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Little Heath, Brookmans Park and
Potters Bar Chess Club
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Chess Week 2004 Round Up Firstly, thank you to everyone who helped out at any time during the week but especially to Shirley and Charles Rabley who attended every day. Chess Week had three main purposes this year.
We have purchased fifteen brand new sets and boards together with books. These will be offered as packs to local hospitals and target primary schools that do not currently have a chess presence. The books have been chosen as being suitable for self-starters as we appreciate that small schools usually do not have the resources to teach chess. Donating sets to hospitals will hopefully help to improve the stay for their young patients who might leave with an interest in the game. Further gifts are likely to be made once we gauge the success of this project.
My Chess Week Diary During the week, I relaxed in the evening by watching 'Citizen Smith' on DVD. Monday: The weekend was spent mainly in final preparation and bringing all the equipment together. My expectations are for an average for 20 attendees each day with around 40 players for the UK Chess Challenge on Friday. All events are taking place at Little Heath so I only have a few minutes travelling but there is still quite a bit to transport and I need to arrive by 09:30 for a 10:00 start. It seems absolutely natural to start the week with a day for beginners. The disadvantage is that I won't know most of the participants and some may not be absolute beginners. Last year we had a small turnout for the Monday which surprised me as I would expect lots of juniors to want to learn. We nearly always find that juniors that know how to play have to be taught how to play properly. I have no problem with this as I was in the same position when I was 10. My father and uncle taught me how to play but it wasn't until I was thirteen or so that my mate Michael taught me how to play properly. Yvette and Luc started off without this false start. I enjoy teaching new players and am pleased when thirteen turn up. We have an adult session tomorrow so this will be as mini rehearsal, albeit using simpler explanations. The day goes well. We take regular breaks and switched off from chess. Back home for a couple of hours and then off to Hemel Hempstead for a second team match. We had a disappointing start to the season with a ridiculous defeat against Hemel at home. We actually won the match by 3-2 with my game being the last to finish (I had 43 seconds left on my clock!). However, technically one of our players wasn't nominated and the result of his game was reversed. I couldn't persuade the powers that be to acknowledge that it was a slip up on my part. I had e-mails that proved my intention to nominate but there was no appeal process. Grrrrr. We then lost two matches over the board. We then defeated Stevenage and Watford. I have a good team available tonight including a new player Marc who has a reasonable rating on ICC. The venue is a little tricky to find and as I park I see Steve looking lost. We pop in to the supermarket as I need water. I drink copious amounts during a game which unfortunately mean several trips to the loo as well. We find that Hemel have to default a board. I am prepared to give up my game but Steve is happy to stand down instead. As captain, I always feel that I should sacrifice myself. Clearly it wouldn't be right for Marc not to play and our youngest player, Daniel, must play. I didn't see much of the other games but noticed Daniel was in a bit of trouble - the exchange down, a disjointed pawn structure and he exchanged Queens while I was watching. I don't worry about Daniel's positions as he usually knows what he is doing! He has a refreshing approach to the game that I feel is ideal at our level. Tonight however, he lost but I am sure the experience will be invaluable. Marc secured a draw although he told me that he had a terrible position from the opening. Scores level. Dick is a pawn down so the best we are likely to have there is a draw. That means I must win. The bad news is that I am very short of time and the position isn't easy. Fortunately, my opponent uses up a lot of his time and starts to fall apart. I am required to checkmate him though and do so with a minute or so left. Dick's game was drawn so the final result is 3 - 2. I just popped over to look at the excellent Hemel Hempstead website run by John Sharp. I haven't met John although we've communicated by e-mail. There isn't a report yet about this match but I found this for the earlier match against the same opponent. 