Second Day at Chess Camp

The second day of the chess camp has been the hardest from the point of view of the kids and chess. They have had to play 2 tournament games, and have 3 coaching sessions, which perhaps on reflection, might have been too intense, especially for some of the younger ones. Saying that the sheer quantity of material that the kids are getting through, and the great quality of coaching, is paying dividends. I had a group of the least experienced players today in a session looking at pawn endings which is a subject they've already touched upon in other sessions. They recognised concepts such as 'opposition', 'passed pawns' 'shoudering' and 'breakthroughs' which made my lesson more of a reinforcement rather than pure teaching. As a result, I was able to test these kids ability to put these ideas into practice, and when one idea may have priority over another.

The kids have to play tournament games, and the position above is from a game this afternoon. The games are played at a rate of 25 + 10 and the kids have to record their games (some kids are learning to record!). After the games, the kids analyse their game with their opponent and a chess coach. I was watching the game above as it finished. It was black to play and the game continued 1..Rb2 2.Rxf4 Rf2 3.Kxe3 Rxf4 0-1 I asked after the game why not reply to 1..Rb2 with 2.Rh5+, and then after 2..Kd4 3.Kxf4?

The question is how does black win this? (Answer after the next post, hopefully tomorrow)

Of course, even though today was pretty full on in terms of chess, there was still some time to kick back and relax, and some fun activities were arranged to burn off some natural junior energy.

Elijah enjoying the "Flying Fox"

Isobel getting a "giant swing" adrenalin rush

Bobby was on target on the "archery range"

Answer to the chess endgame:

Those who wanted to run that pawn down straight away will be disappointed. 1..e2 only draws after 2.Rh1.

To win, black must create a Lucena type position with 1..Rf2!, cutting off white's king from the black pawn. Of course, all our kids will now know this technique and this win will be rudimentary to them!