Check mate for Chil dren

Kevin Stark Check mate for Chil dren Mas ter ing the Most Im por tant Skill in Chess New In Chess 2010

Contents Necessary Conditions...7 Introduction....8 Chess No ta tion this is where it all starts!...9 Files, Ranks and Di ag o nals...12 Part I Typ i cal Mat ing Pat terns with One Piece...15 Mate with the Rook...16 Quiz 1: Mate with the Rook...18 So lu tions to Mate with the Rook...20 Stale mate...21 Mate with Two Rooks....22 Quiz 2: Mate with Two Rooks...23 So lu tions to Mate with Two Rooks...25 Mate with the Queen...27 Quiz 3: Mate with the Queen...28 So lu tions to Mate with the Queen...30 Mate with the Bishop...32 Mate with Two Bish ops...33 Quiz 4: Mate with One or Two Bish ops...34 So lu tions to Mate with One or Two Bish ops...36 Double Check....38 Quiz 5: Dou ble Check Wins at Once!...39 So lu tions to Dou ble Check Wins at Once!....40 Mate with One or Two Knights....41 Quiz 6: Mate with One or Two Knights...42 So lu tions to Mate with One or Two Knights...44 Mate with (a) Pawn(s)...46 Quiz 7: Mate with (a) Pawn(s)...47 So lu tions to Mate with (a) Pawn(s)...48 Ex er cise Plac ing the king to give mate...49 Part II Mat ing Pat terns with Sev eral Pieces and/or in More than One Move...51 Mate with Rook + Knight....52 Quiz 8: Mate with Rook + Knight...54 So lu tions to Mate with Rook + Knight...56 The Pin...58 5

Check mate for Chil dren Quiz 9: The Pin...59 So lu tions to The Pin...60 Capturing en passant... 60 Mate with Rook + Bishop....61 Quiz 10: Mate with Rook + Bishop...62 So lu tions to Mate with Rook + Bishop...64 Pieces?...66 Mate with Queen + Rook....67 Quiz 11: Mate with Queen + Rook...68 So lu tions to Mate with Queen + Rook...70 Mate with Queen against Rook...72 Mate with Queen + Bishop...73 Quiz 12: Mate with Queen + Bishop...75 So lu tions to Mate with Queen + Bishop...77 Mate with Queen + Knight...79 Quiz 13: Mate with Queen + Knight...80 So lu tions to Mate with Queen + Knight...82 Decoy, Deflection, Diversion... 83 Mate with Bishop + Knight...84 Quiz 14: Mate with Bishop + Knight...85 So lu tions to Mate with Bishop + Knight....87 Part III More Exercises, Practical Advice and Other Possibilities.... 89 Mate with Miscellaneous Pieces...90 Look at the En tire Board!...94 Ev ery Move Has Sense!...95 Zugzwang...97 How to Crack (Too) Dif fi cult Ex er cises The 3-Cir cle Train ing...98 So lu tions to The 3-Cir cle Train ing...102 Take a Look from the Other Side....105 Part IV The Great Test...115 So lu tions to The Great Test...126 Ad di tional Ma te rial and Tools...139 Glos sary of Terms....141 6