'So honours were still even and attention turned to Andy on board one, the remaining game. Andy employed the Italian game and was defending a tense position in the middle game when he left a bishop en prise which was gratefully accepted. Andy's opponent was way behind on the clock and in time trouble though so Andy persevered. The two then engaged in a cagey rook and pawn end game, Andy still a bishop down. With a minute or two left on the clock, Andy's opponent then switched to blitz chess mode, promoted a pawn and delivered a checkmate a few moves later. A tense finish and a close defeat'. Most games that I play are fairly relaxed affairs but these two games had my heart beating as if I was out running. I decide to relate this experience to my adult audience tomorrow evening. It's back off down the M1 home with the adrenaline still flowing. My usual routine is to complete the result on the PC and send it to John Leake and then enter the game on to Hiarcs (of course!) and let it analyse for me. Tuesday: I'm expecting a bigger crowd today and we have 25. This year we have the same room every day and there is enough space. Anyone who attended yesterday would be fine today. We have some of our regular club members and all goes well. I'm not sure what to expect this evening. This is the first time I've deliberately sought out adult beginners. I'm assisted by Yvette. Five of the Mums come along together with one lady who saw the note on the Brookmans Park website. Two men also join us. Sally is the new chairman of the HSCA (Herts Schools Chess Association) and although her two sons play for the county and are club members, she doesn't know too much about the game and feels she ought to learn! Sam is one of our enthusiastic mums from the Brookmans Park part of the club and she brings two other mums. My aim is to provide enough information for my audience to be able to play a game and know enough to progress quickly. My approach is to build up an understanding of the power of the pieces so that the general opening principles make sense. We look at some basic checkmates and learn about chess etiquette. It seems to be successful. Wednesday: I enjoy working with both beginners and advanced players and today we should have some of the Herts juniors. When I first became involved with the county scene through Yvette, the standard of play was fairly poor. Games were finishing in no time at all and the level of technique was variable. There were some good individual players but a lot to do. We have a good team now at the HSCA. I have always enjoyed teaching and have been mistaken for a teacher from time to time. I think that I have the patience required to work with most people and I know which juniors to stretch. I do despair though that kids today are so untidy. We have a tuck shop at the club and invariably there are wrappers left on the tables and the floor and even sweets. Most of the youngsters will help out if you ask them but some need a bit of persuading. We have some very promising players in Hertfordshire but a team is built around twelve or twenty players so a win on the bottom board is just as important as a win on the top board. By raising the general standard of our youngsters we give ourselves a good chance of success. Certainly we have surprised Richmond and Wey Valley in the last couple of years. Naturally, it helps if you have strong players at the top! Some of the young players have tremendous potential and I expect them to be much stronger than me before long. Still, with the computer software available from ChessBase and Convekta together with DVD material we can provide them with plenty of challenges. There are some strong players who could work with them in smaller groups. The club is seen by some Herts parents as a centre of excellence and so we can field a team in the Herts League that is almost entirely Herts juniors. Yvette leads this team although she can play in the second team and even played one match this season in the heady heights of Division 4. I think that Little Heath and Brookmans Park breaks new ground in adult chess by having a female team captain and such young players. The average age for the team in one match was just over 11. In another match Catherine at 17 brought the average age rocketing to something like 12! We have a match this evening - more later. I consider that the County players should be able to follow quite advanced concepts and be capable of reading positions on the board and analyse reasonably well. My favourite method of teaching is to take positions from software such as 'Deadly Threats' by George Renko (ChessBase) and then work with my audience to solve the problem. I don't look at the puzzles in advance. I'm not interested in being told the answer straightaway but rather give me three or more characteristics of the position. In truth, most positions are very rich. I will point out particular features such as pawn structure, King safety, tactic threats, strategic considerations etc. I encourage positive thinking so if someone says 'Is it....?' I will challenge them to stake their pocket money for a year! Instead I want to hear 'It is....' as this shows some concrete thought has taken place. Of course, we are in an artificial environment because we know something will happen so I remind them that they have to think for themselves in a game. We had nineteen attendees today and I was helped this morning by Alistair Hunter. Alistair brought his son and daughter along last year and it quickly became apparent