It has been a great great weekend for me and I wanted to share it with all of you
Mr Leontxo García has been in a lecture in Alfaro
The Chess Club in Alfaro (here you are the link) invited him to celebrate their 25th anniversary and he made a wonderful speech about how useful is Chess
If you want to enjoy a great time you can watch this video
(it is in Spanish)
Talking about how interesting can be chess game for many things in life and in education particularly.
I hope somebody takes into account some of his valuable advices.
There are three stages in the chess game: the opening, the middle game, and the endgame.
Each phase has different strategic concerns, and must be approached in a
different way.
The opening in chess
covers the first 10 to 15 moves of the game, in which both players are moving
their pieces from their starting positions to take up active posts ready to do
battle in the middle game. Because the opening always starts from the same
position, a large number of possibilities and theories have been set over the
years. Many chess openings have their own names, such as the Queen's Gambit or
Sicilian Defence. You don't need to know what the openings are called to get
started in chess, though but anyway you have to start your game and if possible
with an extra help or advantage can improve your chess game.
Below is an example of
the opening phase:
If we start the game with white pieces, I recommend to
start e-4, very typical and safe.
If you want to start the game you should pay attention
to the possibilities of develop your game.
Let go out the bishops
Use your Knights to avoid the checkmate of the
shepherd.
And finally the Rooks.
These are the so called minor pieces (Bishops and
Knights) and then the mayor pieces (Rooks and the Queen). We should put into
the game these pieces right at the beginning of the game, I mean, not only one
bishop or one knight but all of them, they have more possible moves placed in
central squares than in the sides or in the corners.
For getting moved the 2 bishops and the 2 knights the
sooner we cannot waste our time moving twice the same piece
Can be a good idea to use the castling
When is it possible?
None of the pieces involved in castling may have been moved previously during the game. There must be no part between the king and the tower; The king can not be in check, nor can he pass through squares that are under attack by the enemy pieces.
WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF THE OPENING PHASE?
Great question, one of the most important ones. because many people kids and beginners have only a little idea about what we aim at the start of the game or after very few moves. Then we have a new "plan" each turn because our opponent has changed the initial idea we had about his/her moves.
Here you are the SOLUTION:
Get your pieces into action quickly and effectively.
Now it is time for the Challenges:
Challenge #1: For a kind of "warming up" let's solve this Checkmate in just One move. Send me your creative solutions, drawings, videos, photos... Whatever. I can help you with some difficulties or mistakes.
*Clue: when there is a promotion; not always doing it to the queen is the best solution.
Challenge #2: For the second Challenge I was thinking about making a video or images or... You know, I do know you can be really creative with some openings, your favorites ones: Here you are a couple of examples: Can you guess what is the name (English or Spanish) for the next two openings:
1.- What is the name of this opening?
Clue: It is one of the oldest openings and his author was a Spanish Priest from the XVI century.
It is also called "Spanish Game" the ????? is one of the most popular openings:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5
The white Bishop on b-5 puts pressure on the Knight which is guarding the center. Whites can castle very soon and can attack for a long time over blacks.
Advantages: it leads to several attacks over many pieces, tends to give long-term pressure and white develops very quickly and castles.
Disadvantages: Some lines are very theoretical more than practical, black has a huge number of defenses because its popularity, blacks can attack the light squared bishop.
2.- What is the name of this defense?
Watch the video and make a comment if you want.
Clue: It is related to a big island in the Mediterranean sea.
The ???? is one of the best answers to the opening e4. Black takes control of the d4 square with a pawn from the side - thus this answer imbalances the game and avoids giving the control of the central squares to the Whites.
Advantages: Imbalance of the game. Gives the blacks good options for attacking, it is a good answer when blacks play for a win.
Disadvantages: It is very well known, there is a lot of theory about it, and whites have many options for attacking.
And... That's all folks!!! This has been the last post of the season I DO hope to see you next course, enjoy with Chess and have a wonderful summer. You can send me your comments and suggestions for the next season. As usual you don't have to answer all of them if anyone is too difficult, just try and enjoy. I will give the solutions as soon as the next activity is posted and you can participate by e-mail (explorajake@gmail.com), twitter (@ProfesorJake) or whatsapp (682336170)
As many
times as you try something, the right one is always the last one.
SO please🙏
Don’t give
up! And try it one more time.
MISTAKE=BAD
THING??????
NO WAY
Quite often
we think a mistake is something really bad we have to avoid and regret and
forget.
Right the
opposite
Mistakes
are good and they can be even more useful than those RIGHT decisions, answers…
All we have
those moments UPS!! I did it wrong
All chess
players have made hundreds of mistakes (we are not computers fortunately) and
suffered lots of losses on our way to improve our game.
Instead of
throwing away that mistakes and getting angry, take up the challenge and learn
from EVERY game you play (wins and losses).
As a
teacher and Chess Coach I have search for help and I found a list of useful
ways for every individual student to deal with her/his games, even in
tournaments. In this activity my good friend “Profesora Feli” has helped me a
lot:
5 tips to
learn from your mistakes
1.Ⅰ Attitude: be positive before, during
and after the tournament (game or even life). It is easy to be happy about
those wins, but focus on embracing (ACCEPT) those loses as lessons that will
teach you on your road to improvement.
2.
Ⅱ Quick notes: after a hard loss,
write down some quick notes on a piece of paper telling “what were you thinking
about during the game, why do you think you lose the game, and the biggest
mistake you think you committed.
ⅢReview: once a little time has
passed and have had time to reflect try to repeat the game in order to maximize
your learning and reinforce your analysis skills (try to do it in a chessboard
not on your computer.
4.ⅣCoach: try to ask another friend,
teacher, relative… The idea is to find out another perspective from other point
of view.
