LESSON PLANS

Some students and parents may wonder what material I’m going cover in this 10 – week course so I thought I’d lay out my schedule.

Since the class is long, we have time for a second lesson each day. The pattern will be:

Tactics Lesson, Worksheet or drill, game time, Strategy Lesson

1. Jan 7 –

Choices – a look at all the pieces and where they are best placed

Development – giving your pieces more choices

2. Jan 14 –

Knight - alternating square concept, fork patterns

KQ mate – technique and drill

3. Jan 21 –

Fork – looking for patterns. FUNSHEET

Castling – Rules and reasons for. When you should when you shouldn’t

Jan 28 –No School

4. Feb 4 – Hurdle/skewer – patterns FUNSHEET

Pawn Structure – the highway system

5. Feb 11 -

Pin – how to pin, how to use pins, FUNSHEET

KR mate – technique and drill

6. Feb 18 –

TEST – Recap and assessment of first five lessons

More on Development – How it plays out in the opening, midgame, and endgame

7. Feb 25 –

Undermining - FUNSHEET

Combos – Combining tactical tricks

Mar 4 - No school

8. Mar 11 –

Discovered Attacks – the most powerful tactic of all. FUNSHEET

Fool’s Mate and variations – the f-pawn

9. Mar 18 –

Overload – detecting when a piece is overloaded and exploiting it. FUNSHEET

Scholar’s Mate and variations

10. Mar 25 –

Opposition – End Game drill and practice

Simplicfication – using what you just learned to turn a difficult game into an easy win.