ATTACK of the KILLER FORKS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CHESS CLOCKS and TIME LIMITS SSCCHHOOLLAARR’’SS MMAATTEE Hello SCHOLAR’S MATE Is Canada’S Chess Magazine for Kids

CANADA'S CHESS MAGAZINE FOR KIDS DECEMBER 2014 number 125 ATTACK OF THE KILLER FORKS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CHESS CLOCKS AND TIME LIMITS SSCCHHOOLLAARR’’SS MMAATTEE HEllo SCHOLAR’S MATE is Canada’s Chess Magazine For Kids. Chess Pals! You can enjoy it on-line, for free! The Chess’n Math Association publishes Scholar’s Mate five times per year as a PDF document. You can read the “e-magazine” on your computer screen or print it out. The magazine can also be viewed in DNL format, with pages that actually turn! A free DNL Reader can be downloaded from the CMA website. www.chess-math.org If you have any questions about the magazine, please contact us at: [email protected] Watch out, everybody. A new year is rolling in! We hope it’s a good one for you. SCHOLAR’S MATE It’s almost Canadian Chess Challenge time again. The regional qualifiers are just around the bend. If 3423 St. Denis #400 you don’t know the dates for the tournaments in your Montreal, Quebec H2X 3L2 area, please check with your provincial coordinator. EDITOR Jeff Coakley See pages 44 and 46. Illustrator Antoine Duff Good luck to the three Canadian teams competing this month at the World Youth Under 16 Olympiad in Hungary. Our top team, ranked #7, is loaded with Scholar's Mate is published five times per year by the Chess’n Math Association. Dates of issue : October 15, stars: Razvan Preotu, Jason Cao, Richard Wang, December 15, February 15, April 15, June 15 Michael Song, and Qiyu Zhou. Go Canucks! Reproduction by any means, mechanical or electronic, is forbidden except by permission of Scholar's Mate. December 2014 (date of issue) Kiril 2 Scholar’s Mate 125 Scholar’s Mate 125 3 HHOOLLIIDDAAYY SCHOLAR'S MATE CCHHEESSSS CCAAMMPPSS DECEMBER 2014 #125 TORONTO MONTREAL CONTENTSCONTENTS The Chess Studio Chess’n Math Building 701 Mt. Pleasant Rd. 3423 St. Denis CLOCKS AND TIME LIMITS 6 Kiril’s Klass DECEMBER DECEMBER Playing With A Chess Clock 22,23,24,29,30,31 22,23,24,29,30,31 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 16 half day separate Canada And World News only day-camps Magnus Carlsen Keeps His Crown Sign up for one day or for all six. THE NEW KIRIL’S KONTEST 24 Win A Chess Tuque! Fun And Easy To Enter ATTACK OF THE KILLER FORKS 26 Kiril's Korner Spiderpawn vs. Darth Pawn FULL DAYS 9 am to 5 pm Holiday Camps 4 Kiril’s Kontest 24 HALF DAYS 9 am-1 pm or 1- 5 pm Canada Top Ten 12 Maze & Loyd 36 OPEN TO STUDENTS AGE 5 - 14 Tactics 101 13 Regional Top 10’s 38 from BEGINNERS to RATING 1500 Master Profile 14 Ratings 42 groups divided by rating and age classes and tournaments Combo Mombo 15 Top Girls 43 CAMP FEES VARY BY LOCATION AND NUMBER OF DAYS News 16 Chess Challenge 44 CCC History 19 Tournaments 45 FOR MORE INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION FEES Mates 20 Links & Contacts 46 CHESS’ N MATH ASSOCIATION Kiril’s Address 22 Chess Notation 48 Toronto 416 488-5506 Montreal 514 845-8352 Lily’s Puzzler 23 Solutions 49 4 Scholar’s Mate 125 Scholar’s Mate 125 5 When playing with a clock, there are several different time limits that can be used. KIRIL’S KLASS CLOCKS Slower games which last more than an hour are called AND TIME standard chess. In rated competitions with this time limit, players must write down their games. This allows them LIMITS to keep track of how many moves are made. In most standard tournaments, the time limit has two or more time controls. The first time control is usually at Everything you need to move number 40. Let’s say each player is given two know about chess timers. hours for forty moves. After they play their 40th move (“make the time control”), they are given additional time for the following moves. For example, one hour for twenty A chess clock is really two clocks in one. They are more moves. Any extra time that was left on the clock connected so that only one of them runs at a time. One when the time control is reached gets carried over to clock goes when it is White’s turn, the other when it is the next part. The final time control (after move 60) is Black’s turn. Each player must make a certain number of usually “sudden death”, where all the remaining moves moves in the time allowed. must be made in the given time. Players normally get an When a game begins, Black starts the white