Sunday 14 October 2012
33rd Northamptonshire Junior Congress
The 33rd Northamptonshire Junior Congress takes place on Saturday 17th November at the Malcolm Arnold Academy (NN2 6JW) just 40 minutes drive from Rugby. Here is an entry form. Instead of putting your school on the form, put "Rugby Junior Chess Club" and lets see if we can turn up in force :).
A rock solid opening for Black
The position below is one of the most common ways of starting for Black and nearly all the time is an absolutely solid opening.
1. The pawn on d6 stops the White pawns overrunning the Black centre.
2. And later Black will put a pawn on e5 to strengthen his centre even more - like this:
and these moves lead to this position for Black:
The important parts of Blacks position are:
1. The pawn on e5 which stops White pushing through the centre and
2. The pawn on c6 which stops White putting a Knight on d5 or b5.
Black can put his Queen on a5 or c7 and also his Rook on e8 to look after the pawn on e5. There is very little for white to attack here.
1. The pawn on d6 stops the White pawns overrunning the Black centre.
2. And later Black will put a pawn on e5 to strengthen his centre even more - like this:
and these moves lead to this position for Black:
The important parts of Blacks position are:
1. The pawn on e5 which stops White pushing through the centre and
2. The pawn on c6 which stops White putting a Knight on d5 or b5.
Black can put his Queen on a5 or c7 and also his Rook on e8 to look after the pawn on e5. There is very little for white to attack here.
Sunday 7 October 2012
A good first match v Northampton !
This afternoon Rugby's juniors had a well contested match against the juniors from Northampton. Each player played two games and it was arranged that everyone played against a different opponent in the two games and also played with White and Black.
The first round was absolutely level ending at 4-4. Shivi Ravi maintained a material and clock advantage to win against Harry Horner and William Kendall stayed clear of Ethan Rowes traps to secure a win. Kai Cockerell, Parth Joshi, Kieren Roberts, Victor Moody were overcome by Elliot Reed, Jay Rihal, Ethan Majers and Bryony Marsh. But the scores were levelled by a good win from Leo Johnson against Aaron Rihal and Jonathan Paynes Queen sacrifice to beat George Horner.
In the second round Northampton overcame Rugby 5.5 to 2.5 and the score looked as though it was going to be worse than that at one stage! The most spectacular game was probably Leo (v Jay) where he found himself a rook down in less than 10 moves! But successfully fought back with a strong attack to level up the material and then took over. Jonathon's game (v Elliott) looked desperate most of the time but he kept hanging on - even with his King at the wrong end of the board - to persuade his opponent to agree a draw! Shivi defended excellently to ward off a very strong attack and then eventually gave checkmate as her opponent was trying hard for checkmate himself. All the other games were lost through one or two hasty moves though Kai, Parth and Kieren had good chances.
Well done Northampton and for Rugby I think it shows how well we have come as a club. We hope to visit Northampton - possibly in January - for a return match.
The first round was absolutely level ending at 4-4. Shivi Ravi maintained a material and clock advantage to win against Harry Horner and William Kendall stayed clear of Ethan Rowes traps to secure a win. Kai Cockerell, Parth Joshi, Kieren Roberts, Victor Moody were overcome by Elliot Reed, Jay Rihal, Ethan Majers and Bryony Marsh. But the scores were levelled by a good win from Leo Johnson against Aaron Rihal and Jonathan Paynes Queen sacrifice to beat George Horner.
In the second round Northampton overcame Rugby 5.5 to 2.5 and the score looked as though it was going to be worse than that at one stage! The most spectacular game was probably Leo (v Jay) where he found himself a rook down in less than 10 moves! But successfully fought back with a strong attack to level up the material and then took over. Jonathon's game (v Elliott) looked desperate most of the time but he kept hanging on - even with his King at the wrong end of the board - to persuade his opponent to agree a draw! Shivi defended excellently to ward off a very strong attack and then eventually gave checkmate as her opponent was trying hard for checkmate himself. All the other games were lost through one or two hasty moves though Kai, Parth and Kieren had good chances.
Well done Northampton and for Rugby I think it shows how well we have come as a club. We hope to visit Northampton - possibly in January - for a return match.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
