Feb 7 Results

Results

Friday Jan 31 at Friendly Hills 3:40-6:00
  ROUND 3 MetcB 4, Heritage 1; MetcC 4, FHMS 1; FS 1,  MetcA 4
  ROUND 4 FHMS 3, Heritage 2;  MetcB 0 MetcA 5; MetcC 5, FS

Friday Feb 7   at Metcalf  3:40-6:00
  ROUND 5 Heritage 3 FS 2, MetcA 4.5 MetcC 0.5, FHMS 0.5 MetcB 4.5
  ROUND 6 Heritage 0 MetcA 5, FS 1 FHMS 4, MetcB 4 MetcC 1

Team      Match Games
Metcalf A  6-0 28.5- 1.5
Metcalf B  5-1 21.5- 8.5
Metcalf C  3-3 14.5-15.5
FHMS       3-3 12.0-18.0
Heritage   1-5  7.0-23.0
FaithShep  0-6  6.5-23.5

Metcalf C has to play both FHMS and Heritage next time!

Remaining Schedule 

Friday Feb 14 no games

Friday Feb 21 at Metcalf  3:40-6:00
  ROUND 7 MetcC vs Heritage, MetcB vs FS, FHMS vs MetcA
  ROUND 8 Heritage vs MetcB, MetcC vs FHMS, MetcA vs FS

Friday Feb 28 at Heritage 3:40-6:00
  ROUND9 Heritage vs FHMS, MetcA vs MetcB, FS vs MetcC
  ROUND 10 FS vs Heritage, MetA vs MetcC, MetcB vs FHMS

PUZZLES
PROBLEM #1 Here's a complicated position from Claire of Friendly Hills vs Aidan of Heritage.
It turned out to be the decisive game in a 3-2 victory for Friendly Hills.
It's Black's turn. He has two pieces in trouble. Can he save both or at least escape with minor damage?

PROBLEM #2
Chase of Heritage has checked the Black king. Shanmuka of Friendly Hills has blocked with his bishop. Before thinking about your next move, count the points in pieces (Q=10, R=5, B=3, P-=1).
a) who is ahead? b) What should White' plan be? c) What should Black's plan be? d) Finally, in accordance with the plan, how should Chase save his queen?

PROBLEM #3
It's Luke's turn as black against J. Sharma from Metcalf on Board 1. What's the correct move?

#4 EASY Black's last move was Kb5 attack White's b pawn. This was Shanmuka's last chance for an easy win. (He missed it!)

ANSWERS
#1.  First notice that if the bishop retreats, White cannot take the knights because of Bxg4+ winning the queen. However, White could exchange Queens first, allowing the capture of the knight.
But Black can prevent the Queen trade by playing Bd4 saving both pieces. If White plays c3 attacking the Bishop, Black counters with Bf5 threatening exf3+ with a discovered attack on the rook.
Black has the upper hand after Nc3 with threats of Nxd4+ followed by Qa4+. So the correct move is Bd4. However, Black can also reverse the order of the first two move and play exf3+ first.

#2. a) both sides are equal in material
     b) White has 3 passed pawns on the d and e files. His goal should be to promote one to a queen.
     c) Black has 3 passed pawns on the g and h files. His goal should be to promote one to a queen.
     d) White's correct move is is e5! (The computer has White ahead by a significant amount. Unfortunaely Chase played Qd2 losing control of the e5 square and giving Black, a significant advantage,)

#3 Nx e4 (Not Bxe4 which White answers with an undermining move - Bxf6)

#4. Nd4+ forking the King and Rook! From there the plan is take the Rook, take the f-pawn with the rook take the g-pawn with the N, Nh7 and march the pawn to queendom.

Jr High Chess League 2020 Schedule

Scroll down to find some interesting postions from Jan  24, 2020. Or look at the previous blogs - there are some good problems from last year.

