Tonight we tried a Blitz session - great for some - torture for others!!!

U1200 Section

AbleLopsidedGriraffe coped with the time pressure better than most, winning 3 out of 3 games in the U1200 section - very well played!  RedNuttyCactus came second in a really good performance, losing only to AbleLopsidedGriraffe.  Kolifl0w37 came third with a good performance. 

If you have a ChessKid login, you can see the full results and all the games at https://www.chesskid.com/tournament/u1200-tuesday-night-blitz-32328/results
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Open Section

In the Open Section, MerryJazz had an excellent result in coming second - his best result in these tournaments - really well done.  Rowantree won the event, while theworldoflegend came 3rd, despite winning as excellent game against Rowantree, which you can see below.

If you have a ChessKid login, you can see the full results and all the games at https://www.chesskid.com/tournament/open-tuesday-night-blitz-32329/results

Chess Problem - Mate in 4 … medium - Black to Play

​This position is taken from Move 14 for Black in the game shown lower down within this post.  If you can't find the solution, click through the game further down to see the game was won.

Thanks to all who played tonight.  We had the most players that we have had so far on a Tuesday night which was great to see. 

U1200
In the U1200 event there was a three way tie for First place with JamesBlyth, ORichards, and MeanCactus all finishing on 3 out of 4 and with each only losing in a game against one of the other two, so this was a close as it gets.

Joint 1st: James Blyth ORichards MeanCactus


Open
In the Open event, it was a tough evening for all with a lot of the top players competing.  Rowantree secured victory with 4 wins from 4 games.  There was a three way tie for second place between GlumSuddenBacon, RichSmoothPanda, and rafcalum.

1st: RowanTree
Joint 2nd: GlumSuddenBacon RichSmoothPanda rafcalum
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Answer: 30. …; Qxd3
With the Bishop supporting the Queen, there is nowhere for the White King to run.
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Problem 2: Win the Queen - difficult
Tonight's second position comes from a game between ZanyHummingBook and RichSmoothPanda.  How can White win Black's Queen?  This is taken from the position after Black's turn at move 34, and it is White to play.  If you have a ChessKid login you can see the whole game here: https://www.chesskid.com/fastchess/game/24901693.

Answer: 35. Rf8+

Black's only options are:

1. Kxf8, taking the Rook, White takes Black's Queen.
2. Kg7 to move out of check and protect the Queen, White can move the Rook to g8, putting the King in Check, and after the King moves out of Check, White can take the Queen and white's King and Queen will be protecting each other.
3. Black's only other option is to move the King to h7, but here White can play Rh8+ and if Black takes the Rook, then White can take Black's Queen, while if the King moves to g7, the White Rook can go to g8, and once again, the Queen will fall as she did in option 2.

Tonight saw a slight drop in numbers, but still saw plenty of really good chess.  After some good chess over the last couple of weeks in the Open section, LoudLeanMustang played in the U1350 section tonight and cleaned up with 3 wins from 3 games.

In the Open section, Rowantree secured the victory with a hard fought win over theworldoflegend.


​Results - U1350

Solution (from move 23):
23. Qb8+, Kh7
24. Nf8+ forking the King and the Queen, and with the King being forced to move away from the Queen, the Knight will take the Queen and then will be able to get to safety afterwards.

This is not what White actually played - see the game to find out how White won the Queen - it is more complicated, and actually not as good as white loses the Rook in the process.  https://www.chesskid.com/fastchess/game/24763863

  AndThis evening saw the latest installment of the SJC tournaments on ChessKid.  Once again, we ran two events - and U1350 event and an Open event.

The next events take place on Tuesday and, following a few requests, we are trialing a slightly earlier start time.  The easier event will start at 6.15pm with registration on ChessKid from 6pm, and an Open event starting at 6.20pm with registration from 6.05pm.  The easier event will also have a slightly lower rating limit.  Let's see how it goes.  If you have any comments, please email suffolkjuniorchess@gmail.com.


​The Results...

The Open
What a topsy-turvy event!  Several players could have won this evening, but everyone contrived to lose at least one game to theie competitors.  It seemed like no-one wanted to win!  So, we have 4 players who all finished on 3 points from 4 games.

rafcalum and Rowantree came joint first on Tiebreak, while ZanyHummingBook and FlatUpbeatFalcon, while also scoring 3 points, finished in joint third place on tiebreak - all played extremely well.

U1350
This event was less topsy-turvy, but still saw a very close finish with the tournament being completed by the players in the top two positions playing each other in the final round and agreeing a draw that saw ORichards win the competition on tiebreak from LeftGroovyUnicorn, with both scoring 3.5 points out of 4.

AbleLopsidedGiraffe and RichAquaDonkey came in joint 3rd position, with both on 3 points out of 4 and equal on tiebreak, with both only losing one game each, and that being to the players in the top two places.

Congratulations
However - congratulations and thanks to all the players who took part.  I would like to write something about everyone, but there is not space here.  We are proud of every one of the players and our thanks to all of you.


Game of the Night
​Our game of the night is taken from the game between RowanTree and LoudLeanMustang.  LoudLeanMustang played a beautiful game and every time Rowantree thought he had his opponent under control, LoudLeanMustang re-took the initiative - great play.  If you have a login on ChessKid, you can see this game here: https://www.chesskid.com/fastchess/game/24489019.  All the more impressive is that this was LoudLeanMustang's very first game in the SJC club on ChessKid - well played indeed!

