Feb 28

Wee reviewed the opening principles and went over the importance of castling.
We studied the Giocco Piano opening
and the Fried Liver opening.

Dennis	619
Theo	587
Faith	548
S.J.	422
Tristan	143
Giani	126
Oscar	123
Kendall	112
James	112
Stefan	108
Oliver	105
Alec	100

Feb 21

We learned a little about checkmate and stalemate
Can you explain what the swallowtail mate is?
SJ and Stefan passed the two rook checkmate test.
We learned you can win with KQ , KR, KBB, KBN
but not with KB KN or KNN

First Name	21-Feb
Dennis	614
Theo	583
Faith	542
S.J.	430
Tristan	122
Stefan	119
Kendall	110
Alec	110
James	110
Giani	105
Oscar	105

New Session Feb 7

Tournament
Tournament tomorrow from 9:00 til 2:00. Everyone guaranteed 5 games. At Zachary Lane Elem. in Plymouth. Cost $20 plus $2 for a one-time membership good thru 12th grade. More info at schoolchess.org or call me with questions.
Lesson
We got off to a fast start!
We have learned how the pieces all move, including castling.
We learned the three opening principles:
1) Control the center
2) Get your knights and bishops into the game
3) Get castled
We got exposed to these principles through the Italian game (Guiocco piano) and the Spanish Opening (Ruy Lopez)
We learned about check and how to get out of check
1) capture
2) block
3) move
Then we played a game or two. Everyone did very well considering most were new to the game.

 I keep ratings for a number of reasons:
1) So everyone tries hard every game
2) So you can see your progress
3) So you can play someone at your level
4) So I can tell when you are ready for tournament competition

Ratings

Dennis	608
Theo	578
Faith	537
S.J.	415
James	121
Kendall	105
Alec	105
Stefan	104
Tristan	101
Giani	100
Oscar	100