I'm back...

It's been SUCH a long time since I last posted. Sorry about that - I've been really busy as there've been plenty of exams in my school.


But now IT'S THE HOLIDAYS IN THE UK, so Hello Blogger!!

Just because a pawn looks so small...

...it doesn't mean that they aren't capable of doing serious damage!!
(PLEASE NOTE that the diagram below is NOT the real diagram. There were two opposite-colour pawns on the same file and I also had a knight)

So I'm playing this game as white and I win. But, in this position, it was black's move and he does something sensible (sensible, as in, not a downright blunder). But then a spectator yells out, "Why didn't you do ...Ng4+?! It forks the king and pawn!... oh, yeah... er..."

Lesson to be learned:
PAWNS ALWAYS MOVE AWAY FROM ITS STARTING SQUARE...

UPDATE 06/05/2011: Just played a blitz game as black... almost let go of a bishop when it could've been taken by a white pawn... got used to playing as white!!! Oh dear...

Diagrams of the week - My Worst Blunder Yet As Black

This is what can happen if you don't concentrate very hard in a chess match (from my own depressing experiences.. :( )


(Click the image below to view the animation)

So, a few points:

I played 5...Bd6 because I NEEDED TO DEFEND MY E5 PAWN, now that white had played 5.Nc3 to defend his e4 pawn. It was NOT the blundering move.

The REAL blunder was of course, 7...Nf6?? because white now has the killing move 8.e5. I should have played 7...f6, which also stops 8.Qxg7, but also stops that pesky pawn fork!

Well, I've certainly learnt MY lesson...

Been busy recently

Last Saturday's Diagram of the Week was not published, part 2 of Ruy Lopez hasn't even been written yet, no new chess tips recently... What's going on?


Well, tomorrow, the Easter holidays are over, and I'll have to go back to school, so recently I've been really busy. Now that I will be back at school, I can play chess games with my friends and tell you any epic sacrifices I made. Or, of course, any horrific blunders.. I'll also ask if any of my chess pals want to be a blog author so get ready for a major blog-post surge!!

Poor, Vulnerable Rooks (And Other Pieces!)!! - Part 2

Oh, I've just remembered some other ways that knights can annihilate rooks... (and more powerful piecess if the opponent's not careful)

A neat fork from Scholar's Mate

If black doesn't fall for Scholar's Mate, white may get a little surprise if he's not careful...

First click the image on the right to view an animation where black successfully stops two Scholar's Mate attempts by white. If you think you know it all already, then move on...

Right OK - now white plays 5.g4?. How CRUEL of him - if black's not careful and does not stop white's next move, 6.g5, then black will have to sacrifice his knight because if he moves it, white will play 7.Qxf7#. Any ideas what black should do? (P.S. Try to think why there's a question mark after the move)
Ooh, I have an idea...


How ABOUT...

5...Nd4! Excellent move! Black threatens to TAKE the pawn on c2 and kill the white rook afterwards. White must stop this massive threat by, perhaps moving his queen back home to d1, whereupon one of white pawns on e4 or g4 will be gobbled up by the black knight on f6. Now, this knight fork threat reminds me of another danger that rooks can face...


Trapped By Friends - An Epic Betrayal

How do you like this little diagram demonstration? ALWAYS be aware that knights don't HAVE to FORK the king and rook to get their booty... This is a bit like Smothered Mate! Always watch out for these attacks!


Have I missed something out in this blog post? Please comment to tell me. Thank you so much!

Diagrams of the week - Smothered Mate from Philidor's Legacy (White Edition)

(Black Edition coming tomorrow!)

If you get your chess set out and play the moves in this blog post on your board, you will remember the things I say in this post better. ;)

This is a typical starting position for a sequence of moves called "Philidor's Legacy", which ultimately leads to a neat Smothered Mate. As you can see, it looks like the black king has CASTLED and USUALLY DOES (black MIGHT somehow get his king into the position above some other way though). The white queen and can be anyway where, on the next move, it can move onto the a2-g8 diagonal (giving CHECK to the black king). And the black rook can be anywhere on THE BACK RANK (Rank 8). The white king, of course, can also be anywhere as long as it doesn't hamper the sequence of moves that I'm about to show you. The pieces that MUST be on the squares in the diagram above are the white knight, the two black pawns, and the black king. Remember that other pieces can also be on the board, as long as they don't hamper the sequence of moves that I'm about to show you:

The move that white makes now is (on our diagram) Qc4+. The queen check can be anywhere from a2 to e6. If the black king moves to f8, then the queen will move to f7 and give CHECKMATE.

 So, black has only one way to prolong his death: Kh8. 


