Happy Birthday to Dee
At the beginning of half term we had 22 juniors that came along to learn, enjoy and play chess.
The groups as usual are allocated into the 3 sections of advanced/intermediate and beginners.
We welcomed back Kacper/Eduard/Aman and Rowley who have recently joined the classes. In addition, we had the continual presence of several juniors that have been with us for many years through covid, attending the Elstead Hotel sessions for 3 years and now back at the library.
Well done all and this makes myself and the support team happy and the effort extremely worthwhile.
In the 1st advanced session Tony Sanderson set up different levels of puzzles between 1 ply and 4 ply over 8 positions to show and test the class how to find winning moves during actual games and finish off. All juniors did really well especially let who solved the 4 ply puzzles with ease. (ply = number of moves in advance for both white and black without moving the pieces on the board).
Eric took the 2nd advanced class through the puzzles and all did well up to ply 3 level which are very difficult and many experienced club level players might find these hard.
I noticed 10 of our players at the club have entered the Dorset junior championships at the time of writing so best of luck to all and I am sure they will do well and have a good day. Last year our club had 4 winners from the 7 age groups (Zander/Leo/Nathaniel and Rafan) – a big target for this year.
I would encourage those with the Bournemouth junior chess t shirt to wear them on the day.
Graham/Paul/Azhar/ Steve helped with the beginners and intermediates, topics included Notation which is really important for the analysis of the game played. We have a page dedicated on our website to explain this system.
Eric Sachs
Latest Ladder Positions
All ladder board games were played on a 15 minute time control with notation used in all cases. The purpose of notation is to slow the players down and to maximise the use of the time control. This worked very successfully and there were some excellent games played.
I was especially impressed with the game between Larissa and Pavina – both intermediates. It was thoughtful after a steady and accurate opening and a middle game where both had good chances. Larissa lost on time but played well and congrats to Pavina for winning.
Many other ladder board games were competitive and reached a climax nearing the end of the time control.
Wins today for Tristan, Leo, Harish, Pavina, Joey, Yash, Neil, Eduard, Rowley and Kacper.
