G

Who would win in a fight between a lion and a bear? (endgame fortresses)

My young colleague Leif enjoys endgames, and has an endless curiosity about unbalanced endgames. So he asks:
can you win with three pawns against a Bishop?
how about a Knight?
what about two Knights?

A pattern we kept running into was:
united pawns on their start squares don't win against a piece (a)
united and *advanced* pawns win against a piece (b)
but
there are some special cases where the side with the piece can set up a blockade or fortressagainst advanced pawns (c)

Exeter 2-4 Tiverton (AWAY) Sun 1st Nov 2015

Submitted by DrDave on

Exeter 2-4 Tiverton (AWAY) Sun 1st Nov 2015

190 Lorenz Hartmann (W) 0-1 Jack Rudd 216
185 Tim Paulden (B) ½-½ Mike Richardt 187
180 David Regis 1-0 Kevin Hurst 183
179 Christopher Lowe ½-½ Brian Hewson 176
155 Matthew Best 0-1 Simon Bartlett 167
131 Piet Dobber 0-1 Ivor Annetts 153

Negotiations about the date seemed endless, but it was all decided
quickly on the day we visited Tiverton in our first Bremridge League
fixture.

Bubble Blitz tournament 12th October 2015

Submitted by DrDave on

Many congratulations to Kevin Hurst (pic attached) who triumphed in our inaugural ECC Bubble Blitz tournament last night, scoring an unbeaten 8/9 with a characteristically fizzy display of attacking chess. It was a performance worthy of a Formula 1 style bottle-spraying, but Kevin wisely decided to keep the bubbly on ice until the club's Premiership-winning party next summer.

Bubble Blitz 2015 - Kevin Hurst.jpg

The chess family tree

Last week the juniors saw the game of Shogi played. It's the sort of chess played in Japan, and by our new friends Kaz and Hatzune. How is Shogi related to the sort of chess that we normally play?

When I first looked at the history of Western Chess, I thought that the original game was Chaturanga, a game played in India before 600AD. Chess as played in other countries seems to come from the Arab form of Chess called Shatranj. And that is what I used to tell people.

Club Championship 2014/15 

Championship 2014-15
Cross Table at round 6 sorted by score

Pos NAME                 Grd   T  Fed  Pts |   1     2     3     4     5     6 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  1 Dave Regis            176  NC ---  5.5 | +W9   +B5   +W2   +B3   =W4   +B8  
  2 Lorenz Hartmann       170  NC ---  4.5 | +B11  +W10  -B1   =W16  +W5   +B4  
  3 Tim Paulden           185  NC ---  4.5 | +B12  +W8   =B4   -W1   +B9   +BYE 
  4 Giles Body            169  NC ---  4.0 | +W13  +B17  =W3   +B6   =B1   -W2

To take is a mistake - tension in the chess position

I've heard this a lot recently -- is it true? (SPOILER: often but not always)

Clarity and anxiety in junior chess

I see this played quite a lot in the Scotch Game at the junior club: 
[Event "Coaching"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2015.10.10"]
[Round "?"]
[White "NN"]
[Black "NN"]
[Result "*"]


1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nxd4 5.Qxd4+=
*
White's Queen occupies a fine central square and cannot be bothered by Black's minor pieces.

Opening Workshop 2015

A bit of perspective

Your opening choices are determined by:

Your style: are you a Steady Eddie or a Bonkers Billie?

Your memory: can you commit the key traps and variations to memory?

Your study time: can you find and absorb what you need to play this system well?

Your aims: are you trying to get a playable position? are you trying to set your opponent problems, so they make a mistake? are you inviting your opponent to waltz with you blindfold on the edge of a cliff? are you trying to lure them into unfamiliar territory, or a trap?

Trouble with b6

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