Results (corrected)

Friday Jan 24 at Friendly Hills 3:40-6:15
  ROUND 1 MetcA 5 Heritage 0, FHMS 3.5 Faithful Shepherd 1.5,  MetcB 5 MetcC 0
  ROUND 2 Heritage 1 MetcC 4, FS 1 MetcB 4, MetcA 5 FHMS 0

Team      Match Games
Metcalf A  2-0 10.0-0.0
Metcalf B  2-0  9.0-1.0
Metcalf C  1-1  4.0-6.0
FHMS       1-1  3.5-6.5
FaithShep  0-2  2.5-7.5
Heritage   0-2  1.0-9.0

Remaining Schedule
Friday Jan 31 at Friendly Hills 3:40-6:15
  ROUND 3 MetcB vs Heritage, MetcC vs FHMS, FS vs MetcA
  ROUND 4 FHMS vs Heritage, MetcB vs MetcA, MetcC vs FS

Friday Feb 7   at Metcalf  3:40-6:15
  ROUND 5 Heritage vs FS, MetcA vs MetcC, FHMS vs MetcB
  ROUND 6 Heritage vs MetcA, FS vs FHMS, MetcB vs MetcC

Friday Feb 14 no games

Friday Feb 21 at Metcalf  3:40-6:15
  ROUND 7 MetcC vs Heritage, MetcB vs FS, FHMS vs MetcA
  ROUND 8 Heritage vs MetcB, MetcC vs FHMS, MetcA vs FS

Friday Feb 28 at Heritage 3:40-6:15
  ROUND9 Heritage vs FHMS, MetcA vs MetcB, FS vs MetcC
  ROUND 10 FS vs Heritage, MetA vs MetcC, MetcB vs FHMS

PROBLEMS
1. DIFFICULT Here's an interesting position from Board 1 Shanmuka of Friendly Hills is playing White against Mayotte from Faithful Shepherd. Mayotte has just moved his bishop from h6 to e3. The f pawn is pinned and helpless. What's White's best move?

2.  EASY Here's a position where T. Spencer, as Black, had a checkmate in two, but he missed it and let Graham Styles of Friendly Hills fight on for another 20 moves. Can you find the mate in two?

3. EASY Heres a common error. Chase of Heritage made a mistake against David Santos of Metcalf, but David playing White didn't capitalize on it. What move should David have made?


4. MEDIUM Beckham from Heritage has just lost his rook on a1. Time to resign?

ANSWERS
1. c6!  wins the bishop because if Black does not take the pawn immediately, it queens.
2. 1. Nf3+ covers the escape square 2. Bd2 Qxd2#
3. e5 forking the Knight and Bishop.
4. Beckham didn't resign, but he missed a good move - Nbc3 wins the queen for a rook which would have evened the score.

RULES
1. All games must be notated.

2. We will play with the touch-move rule. If you touch a piece with the intent to move it, you must move that piece if it is legally possible to do so. If you touch an opponent's piece, with either your hand or your piece, you will be required to capture that piece if it is legally possible to do so.

3. All games will be played with a clock if we have enough. Bring your fully charged I-Pad and become familiar with the chess clock application, which you can find with the link in the upper right. Time control will be announced at the beginning of the round - probably 30 minutes with 5-second delay or 35 minutes with no delay. That means a game may last 1 hr 10 min. There is a link to a nice chess clock from our chess club blog.

4. Players will be assigned a board based on their rating. If a teammate is not present, all players move up one board and a sub will play on board 5. If a team is short a player or two, that team will forfeit the game. If both teams are short a player, both teams will forfeit the game. To win a match a team must score 3 or more points. If a team scores 2.5 points the match is considered a draw.

Round 5 Results and Final Standings

Metcalf A 4-1 over Metcalf B
Metcalf C 3-2 over Salem Hills
Friendly Hills 4-1 over Faithful Shepherd
1st place trophy - Metcalf
2nd place trophy - Salem Hills
3rd place trophy - Friendly Hills

Place		MA	MB	MC	SH	FH	FS	Pts	games
1	MetA	/	4-1	5-0	3.5-1.5	5-0	5-0	5	22.5
2	MetB	1-4	/	4-1	3.0-2.0	5-0	5-0	4	18
3	MetC	0-5	1-4	/	3.0-2.0	2.5-2.5	4-1	2.5	10.5
4	Sal H	1.5-3.5	2.0-3.0	2.0-3.0	/	4.5-.5	4.5-.5	2	14.5
5	FrH	0-5	0-5	2.5-2.5	.5-4.5	/	4-1	1.5	7
6	FaithS	0-5	0-5	1-4	.5-4.5	1-4	/	0	2.5

Rounds 3 and 4

Friendly Hills got shut out against Metcalf A and B as expected, but our easiest match is next week - we need a win or draw against Faithful Shepherd to come out ahead of them. If we do, I think we get the 3rd place trophy because Metcalf can only get one trophy. It is mathematically possible to come out ahead of Metcalf C if we can beat Faithful Shepherd 5-0 and Salem Hill can beat Metcalf C 5-0. Athough not likely, it could well happen.