Necessary Conditions This is a chess book for pure be gin ners, who have only just learned the moves, and hardly have any prac ti cal knowl edge. The only thing that is re quired is a solid knowl - edge of the move ments of the pieces, and of the basic rules. A knowl edge of the el - e men tary endgames King + Rook ver sus King, and King + Queen ver sus King, is help ful when you start with this book, but not ab so lutely nec es sary. It is, how ever, nec es sary be fore you start, to learn the chess no ta tion, as well as a few spe cial con cepts like rank, file and di ag o nal. This knowl edge will be pro vided in the first chap ter. In fact, many chil dren will prob a bly not re ally like this part, but it is highly im por tant for all forms of reg u lar train ing. Be sides, only with knowl edge of the no ta tion will you be able to use chess books of all kinds! This book is use ful for chess be gin ners of all age cat e go ries, al though, of course, very young chess friends will re quire the help and sup port of their par ents, their brother or sis ter or, for ex am ple, a trainer. A chessboard with chess pieces should be close at hand, so that the user can set up po si tions from the book on the board and have a closer look at them. Adult read ers will be able to solve most of the ex er cises from the di a grams, but with dif fi cult po si - tions, which will come soon af ter the sim ple ba sics, look ing at them on a chess board will be closer to prac tice as well as help ful and de sir able. It is not ad vis able to study the ma jor ity of po si tions in the book with a com puter. Of course, you can now and then en ter a po si ti o n into a chess pro gram and ana lyse it with the help of the com puter. But noth ing can re place the act of sim ply look ing at the chess board. This con trib utes strongly to the de vel op ment of a sub con scious feel for the po si ti o n and for the game. This es pe cially holds true for nov ice chil dren. Even if you al ready have some knowl edge of the game, you should work through this book from be gin ning to end. Sys tem atic train ing is im por tant, and a pos si ble rep e ti tion or re fresh ment of cer tain pieces of knowl edge al ready pres ent, has never done any body any harm! This ap plies es pe cially to adult be gin ners, who of ten want to make rapid prog ress and in so do ing miss sev eral im por tant ba sic con cepts. This is only hu man and un der stand able, but it of ten leads to an noy ing prob lems at a later stage. If you fol low these sug ges tions, you will rap idly learn a lot about tac tics, and you will soon be able to ap ply this knowl edge in your games. 7

Check mate for Chil dren Introduction Ac cord ing to the ba sic rules, tac tics are the most im por tant and most fun da men tal el - e ment in chess. You have to know the prop er ties of the in di vid ual pieces, and the way they co op er ate, if you want to win a chess game. Tac tics oc cur in all phases of a chess game, from the first ope ning moves to the end game. In this book we start with a sys tem atic train ing in tac tics for be gin ners, who do not have any prior knowl edge what so ever. Most of these will be chil dren or teen ag - ers, but this book can be used by be gin ners of all age cat e go ries. First, we will have a look at the so-called chess no ta tion, the method for re cord ing chess moves and chess games. This is indispensible knowl edge for work ing fur ther with this and in fact any other chess book. A pu pil should have a solid com mand of the chess no ta - tion. This will also help him to have a better view of the chess board, and prac tice shows that a good learn ing of the no ta tion at an early stage also helps you to play better and more suc cess fully later on. We will look piece by piece how each in di vid ual piece can give mate to the op po - nent s king. True, a be gin ner will mostly lose at an early stage in the game, when mate is still far off, but to give mate is the goal of ev ery chess game, and we must first of all get to know that goal a lit tle better. How can we ever ex pect to win a chess game, if we don t know which po si ti o n we should strive for as our goal? More over, the mat ing ex er cises will sharpen your eye for the way the in di vid ual pieces op er ate, and for their pos si bil i ties. By and by, cer tain im por tant con cepts will also be ex plained, en - abling the pu pil to widen his knowl edge while he is play ing. Next, af ter the el e men tary mat ing po si tions, we will learn how to pro duce a mate in 2 or 3 moves and with more than one piece in other words, here we al ready learn to cre ate cer tain small com bi na tions on the chess board. This train ing method was de - vel oped in the So viet chess school dur ing the 1920s, and it is still suc cess fully ap plied to day. This sys tem atic make-up en sures that all im por tant po si tions, the so-called mo - tifs or mat ing pat tern, can be rec og nized and ap plied by the pu pil. There fore it is im - por tant to work through the book from be gin ning to end and not jump from one sub ject to an other, for this might be at the ex pense of cer tain im por tant knowl edge. We start ev ery chap ter with a gen eral in tro duc tion, then we show fur ther ex am - ples and deepen the ac quired in for ma tion by means of a small quiz. Learn ing is more im por tant than solv ing, but you should re-read the chap ter if there are many ex er - cises you have not solved, or if you have made too many mis takes in your so lu tions. If your re sults don t im prove, you should con sider ex tra train ing with the learn - ing ma te rial we rec om mend on page 139. Very young chil dren may not yet be ready for sys tem atic chess train ing, or they may be un able to sum mon the mo ti va tion for it at a given mo ment. In such cases it is best to sim ply wait a while and then try again. Some times just a few weeks or months can work mir a cles for chil dren! I wish you a lot of fun with this tac tics train ing. Kevin Stark 8

