28 very enthusiastic potential Kings came to our Coronation chess club this Saturday despite the rainy day and the Coronation taking place in London. Young Marcus lead the way by coming along wearing a Kings crown.
Graham Hillman took the 1st session advanced groups and went through opening gambits both white and black. Eric took the 2nd session advanced group and reviewed a couple of excellent puzzles, one of which was from the Dorset website & another from the Saturday times. We always try to demonstrate pattern recognition with puzzles which occur in nearly all games of chess.
It was great to see our leading local players Zander/Finn/Leo and Harry (I’ve broken my arm) Mercer come along to play and support the sessions. All these juniors play in the adult local leagues and are progressing all the time.
Special thanks to Finn and Leo for staying behind to tutor some of our less experienced players in the 2nd session, this is a welcome addition.
A belated presentation of a silver medal and a certificate to Nathaniel for coming second in our recent Round Robin competition.
Many thanks to our support tutors of Graham Morris, Paul Errington and Graham Hillman for coming along to make all things possible with the current numbers that love playing chess.
Eric Sachs
Gambits
These can be a lot of fun and it’s worth knowing a few for you to gain a quick win now and again. It’s also advantageous to know what to expect if your opponent tries them on you!
As mentioned, Graham Hillman talked about gambits today, one being the BLACKMAR gambit, for anyone interested in learning more about this one, follow this link :-
There are others to view on our ‘CHESS TRAPS AND GAMBIT’ page
Winners and Climbers
Congratulations to our winners today, who were:-
Harry M, Nathaniel, Harish, Finn, Noah, Tristan, Jesse, Marcel, Alfie, Woody, Mayra, Nic and Rafan.
Latest Ladder Positions
Biggest climbers today were Finn and Nathaniel in the 10am starters and Alfie and Mayra in the later session. With this handicap system, it’s a case of playing and winning against somebody with a higher grade than yourself, that way you gain a lot more points. If you lose, you don’t get docked many points.
GRADING LIST
| 2 | FINN | 1000 |
| 3 | LEO | 950 |
| 4 | NATHANIEL | 875 |
| 5 | HARRY M | 850 |
| 6 | TRISTAN | 850 |
| 7 | JESSE | 825 |
| 8 | MARCEL | 800 |
| 9 | JOEY | 800 |
| 10 | NICOLAS | 800 |
| 11 | WOODY | 775 |
| 12 | KANE | 750 |
| 13 | SHOURYA | 750 |
| 14 | HARRY L | 700 |
| 15 | YASH | 700 |
| 16 | BERTIE | 700 |
| 17 | JIYA | 675 |
| 18 | SWARA | 675 |
| 19 | DAISY | 650 |
| 20 | LELAND | 650 |
| 21 | STEPHEN | 650 |
| 22 | ALVIN | 650 |
| 23 | FABRIZIO | 600 |
| 24 | LATHUJAN | 600 |
| 25 | PAVINA | 600 |
| 26 | RAFAN | 600 |
| 27 | NICO | 550 |
| 28 | SHRIYA | 500 |
| 29 | ALFIE | 500 |
| 39 | CARLOS | 500 |
| 30 | LEWIS | 450 |
| 31 | NOAH | 450 |
| 37 | ROBIN | 450 |
| 32 | NIRVAN | 400 |
| 33 | KEHINDE | 400 |
| 40 | HARISH | 400 |
| 34 | MAYRA | 350 |
| 35 | MARCUS | 300 |
| 36 | ELIAS | 300 |
| 38 | RONI | 300 |
Recap on Handicap Ladder rules
Each player will start with 500 points.
A player can challenge any other player present.
All games are played on the clock with a minimum of 10 mins each.
On completion of the game the player’s points are altered according to grade difference from the table below.
The winner is the person with the most points at the end of term in July.
Excessive matches against one person will be rejected and no points given.
Tutors will act as arbiters in any disputes.
All results to be given to Eric or Graham.
Handicap Points Difference
Ahead Win Loss Draw Behind Win Loss Draw
0-49 30 -20 0 0-49 30 -25 0
50-99 25 -25 -5 50-99 35 -20 5
100-149 20 -30 -10 100-149 45 -15 10
150-249 10 -35 -15 150-249 55 -10 15
250+ 5 -40 -20 250+ 70 -5 20