbanville and Panorama.

Set up the board so that white has the following pieces on the board:
Kc1
pawns on: h4; e7; f5

Blacks board had the following pieces:
Kc3
Ba4
pawns on: h5; g7; b3

It is black to move.

Play the game from there to see if white can still win, being a Bishop down.  Or to see if black can win in style!


:-)


More notated games to follow - 


Enrico and I played a game on Friday, that I want to load on to the blog.  Click here to go to that post.

Play-off's puzzle

Wouter (playing black) had this position to win in the 3rd round against Boston Primary.

Black to move, and put white in checkmate:

Can you see it?

District Play-off's players' photos and results

Playing
#1

Clint van Rooyen

He had some very hard competition, but still managed to win 2 of the 5 rounds!

#2

Enrico Davids

He played extremely well against Boston Primary, that gave us the match point. The scores were 3 - 2 at that stage when he was the only one left playing.  He ended with 3 wins of the five rounds!

#3

Trevor Rademeyer

He really enjoyed himself  and brought some great team spirit, but unfortunately he didn't win any games.

#4

Wouter Rademeyer

(He was included in Liam's place after he couldn't make it - he and Jacques had to play out Thursday). He had a great win in the 3rd round.  Click here on this link to go to the puzzle that I created for that game.  His final score was 2 wins out of the 5 rounds.

#5

JJ Oosthuizen

Our up-and-coming star! And our player of the day!  Remember, he is still only in grade 4, and was playing in the under 13 section.  He only lost one game against Panorama in the second round and finished on 4 out of 5!!

#6

Ravian Daniels

He also had some great games, but unfortunately drew the 4th round game when he made a silly mistake.  He finished with a score of 2,5 out of 5 rounds!

CONGRATULATIONS to all of you!  :-)

Just to sum up, the players and results:

#1  Clint van Rooyen - 2 / 5

#2  Enrico Davids - 3 / 5

#3  Trevor Rademeyer - 0 / 5

#4  Wouter Rademeyer - 2 / 5

#5  JJ Ooshuizen - 4 / 5

#6 Ravian Daniels - 2,5 / 5

Our total game points for the day: 13,5 / 30

District Play-off's Photos

At the start of the days play:

First opponents: Delft Primary

 

Then Panorama

After the days play, we had some fun (making a short video clip) saying / thanking Market Toyota Cavendish for sponsoring our T-shirts!  Have a look on the right hand side for a clearer view of the T-shirts design.

At the back we have Garry Kasparov's famous saying: "We link to think!"

Here Clint is pointing to the logo on the T-shirt, saying, "Look, this is our sponsor!"

The link to all the photos will be at the bottom op the page.

District Top Schools Play Off's

Good day to all!

I have some more good news to share with you!

Today we took part in the district top schools play off's.

 

The team: f.l.t.r: Trevor, JJ, Wouter, Jacques (reserve), Enrico, Ravian, Clint

I am very proud to say that we came in 3rd* position in our category!!  Although we didn't make it to the next round, I am very proud of the team.  Their guts and spirit that they showed, playing against the other teams.

We played in five rounds, (two groups) against five different schools, and it went as follows:

Round 1 (won)
Opponents: Delft Primary
Result: 5 - 1

Round 2 (lost)
Opponents: Panorama
Result: 0 - 6

Round 3 (won)
Opponents: Boston Primary
Result: 4 - 2

After this win, it meant that we advanced to the top section with the top 2 schools from the other group.

Round 4 (won)
Opponents: Durbanville Primary
Result: 3,5 - 2,5
This was a very tense game for me, personally.  Durbanville won us in the first league game in April of this year (with the same score that we beat them today).

And also because we were behind 1,5 - 2,5 with Clint and JJ still playing, thus we needed both points to win the match!  And they did it!!  :-)

Clint, our number one player, won against a girl who had achieved her WP colours this year.

Round 5 (lost)
Opponents: Curro (Durbanville)
Result: 1 - 5
In this match, we had a great win for JJ on board number 5!

The next post will have pictures of each player and their score that they achieved.

CONGRATULATIONS to ALL the players!  You are all winners in my book.
I'm very proud of you!!

*3rd: In actual fact, the game points says we came in 4th position after Durbanville (just 0,5 points behind), but we had one more match point than them.  And they got six BYE points in their first round.  One of the schools didn't pitch up in their group for the first three games.  That is why I say, we had 3rd position!
:-)

Checkmate in 3 moves

1.  .........................     _____________

2. _____________     _____________

3. _____________     _____________

Puzzles to get the brains going! :-)

Here are some puzzles to get the brains going after the holiday!

:-)

Click on each puzzle to enlarge it.

I will put up more new puzzles - 

Click on the link to the right hand side of the page, to go to the "puzzles" page.