Club Newsletter

ROOKFILE
SECOND QUARTER, 2008

NEWS FROM THE FIRST QUARTER

  1. Our Vice President and program chairman, Ronnie Rutledge, scheduled three special events in the first quarter of 2008. The Crazy-It tournament of January 22 was won by Steve Atkins with a total of 9 points. Dan Pollock was runner up with 8, followed by Richard Bernardo, Keith Bell, Justin Turner, and Steve Coggins with 6, 5, 5, and 3 points respectively.

  2. The February 12 meeting saw the club have a try at Pre-Chess (Fischer Random Chess, actually), a variant of chess in which the respective back rows are populated with the usual pieces but in random positions. The starting position is given below. I think the thing most of us learned is that we are all novices at this sort of game. Everyone enjoyed it and probably Ronnie will probably give us another go at it in the future.

  3. The RATE YOUR CHESS session of March 11 saw Justin Turner post the high score (40 points) followed by Julio Dasilva (36), Spencer Mathews (35), and Chris Lipp (10).  We “partnered” Tal against Szukszeta from Upsala, Sweden, 1956.  Here’s the text of the game we used:

    1.d4,Nf6; 2.c4,g6; 3.Nc3,Bg7; 4.e4,d6; 5.f3,0-0; 6.Be3,e5; 7.Ng2,c6; 8.Qb3,ed (this was the first move on which we “advised” Tal); 9.Nxd4,d5; 10.cd,cd; 11.ed,Nc6!; 12.dc,Re8; 13.Kf2,Rxe3!; 14.Rd1,Ng4ch; 15.fg,Bxd4; 16.Rxd4,Qxd4; 17.Qd5,Re2 dbl ch; 18.Kxe2,Bxg4ch; 19.Ke1,Re8ch; 20.Be2,Rxe2ch. 0-1.   (Some player, that Tal, eh?  Good thing he had us around to advise him. 

PUZZLES:

Solutions to the puzzles from the first quarter newsletter:

  1. 1.Kxc5,dc (the only legal move); 2.Nxe4,c3 (again, the only legal move); 3.Nxc3 mate.

  2. This puzzle underscores the ability of Bishops to ‘waste’ a tempo without losing control of critical squares or diagonals. White’s best choice is 1.Be2. Everything hinges on White’s being able to win the a7 pawn. He would like to play (in some order) Kb7 followed by Kxa7 and then move the King aside to promote his advanced a-pawn. Regrettably, an immediate Kb7 allows 1. …, b5! And the a7 pawn can never be taken. Sooo, after 1. Be2, Black can’t play …,b5 because of 2. Kxc5, after which White can win the a7 pawn. If Black plays 1. …, Ka5; then White has 2. Bf1! This problem came from Evans’ book CHESS ENDGAME QUIZ. Evans gives two interesting lines that don’t work (one for Black and the other for White):

      1. 1. …,Ka3; 2. Bb5,Kxa2; 3.Kb7,Kb3; 4. Kxa7,Kb4; 5.Kb7,Kxb5; 6. a7 and promotes

      2. After 1. …,Ka5; 2. Bb5 (instead of Bf1),Ba3!; 3.Kb7,Kxb5; 4.Kxa7,Bd6!; 5. Kb7,Bb8!; 6. a4ch,Ka5!; 7. Kxb8,Kxa6 and draws.

Thanks to Steve Atkins for the next three puzzles. Enjoy. Send us some more, Steve. Other members should kick in some of their favorites as well.

C. White to move and mate in two.



D. White to move and mate in two.


E. White to move and mate in two.

 

web design: the waddling tuxedo