5.ⅤMove on: don’t punish too much
yourself. Once you have learned and what your mistakes were move on.
NOW It is time for your answers and (why not) mistakes in
these Challenges.
In these activities you can send me the solution with these two exercises (not very difficult) you can find Checkmate in just one move (each). Challenge #1
Let's go with the first one In this fist exercise you can notice there is a pawn protecting its King... but if you pay attention that pawn Challenge #2
... and the second one:
This exercise shows us how to play with our Bishops. Think it diagonally... move them in order to find out the checkmate in one move. As usual you don't have to answer all of them if anyone is too difficult, just try and enjoy. I will give the solutions as soon as the next activity is posted and you can participate by e-mail (explorajake@gmail.com), twitter (@ProfesorJake) or whatsapp (682336170)
This is
Profesor Jake and welcome everyone to your favourite post.
This time
we are going to explain the Double Threat.
If you
leave this blog you are going to lose all your games.
If you
leave this blog you are going to be boring
This is a double
threat.
There are
three typical cases where double threats take place.
We are
going to review them and then you can solve the challenges bellow. Watch next video and then you can solve the Challenges Challenge 1
Find how to make a Pawn Fork with White pieces. Which pieces can your Pawn capture? What was the mistake from the Black pieces? Challenge 2
Where has to move the White Knight in order to play a Double Attack? Which pieces can capture that Knight? Challenge 3
You play with black pieces... How can you capture the white Bishop without any risk for your pieces? Remember you can send your answers to me and I will correct them as soon as possible You don't have to answer all of them if anyone is too difficult, just try and enjoy. I will give the solutions as soon as the next activity is posted and you can participate by e-mail (explorajake@gmail.com), twitter (@ProfesorJake) or whatsapp (682336170) I wait for you
Welcome back to a new post on your favourite blog.
These weeks we are going to work on...
Those little guys.
We want to demystify the pawns. You get eight
of these small but tricky guys so you'd better use them well!
Their name means
something related tofarmers, toworkmen, and despite their little moves, and
their little power, there are 8 of them so their power comes when they work
together.
As all we know pawns move one by one each turn (except at the beginning they can move 2 squares at a time).
Just
a little extra data: this 2 moves at the beginning, only from lines 2 (for
white pawns) and 7 (for the black ones) comes from the beginning of the modern
Chess and from the country that spread Chess all around the world:Spain. Yes
my friends the country that introduced chess in Europe, and therefore popularized and
universalized.
Quite
often we do not value the good things that have been done in this country.
The only different
move they can do is when they capture other piece, they capture one square
diagonally.
But their most common
position is to be stuck. When any piece of their team or not is in front of
them they cannot move anymore, till their way is free.
Pawns can never go
backwards.
Promotion: pawns are the only piece can promote when reaching the opposite line 1
(for black pawns) or 8 (for white ones). He can become into a Queen, a Knight,
a Bishop or a Rook, never into a King.
When promoting the pawn moves
one square forward, not like capturing. That is that the front square has to be
empty.
Too much theory?
Ok Let's go ahead with theCHALLENGES:
Last week challenge was a little hard cause the pronunciation of our friend in New York City at the Marshal Chess Club was in a strong American accent; so this time there are extra challenges and you can participate in as many as you wish, remember be creative, draw, paint, use a smartphone, a tablet, a computer, laptop... or any means you prefer.
#1) The white king is almost in checkmate, but in this case a black pawn is missing. Can you draw, put or whatever it?
I'm sure you can ;)
#2) The white king is almost in stalemate (a draw as we know), but if you add somewhere a black pawn... Can you draw one to solve this problem?
one more?
#3) The white king is almost in checkmate, but a black pawn is missing. Can you draw, put or whatever it?
still one more???
#4) Let's go with the last one. For it I give you a tip: if a King stands to the side of its pawns, it can protect it as it moves towards PROMOTION.
To answer this challenge you have to move one of the white pieces in order to get the PROMOTION of the white Pawn. So... Which is the next move for the whites?
SEE YOU SOON and don't forget to tell your friends.
Hi there this is a special present to all those who follow this blog. let's watch this video:
A few days ago we had
the opportunity of visiting theMarshall Chess Club.
Grandmaster Frank J. Marshall, from New York, founded
this historic chess club in 1915. The Marshall Chess Club.
Grand Masters, World Champions and many personalities
from the world of Chess come to this legendary place.
You can find pictures of the history of Chess, there
is Chess from the very first moment.
I wanted to give a surprise to all members of this
modest club Explora Jake and at the same time to thank the assistant who so
kindly accompanied us and showed his club.
The challenge has to do with the video so watch it again, make your comments and play with the nextLINK
It is from the page "educaplay". Once you have played you can send me an image by the traditional means with your results
Hi
there; today's challenges have to do with the Rooks.
For
personal reasons I cannot be challenging you as usual, I'm trying to answer
your questions and giving your feed back as long as I can, so take it easy I am
still hands on.
The
challenges of this week are dedicated to a new friend of us, a very special
friend from far far away, I cannot tell you more it is going to be a surprise.
But at
the same time I am very nervous because it is going to be a great responsibility,
he is a really good chess player and he knows tons of things about our favourite
game.
Challenge
1:
Rooks
work well as a team.
A double
challenge; place the Rooks in the next chess boards:
You
have to place a ROOK in order to "check mate" the black King in the second puzzle
there are two possible solutions send them back to me.
Challenge 2:
The
second Challenge is also related to Rook Positions.
Which
player has the better positioned Rooks on this board?
Send me
the solution (Black or White) but try to make an effort and explain us the
answer.
I am
preparing a video with a surprise but... technical reasons don't let me show
you a very, VERY special work.
