We had the privilege of 7 coaches coming to help at various times during the lessons to give as many one to ones as possible. This to accommodate 23 keen and enthusiastic young players who want to learn, improve and enjoy playing chess.
We welcomed newcomers, Victor and Carlo for the 1st time and were pleased to see recent newcomers continuing – namely, Rowley, Eduard and Joshua.
It was also great to see Simon Fox and Corey who came to chess as an 8 year old and is now doing ‘A’ levels.
Tony Sanderson – the puzzle king laid out 8 positions of various levels to test the advanced group that was missing Leo and Harry but Nathaniel solved nearly all and the remaining group did their best to find the answers.
Martin o ‘Neil (guest appearance) came along for the 1st time and went through a game Eric had researched recently showing a Benko gambit opening. (view a YouTube video in our ‘Openings’ page)
This game between two young top talents playing in the Hastings tournament was dynamic and black constantly gave up material to gain positional advantage which ended successfully by mating the white king with just a queen and pawns. (Frederick Waldhausen Gordon (Scottish) vs Maxime Lagard – Hastings masters 2023-24)
Many thanks to another new coach – Andrew Alderton, who went through various techniques with Markas.
Paul continued his opening repertoire with Pavina and Larissa, this week on the English Opening, whilst Lathujan was entertained by Andrew on the dynamics and thrills of the Fried Liver attack. (see our Chess Traps and Gambits page for further details)
Graham sussed out the skills and mindset of the new recruits, both being potentially, good chess players, so hopefully they will continue to join us and learn more.
Looks like this lot are watching a Bournemouth football game!
Ladder latest
With good wins today for Noah, Nathaniel, Harish, Tristan, Yash, Neil, Jiya, and Joshua, the ladder ‘shake up’ now looks like this:-