White now closes in for the KILL.. Nf7+! On our diagram, this FORKS the king and rook (Poor, Vulnerable Rooks!), but remember that the rook doesn't have to be on d8 for us the carry out Philidor's Legacy.

The black king is forced to move to g8 - Kg8.

Now white plays Nh6+. It looks like black can just take the knight, but take a lot closer and you'll find that the white queen is also checking the king - DOUBLE CHECK! Again, if the black king moves to f8, the white queen will move to f7 and deliver CHECKMATE - so black plays Kh8.


NOW GET READY FOR ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING SACRIFICES EVER... White's next move is truly spectacular...


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Qg8+! Oh yeah!
Black is FORCED to take the queen with his rook, and can you guess white's last and winning move?


Yep - 

Nf7#.


Learn this sequence of moves - learn it REALLY WELL. I guarantee you will one day be able to perform them in one of your games.

If you like, here's Philidor's Legacy animated. Just click on the image below to view the animation ;)

Oh, before we go, a few points to make about this neat sequence of moves:

• Remember that black can do the Philidor's Legacy moves on white as well
• The chess board can be FLIPPED and the checkmate can take place on the OTHER SIDE of the board

Poor, Vulnerable Rooks!! - Part 1

Take a look at the chess starting position. Which pieces are not defended by ANYTHING? Yep - the ROOKS!! The humble, versatile protectors of the king, the pieces that usually survive until the very endgame, not defended by anything in the beginning! And the enemy queens, knights and bishops LOVE taking advantage of this, and frequently manage to kill the poor things mercilessly at the start of the game.




Please note that in this blog post WHITE always carries out the attacks. REMEMBER THAT BLACK CAN ALSO DO THESE ATTACKS AS WELL!!


All names of attacks are made-up by me and may not be their real names!!

HERE COME THE KNIGHTS!!

The biggest rook-devourer is the eccentric knight. With all its notorious knight forks, enemy rooks commonly are murdered before they even move once!

The f7 queen-rook fork

This is one of the most common attacks on rooks by knights. A white knight LEAPS forward and snatches the black pawn on f7 and as it is defended by a bishop (usually on c4, as in the diagram on the right) the king can't take it! The queen has to flee, leaving the knight to LEAP forward once more and gobble up the black h8 rook. The diagram on the left is a typical f7 knight fork from the Two Knights Defence, where black blunders and allows the white knight to do its deed. Below is an animated sequence of moves that leads to the fork on the left. Click on the picture to view the animation:

Have YOU seen/played any chess games where an f7 queen-rook fork took place but from a different opening? It is particularly good if BLACK carried out the fork. Please comment and share the chess world with your knowledge! :) Help me add some more info onto the next part of this blog post. See the bottom of this blog post for more details. Thanks!


The king-rook check fork (mirrored f7 fork)

This is only a DEMONSTRATION -
not a real game position!

This knight fork is sort of the same as the f7 fork, but the other way around - the white knight now CHECKS the king and forks the a8 rook. The queen CAN, of course take the knight... ;) I do not remember a position in one of my games where a king-rook check fork occurred, so if you remember a position, I'd be really grateful if you could leave a comment. See the bottom of this blog post for more details. Thanks!

The dangers to queen-side castling

In the diagram on the left, black is about to castle. If he chooses to castle king-side, then FINE - go on! However, what about QUEEN-SIDE castling? It can't hurt, can it?!

Oh yes it can... (Click on the image below to view the animation)

A neat knight fork by white - I like it!

Of course, in a REAL game, black's pawns would NOT all be on their starting positions - this is just a demonstration. Remember to always watch out for pesky knight forks after you castle queen-side - it's happened to me!!

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So the next time you play a chess game, always watch out and CHECK IF YOUR ROOKS ARE UNDER THREAT!! ;) Part 2 of Poor, Vulnerable Rooks!! will focus on other pieces' ways of annihilating rooks.

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Do YOU have any experience of other ways that rooks can be mercilessly tortured? Torture by any piece will do - please leave a comment and share the chess world your knowledge! ;) Help me add some more info onto the next part of this blog post. Thanks!

• I would be really grateful if you could, in your comment, describe exactly the position of the chess board.
• Starting from left to right, write the contents of each square.
• Black is abbreviated "B", white is "W"
• E.g. for a white bishop, write "WBishop"
• If a square is blank, write "nil"
• Separate squares by commas. E.g. "WRook, WKnight"
• If a new rank starts, write "-". E.g. "nil - WPawn"
• If a lot of the same type of piece are consecutively placed, write the number of consecutively placed pieces there are, following by what type of piece they are. E.g. "8BPawns", "5nils"

For example, the f7 queen-rook fork position on the left could be described like this: "BRook, nil, BBishop, BQueen, BKing, BBishop, nil, BRook - 4BPawns, nil, WKnight, BPawn, nil - 2nils, BKnight, 2nils, BKnight, nil, BPawn - 4nils, BPawn, 3nils - 2nils, WBishop, nil, WPawn, 3nils - 8nils - 4WPawns, nil, 3WPawns - WRook, WKnight, BBishop, WQueen, WKing, 2nils, WRook."