Our Position of the Night is taken from this game.  In the position to the right, which is after Move 21 for white, white has moved his Bishop to b3 to try to block in Black's Rook.  Why can Black take Whites Bishop without losing out?


Answer: Once the rook has taken the Bishop, if you take the Rook with either of your pawns, the Black Queen will take the White Rook on a1 and also put the King into Check.  Once white has moved his King, the Black Queen can take White's other Rook - a very nice combination.

Firstly, congratulations to tonight's Winners:

Open Section:     rafcalum
U1350 Section: MerryJazz

It is great to see a new winner in the U1350 section, so very well played to MerryJazz for winning this event for the first time.  In the Open section, victory went to rafcalum, winning his second event following his previous win in the Fish n' Chips Friday tournament.

Good evening all.  Today we tried running two tournaments alongside each other and I think it went very well.  I had expected to have fewer in the Open section and more in the U1350 section, but I was delighted that so many opted for the open section.

U1350 Section
This section finished faster than expected.  It was intended to be 4 rounds and it may be that I made it 3 by mistake, or it maybe that the computer changed this due to a the number of players.  We will try 4 rounds again on Tuesday and we will see if we get 4 rounds.

The results...
Very well played to MeanCactus, winning a first SJC tournament on ChessKid.  Congratulations also to BentHuskyBullfrog in 2nd, and AbleLopsidedGiraffe in third place.

What a strange week - back to school, but staying at home.  I hope it is working out for everyone.  With regards to this week's chess, I set it up with 5 rounds of 10 minutes, but I think that did cause some people time trouble, so my apologies for that.  Wed will go back to slightly longer games on Friday when we will try two sections - one for the stronger players and one for the weaker players.

This week there was a stunning game in Round two between FlatUpbeatFalcon and LeftGroovyUnicorn.  To have a look through the game you can see it here - https://www.chesskid.com/fastchess/game/24068538 - although you will need an account with ChessKid.  This week, we have a really interesting and complicated Position of the Week  which is shown below with Black to Play at Move 13.  Black plays exd3.  The question is whether this wins a pawn or not?  Play continued with White playing cxd3, and then Black responded with Bxd3.  This puts black up one pawn.  This puts black up a pawn, but is there something that White can do with the Knight on e3 or is there another response available for White.  If you have some time, this is a really interesting games to look through.  In case you are wondering, I don't have the answer - I would be very interested to see the thoughts of Suffolk Junior Chess players in the comments section below if you have suggestions.  Just remember to be careful with your identity online as whatever name you enter when commenting will show. 

Game of the Week

This week, Game of the Week is this one between rafcalum and LeftGroovyUnicorn.  As a new member of the SJC club on ChessKid, LeftGroovyUnicorn got off to a flying start in this game, but rafcalum showed the value of hanging on in chess, coming back at the end to save a draw - well played to both.  ChessKid members can view the game here - https://www.chesskid.com/fastchess/game/23920162


That Was The Week That Was on ChessKid

Looking at the last 7 days, well done to Wise Crabby Coconut (75 games), OvalCuteSnail (61 games) and ORichards (37 games) - within the Suffolk club, they have played the most games of fast chess on ChessKid this week.  Congratulations to rafcalum( +375 points) and Precho (+184 points) who have improved their Fast Chess Rating the most.

Congratulations also to UnderstoodPorcupine and RichSmoothPanda who have both improved their slow chess ratings by 200 points.

Within puzzles, the congratulations go to MeanCactus who has attempted 318 puzzles and now has a puzzles rating of 1195 - a full 268 points higher!!!.  Congratulations also to RowanTree and rafcalum who have improved their ratings by 132 points and 120 points respectively.  Congratulations also go to BentHuskyBullfrog for attempting 123 puzzles.

Top of the World - Once again, congratulations to MerryJazz - 4th in the world this week on Puzzle Duel - another amazing performance.

Suffolk Junior Chess Player 2nd in the World!!!

This week MerryJazz won 275 puzzle duels on the Chess website ChessKid.  This put him in Third Place in the world - an outstanding achievement - congratulations - extremely well done!!!  And  - last week - even better - 2nd in the world!!!  Extremely well played.

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​Checkmate Tuesday - the Results...

Fair Play Award

This week we are awarding a Fair Play Award to... RichSmoothPanda!!!  This player realised that the opponent was experiencing a glitch on the computer and instead of taking an easy win, offered a draw.  Outstanding sportsmanship!!!

Today saw the first regular meeting of Suffolk Junior Chess's new online chess club which is based on ChessKid.  We held a mini-tournament which was very experimental, if not for the kids, then definitely for the organiser (me)!  While we are still ironing out the details, the club meets regularly on Tuesday and Friday evenings - times to be finalised, but currently 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

The tournament went really well and round 3/3 saw a tussle for victory between RichSmoothPanda and TheWorldOfLegend.  When TheWorldOfLegend lost a rook at move 36 after dRd4, other players watching online may have thought that RichSmoothPanda was going to win the match.  However TheWorldOfLegend hung on for victory - very well played.  But - what move could TheWorldOfLegend have played  to save the rook?  The position at move 36 for white is shown below and the moves played for the whole game are also shown.

The tournament was won by RichSmoothPanda - very well played.

If you want to play in the next event, which will happen this Friday, you will need to join the club.  For more information about how to do this and to complete the form required for entry, please download this form.  Parent/s will need to read the form and complete page 2 and send it to me at suffolkjuniorchess@gmail.com.  You will then need to carry out the instructions on Page 3 of the form.