Paulsen - Morphy

Four knights opening. Usually creates a slow, closed game. Not here, however!
We talk many times about the dangers of bringing out a Queen too early, but there are times when a centrally placed Queen, WELL PROTECTED of course, can devastate. On move 12, Morphy sticks his Queen right in Paulsen's face, where it bottles up White and is the deciding factor in the game. Morphy breaks a couple rules in this game. Rules such as Don't Bring the Queen out Early. Such as "pawns capture towards the middle." And of course the Queen sacrifice (avoiding the trade) was astonishing.

This game brings up many interesting points.
- In the beginning, Be careful of the center fork trick, which many intermediate players fall for (and I will fall for as soon as I am an intermediate player). Meaning, that for white, 4. Bc4 might be a mistake because after 4... Nxe4 5. Nxe4 d5 6. Bxd5 Qxd5, then black has a stronger center, and more mobility. Work it out on the board below. Hit the play button through black's third move, then move the pieces on your own. R to reset when you're done. White instead moves Bb5, setting up the Knight pin.
- After move 14 look at the comparative position. With 15. Qxa4, white has a little mobility, but look at his c1 bishop! Look at pawn structure too, count the "islands."
- Morphy took 12 minutes before making the move of the game.... 17. ... Qxf3! dramatically sacificing his Queen, but ONLY after he made sure he won with every possible response by White.
- White resigned after 28... Be3, see if you can figure out why he cant just take that Bishop... notice his poor c1 Bishop, stuck at home the entire game... :(

Confident Tillson Takes Reagan

Chris begins match against Sam

Congratulations again to the Knights of Lake Denoon Chess Team, who scored 21.5 points out of a possible 24 to take First Place Team Trophy in the K-6 tournament at Ronald Reagan school Saturday in New Berlin.

With the 8th highest USCF rating in the K-6 field, rapidly-improving Chris Tillson took home the FIRST PLACE individual trophy, winning all 6 of his games including a huge upset against a 1301-rated player from Ronald Reagan. 2nd-seeded Evan took second on tie-breakers, also winning all 6 of his games including an upset against a powerful 1616-rated player from Bay Lane. Reid took 7th by winning 4.5.

Rachel at 4-1, and proud Dad, Dan

A big congratulations to Rachel Gomoll who had a great tournament and JUST MISSED a trophy, taking 11th place out of more than 60 kids, going 4-2! Jason, Brian, Josh also went 4-2, and Brady rounded out the team with a solid 3-3 showing.

Nearing the end of a successful season

One more tournament to go in the regular school season- Mill Valley on May 9!!! Then there is the Junior Open in July.

Knight Outpost Lesson

The game below, from Moscow in 1945, shows the devastating effects of a Knight OUTPOST. An knight outpost is a knight that is ANCHORED with a protecting pawn, and is also not able to be attacked by an enemy pawn. Ideally it also cannot be easily attacked by an enemy knight or bishop. This game shows a great knight outpost, established on move 17, and is the subject of today's classroom demonstration. Note: why doesn't black's queen attack that seemingly "free" pawn on move 18? Work it out with a variation by moving the pieces on your own.

Tillson Rocks Kalahari!!!

Congratulations to Chris Tillson who went 4-1 and took 2nd place at the Kalahari this weekend, in the U900 division at the State WSCF championship! Chris also won a $100 scholarship!
Kolt Otterbacher also competed and finished 11th. Everyone had a blast, I hear! Seghers were stuck down in overcrowded Spring-breaky Florida. Way to go Knights, thanks for holding down the fort for the team!

Chess Class, Remaining Tournaments

Thu Apr 23, there WILL BE CHESS CLASS, at 3PM in room 419 as usual. Topic will be thinking through positions, and Knight Outposts.

UPCOMING EVENTS!!! Important one this weekend, please RSVP!
April 25 - Ronald Reagan tournament - New Berlin - This tournament is held by the WSCA, and information will be available ASAP. CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION!!! This is a WSCA sponsored event. We will attend this tournament if we can get a full team.

May 9 - Future Stars of Chess - Muskego Mill Valley - Mr. Reese is holding his annual Mill Valley tournament. Lots of fun, lots of trophies. Let's bring him some great participation! Click here for details. This is anothe WSCA sponsored event.

SuperNationals... Super!

As the week goes on, I will post more about the SuperNationals, including some pictures. Very tired tonight, as we started driving at 430AM out of Nashville this morning!
Suffice it to say, three of our players' ratings went up, one went down. Three of their four blitz ratings also went up. This is the true measure of any successful tournament, I think. So much has to do with the luck of the draw... Three of our players had shots at a trophy, but couldn't pull it off at the end. Details to come.

Overall,... Some good, some challenging. All memorable.
We won the 8th place team trophy for K-6 Blitz, that was fun! Of course I'm always seeing the glass half-empty- we were so close to fourth! But the trophy is big and will look good in the trophy case, and blitz was fun! All the boys had great games, brought back some nice wins, some challenging defeats, some notation, some t-shirts, hats, chess clocks, etc. Looking back already I realize it was a wonderful memory. Chris, Kolt, Evan and Reid had a blast.
The Gaylord was fantastic!! What an amazing hotel. While the food was pricey and they kept closing the pool (some kid yakked, then there was lightning nearby), and they pushed us all into their labyrinthine tunnel system below the hotel when there were tornado warnings... but everyone had a blast despite (and even somehow BECAUSE of) this stuff!
Reid had a player taunt him continuously during his third round, and I got into a strange discussion with his father after the game. The TD warned the man that if his kid did it one more time he would be disqualified. The man stormed off, oblivious to all but his demanding but paper-thin justification for his son's horrible sportsmanship. Reid was distracted and I think he had a hard time shaking this off. I can't blame him... I did too.
Congratulation to Bay Laner Gregory Reese Jr. who won 14th in the K-5 Championship division! Great job Greg! Congratulations also to Wisconsinite Brennan Harden who won 1st place in K-3 under 1000!

Nationals Update- after two rounds...

Round 1
Tillson W vs. 568 from NY - win. 1-0
Evan W vs. 1241 NY - win. 1-0
Reid W vs. 961 VA- loss. 0-1
Kolt B vs. 419 MD - win. 1-0
A good start to the tournament! Only loss was Reid who played slowly but did not think through one move and blundered a Knight. Everyone agrees that players all seem underrated. In Reids game notation review his opponent did not play like a 900.

Round 2
Evan B. vs. 1605. TX. draw 1.5-.5
Reid. B vs. 883. KY- win. 1-1
Kolt W vs. 468. NY- loss 1-1
Chris. B vs. 689. TN. draw 1.5-.5
Tough loss for Kolton against a kid much tougher than his rating. Reid came back with a solid win against a kid who started strong but then began to blunder his pieces. Chris got a draw. Evan also drew against a 1605, getting to a position where neither player could break a locked pawn position. Ok start for us... Could have been better but tomorrow is another day. Generally the whole team is playing too fast...

An early morning tomorrow!!!