Friday Night Seven's

Tonight we had a game of Seven's - not Rugby Seven's - we had a chess tournament with 7 minutes on the clock per player and an additional 7 seconds per move - "7+7".  Some of the faster players managed to finish their games with more time than they started with, although this is not perhaps the best tactic...

I was watching a game between NextPuffyJelly and ORichards in the second round, and the following position came up.  It is White to play and there is a really good move which White can play which will win the Rook for the loss of the Knight.  You can play Knight 'takes' the Pawn on C7 threaten the Rook and put the King in Check - this is noted as Nxc7+ ('N' for Knight, 'x' for takes, 'c7' indicating to put the piece on the c7 square, and '+' indicates that this is check.  Black now has to save the King and White can now take the Rook, after which Black will probably then use his other Rook to take the Knight.  This is called a 'Knight Fork' - named due to the Knight 'forking' two pieces and threatening both. 
This is a move which will be very familiar to the stronger players in the SJC ChessKid club.  But for those less familiar with this move, see if you can find a way to play the move - and try to make sure you don't give someone the opportunity to play it against you!

​If you have a ChessKid login, you can see the whole game at the following link: https://www.chesskid.com/fastchess/game/25987652

As you can see above, Forks can be a great way to win pieces.  While the position below, taken from tonight's game between GlumSuddenBacon and FlatUpbeatFalcon, may look quite different to the position above, once again there is the chance of a Knight Fork; however, this time it is not as obvious.  The Black Knight on f4 can move to d3 and say "Check".  You may think that the pawn can take the Knight, but it can't - why not?  - Answer below.

​If you have a ChessKid login, you can see the whole game at the following link: https://www.chesskid.com/fastchess/game/25988618

Answer - the Pawn can not take the Knight because it is Pinned to the King - in other words, it can't move because it would then be Check.

The Results
 
U1300
What a good evening for one of our newest members, NextPuffyJelly, winning for the first time - very well played.  AbleLopsidedGiraffe had another strong evening with 3 wins from 4 games, losing only to the winner.  Koliyfl0w37 also won three games, losing only to  AbleLopsidedGiraffe, and only missing out on second position by tiebreak score.  Very well played to all three - and to everyone who entered.

​If you have a ChessKid login, you can see the whole game at the following link: https://www.chesskid.com/tournament/u1300-friday-night-sevens-36690/results


Open
What a close event!  The players in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd all finished on 3 points from 4 games and could only be separated by tie break score.  We had a perfect final round with the players in first and second place playing each other in a match that decided the event.  On this occasion, RichSmoothPanda got the better of RowanTree and won the event with RowanTree finishing in second place.  You can see the whole of that game at the end of this article.  ZanyHummingBook completed the top 3 by winning in the final round with a win over LoudLeanMustang.  Incidentally. LoudLeanMustang had a tough evening - playing all three of the players who finished at the top of the leaderboard - what a tough set of matches!

​If you have a ChessKid login, you can see the whole game at the following link: https://www.chesskid.com/tournament/open-friday-night-sevens-36691/results

Rowantree vs RichSmoothPanda

The game below is tonight's decider between Rowantree and RichSmoothPanda.  Click through and see where RichSmoothPanda outmanoeuvred Rowantree to claim victory.