that he was a strong player. I suggested that Mark Topham approach him with a view to playing in the First team this season. Alistair is our current Board 1 and a very welcome addition to the club. He is working with the girls at a local private school in his spare time. One of my roles in the Herts set up is looking after girls chess. This is our weakness at present. Previously we had Yvette, Emma, Drew, Michaela and Celia with Catherine for older age group matches. Celia dropped chess, Drew and Michaela have disappeared and Emma is in semi-retirement! Yvette sometimes needs encouragement but I think she enjoys the attention. We now have a younger group coming through that might just form a team. Sophie has been with the club almost since Day One (in September 1999) and is beginning to fulfil her promise. Sophie has a lovely personality and is clearly very bright but she needs to work on her chess vision. I was pleased to see a good turnout of girls during the week. I met Rebecca for the first time and she shows some promise. Our younger ones will be fine if they stick with chess. Little Lucy is a good problem solver and her Mum told me that she is a good mathematician. I have high hopes for Radha as well. She hasn't been playing for long but she did well in her first tournament a few months ago. Adrienne will do well and there are three or four more around the county. Chess is dominated by boys so it is good that the UK Chess Challenge gives girls special opportunities. Yvette and Emma have shown that they can mix it with the best boys in the County and the current crop of Herts girls have great role models! The Third team have a home match tonight. Unfortunately, half term has taken a couple of our regular players away. Nishil is out with his parents and Catherine has gone off to Nottingham University for the day. Daniel played on Monday so he is due a rest although he loves playing. Michael returned from Berlin this morning after playing for the Mini-Squad. He will take Board 1. Yvette will be on Board 2. Board 3 is a problem as Marc isn't sure whether he will be available. Ted (Michael's Dad) can play but in the end Mod Heylen comes along. Mod is the oldest member of the club and has played a few matches now. We are giving debuts to two juniors tonight. Cameron is a good solid County player who has quite a bit of a experience now. He has a fierce rivalry with younger brother Edward and on one occasion played each other in a decisive match that Edward won (and made sure Cameron knew about it!). I think Cameron went off to Sally and Edward went to Peter. However, this will be a good test for him. Mark Topham captains the First team and asked if Kaz could play a match or two. I nominated Kaz at the beginning of the season with the intention of playing him and tonight is ideal. Kaz and Luc are two of our young hopefuls. Kaz has an edge over Luc but they should enjoy some close games. There are no quick wins for Hertford tonight. Cameron plays a good game and sacrifices for an attack. It demonstrates his maturity that he prepared to do so. However, it isn't quite as strong as he thinks. Kaz is level for quite some time but loses a Rook for nothing. He battles on right to the end but the result is inevitable. He is upset but he has done well. Mod is in trouble and loses. Michael wins nicely leaving Yvette's game. There are two bishops each and some pawns on the king side with Yvette one pawn down. It looks as if she has a draw but loses a bishop and her opponent promotes a pawn. So the Thirds lose again but with honour. Next season will be quite different as they build up their experience. I have heard that other clubs are following our policy with interest. I am hoping to run a fourth team for parents next year. Back home to do the admin. Thursday: Today is devoted to practice and puzzles and is suitable for everyone. I take them through two of my games to explain my thought processes. I explain that we could look at grandmaster games but they are too perfect. I start with Monday's game. I made a mistake by fianchettoing my Queen's Bishop when I should've fianchettoed my King's Bishop. We look at the play my opponent had on the Queenside (lots of pawn moves, how I exploited the weaknesses these created for my Knight. I built up a big attack on the castled King. Later on I showed a game that has been published that I played at Birmingham. I didn't tell them about the little bit of psychology that I employed. I don't want them getting ideas.... It was a fairly short game but demonstrated how to take advantage of the King being stuck in the middle and how to exchange off pieces. My last bit if teaching is in the evening. I don't know how many adults will come. I had a call from a husband and wife who seemed very interested. When I arrive Stephen Sharland is already there. Stephen works at Lochinver school (a local prep school) and promotes the club. They won an award from the UK Chess Challenge people for entering something like 150 players in the tournament one year. Very impressive. Stephen calls me from time to time to see how his