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How chess helps your brain - 10 Big Brain Benefits of playing Chess.


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The Aristea Friendly chess tournament, sponsored by Harcourts Cape Gate, will take place on the 15th of September 2018.

Click on the Tournament news tab above, or on the small flyer on the right hand side. The online entries are open. Click on the small flyer below, on the right to enter.

Read more on the blog!

Friday 28 March 2014

Our players at the WP Chess Championships

Good luck to our players: 

 Craig Strydom - boys under 14

 Kalim Meyer - boys under 8

Kiara Blows - girls under 10

Round 1 - all our players are playing black!

Just note: I will only be able to update the primary schools' results.

:-)

WP Closed 2014 Schools Chess Trials

Good afternoon everyone!

I'm officiating at the WP Closed Schools Chess Trials today and tomorrow.  I would just like to wish three of our schools learners good luck! They are: Craig Strydom, Kiara Blows and Kalim Meyer.

Congratulations also to Craig - he was named headboy in our school last week!

Thus, follow the blog for round for round results in each section.  I will try my best to keep you up to date.

Kind regards,

:-)

           

Sunday 16 March 2014

Junior & Senior Tournaments 14 March 2014

Good morning players and parents

What a Friday the 14th it has been!  (Luckily in a good way and not a bad, Friday the 13th way!)

Not only did we celebrate Pi Day in the morning, but we had two chess tournaments taking place simultaneously in the hall in the afternoon.  Both the Junior and Senior tournaments took place, after the junior tournament had to be postponed due to a fumigation taking place in the school that Friday.

I am proud to say that both tournaments and the Pi Day celebration was a huge success. Congratulations to Joshua Snyman in the grade 5E1 class, who remembered 116 Pi digits in the correct order!

Back to the tournament results though.

The juniors' top 10 results were as follows:
10th  Kristin Izaks 1.5 out of 3 (only lost one game)
9th Neelan Koopman 1.5 / 3
8th Safa Hassiem 1.5 / 3
7th Nica Oosthuizen 1.5 / 3 (She is in grade 3!)
6th Britney Cupido 1.5 / 3
5th Ethan Boois 2 / 3
4th Daniel Snyman 2 / 3
3rd Marius van Schalkwyk 2.5 / 3
2nd Ntsika Ketsekile 2.5 / 3
1st Diego Kleinhans 3 / 3

Congratulations Diego!

The seniors' top 10 results were as follows:
10th JJ Oosthuizen 2 / 4
9th Alex Mckenzie 2 / 4
8th Wouter Rademeyer 3 / 4
7th Trevor Rademeyer 3 / 4
6th TC Theron 3 / 4
5th Craig Strydom 3 / 4
4th Tyler Pretorius 3 / 4
3rd Kyle Naidoo 3 / 4
2nd Luke Roos 3 / 4
1st Corbyn Blows 4 / 4

Congratulations Corbyn!

Just a note, the players with the same score (3 / 4), are separated by Tie Breaks.

At this time, I don't have fast wireless internet, thus I can't load the photos that I took.  I will load it in the week.

Congratulations to the winners, and congratulations to the players for the sportsmanship that I saw.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

This week, we only have chess practise on Tuesday, as Thursday is the start of the long weekend.

:-)

Sunday 2 March 2014

Chess improvement for beginners and novice players

This morning I saw the following post on Susan Polgar's Blog, and thought this is excellent for especially all our beginners and novice players.  Thanks to technology, I sent her a tweet and she gave me permission to use anything I wish!  Thanks again Susan. :-)

The Importance of Defense in Chess
Susan Polgar

We all like to be in a position to attack freely and look for ways to checkmate our opponents. However, we cannot always get to that position. In fact, at times we end up on the other side of the coin and need to find the right defensive moves to avoid losing or to turn things around.


In this column we shall examine four examples of successful defense in dangerous looking positions.

In this column we shall examine four examples of successful defense in dangerous looking positions.  (I'm only going to use 3)

1)


In the position above, white’s Rook and Knight work together well in creating a checkmate threat with Rxh7. How can Black defend against it? The solution is: 1...Nf3+ 2.Kg2 Ng5 and Black is out of danger.

2)


Do you see what is White’s sneaky plan in the position above? The plan is to checkmate with Qxb7. So as Black, how would you defend against it?

If, 1...Qb6 then Black’s Knight remains unprotected and White can simply capture with 2.Qxe7.

How about blocking the threat with 1...c6? That seems to work except it allows the highly unpleasant pin by 2.Bf4! So what is the solution?

The right answer is: 1...Nc6! and Black is out of danger.

3)

In the final position above, white’ main threat is Qh8 checkmate. Would 1…Kh6 solve the problem?

No, as after 2.Qh8 the King has no escape on g5.

Would 1...g5 work, freeing up the g6 square? Not quite, because after 2.Qf6, Black cannot properly defend against the upcoming Rh8 threat.

Therefore, the only correct solution is: 1...Be5! and if 2.Qg8+ Kh6 3.Qf8+ then 3…Bg7 saves the day.

Remember, if you are under attack, do not panic! Not every attack leads to checkmate if you defend correctly! And always look out for your opponent's plan.

Saturday 1 March 2014

Another Chess puzzle

Another one from the Chess Club Live page on facebook


1) Rxe4     fxe4
2) Qg3+     Kd2
3) Qf2+      Kd1
4) Qe4#

If it was white to move, can you find checkmate in just one move!?

:-)

Chess puzzle

I recently 'liked' the facebook page, Chess Club Live.

Today I got the following puzzle:  White is going to win after 5 moves, but he sacrifices series pieces.
Just have a look:


For the beginners, following the previous post, you have to say which Knight moves to c4, because the Knight on e5 can also move to that spot.
1) Ndc4      dxc4 (pawn takes the Knight)
2) Qxg6      hxg6 (pawn takes the Queen!)
3) Nxg6      fxg6 (pawn takes the Knight)
4) Bc4+      Kf8
5) Rh8#

WOW!! Brilliant play by White.

The whole game can be seen on the chess-king.com website.  Click here to go to that website.
Also note on that website, is that this game was played in 1901, in Antwerp!

:-)