Thank you for taking your time to share the chess world your knowledge! Thank you! :)

Writing down your games

Have YOU ever written down a chess game you have played? It can extremely helpful. After you play the game, if you lose, then you can review it and highlight the weak moves you made and how you could have done better. And of course, if you win, keep the notation of the chess game as a memory to how well you played! You can also review it and see if you could have played even BETTER!


Why not write a BOOK and record all of your most prized games in it? Organise them, annotate them, give your opinion on what you think would have been a better move if you stop a weak one.

• See our Algebraic Chess Notation page if you don't know how to record chess games.
• Use my Chess Score Sheet for a quick 'n' easy way to record your games:

Chess Score Sheet

Date:____________________ Time:______

White:_____________ Black:_____________

No.	White	Black	50		No.	White	Black	50

Copy & paste the above score sheet into a Word document and print! (If you don't have Microsoft Word you should consider downloading OpenOffice, a free Word-like word processor!)

1. Put the move number in the No. column
2. Put white and black's moves in their columns
3. The 50 column is for noting down how many moves have past since the last pawn movement or capture, and if the move number reaches 50, the game is a DRAW (this is a PROPER tournament rule, but if you're playing a fun game you can ignore the 50 column)

Have fun improving your chess tactics!

The Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation

(The big pictures in this blog post are ANIMATED pictures. Click on them to view the animation. The small pictures are NON-ANIMATED)


The Ruy Lopez is named after a Spanish priest called Ruy Lopez. It is one of the most studied and popular openings ever, and is commonly played at Grandmaster Level. The Ruy Lopez begins with these moves:

(1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5)

Ruy Lopez Opening

What white is trying to do here is WIN A PAWN - his white bishop on b5 attacks black's knight that defends the pawn on e5.


Today we are going to look at one variation of the Ruy Lopez:

Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation:

(3...a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6)

It now SEEMS that white can take the pawn on e5 for FREE... but NO!

So black gets the pawn back by a QUEEN FORK. After black and white exchange queens, BLACK HAS A BETTER POSITION BECAUSE WHITE CANNOT CASTLE ANYMORE.  So DON'T take the pawn on e5 - YET anyway...

What white should do after his knight and black's bishop exchange, is to CASTLE. Then, if black is not careful, something terrible will happen to him!

Here is the position after white CASTLES. (5. O-O) What black should do now is DEFEND the pawn on e5 with something like 5...f6, 5...Qd6 or 5...Bd6. BUT... what happens if black does the obvious developing move 5...Nf6???

THIS is what happens... 

AND BAM! Black's queen is PINNED and it is officially dead! If you are black you must be extremely careful.

Now, let's see what happens if black DOESN'T try to fork white's knight and pawn again, but takes white's pawn on e4 instantly. 

This time, if black's knight on e4 moves, white will play 8. Nxc6+ - It's CHECK from the rook on e1 and the knight attacks black's queen.


Again, black's queen is dead. If however, black DEFENDS his knight on e4, white just plays 8. d3 and again, if black moves his knight, 9. Nxc6+ will win black's queen, so black will have to sacrifice his knight.

TOMORROW, we are going to look at a trap black can set in the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation, and how he can checkmate white early in the game if white falls for it!

DON'T DO THIS SACRIFICE!! I did it just for fun against someone.

Scholar's Mate from Philidor's Defence, from a game I played ages ago (I was white by the way ;))





Play these moves on the chessboard above:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 d6
Philidor's Defence opening
3. Bc4 Bg4
PINNING the knight
4. h3 Bh5
5. g4 Bg6
6. h4 Bxe4
7. d3
I sacrificed a pawn to try and get my opponent to exchange...
7...Bxf3
He did!
8. Qxf3 Nf6??
He blocked mate, but that knight is now dead.
9. g5!
If the knight moves I will deliver mate!
9...Ng8??
His worst blunder that will cost him the game.
10. Qxf7#


Yeah... I know that it was risky sacrificing the pawn to try to entice my opponent to start exchanging... and there so many ways he could have prevented mate, so... not a very good example... but it just shows what you get for being a bit greedy. I would not recommend doing something like this against a careful player, and as in a chess match you should almost always assume best play... DON'T do this!

Welcome

Hi everyone - I'll be posting some chess tips and games frequently. Check this blog every few days for something new!