Salem Hills needs a win or a draw against Metcalf C to hold onto third place. A loss would put us in 4th place.

Scores
Rd 3 Metcalf A 5 FHMS 0
         Salem Hills 4.5 Faithful Shepherd .5
         Metcalf B 4 Metcalf C 1
Rd 4 Metcalf A 3.5 Salem Hills 1.5
         Metcalf B 5 FHMS 0
         Metcalf C 4 Faithful Shepherd 1

Next week it's:
  Met A vs Met B
  Salem Hills vs Met C
  FHMS vs Faithful Shepherd

School Matches Games
Met A     4.0  18.5
Met B     4.0  17.0
Salem     2.0  12.5
Met C     1.5   7.5
Friendly  0.5   3.0
Faithful  0.0   1.5

2019 Season - Rounds 1 & 2

STANDINGS
TEAM      Match Games
Metcalf A   2.0 10.0
Metcalf B   2.0  8.0
Salem Hills 1.0  6.5
Friendly H. 0.5  3.0
Metcalf C   0.5  2.5
Faithful S. 0.0  0.0

Rd3 FHMS vs MetA, SH vs FS, MetB vs MetC 
Rd4 FHMS vs MetB, SH vs MetA, FS vs MetC

PROBLEM 1
Here's a position from Shanmuka's (Friendly Hills) game on board 4 against Metcalf C.
The game has been fairly well-played on both sides with neither side getting much of an advantage.
Black has just played f6 and it's Whites turn (Shanmuka's). What's White's best move?

In the game, he played Nf3, but he had a better move. If you said Nxc6, nice try, but Qb6 could create some problems for the knight. The move that gets the advantage is 1. Qh5+ leaving a chance for Black to make a blunder. Rf2 is instant checkmate. Ke7 drops the Queen. Kf8 is all that's left. Then 2. Qxh6+
Ke8 (blocking with either rook looses material) 3.Qh5+ Kf8 4.Nd3 leaves White with a sight advantage but if Black had made any mistakes, it could be over.

PROBLEM 2
Luke from Friendly Hills is playing black and comes up with a nice combination. Can you find his next two moves?

A little decoy followed by a fork. 1....Rxd3 2. Rxd3 Qb1+!

PROBLEM 3

Owen from Friendly Hills played a game that was close all the way. He had managed to gobble up a pawn on b5, but black advanced his d pawn threatening to queen. What's the best way for Owen to stop that pawn?

Owen tried Rd5 thinking he would gobble up the d-pawn, too. Imagine his horror when his opponent played Rf5+ forking the rook. Owen can take the rook, but the pawn queens. Instead, Owen should have played 1. Rb1 Rd7 2. Rd1 Kf7 3. Kf4 Kf6 4. Ke3 Kf5 5. Rxd2 Rxd2 6. Kxd2 with a draw.

PROBLEM 4

Lennox from Salem Hills had a wild game against Metcalf. After getting ahead in position (see diagram below), he fell behind by a knight, only to come back and checkmate his opponent with the blind pig mate!

Here Lennox has a chance to put his White out of his misery. What's Black's killer move?

If you said Qc3, that's what Lennox tried. But that let his opponent escape by castling. Look at White's King - it has nowhere to go. The correct move is to castle kingside threatening checkmate. All attempts by White to save his king fail - try it out on your own board, or click on analyze game on your school's chess blog page and enter this position.

PROBLEM 5

Here Zachary from Salem Hills, playing black,  has mopped up some pawns with his Queen. Black blocks check with his queen. How should Zach proceed?

Zachary rightly remembered that when you're ahead, trade. Plus it gave him time to save his knight.

He played 1. Qxe2+ Kxe2 2.Nd5. But his 2-pawn advantage slipped away. Nevertheless with some good endgame play he managed to queen a pawn and win. However, he could have made it much easier with 1.Ne4+ Kf3 2.Qxe2 Kxe2 3.Ng3+ picking up a rook and making the endgame easier.

PROBLEM 6 (Hard)

Luke (Friendly Hills) vs Michael (Salem Hills) - a wild game. It was well-played and even, until Luke made an ill-advised pawn move. Though the edge went from Luke to Michael it remained basically even until Michael got a KR fork with his knight. By move 20 Stockfish (the chess analysis engine) had Michael up 12 points.

Michael struggled to come up with a killer move and by move 29 Luke had some severe threats going in spite of being down in material. They agreed to a draw though the computer had Luke up 5.