Check mate for Chil dren Mate with Two Rooks In the end game, we can make mate with two rooks easy for our selves: we sim ply put one of them some where on the board where it is not in the way, and give mate with the other. But that would be just like foot ball, when a smug striker coolly drib bles in the en emy goal with the ball to his feet. As we will see, al ready in the middle game there are chances to give mate with two rooks. The prin ci ple is sim ple, as we can see in D1: One rook closes off the pen ul ti mate (i.e. sev enth or sec ond) rank, the other gives mate on the back rank with 1.Õa6-a8#. Of course this does not only work on hor i zon tal lines (ranks), but also on ver ti cal ones (files) (D2), here with 1.Õf6-h6#. Do not get con fused: the move with the other rook, 1.Õg4-h4+, al lows Black to es cape for the mo ment. Un like with the mat ing pat terns with one rook, where the en emy king must al ways be on the edge of the board, here we can even give mate in the mid dle of the board (D3). The king, stand ing in op po si tion, blocks the es - cape for ward. One rook pre vents the black king s re treat, and the other gives mate. If the en emy king is caught in the cor ner as in D4, we can win with two rooks on the 7th rank. 1.Õc7-h7# wins the Õa7 pro tects its col league. Things get a lit tle more com pli cated if the king still has an es cape square (D5). But this will be of no use to him here, as now rook num ber 2 steps in: 1.Õc7-h7+ h8-g8 2.Õa7-g7# More mat ing mo tifs with 2 rooks will be given in the quiz on the next page.._.m._. R_. R_..k. _ D1 The stan dard mate with 2 rooks._.m.r._ k._.._r_ D2 Mate on the ver ti cal lines (files) r._.._._._._k_.r D3 Dou ble-rook mate in the mid dle.k.m r.r. D4 Mate on the 7th rank._._k_.m r.r. D5 Mate on the 7th rank in 2 moves 22

Part I Mate with Two Rooks Quiz 2: Mate with Two Rooks.m._ r._..r. K_. 1._R K_M _.r. 3._R._M._.j._.k _.r. 5 _R_. R_K_ m._. 2 _._M _.rk _._R 4._.r._.._M._J_._.i._K_ r._. 6 23

Mate with Queen + Bishop We have al ready learned a large range of mat ing pos si bil i ties with Queen and Bishop when we looked at the Mate with Two Bish ops! The queen can al ways take on the role of the sec - ond bishop and, even more than that, with the help of her rook func tion she can block other es - cape squares as well. We will not delve deeper into these mat ing pat terns here and only keep in mind that the queen can be more than a sub sti - tute for the sec ond bishop. Our di a grams along side partly show mat ing pic - tures that are also fa mil iar to be gin ners. Many games end with mate on the square g7 (D1, D2). _JjJ._._ b.q. _JjJ._.b _.q. _JqJ._._ b._. b._. D1 Mate on g7 _JqJ._.b D2 Mate on g7 The h7-square (D3) is an other fre quent goal of a mat ing at tack by Queen + Bishop. The hole in the pawn for ma tion in front of the king (D4) is cre ated by the fianchetto of the king s bishop, i.e. by mov ing it to g7. If the bishop is later ex changed off or pur sues goals else where on the board, then this hole re mains, and it will be a pop u lar tar get for Queen + Bishop. A hole on g7 not only al lows mate on g7, but an ad di tional one on h8 (D4 left), which makes the de fence more dif fi cult, and some times even impossible. As these at tacks un like here in the di a gram of ten come from much fur ther back on the a1-h8 di ag o nal, they are of ten hard to rec og nize. D5 left shows an other ver sion of the mate on g7. In stead of the bishop, a pawn would also do here. D5 right shows a weakened castled position, also end ing in a mate on g7..tm JjQ._. B_. _JqJ._J_ b._..tm.jq._b_ D3 Mate on h7._mq _J_J._J_ b._. b._. D4 Mate on g7/on h8 (right) _J_J.bJq _J_J._.b _.q. _.q. D5 The hole on g7 73

