ARRIVAL IN LOS ANGELES! Traffic gets in the way of round one - a near catastrophe!

LOS ANGELES OPEN 2010 - The JOHN HILLERY MEMORIAL

VADIM KUDRYAVTSEV (White Pieces) vs my friend NUMAN ABDUL-MUJEEB

INTERNATIONAL MASTER (IM) JACK PETERS
ON BOARD 1
CONDUCTING THE BLACK PIECES

So leaving at noon today was not a wise choice in scheduling as there is such a thing known as "TRAFFIC" that one must contend with. I would have arrived about 45 minutes late - after my game would have been started - which would have been too much time to cede to anyone. My students are very lucky to have their parents bring them to their tournaments! Logistics handled by Mom and Dad are easily appreciated - when they are older! Of course you folks did not have to drive six to seven hours to get to the tournament site... all you have to do is maybe at the most is a 40 minute drive which is easy.

So how to deal with this problem of my late arrival while mid trip? Calling ahead and requesting a switch to the two day schedule was the only logical thing to do and thankfully Tournament Director (TD) Randy Hough obliged. Now I am faced with playing two game 60's for rounds one and two tomorrow and then the two day section will merge with the three day. That will be three rounds of chess for me and round three will be a long game. Why? The third round will be real chess - 40 moves in two hours and then sudden death in one for both players. Potentially a six hour game! Sunday will feature two of those and then this event will be in the history books!

For more information about Randy Hough's "LOS ANGELES OPEN - JOHN HILLERY MEMORIAL" please feel free to visit his website at http://www.randyhough.com/word/

There are many master already playing in this event with potentially even more top notch players registering in the morning. The highest rated players, who have registered so far as of now, are Enrico Sevillano at 2553 and Roman Yankovsky at 2574. Time to get ready with a little light studying and then it will be time to go get some serious sleep... and lots of it as that was one long drive today!

- Chess Coach Sean Tobin.

LOS ANGELES OPEN 2010 - Another Coach Sean Adventure!

CHESS COACH IN ACTION!

Pre drive checklist for LOS ANGELES OPEN:

1.) Car Maintenance... YES.
2.) Snacks in car... YES
3.) Pre trip errands taken care of? YES
4.) Chess set, board and clock in the car? YES!
5.) Did I get to prepare for this event Like I really needed to? NO!

But that is ok - chess is chess and chess is best played! Look for daily reports on my progress - or lack of it - at the LOS ANGELES OPEN 2010! I'm an active chess tournament player too but of course!

5.) AM I THERE YET? NO - Time to get in the car and drive!

- Chess Coach Sean Tobin.

10/13/2010 "FAMOUS CHESS QUOTE - for OUR PLAYERS!"

A FAMOUS CHESS QUOTE - for OUR PLAYERS!

"When you see a good move... wait, look for a better one."
- Emanuel Lasker, 2nd World Champion of Chess from 1894 till 1921.

More words of wisdom from the second World Champion of chess! - Coach Sean.

A CHESS LESSON FROM THE TOP BOARD of the MERCURY MINERS CHESS CLUB LADDER MATCHES!

Hand over hand, Rook over Rook... CHECKMATE MAGIC!

THE MONKEY BARS CHECKMATE - HAND OVER HAND, ROOK LEAP FROGGING ROOK!

THE MONKEY BARS CHECKMATE

HOW YOU CAN ALWAYS WIN WHEN YOU ARE UP TWO ROOKS!

This is one of our basic checkmates - and an easy checkmate to score with when you are up two whole Rooks! The reason why this checkmate is so easy is because:

1. Kings are slow runners!
2. Rooks, though big and a little clumsy, are powerful and strong runners.
3. Kings move one square at a time - in any direction. Unless they are able to use the special move "castles" - which is not relevant here.
4. Rooks move along "FILES" and "RANKS" - as far as they can "see".

WHITE HAS A WIN - TIME TO DO THE LEAP FROGGING ROOKS CHECKMATE!

ON YOUR MARKS, GET SET, READY... GO!

1. Ra3 - Ra5 gives a check to the Black King. Why?

PSSST! MY ROOK IS LOOKING AT YOUR KING!

In the position up above you can see the RED ARROW pointing at the Black King - that is to show that the Rook on a5 is looking at him or attacking him. This is because Rooks can look both up and down - along files - and from side to side - along ranks. The red arrow is on the 5th rank which is labeled on the side of the board*.