Here's the position when Michael had the 12 point lead. Can you find Black's winning line of play.

Michael tried Qa5+ but eventually Luke's King found refuge among his kingside pieces. The correct answer, according to Stockfish, is Re8. This grabs that open file and keeps Luke's King in the open. For example, Ke3 is met with Qe7 and there is no way to save the pinned Bishop and Black's pieces come flooding in. If instead, Luke plays f3, Michael plays d5 and once again the King is in the open.

The game might continue 24.Bd3 Qa5+ 25. Kd1 Qxa2 26. Qh6 Qb3+ 27. Kd2 Qxb2+28.Kd1 Qg2  29. Rf1 Nb3 (It's not quite over but it will be soon.) Sometimes it's really hard to come up with the right move even when you've got the lead and a strong position.

2016 Season

Minnesota Junior High Chess League - Cities Division

COACHES 
A match will consist of five games pitting one school against another. Top player from one school will play the top player from the other school, etc. Coaches should develop a way to rank their players. If a team does not field a full team, players must move up leaving the bottom boards vacant. You will forfeit the games on those boards. The team that scores 3 or more points is the winner of the match.  If a team score 2.5 points it is considered a draw. With forfeits it is possible that neither team will win the match. The team that wins the most matches advanced to the playoffs. In case of tie in matches, the total points will be used as a tie breaker. You may bring extra players and sub them into your team, but they must stay in proper order according to their ratings/ranking. We will match the extras up for practice games that will not affect the league scores.
So far we have Friendly Hills (1), ...

Fees are $?? for the first team. ($?? for two teams, $?? for 3 teams.)

Make checks out to Minnesota Junior High Chess League and mail to
Brian Ribnick
Metcalf Jr. High
2250 Diffley Road, Burnsville MN 55337
There's an invoice available on the link to the League site in the upper right.

If anyone else wants to join, send Bill Heinemann an e-mail at gemshein@hotmail.com

2016 SCHEDULE
A - Breck B-Cap C-FarnA D-FarnB E=Sew F=Friendly
Jan 27 9:00 - 12:30 Seward Montessori Matthew's Center
Team listed 1st is White on Boards 1, 3 and 5
Round 1 9:15 A vs B, C vs D, E vs F
Round 2 10:25 (or sooner) A vs C, B vs F, D vs E
Round 3 11:35 (or sooner) F vs A, D vs B, E vs F
Done at 12:45 at the latest
Feb 10 8:45 - 12:15 Friendly Hills M. S. ant Church on Arcade 
Round 4 8:50 D vs A, C vs F, B vs E
Round 5 10:00 (or sooner) B vs C, F vs D, E vs A
New format for round 6 due to the fact that I just learned that 2 teams from this division will advance to playoffs.
Round 6 11:10 (or sooner) Team 1 vs Team 4, Team 2 vs Team 3, Team 5 vs Team 6.
In round 6, preference for White on odd boards will be given to Breck, Farnsworth A and Friendly Hills since they were black 3 times in the first 5 rounds.
Final Standings 12:20
Done at 12:25
Playoffs March 3, at Metcalf Jr. High in Burnsville.
Awards will be given at St. Kate's at the State Tournament (on March 24-25)

DIVISION RULES
(League rules available at the link in the upper right.)
Teams should bring their own notation paper, pencils, chess sets and clocks.
Players should bring their own clocks to ensure they will have a clock for their game.

Rules are USCF rules. All games must be notated (moves recorded) by both players. A clock will be used on all games. Each player will have 30 minutes with a 5 second delay (35 min with no delay). We could run over an hour by 7 minutes on a 40 move game or by 15 on an 80 move game, but with so few games we are more likely to finish early. So I think we'll be OK with this time control.

Touch move - if you touch a piece with the intent to move it you must move it if you can legally do so. If this means you have to block check with your queen, so be it. If you touch an opponent's piece with your hand or your piece with intent to capture, you must capture. A player is not required to say check. The three-move repetition rule will be enforced. Press the clock with the same hand that moved your piece. No kibbitzing, verbal or otherwise - penalty will be forfeit of 1 point from your team score that round. If you have a question or issue, raise your hand. No one will remind you to press your clock or notify you if you have an illegal position on the board. You must be aware of these yourself.

Playoff Results

PLAYOFF FINAL STANDINGS
1. Metcalf
2. Seward
3. Capital Hill
4. Seven Hills