boys are coming along. My first surprise comes when I saw that Daniel's Dad has come along. I've had several chats with Philip and he appeared very knowledgeable about Daniel's play so I was concerned that this would all be too easy for him. Philip and Louise spend a good deal of time supporting Daniel in his chess - not least bringing him over to our home and away matches. The group was completed by two of the men who came on Tuesday and the husband and wife. A very pleasant group. I reviewed some of the material from Tuesday and then we looked at some mates in one and some harder stalemates. I extended a welcome to them to come along to a club evening. When I set up Little Heath Chess Club, it was my intention that it would not just be a place to play but somewhere to improve one's game and even learn. The old Potters Bar club (and many others) were fine for people who knew how to play and were happy to improve by themselves. On the rare evening when there isn't a home match, I show a video or DVD for 30 or 45 minutes. Friday: I enjoy running tournaments. We use Swiss Perfect for almost every tournament as once it is set up it runs beautifully. There is no chance of pairing players together twice and the algorithm that the computer uses invariably delivers fair pairings. It is hard for anyone to argue with it! In the old days, pairing could take ages but now we can keep things flowing easily. The UK Chess Challenge uses a different scoring system as players score a point for a defeat, two points for a draw and three for a win. You can set up Swiss Perfect but I thought we'd dust off the pairing boards and revert to the old system as it would be good practice for Yvette. We were due to start the tournament at 11:00 which would give some time for registration and a quick coaching session to warm up the players. We took the players names, date of birth and school year as a check that they were in the correct age group. We had some early qualifiers for the Megafinal, mainly for girls. We were a little late starting so we had to vary the time for the rounds. Parents like to know that tournaments start and finish on time. We usually make up any time quite easily and often finish a little early. I expected 40 players and had 37 entries. Two players were unwell so I was quite close. Several players who would normally take part were away for half-term and many juniors would play in the same competition at school. Our control team was Johnson, a teacher from Aston St Mary's, who has been a great help in co-ordinating the juniors at the school. Unfortunately, he will be returning to Canada soon but I hope he finds someone else to continue his great work. Radha's Mum helped Yvette with the pairings and Sally oversaw the badges, spots, mascots etc as well as helping in the tuck shop. As always, there are disputes over touch and move. These are so hard to resolve. I had one difficult decision to make but the players agreed a draw. Luc had a very good tournament and qualified before the last round. His reward was a game against Daniel. A list of all the qualifiers can be found on the site. We finished before 4 o'clock - the end of a successful week. Well not quite. We cleared away the tables, swept up and packed the car. My intention had been to use some of the proceeds from the week to buy some sets and books and offer them to local schools and hospitals. It's not possible for us to support schools with chess tuition although we'd be very happy to train up teachers. I decided to call Tournament Chess Supplies and see if I could sort out the goodies straightaway. I popped down to see Barbara and explained what I had in mind. The easy bit was deciding on the numbers of sets and boards (15). Whilst there a wealth of chess books available for existing players, books for beginners are few and far between. I reckoned that we would need books that would be suitable for self-starters. Probably the most popular book for juniors is the excellent 'How to Beat Your Dad at Chess' by Murray Chandler. I usually hear the comment 'but I can already beat my Dad at chess!'. The problem is that this is not a book for a rank beginner. One choice was 'Chess' by Daniel King. Daniel King is a superb communicator but I felt that this book was very thin for the price. It odes, however, look at chess more widely than just the moves. Another choice is the 'Disney Chess Guide' by Anatoly Karpov. Luc had a copy but I don't think he looked at it. In the end I bought some copies of both books plus a couple of other titles plus a few 'Dads' and the follow up 'Chess Tactics for Kids'. I will ask the recipients how well the books were received by their pupils. Perhaps I am missing something but I'm sure there is a big opportunity for someone! So that was my Chess Week for this year. It's back to work on Monday. I am sure that everyone who took part is a better player than at the beginning of the week and that we will welcome some new members to the club and that we will indirectly encourage other juniors to take up the game.
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