clock. After additional 30 minutes for this part. In this example. if both every move, the players push a button which stops their players use all their time (2 hours + 1 hour + 30 minutes), own clock and starts the opponent’s. the game will last seven hours! There are two kinds of timers: the old style (analog) Sudden death is also called a quickplay finish. clocks with hands that go round, and digital clocks which show the time electronically, like on a microwave oven. Old style clocks are normally set so that time runs out at “6 o’clock”. A flag on each clock indicates when the minute hand passes the ‘12’ and time is up. A player loses the game if their “flag falls” and they have not made the required number of moves. When players get short of time, we say they are in time trouble or time pressure. If both sides are in trouble, we have a time scramble. Watch out for flying pieces. 6 Scholar’s Mate 125 Scholar’s Mate 125 7 Chess clocks were invented in the 19th century to keep Imagine the end of a game where players from moving too slowly. Today they are also used you have a king and rook against for speed chess. Special names for the time limit tell us the opponent’s lone king, but you how fast the game is. only have two seconds left on the Active (or rapid) chess is when both players have more clock. Without an increment, than fifteen minutes but less than one hour for all their it would be impossible to moves. Usually 30 minutes. mate in time. However, if you Blitz chess normally means five have an increment, with five minutes for the whole game. But extra seconds per turn, you three minute blitz is also popular. could win easily. Right? ‘Blitz’ is German for lightning and Here are two examples of time limits with increments. that’s how fast you have to play! In the 2014 World Championship match, each player Real speed demons enjoy had 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20 moves, bullet or lightning chess. All followed by 15 minutes plus a 30 second increment for you get is one or two minutes. the rest of the game. No thinking allowed. In the 2014 Canadian Youth Chess Championships, the time limit was 90 minutes plus a 30 second increment for One option for time limits that is only possible with a the entire game. digital clock is the increment. An increment is a small Increments are very popular in blitz. A popular time limit amount of time that is added to the clock after every is 3 1, which means 3 minutes plus a 1 second increment. move. It can be set from 1 to 30 seconds. Increments were first suggested by Bobby Fischer. The Another feature that is possible with digital clocks is the purpose is to have games decided “on the board” and not 5 second delay. When a delay is used, the clock does not by someone running out of time. start running until five seconds after the button is pressed. So you have extra time each turn, even though no time is ever added. If you make your move within five seconds, then no time comes off your clock for that turn. The main difference between a delay and an increment is that you can collect extra time with an increment. For example, if you are playing with a 30 second increment and you only use 10 seconds for a move, then your clock will have 20 more seconds after your turn than it had before your turn. The time limit at the Canadian Chess Challenge finals is 25 minutes with a 5 second delay. The 5 second delay is also frequently used at scholastic events in the USA. 8 Scholar’s Mate 125 Scholar’s Mate 125 9 There are many special rules for games when a chess clock is used. Some of the rules only apply to certain time limits (standard, active, or blitz). MORT and MARLEY Tournament regulations concerning clocks and time MORT MARLEY limits are complicated and they often change. Only a few basic rules are given here: A player loses the game if they do not make the required number of moves within the time limit. The exception is when the opponent only has a king remaining. The game is drawn in that case. A player may never win on time with just a king. The exact rule is: A game is drawn when a player runs out of time and the opponent can not possibly give checkmate, even with the help of bad moves. The right way to offer a draw is: make a move, offer the draw, press the clock. Hey, Marley, this sure is a nice moose. Players must press the button on the clock with the Yea, and his antlers are really cool.

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