Harran v Henry, Novice Tournament Board 1

Last Sunday was the Novice Tournament at Monash University which attracted an excellent field of 91 players many of whom were playing in their first tournament outside of their school chess club.   The surprise winner was Henry Bayliss who beat several higher ranked opponents then conned William Maligin into accepting a draw in the last round because William mistakenly thought he had to allow triple repetition.   If only William had taken my advice to look at more candidate moves in critical positions!

There were a number of strong players playing but I noticed in particular how poorly almost everyone played in the endgame.   This is something that Carl and I are going to focus on in our lessons next term, so we may as well start early and set you an endgame puzzle today.

One of the most dreaded endgames you can get is R+B v R which is meant to be a draw with best play but even grandmasters have failed to defend properly.   Fortunately I’ve never had this endgame in my own games.  I remember that you have to force the King to the corner covered by your B and I remember also there is something called “the second rank defence” which refutes White’s obvious winning attempt in the position below.  Apart from that I can’t help you, so good luck!  Can you win for White from the position below?

8/8/4KBr1/7k/8/8/8/4R3 w – - 0 1White to play and win?

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This week is an exciting time at Chess Kids as we have the Vic. Youth Chess Championships on this weekend at Monash University followed by the Primary Interschool and Middle-Years Interschool Finals on Monday and Tuesday.   Four days of chess fun!

There are 91 players entered in the Vic. Youth to date, so my big problem is who should I barrack for?   I’d like William Maligin to do well as he is very good for his age, but I think I’ll end up barracking for “Bubblegum.”   “Bubblegum???” you say?   That is the Chess Kids on-line handle for one of the players who is only 11 years old but has raised his on-line rating to around 1400.   He plays a lot and is very keen, but still has a few “rough edges” in his play.   One of his recent games (as Black) for instance started 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h5??   Hopefully Bubblegum will attend one of my lectures at the Vic. Youth and find out why such moves are not the best.

He needs also to work on his tactics a bit.  I was playing through his game (as Black) against “Tomahawk713″ last night which Bubblegum duly won, but which included a big mistake which his opponent failed to spot.   From the diagram play continued…  38…Kf5 39.h4 Rxe5 40.Rxe5 Rxe5 41.Rf1+ Ke6 42.Kh3 Re3+ 43.Kg2 Rxd3 44.Rf3 and Black eventually won.    Today’s puzzle is can you spot the big mistake.

4r3/4r3/6p1/p1p1P1kp/PpPp4/1P1P2KP/4R3/4R3 b – - 0 38Find the big mistake

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One of the schools where I coach has their big Interschool Competition coming up next week so I’m pondering what advice I can give the team that will help them achieve the best result in the competition.   I think probably the best advice I can give is that if you can avoid blundering you will probably win.

You avoid blunders by not rushing moves, even obvious ones, and when you have decided on your move you ask yourself “what will my opponent reply” and then do a quick check for surprise replies.  As part of this process you would probably have a quick look at all checks and captures (good advice from Cecil Purdy).

Let me show you how this should work.   In today’s puzzle super Grandmaster  Alexander Beliavsky is trying to win as White against a lesser opponent.   Indeed he is a bit better as Black has a weak pawn on c6 and White’s King is closer to the action than Black’s.   Now Beliavsky should start off by determining his candidate moves.   He has three to look at.  1.f6 to lock the Black King in, 1.fxg6+ to open up the Black King to future checks or 1.Kf4 to get White’s King into the action.   Which move would you choose?

8/5p1k/2p3p1/3p1PQp/3P3P/4PPK1/8/1q6 w KQkq – 0 1What move should White play?

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