Praxis

Eton ruffles

A report of the visit of the Devon County U18 Chess Team to compete in the English Junior County Championships.

Every mistake has two sides

In making notes on games, I've probably explained lots of chess mistakes, and why they were mistakes. I might say, this Black move is a mistake, because White now plays A, and this works because if B then C and if D then E. (Or, White should have played A, etc.)

But there is another side to each mistake, which I can't tell anything about, but which perhaps you can, and you should try. A mistake in a chess move is also a mistake in thinking.

Examination of a Game 1

"The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates "The unexamined game is not worth playing" - Dr.Dave

Warming up 1

Play through this game and see what you think. I have omitted the final moves, which are left as an exercise for the reader.

Exeter Juniors 1-2 Sidmouth B

A tale of three discoveries: a discovered attack proved the winning move in all three games.

Unmasked threats - discovered attacks and discovered checks - are the most difficult threats to spot. You pay attention to the piece that moves, but the threat comes from the piece behind.

I've attached a discovered attack training page - get your eye in! In 2010, the Devon U14 team lost an awful lot of points (or a lot of awful points) to discovered attacks, and the puzzles are all things that they missed.

Exeter retain Peter Rooke Cup

A squad that fought its way out of Exeter's heavy traffic to visit Newton Abbot emerged victorious to retain the Peter Rooke Cup.

Despite some late substitutions, the teams were roughly balanced with Teignmouth looking stronger on the higher boards, so Exeter were looking for points in the bottom half. In the event, the closing stages saw Newton Abbot's lead on the lower boards overtaken by a couple of last-minute wins for Exeter higher up the order.

Exeter Juniors 2½-1½ Seaton

Our first win! Even without the point from 'super-sub' Ray Shepherd, we had a draw in the bank, and that would have been a good result too.

So, well done all round. In both other games there was a big chance for our side early on - so make sure you think right from the start, don't 'warm up' during the game!

EJCC 1-3 Exeter Gambits 30th March 2012

A close match ended in a 1-3 defeat for the youngsters. As so often in chess, it wouldn't have taken much to reverse the score!

The juniors, unusually, fielded a team which had a majority of girls.

{1. A well-fought game: White got some attacking ideas muddled and lost a piece, but pressure won the exchange leaving an exciting RvNN endgame.}

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