Check mate for Chil dren The queen can not only op er ate on the di ag o nal or the ver ti cal lines, as we have seen on the pre vi - ous page, but also by mak ing use of her rook prop er ties on a hor i zon tal line, i.e., a rank. Any - thing a rook can do in co op er a tion with a bishop, the queen also achieves and more, as D6 il lus trates. A rook would not be of much use here, but the queen wins right away: 1. b7xh7# In D7, White makes use of an el e men tary mat ing tech nique. The king is pre vented from run ning away by the white queen. Skil ful team work by the Bishop + Queen leads to a win by force: 1.Ãe4xh7+ [1. h6xh7+? g8-f8 al lows the king to es cape] 1... g8-h8 2.Ãh7-g6+ h8-g8 3. h6-h7+ Now ev ery thing be comes clear: f7 is the mat ing square! 3... g8-f8 4. h7xf7# Note that this tech nique only works if f7 is un - pro tected. But if it is pro tected, the po si ti o n is of - ten so con stricted that a mate on h8 is pos si ble, as D8 shows: 1. h6xh7+ g8-f8 2. h7-h8# [1.Ãe4xh7+ also works, but it is much more com pli cated: 1... g8-h8 2.Ãh7-g6+ h8-g8 3. h6-h7+ g8-f8 4. h7-h8#].dm Q_J _B_. D6 The Queen on the 7th rank._.d _J_J._.t._.q._._B_._ D7 El e men tary ma noeu vre lead ing to mate._._d_m_ j._.tj_j.j.q _B_. D8 Mate in the cor ner In D9 we see an other stan dard ma noeu vre. White does not give check on h7, but wins at once by: 1.Ãf5-e6+ g8-f8 2. h5-f7# A trick that can only be per formed by the queen is shown in D10. Here the bishop pins the g7 pawn, which means that for prac ti cal pur poses the h6-square is un pro tected (a pinned piece can not pro tect!). The queen does not need an of - fi cial in vi ta tion and rushes to the mat ing at tack: 1. f4-h6+ h8-g8 2. h6xg7#._.t _.l..j._ jb_q D9 Mate on f7._.m _.j.._s_ b._..q._ D10 Mate ex ploit ing a pin 74

