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.

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.

Chess on Monday Sept 17 th

This is a famous problem set by Richard Reti. White to move. What is the result? A win for Black or a draw. Let me know on Monday! The The second by Reti is even more fantastic. Just look at this:

Monday 6th August at the Workers club

Here is a position for you to look at (if you have time) for Monday night. Its a typical position where you might have a bit of an advantage but you have to know how to win it! (Because its not easy !) Anyway - what we will do is the boards up with this position on it and see if you can win with Black or defend (and get a draw) if you are White. This is what we went through on Monday - its a 4 part plan which you can do with many endgame positions. Black to move:

Demo Games with chess.com PGN editor

Here's those demo games from the previous two posts with the chess.com editor in case Caissa's Web editor doesn't work for you.

Demo from a few sessions ago

Well it seems a good idea to put in a demo from a few sessions ago, so here it is. Such a fantastic finish ...

Play Online Chess

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1907.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Rotlevi"]
[Black "Akiba Rubinstein"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3 c5 4. c4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. dxc5 Bxc5 7. a3 a6 8. b4
Bd6 9. Bb2 O-O 10. Qd2 {A bit of a poor sqaure for the Queen - it will have to
move when a rook gets to d8} 10... Qe7 11. Bd3 dxc4 12. Bxc4 b5 13. Bd3 Rd8
14. Qe2 Bb7 15. O-O {An absolutely symmetrical position apart from the Rook on
d8} 15... Ne5 16. Nxe5 Bxe5 17. f4 Bc7 18. e4 Rac8 19. e5 Bb6+ 20. Kh1 Ng4!
{Looks like a blunder - but isn't !} 21. Be4 Qh4 22. g3 {opening up the path
to his king ....} 22... Rxc3!! {A really wonderful Queen sacrifice} 23. gxh4
Rd2!! {A fantastic deflection sacrifice.} 24. Qxd2 Bxe4+ 25. Qg2 {Hoping to
resume a favourable battle after Black takes the Q} 25... Rh3 {Another
thunderbolt - there is no way to stop mate. } 0-1

Monday night demo board game

Here is an old game which we can use for chess on Monday (2nd July). Have a look through it and then we can talk about it with the demo board.

Play Online Chess

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1946.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Corte"]
[Black "Bolbochan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 {The classical reply} 4... Nf6 5. d4
exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Nc3 {The Greco line (from about 1500 AD !).The safe line
is to play 7 Bd2} 7... Nxe4 8. O-O Nxc3 {The weaker line for Black. He is
better to play 8... Bxc3 and then White can play 9 d5 which leads to a line
called the Moller attack - which ought to end in a draw.} 9. bxc3 Bxc3 10.
Ba3 {Grabbing the diagonal that stops Black castling.} 10... d5 11. Bb5 Bxa1
12. Re1+ Be6 13. Qa4 Rb8 14. Ne5 Qc8 15. Bxc6+ bxc6 16. Qxc6+ {Black resigned
here - can you see why?} 1-0

Bob

If you cannot see this game in your browser then try Firefox instead or go to http:pgnplayer.com and post the pgn code into the box on right hand side to see and play game. To see PGN if not displayed just click 'view PGN'
Here is the pgn code :
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 {The classical reply} 4... Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Nc3 {The Greco line (from about 1500 AD !).The safe line is to play 7 Bd2} 7... Nxe4 8. O-O Nxc3 {The weaker line for Black. He is better to play 8... Bxc3 and then White can play 9 d5 which leads to a line called the Moller attack - which ought to end in a draw.} 9. bxc3 Bxc3 10. Ba3 {Grabbing the diagonal that stops Black castling.} 10... d5 11. Bb5 Bxa1 12. Re1+ Be6 13. Qa4 Rb8 14. Ne5 Qc8 15. Bxc6+ bxc6 16. Qxc6+ {Black resigned here - can you see why?} 1-0