Tuesday Chess Jam

We had a shorter evening tonight with just played 3 rounds per event, which was no bad thing with some schools having restarted.

U1200
FlatUpbeatFalcon took the spoils tonight with 3 wins from 3 games - very well played.  In second place, we had three players who could not be separated by either score or tiebreak - so very well played to them also.  Special congratulations to MadWiryTank on his best result to date in taking second place - very well played.

The Results:
1st:  FlatUpbeatFalcon 
2nd equal: MadWiryTank , NextPuffyJelly, Koliyfl0w37

If you have a ChessKid login, you can see the full results and all the games here: https://www.chesskid.com/tournament/u1200-tuesday-chess-jam-37408/results

Open
Tonight was a return to the top position for Rowantree who took first position by winning all of his games.  ZanyHummingBook, rafcalum and RichSmoothPanda all ended equal on points with ZanyHummingBook taking second place on tiebreak, with rafcalum and RichSmoothPanda in joint 3rd position.

The Results:
1st: Rowantree
2nd: ZanyHummingBook
3rd equal: rafcalum , RichSmoothPanda

If you have a ChessKid login, you can see the full results and all the games here: https://www.chesskid.com/tournament/open-tuesday-chess-jam-37407/results
 

Chess Problem - White to move and win two pawns...

I can remember that when I used to play chess at school, I did not think that pawns mattered very much.  I have since learned how wrong I was.  In most games, a good player will be confident of winning, or at least securing a draw, if he or she gets just a single pawn up.

I was watching one of the games in the U1200 this evening and FlatUpbeatFalcon found a brilliant way to win two pawns.  The position is shown below - can you see how he did it? The full game is shown at the end of this post and you can click through to see how he did it.  This position is at move  18 for White.

For those that can find a way to win two pawns, there is actually an even better option for White from this same position - can you see how to win both a pawn and a Rook for the loss of a Knight? - answer at the end of this post.  This is a difficult puzzle...

Chess Problems - the answers...

​Win two pawns:
18. Qxh7+, Kf6
19. Qh6+, Ke7
20. Rxe5+ winning the second pawn

Win a Rook and a pawn for the loss of a Knight:
This is very similar to the above solution, but with a difference...
​18. Qxh7+, Kf6
19. Qh6+, Ke7
20. Qe6+, Kd8
21. Nf7+, Rxf7
22. Qxf7 winning the rook having just lost the knight

By the way... in case you do not know... the slightly complicated codes above describe the moves in a game of chess.  While they look complicated, they are actually pretty simple.  This is called Chess Notation and is used by players to record games.  If you understand notation, you can record your own games which is a requirement at major tournaments, and you can also see what moves were played in other peoples games.  The following article on Chess.com will teach you all you need to know: https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-notation