*Remember that you can always find the name of any square by cross referencing it by file and rank. So when I wrote "a5" this means the square on the a-file and on the 5th rank.

RUN FOREST, RUN!

1. ...Kh5 - g6.

If our or our opponent's King is in check then we have a list of possible options that we should go through to make sure that it is either a check or to see if it is a checkmate.

THE LIST:
1.) Can the piece looking at my King be CAPTURED?
2.) Can I put one of the King's friends - one of my other pieces - in the way so as to BLOCK the check?
3.) Can my King RUN AWAY to one of the surrounding squares around him?

So we can rule out 1 and 2 on our list and so that only leaves option 3. Which is to move the King and is the option that the player of the Black pieces had to take. No taking passes on our turn!

Now the Black King can no longer cross the 5th rank as those square are attacked by the White Rook on the a5 square. Remember the Rook not only looks up and down the a-file but also along this 5th rank. All at once! He must eat a lot of carrots to have such good vision!!

TIME FOR A LEAP FROGGING ROOK MOVE!

Now it is the turn for the Rook on b4 and so here is where we are in this position:

1. Ra3 - a5 + Kh5 - g6
2. Rb4 - b6 +

The "+" means check in chess notation.

"CHECK"!

So each Rook is leaping over the other forcing the Black King to the back rank where he will eventually be checkmated. Notice that in the above position that this King is to far away to run at either of the Rooks. Even if he could the Rooks could then zoom into action and go over to the other side of the board!

RUN FOREST, RUN!

1. Ra3 - a5 + Kh5 - g6
2. Rb4 - b6 + Kg6 - Kf7

And so on until we drive the Black King to the back rank where the final leap frogging Rook will deliver a check and mate - CHECKMATE!

1. Ra3 - a5 + Kh5 - g6
2. Rb4 - b6 + Kg6 - Kf7
3. Ra5 - a7 + _____?


1. Ra3 - a5 + Kh5 - g6
2. Rb4 - b6 + Kg6 - Kf7
3. Ra5 - a7 + Kf7 - Ke8


1. Ra3 - a5 + Kh5 - g6
2. Rb4 - b6 + Kg6 - Kf7
3. Ra5 - a7 + Kf7 - Ke8
4. Rb6 - b8 #

1 - 0 (WHITE WINS - CHECKMATE!)

GAME OVER - BACK RANK CHECKMATE!

The Rook on a7 prevents the Black King from running up onto the 7th Rank.

The Rook that just landed on the square b8 is giving the Black King a check and attacks all along the 8th rank thus giving a check and mate.


The Black King is in check and all of the squares around him are controlled - so he is also mated - which makes this a CHECKMATE! Game over - white won. Time for a new game!

Try to practice this technique with your young scholastic star a few times this week while at home so they can pick up this checkmate - while having fun practicing with you!

YOUR CHESS COACH
Chess Coach Sean Tobin.

COACH SEAN (BLINDFOLDED) vs DARWIN MICK - The Blindfold Challenge Game.

DARWIN (BLACK PIECES)

COACH SEAN - Without sight of the board.

Having started off this game on an extremely good note - while playing both Evan and Mason a practice game simultaneously - I began to drift as our meeting went on. I not only had to keep track of my game against Darwin but I had to check in on our players and to take a look at their games as well. As the bell rang for the start of school - disaster struck! I played a quick move and now it looks like Darwin can win my Queen... can I come back from this calamity? Find out after we finish this game next week!

Thanks to Darwin who kept an excellent record of our game - You did a good job Darwin! I look forward to finishing our game next week. Hopefully Darwin will be able to show up to some of the upcoming events and show everyone just how good a player he can be. Practice at home Darwin and study this position - so you can find your best moves when we resume on the 13th of October!

Make it a great day everyone - and Parents remember to get in some practice time with our Scholastic stars! - Chess Coach Sean Tobin.

CHESS QUOTE and CHESS BOOK - both by IRVING CHERNEV!

FAMOUS CHESS QUOTE - for OUR PLAYERS!

“Every Chess master was once a beginner” - Irving Chernev

Now for a chess book recommendation - a classic work is Irving Chernev's "LOGICAL CHESS: Move by Move". If you can pick up the algebraic edition as this will be the easiest one to read. This book is tops in my list of all time greats!