Zugzwang In chess White and Black al ter nate their moves. This is fair, and mostly it is a good thing, but not al - ways. Some times a player has a po si tion where he could n t be beaten if it were not his move, whereas any move he makes will mean di sas ter for him. This is dem on strated by a typ i cal ex am ple from a King + Rook ver sus King end ing. In D1, Black is to move on both sides. In the di a gram po si tions them selves White could not harm him, but on the only pos si ble move 1... b1-a1 (1... h2-h1), there fol lows 2.Õc3-c1# (2.Õf3-h3#). Zugzwang has de cided the game. In D2 zugzwang also de cides the is sue. Af ter 1. e6-f7 noth ing could hap pen to Black if only it were not his move, since White can not in crease the pres sure. The only black piece that can move pro - tects the mate square g7 and it has to move away! 1...Ãh6-e3 is an ul ti mate at tempt to di vert the op - po nent and at least save the draw, but: 2.Ãd4xg7#. Also in D3 White can achieve zugzwang by mak - ing the right move. 1.Àd5-b6? de prives the black king of his last square, but blocks the b-pawn and thus gives stalemate! 1. c8-c7 would in tro duce a longwinded ma noeuvre, which wins in the end. 1.Àd5-c7 is the right way. Black is in zugzwang. His two only (prac ti cally equiv a lent) moves lose im me di ately. If he did n t have to move, White could not win im me di ately. But here, on 1...b7-b5 [or 1...b7-b6], 2.c5/a5xb6# de cides. This should be enough for now. Fur ther on, in end game train ing, you will learn much more about zugzwang, a fac tor which is one of the most im por tant cor ner stones of the end game, and which keeps ap pear ing time and time again in that phase.._. Kr.._. M_.._. R_..k.m D1 Black is in zugzwang._.m _.jj._._k_.l._.b._._ D2 White cre ates zugzwang._k_ mj_. J_._ i.in D3 White to move 97

Check mate for Chil dren How to Crack (Too) Dif fi cult Ex er cises The 3-Circle Training Com bi na tions can go on for many moves, some times even more than ten! How can you cal cu late all this in your head? I will never learn this!, many a chess friend will sigh. But you can! The trick is that even the lon gest mat ing com bi na tion ends with a mate in 1, 2, 3 moves. If we de - tect such a short, sim ple com bi na tion as a pos si bil ity on the board, we al ready have the key to the so lu tion in our hands. And we can prac tise this dur ing train ing ses - sions. We can di vide a long com bi na tion into sev eral shorter ones, and this way we can solve the ex er cise step by step. First an ex am ple: _._J._._Q_._ j.jm Di._I_..i..iK_ D1 Start ing po si ti o n: Mate in 4 _._J._.q j.j. Di._I_M_.iK_ D2 Mate in 2 _._J._._Q_._ j.j. Di._I_Im.iK_ D3 Mate in 3 The starting position D1 is not so easy to fathom for an in ex pe ri enced player. Prob a - bly he will con tinue giv ing checks with the queen, un til ei ther a mate will oc cur by co in ci dence or the game is agreed drawn. If we di vide the ex er cise into parts, even a be gin ner will al ready have much less trouble finding the solution (D2): 1. h6-h3+ g4-f4 2. h3-f3/f5# Af ter the next step, a so lu tion in 3 moves (D3), the win ning plan should be de tect - able: 1. e6-h6+ h4xg4 2. h6-h3+ g4-f4 3. h3-f3/f5# In D1 White must drive the king in the di rec tion of his own king po si tion. There he will be mated quickly, locked in by his own pawns and the op po nent s. Thus: 1.g3-g4+ h5-h4 2. e6-h6+ h4xg4 3. h6-h3+ g4-f4 4. h3-f3/f5# The pawn sac ri fice to drive the king to g4 was the de ci sive idea, but in or der to ven ture such a move you must rec og nize the sim ple mat ing pat terns. For this pur - pose, Frank Oltman has de vel oped a train ing programme, the 3-Circle Training (see un der Ad di tional Ma te rial and Tools at the end of this book). This is an ex cel lent aid to make the jump from shorter to lon ger com bi na tions eas ier, and to learn cer tain play ing tech niques at the same time. If you see a tac ti cal 98

Part IV The Great Test._D_.t.m n.jj J_. J_..r._.iI Qk. 31 R_..jM i._._k_.._._r_ij t._.ji_. T_._ 32 T_Lm._.t jjl. J_J J_.d._J._.n._._ bi_i IiI_._I K_R_._R 33 _.q.._s_dmj_ j._j.jiji_i I_I_.k. I_._ 34 M_K J_..i. Bj.._I_ 35._Dt j._m._j_jilj _._Bq._N I_Ii _.k. 36 121